324 



FLORIDA. 



amounted to $109,571, at 8 per cent., and $59,- 

 366, at 7 per cent., yielding about $12,411, or 

 fifty cents yearly to each child between five 

 and eighteen years of age. The counties have 

 not cooperated by levying a tax, and the fund 

 has been of no avail. The direct tax levied by 

 Congress upon the State in 1861, was $77,522, 

 which the Legislature applied to Congress to 

 authorize its assumption and payment by the 

 former, and a suspension of all proceedings that 

 had been commenced against individuals. In 

 their memorial to Congress they say: 



Now, in consideration of these facts, and in order 

 that your honorable body may have all information 

 in the premises, and that the people of Florida have 

 returned to their allegiance and loyalty, and this day 

 they are the firm supporters and adherents of that 

 Union, which they know from past experience is to 

 be perpetual, they show that during the late war 

 many of those persons whose property was sold, re- 

 sided in the Confederate lines, and amongst those 

 who are the sufferers are many widows and orphans, 

 who from circumstances are unable to subscribe to 

 the required oath. It is therefore from these rea- 

 sons, and because we believe that your honorable 

 body is the exponent of that magnanimous spirit 

 which has been exhibited toward the States lately in 

 insurrection, and because we believe that said law 

 was passed under the war powers of Congress, and 

 as war no longer exists, but the State of Florida is 

 now in peace with the United States, and through 

 her convention has made, and now through this 

 General Assembly is making every effort to regain 

 her former position in the union of States ; and 

 as her people, whether under military rule or the 

 milder sway of civil law, have always shown a will- 

 ingness to return to the Union unsurpassed by any 

 other of the insurrectionary States, and as her people 

 have been ever noted for their faithfulness in what- 

 ever cause they may espouse, therefore, your memo- 

 rialists ask that the Congress of the United States 

 will allow the State of Florida to assume the payment 

 of said " direct tax," under the same conditions as 

 the loyal States were allowed, and that your honor- 

 able body will so change the law now in existence as 

 to do away with the required oath ; and that your 

 body will place the State of Florida in the same posi- 

 tion to all intents and purposes as that occupied by 

 the loyal States of the Union ; and as your memorial- 

 ists cannot be unmindful of the fact that they repre- 

 sent a State in this Union, and that they are agents 

 of a portion of the great American people, and as the 

 right of petition or memorial has been recognized 

 since the establishment of this great republic : 

 Wherefore, the representatives of the people of the 

 State of Florida ask the Congress of the United 

 States to grant them this right, granted to other 

 States, and to enable her people to enjoy the same 

 privileges as the citizens of other States. 



An act was approved by the Governor, on 

 January 12th, which regulated contracts with 

 persons of color, It required all such contracts 

 to be in writing, and to be explained to such 

 person of color who was a party, in the pres- 

 ence of two credible witnesses, one of whom 

 should make an affidavit of such explanation, 

 and that the colored party voluntarily entered 

 into it, and signed it, and that tho contract 

 should be filed with a judicial officer of the State 

 or county residing in the county where the 

 contract was made. The person of color wil- 

 fully neglecting or refusing to perform his con- 

 tract was made liable to the penaiVies for va- 

 grancy, and might be ejected if a tenant 



from the premises of the other party. On tho 

 failure of the latter to perform his contract, tho 

 colored person could make a complaint before 

 the judge of the criminal court, who was re- 

 quired to proceed to try the same before a 

 jury, who could give such 'damages as they 

 deemed proper. Any person enticing a laborer 

 to quit the service of another, on conviction 

 might be fined not more than $1,000, or re- 

 quired to stand in the pillory not more than 

 three hours, or be whipped not more than 

 thirty-nine stripes on the bare back. At the 

 same time the Legislature passed an act estab- 

 lishing a county criminal court, which had con- 

 current jurisdiction with the circuit court in the 

 trial of assaults, assault and battery, assault with 

 intent to kill, riot, affray, larceny, robbery, bur- 

 glary, malicious mischief, vagrancy, and all mis- 

 demeanors, and all offences against religion, 

 chastity, morality, and decency, provided the 

 punishment does not affect the life of the of- 

 fender. No presentment, indictment, or writ- 

 ten pleadings are required in the proceedings, 

 but the offence is to be set forth in the warrant 

 of arrest. All offences are to be tried by a 

 jury of twelve men. The person upon whom 

 any penalty, fine, or forfeiture is imposed, may, 

 for the non-payment thereof, be put to such 

 labor as county commissioners may direct. At 

 the same time an act was passed requiring all 

 colored persons living together in the relation 

 of husband and wife, and who had not been 

 legally married, to appear before some legally 

 authorized person, and be joined in the band's 

 of matrimony. This marriage should legitimize 

 all previous issue, and must be recorded with 

 the county clerk. Another act made parties in 

 civil suits witnesses, and their interest in the 

 cause should affect only their credibility. An- 

 other act authorized parents to apprentice their 

 children under sixteen years of age, without the 

 consent of the latter ; if over sixteen the con- 

 sent must be written. Another act made the 

 judicial tribunals of the State, with the pro- 

 cesses thereof, accessible to all the inhabitants 

 without distinction of color, and repealed all 

 laws previously passed with reference to slaves, 

 free negroes, and mulattoes, except the act to 

 prevent their migration into the State, and the 

 act prohibiting the sale of fire-arms and am- 

 munition to them. Another act provided for 

 the appointment of a superintendent of common 

 schools for freedmen, with assistants in each 

 county where the number of children might 

 justify it, who were authorized to establish 

 schools for freedmen. It ordered a tax of one 

 dollar upon every male person of color between 

 the ages of twenty-one and fifty-five, the pro- 

 ceeds of which should constitute a common- 

 school fund for freedmen. The following pre- 

 amble and resolution relative to the pardon of 

 Jefferson Davis was also adopted : 



Whereas, We feel a deep solicitude for the Presi- 

 dent of the late Southern Confederacy : And whereas 

 we recognize him only as an instrument and as an 

 agent of the Southern people, and guilty only to tin 



