Florida's contribution to Statuary Hall. It figures!

[bushmeister0]

Each state has two people that they consider to be important to its history placed in Statuary Hall inside the Capital:

Florida:

John Gorrie: "John Gorrie, physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian, is considered the father of refrigeration and air-conditioning."

No one would live there without it.

And Civil War Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith:

"In February, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the Trans-Mississippi department, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian territory, and was ordered to organize a government, which he did. He made his communications with Richmond by running the blockade at Galveston, Texas, and Wilmington, North Carolina, sent large quantities of cotton to Confederate agents abroad, and, introducing machinery from Europe, established factories and furnaces, opened mines, made powder and castings, and had made the district self-supporting when the war closed, at which time his forces were the last to surrender."

http://virtualology.com/nationalstatuaryhall/

They called his area of responsibility "Kirby Smith-dom."

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

[immoderate]

1. It could have been Jeb Bush...

:shrug:

--IMM

[bushmeister0]

2. Or Cathrine Harris. Ugh!

[DCKit]

3. Wow, I thought it was sheets for all the nekkid statues. n/t

[Xithras]

4. Hah! California is putting a statue of RONALD REAGAN in the hall.

We're pulling the statue of Thomas Starr King, a genuine hero who saved the nation by keeping California from siding with the Confederates (and providing the Confederates with unlimited gold), and replacing it with a statue of Ronald Fucking Reagan, a guy who wasn't even born in this state. His statue will join that of Junipero Serra, a guy who was born in a foreign nation and served foreign masters to destroy and enslave the native communities in what would become California.

Florida has one great statue and one that is just a little questionable. California has one that is historically objectionable, and another that is an insult to the nation.

[bushmeister0]

5. Christ! Why don't they just get it over with rename the state "Reagania"?

[xxqqqzme]

7. well then Serra should be replaced by nixon

at least he was born in California. The only thing st ronnie did as governor was destroy public education.

I just realized, my dad moved the fam to California for the educational opportunities; then voted for st ronnie who destroyed them. That's rich!

[hughee99]

8. FYI, Thomas Starr King was born in NYC. n/t

[Xithras]

13. True, but he set the fate of California, and arguably saved the nation.

As an individual, few people have had as much impact on the nation as he did, and his modern obscurity is a tragedy. Most people today assume that California was a free state and therefore stayed in the union without debate, but the reality is much uglier. California's free state status was mostly a political designation, and slavery was actively practiced here. Slave auctions happened in San Francisco and Sacramento, and several gold mines in the Mother Lode were operated by southern miners using the slaves they brought out west with them. California was a very racist state at the time and African Americans, even free ones, had no rights in the state. At one point leading up to the civil war, there was even an effort to ban blacks from the state completely...a proposal that was ironically defeated by southern businessmen who wanted to bring their "workers" into the territory.

So, when the nation split, there was a very real push to align California with the south. Many, and possibly MOST, of the population wanted to do away with the "free state" designation and just formalize the institutions that existed here anyway. King, almost single handedly, talked them out of it.

And what would the stakes have been for the nation? The amount of gold in the SF mint exceeded the amount of gold in all of the rest of the governments coffers at the time. A loss of the SF mint, and California gold, would have cost the union a considerable amount of money when they needed it the most. Even worse, it would have shifted that money to the confederates, where it could have been used to buy everything from weapons to alliances. MANY historians today think that the confederacy would have won if California had taken the side of the south. And King is the one responsible for stopping that.

BTW, I'm not usually this much of a history geek, but many years ago I climbed Mt. Starr King in Yosemite and started wondering who it was named after. Apparently the guy was very famous nationwide during the Civil War and for about a half-century afterward, but he's been fading into obscurity since.

He deserves the statue. Reagan doesnt.

[bushmeister0]

15. Don't forget John C. Fremont, "the Trailblazer," first GOP Presidential candidate.

"In 1845 he again went to California. Under his influence American settlers there raised the standard of revolt against the Mexican authorities and set up (1846) the Bear Flag republic at Sonoma

He served briefly (1850–51) as one of the first U.S. senators from California, and the Republicans chose him as their presidential candidate in 1856. In the Civil War he was given command of the Western Dept., but his radical policy toward slavery and slaveholders, both of which he abhorred, led to his removal."

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0819639.html

Just throwing that out there. Clearly, though, Jerry Brown should have a statue in the hall! (Humor)

[hughee99]

17. I'm not arguing against King...

but it sounded like you were implying that the statue should be someone who was born in CA. I suspect that many states have statues of people who weren't born there.

[RB TexLa]

6. There should be no confederates memorialized on any federal property.

traitors don't deserve such.

[bushmeister0]

9. Well then, they should shut down Hollywood Cemetary in Richmond Va.

[bushmeister0]

10. It just occurred to me those statues of Confederate Generals were watching Obama

sitting there are President.

What a travesty having them there on this day!

The people of the states that have these traitors representing them should be ashamed.

[Ex Lurker]

11. They should be removed immediately n/t

[bushmeister0]

12. No shit! WTF?

Talk about pooping in the punch!

[ornotna]

14. Exactly what does it explain

:shrug:

Have you read the bios on the Pennsylvania contributions? Tell me what that says about your state. :shrug:

[ornotna]

16. Anything else? That all you got

Hey! Let's bash Alabama and Mississippi while we're at it.