8G2 



FLORIDA. 



8. A constitution, republican in form, having been 

 made, altered, or amended, and adapted to the new 

 order of things, the convention will provide, by a 

 schedule, for the election of a Governor and Gen- 

 eral Assembly, and for the reorganization of a per- 

 manent State government. 



9. By the operations and results of the war slavery 

 has ceased to exist in the State. It cannot be re- 

 vived. Every voter for delegates to the convention, 

 in taking the amnesty oath, takes a solemn oath to 

 support the freedom of the former slave. The free- 

 dom intended is the full, ample, and complete free- 

 dom of a citizen of the United States. This does not 

 necessarily include the privilege of voting; but it 

 does include the idea of full constitutional guarantees 

 of future possession and quiet enjoyment. The ques- 

 tion of his voting is an open question a proper sub- 

 ject for discussion and is to be decided as a ques- 

 tion of sound policy by the convention to be called. 



10. Upon the establishment of a republican form 

 of State government, under a constitution which 

 guarantees and secures liberty to all the inhabitants 

 alike, without distinction of color, there will no longer 

 exist any impediment in the way of restoring the 

 State to its proper constitutional relations to the 

 Government of the United States, whereby its peo- 

 ple will be entitled to protection by the United States 

 against invasion, insurrection, and domestic violence. 



Given at Tallahassee, Florida, this 23d day of Au- 

 gust, 1865. 



WILLIAM MARVIN, Provisional Governor. 

 SAMUEL J. DOUGLAS, Private Secretary. 



The members of the Convention, thus called, 

 were duly elected on October 10th, and assem- 

 bled at Tallahassee on the 25th. The Conven- 

 tion was organized by the election of E. D. 

 Tracy, of Nassau County, as president, with 

 other officers. The Provisional Governor, 

 Marvin, in his message to that body, stated 

 that the former slave had become free, and in 

 the re'C-stablishment of the State Government it 

 was necessary to recognize that fact, and to 

 frame the Constitution accordingly. It was 

 expected they would declare in the Consti- 

 tution that neither slavery nor involuntary 

 servitude, except for crime, shall exist. He 

 recommended that the Constitution should de- 

 fine, with as much accuracy as possible, what 

 the civil rights and political privileges of the 

 emancipated negro should be. He said : " It 

 may be difficult to define, with any degree of 

 accuracy, wherein freedom in society and under 

 an organized government consists. But I think 

 it may be said, in general terms, to consist 

 chiefly, in the right to be protected, by consti- 

 tutional law, in the enjoyment of life, in the 

 acquisition by honest industry of property, in 

 its possession and transmission to heirs, in a 

 right to personal security and locomotion, and, 

 generally, in a right to improve one's intellec- 

 tual, moral, and religious condition, and to pur- 

 sue happiness according to one's own ideas of 

 happiness, not interfering with the exercise of 

 the same right on the part of others. But 

 freedom does not necessarily include the idea 

 of a participation in the affairs of Government. 

 The privilege of voting at elections, the capacity 

 to hold office, or to sit on juries, are not essen- 

 tial rights of freedom. They are privileges 

 conferred or duties enjoined upon certain per- 

 sons or classes of persons by the supreme power 



of the State, for and on account of the pnblia 

 good ; and the persons or classes of persons upon 

 whom these privileges are conferred or these 

 duties enjoined, may be increased or diminished, 

 within reasonable limits, without impairing 

 rights of freedom, according as that power may 

 determine. Persons may be free, without the 

 capacity to hold office, to sit on a jury, or to 

 vote at elections. The English people are free, 

 and yet not one-tenth of the adult male popu- 

 lation are entitled by law to vote at elections 

 or to sit on juries. In our own State, foreign- 

 ers are not entitled to vote or to sit on juries 

 until they have been naturalized, yet they are 

 free ; women and children are not entitled to 

 vote, or hold office, or sit on a jury, yet they 

 are free." He also recommended the adoption 

 of the Federal Constitutional amendment rela- 

 tive to slavery; that negroes should be ad- 

 mitted to testify in courts of justice, and that 

 the Convention should adopt suitable measures 

 to guard the two races against discriminations 

 to be made between them by the courts or the 

 Legislature in any matter touching their rights. 

 He further recommended the passage of an or- 

 dinance declaring that the ordinance called the 

 Ordinance of Secession, passed by a convention 

 of the people on the 10th day of January, 1861, 

 was and is null and void ; and an additional 

 ordinance annulling or ratifying such other or- 

 dinances, acts of the Legislature, and judicial 

 proceedings, as the interest of the State might 

 require. 



The Convention, in the progress of its busi- 

 ness, adopted the following ordinance relative 

 to secession : 



Whereas, the people of the State of Florida are 

 anxious in good faith to restore the State to her for- 

 mer peaceful relations with the United States ; there- 

 fore, 



Be it ordained by the people of (he State of Florida, 

 in convention assembled, That the ordinance adopted 

 by the convention of the people on the 10th day of 

 January, 1861, known as the Secession Ordinance, 

 be and the same is hereby annulled. 



On the passage of the ordinance, an amend- 

 ment was moved to substitute the words "is 

 null and void " in place of " annulled." The 

 motion failed to pass, and the vote on the pas- 

 sage of the ordinance was unanimous. 



The following ordinance in relation to sla- 

 very was also adopted : 



Whereas, slavery has been destroyed in this State 

 by the Government of the United States ; therefore, 



Be it ordained by the people of the State of Florida, 

 in convention assembled, That neither slavery nor in- 

 voluntary servitude shall in future exist in this State, 

 except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party 

 shall have been convicted by the Courts of the State; 

 and all the inhabitants of the State, without distinc- 

 tion of color, are free, and shall enjoy the rights of 

 person and property without distinction of color. 



In the preamble the words " by the Govern- 

 ment of the United States " were added as an 

 amendment to the report of the committee, on 

 the motion of a member, who "wished the 

 world to know that the abolition of slavery by 

 the people of Florida was not a voluntary act 



