Congressmen Not Necessarily from Their Native States

1904

In new countries people change their place of residence frequently. Not being tied down by long family attachments, they move about until they find a spot that suits them. In only a few of the oldest American communities are estates held in one line for generations, and the custom seems not to be growing.

How readily Americans "move" is shown by the fact that hardly two-thirds of the Representatives and only about half the Senators in Congress were born in the states which they now serve. No member of either House from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Washington or Wyoming is a native of the state he represents. Both Senators of old Indiana were born in Ohio; so were the West Virginia Senators. Speaker Cannon of Illinois was born in North Carolina, and Mr. Williams of Mississippi, the Democratic leader, in Tennessee.

Virginia is the largest state represented in both Houses wholly by native sons. Delaware, Maine and Vermont are the only others on the list. Pennsylvania is represented chiefly by native Pennsylvanians, but New York, among the old states, shows an opposite tendency.

In the earlier history of the country men often became prominent in the politics of several states in turn. James Shields, whose figure stands in Statuary Hall as the gift of Illinois, served three states in the United States Senate. "Sunset" Cox represented Ohio in Congress, and afterward New York. George W. Jones held important offices in Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Northwest Territory. Senator Elkins of West Virginia was at one time the territorial delegate from New Mexico.

The rivalry of New Hampshire and Massachusetts in claiming Daniel Webster gave rise to a waggish remark by Senator Hoar. Somebody asked if the statue of Webster which New Hampshire has erected in Washington looked like him, to which the Massachusetts Senator replied that it did, "when Webster was a New Hampshire man." — Youth's Companion.