aims of the negotiations which resulted in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. After the cession of Louisiana to the United States, the people of West Florida feared that that province would be seized by Bonaparte. They, therefore, through a convention at Buhler’s Plains (July 17, 1810), formulated plans for a more effective government. When it was found that the Spanish governor did not accept these plans in good faith, another convention was held on the 26th of September which declared West Florida to be an independent state, organized a government and petitioned for admission to the American Union. On the 27th of October President James Madison, acting on a theory of Robert R. Livingston that West Florida was ceded by Spain to France in 1800 along with Louisiana, and was therefore included by France in the sale of Louisiana to the United States in 1803, declared West Florida to be under the jurisdiction of the United States. Two years later the American Congress annexed the portion of West Florida between the Pearl and the Mississippi rivers to Louisiana (hence the so-called Florida parishes of Louisiana), and that between the Pearl and the Perdido to the Mississippi Territory.
In the meantime war between Great Britain and the United States was imminent. The American government asked the Spanish authorities of East Florida to permit an American occupation of the country in order that it might not be seized by Great Britain and made a base of military operations. When the request was refused, American forces seized Fernandina in the spring of 1812, an action that was repudiated by the American government after protest from Spain, although it was authorized in official instructions. About the same time an attempt to organize a government at St Mary’s was made by American sympathizers, and a petty civil war began between the Americans, who called themselves “Patriots,” and the Indians, who were encouraged by the Spanish. In 1814 British troops landed at Pensacola to begin operations against the United States. In retaliation General Andrew Jackson captured the place, but in a few days withdrew to New Orleans. The British then built a fort on the Apalachicola river, and there directed expeditions of Indians and runaway negroes against the American settlements, which continued long after peace was concluded in 1814. In 1818 General Jackson, believing that the Spanish were aiding the Seminole Indians and inciting them to attack the Americans, again captured Pensacola. By the treaty of 1819 Spain formally ceded East and West Florida to the United States; the treaty was ratified in 1821, when the United States took formal possession, but civil government was not established until 1822.
Indian affairs furnished the most serious problems of the new Territory of Florida. The aborigines, who seemed to have reached a stage of civilization somewhat similar to that of the Aztecs, were conquered and exterminated or absorbed by Creeks about the middle of the 18th century. There was a strong demand for the removal of these Creek Indians, known as Seminoles, and by treaties at Payne’s Landing in 1832 and Fort Gibson in 1833 the Indian chiefs agreed to exchange their Florida lands for equal territory in the western part of the United States. But a strong sentiment against removal suddenly developed, and the efforts of the United States to enforce the treaty brought on the Seminole War (1836–42), which resulted in the removal of all but a few hundred Seminoles whose descendants still live in southern Florida.
In 1845 Florida became a state of the American Union. On the 10th of January 1861 an ordinance of secession, which declared Florida to be a “sovereign and independent nation,” was adopted by a state convention, and Florida became one of the Confederate States of America. The important coast towns were readily captured by Union forces; Fernandina, Pensacola and St Augustine in 1862, and Jacksonville in 1863; but an invasion of the interior in 1864 failed, the Union forces being repulsed in a battle at Olustee (on the 20th of February 1864). In 1865 a provisional governor was appointed by President Andrew Johnson, and a new state government was organized. The legislature of 1866 rejected the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and soon afterwards Florida was made a part of the Third Military District, according to the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Negroes were now registered as voters by the military authorities, and another Constitutional Convention met in January and February 1868. A factional strife in the dominant party, the Republican, now began; fifteen delegates withdrew from the convention; the others framed a constitution, and then resolved themselves into a political convention. The seceding members with nine others then returned and organized; but the factions were reconciled by General George M. Meade. A new constitution was framed and was ratified by the electors, and Florida passed from under a quasi-military to a full civil government on the 4th of July 1868.
The factional strife in the Republican party continued, a number of efforts being made to impeach Governor Harrison Reed (1813–1899). The decisive year of the Reconstruction Period was 1876. The Canvassing Board, which published the election returns, cast out some votes, did not wait for the returns from Dade county, and declared the Republican ticket elected. George F. Drew (1827–1900), the Democratic candidate for governor, then secured a mandamus from the circuit court restraining the board from going behind the face of the election returns; this was not obeyed and a similar mandamus was therefore obtained from the supreme court of Florida, which declared that the board had no right to determine the legality of a particular vote. According to the new count thus ordered, the Democratic state ticket was elected. By a similar process the board’s decision in favour of the election of Republican presidential electors was nullified, and the Democratic electors were declared the successful candidates; but the electoral commission, appointed by Congress, reversed this decision. (See Electoral Commission.)
Since 1876 Florida has been uniformly Democratic in politics.
| American Governors of Florida. | |
| Territorial Governors. | |
| Andrew Jackson | 1821–1822 |
| William P. Duval | 1822–1834 |
| John H. Eaton | 1834–1835 |
| Richard K. Call | 1835–1840 |
| Robert R. Reid | 1840–1841 |
| Richard K. Call | 1841–1844 |
| John Branch | 1844–1845 |
| State Governors. | ||
| William D. Moseley | 1845–1849 | Democrat |
| Thomas Brown | 1849–1853 | Whig |
| James E. Broome | 1853–1857 | Democrat |
| Madison S. Perry | 1857–1861 | ” |
| John Milton | 1861–1865 | ” |
| William Marvin | 1865 | Provisional |
| David S. Walker | 1865–1868 | Democrat |
| Harrison Reed | 1868–1872 | Republican |
| Ossian B. Hart | 1873–1874 | ” |
| Marcellus L. Stearns | 1874–1877 | ” |
| George F. Drew | 1877–1881 | Democrat |
| William D. Bloxham | 1881–1885 | ” |
| Edward A. Perry | 1885–1889 | ” |
| Francis P. Fleming | 1889–1893 | ” |
| Henry L. Mitchell | 1893–1897 | ” |
| William D. Bloxham | 1897–1901 | ” |
| William S. Jennings | 1901–1905 | ” |
| Napoleon B. Broward | 1905–1909 | ” |
| Albert W. Gilchrist | 1909– | ” |
Bibliography.—Physical and economic conditions are discussed in a pamphlet (591 pp.) published by the State Department of Agriculture, Florida, a Pamphlet Descriptive of its History, Topography, Climate, Soil, &c. (Tallahassee, 1904); in Climate, Soil and Resources of Florida (United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1882); A Preliminary Report on the Soils of Florida (United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Soils, Bulletin 13, 1898); C. L. Norton’s Handbook of Florida (2nd edition, New York, 1892); the volumes of the Twelfth Census of the United States (for 1900) which treat of Agriculture and Manufactures, and the Special Report on Mines and Quarries for 1902. J. N. MacGonigle’s “Geography of Florida” (National Geographic Magazine, vol. 7), T. D. A. Cockerell’s “West Indian Fauna in Florida” (Nature, vol. 46), L. F. Pourtales’s “Flora and Fauna of the Florida Keys” (American Naturalist, vol. 11), and C. F. Millspaugh’s Flora of the Sand Keys of Florida (Chicago, 1907), a Field Columbian Museum publication, are of value. To sportsmen, C. B. Cory’s Hunting and Fishing in Florida (Boston, 1896) and A. W. and
