The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-08-14
POLITICAL HONOIsS.
How South Carolina Has Been Fa.
vorcd In National Affairs.

vorcd In National Affairs.
There are forty-iive States in tas
Union. and twelve of them have never
been honored with tho Presidency, the
Nice-Presidency, q place in the Cabinet
or the Speakership of the House OF
Representatives. These twelve States
nre, ten Of them, Western common"
wealths, some Of which were admitted
to tho Union only in recent years,
namely, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
North Dakota, Washington, Wyoming,
South Dakota and Utah. Two are
Wetsern States longer in the Union,
but not recognized in the Cabire.,
Kansas and California; and two are
Eastern States, little Rhode Island in
New England and Florida on the At
lantic Gulf seaboard.
Florida is nearly fifty times larger
than Rhode Island. 1t has popula-
ton larger than Rhode Island by near.
ly $4,000. 1t has the same electoral
votes as Rhode Island, and up to few
years ago the suffrage were more gen.
eral in the Peninsular State than in
Rhode Island. In the election Of
1876, when both States were warmly
contested (Which they haven't been
since), the total electoral vote of Flor
ida was $4,000, while the total electo-
raj vote of Rhode Island was only 25,
600. Since that time, however, the
property qualification, I'd a restriction
upon voting, has been removed in
Rhode Island, and now the two States
are nearer together in voting popula-
tioa than they are in inhabitants.
Though Rhode Island has never had
place in the Cabinet, it has twice had
the acting Vice Presidency of tho
United States through the President
pro tenn. of the Senate, William
Bradford held this place in tho Fifth
Congress and Henry ID. Anthony in
the Forty-tirst and Forty-second Con-
gress. Florida, however. has been
totally ignored by the statesmen of both
parties in this as in other particulars.
The State has never been deemed
worthy of any of the political honors
which have been strewn lnvishly upon
its moro fortunate ncighbors. South
Carolina, State about three-tifths rs
large, has furnished the government
with one Vice President, two Secre-
taries of State, two Secretaries Of War,
one Secretary of the Navy, one Attor-
lN' supreme SOuCG
Judges, two Speakers of the House of
Representatives and three Presidents
Of the United States Senate. In the
distribution OF party honors below the
grade of those of first Importance
Florida has rarely been considered.
Though it sent delegates to participate
in the last Republican national con-
vcntion in 1892, no electoral
ticket was run by the Republican
party in Florida in the contest sue
ceeding, and the Republicans Of that
State completely abandoned the field
without any rretense of a contest.
Until l763 Florida was one of the de-
Tendencies of Spain, and for the fifteen
years succeeding it was under the jur-
isdiction of England. Then in 1921
Spain ceded it to the United States. It
was organized as n territory in the year
following and admitted into the Union
as q State i'll 1915. But no resident of
| Florida was ever sent as representa-
tives of the American government
either to Spain or to any other foreign
country Of Importance, and the states
men of Florida when in Washington
are ut all times glad to forego their
claims to higher Office for humble
and some time unrcmunerative clerk
ship. The influence of the Peninsular
State on legislation is small. -.NcO
| IDfk Sur.