Reid, Roberty Raymond; et al. Florida : Constitution of the People of Florida, December, 1838 (Doc. No. 206). Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1842. [11667]
Removed`, 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches, 27 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
27th Congress, Second Session, House of Representatives, Doc. No. 206.
The printing in the Congressional Record of 1842 of the Constitution adopted by the People of Florida in 1838. "Memorial of the People of the Territory of Florida, for Admission into the Union."
Includes a census of the Territory by county, with the totals of 25,139 Whites, 21,132 Slaves, and 958 Free Blacks. The vote was limited to free white men of the age of twenty-one and upwards, who was a citizen of the United States who had lived in Florida for two years and who had for the six months preceding an election a member of the militia. It also prohibits the vote to soldiers, seamen, or marines of the regular army who resided in Florida for the said two years but had not been residents of the state before enlisting in the service.
Article XVI, provision 1: "The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves."
This Constitution was written in 1838 by "fifty-six delegates from Florida's twenty counties assembled in the panhandle twon of Saint Joseph (Near Port St. Joe)...The delegates were mainly planters and lawyers from thirteen of the nations twenty-six states and for foreign countries; only three were native Floridians...The constitution divided the government into the traditional three branches...It banned bank officers, clergymen, and dualists from election to the legislature and governorship...[It was] approved by popular vote in 1839 and served as Florida's constitution from statehood in 1845 until Florida seceded from the Union in 1861." - The Constitution of the State of Florida, published by Florida Department of State.
When this copy of was printed in 1842, it was still a proposed constitution, for Florida was not granted statehood for another two years. The original is lost. The only remaining handwritten copy is one written by a clerk at the convention, now in the Florida State Archives.
