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The Confederate Presidential Election of 1902
from the Richmond Courier, November 7, 1902:
WHO'S IT GOING TO BE? - Polling for tomorrow's Presidential election shows a neck-and-neck race between the Democratic candidate, Governor Ebe W. Tunnell of Delaware and his Whig opponent, Senator Jeter C. Pritchard of North Carolina.
Tunnell is well-known as a supporter of business and has posited a plan to more closely tie Confederate manufacturing and export firms with the large firms in the United States - a very controversial position. His opponent has referred to Tunnell's plan as "the most direct route to put the Southern nation back in the lap of the rich and decadent North," and that he would not have "the Confederacy be anyone's lap dog."
Pritchard is a much more militant candidate, with his main platform being one of increased military strength, a consolidation of Confederate power in the Caribbean, which he refers to as a "natural lake of the Confederacy." Tunnell points out that the government's budget can not support a large standing army and that the states would be forced to carry much of the burden - popular sentiment with his fellow denizens of statehouses across the country.
Tunnell also points out that relations with the United States, already unhappy with what has been termed "Confederate imperialism" in Latin America, would be further strained by following a policy of increasing Southern influence in the region.
The voters will decide which man's vision will guide our country for the next six years...
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