FLORIDA. 



FOOT, SOLOMON. 



Mtrous result*, of npcaking evil of each other, should 



i from it iiirii.ioni certainly much more 



.1 in tin' li n arli ttian in tin- observance, and 



Uu-tivc of nothing but e\il coiuinuully. I am 



U Southern newspapers 



i.i.M-lv the liail e\amj>le set by some 



in tlin North. The only ohjeet of certain journals 



would net-in Li In- to iiivjinliee one section of the 



ilu> other. So they inerease their 



.uul enlarge their'udverti.-ing col- 



ie what becomes of the 



he .Northern papers of this class reject as 



\ thing good tbat is done in 



nth, and collect with fare every instance of 



law le->ne>4, irreut or small, leal or imaginary, ami 



i ilu ir eohunns until the minds of their 



'ned against us, and they mistake 



no lawless individual for the uniform 



coiuluet of the whole community. 



:.e other hand, some of our Southern papers 

 notice nothing good in the North, but cull with 

 .|nal care every instance of elopement, murder, 

 theft, rohheiy, arson, burglary, starvation, des- 

 titution, liormonum, free-love, etc., etc., until 

 their readers are taught to believe that the North is 

 utterly corrupt. Now, this is all wrong. I have 

 lived all my life in the South, and have been much 

 at the North, and the result of my observations is, 

 while too much vice exists in either section, yet the 

 good in both vastly preponderates. And besides 

 thi-i. we arc brethren, and why should brethren strive 

 to Maeken the characters of each other? The God 

 of battles has irrevocably decreed that we are one 

 people. We must learn to live together as brethren. 



Early in the year, the Assistant commis- 

 sioner reported that the labor system had be- 

 pcttled, that the freedmon were at work 

 diligently on tho plantations, and appeared to 

 attraction to their employers. The con- 

 trol and protection of their rights had been 

 transferred, as far as was practicable, to tho 

 regularly authorized courts, and in most parts 

 of the State tho transfer had been attended 

 with success. 



A current of immigration has flowed into 

 the State since the close of the war. Tho soil, 

 tho climate, and the natural productions of tho 

 State are enthusiastically described by the 

 JYiKral officer in charge of tho land office at 

 Tallahassee. " There is perhaps no soil in 

 America, that to the eye of the New Englander 

 could look more forbidding than that of Flori- 

 da; at the same time there is no soil on this 

 continent that will produce more valuable crops 

 to tho acre, than can bo raised here. Tho 

 poorest soil will produce two hundred pounds 

 of cotton to tho acre, and I have seen land in 

 middle Florida that for seventeen years past 

 has produced ono bale of sea-island cotton to 

 tho aero. In the southern portion of tho 

 peninsula immense sugar crops are grown, 

 while tropical fruits thrivo at all seasons. 

 Gamo is abundant. The rivers and lakes 

 abound with iish. Tho shores of tho gulf on 

 the west and tho Atlantic on the east, literally 

 swarm with them in endless variety, of turtle, 

 terrapin, ute., while tho soil and climate are of 

 such character that two and in some portions 

 of^ tho State three crops have actually been 

 raised in ono year. A more equable climate 

 cannot to found in the world, Italy not ex- 



oepted. It is never so warm at midsummer in 

 South Florida as to inconvenience the white 

 laborer in out-door labor, or to cold in winter 

 as to require any additional amount of clothing. 

 The country is yet comparatively new, and I 

 know of none more desirable to that industrial 

 class of which emigrants are chiefly composed. 

 The products of the State are largely in de- 

 mand. Cotton, Sisal hemp (one ton of the lat- 

 ter can bo grown upon an aero of the poorest 

 soil in Florida), sugar, indigo, tobacco of supe- 

 rior quality, arrow-root, the castor-bean, pine- 

 apples, oranges, lemons, limes, cocoanuts, etc., 

 produce largely, and can be made most profit- 

 able for purposes of exportation, while the 

 vegetables of every part of the world can be 

 produced in Florida. There are United States 

 lands in every county in tho State subject to 

 .entry under the ' homestead law,' of which 

 each actual settler can obtain eighty acres." 



FOOT, Hon. SOLOMON, an American states- 

 man, born in Cornwall, Addison County, Vt, 

 November 19, 1802, died at Washington, D. C., 

 March 28, 1866. He graduated at Middlebury 

 College, Vt., in 1826 ; was for one year princi- 

 pal of Castleton Academy, and for a time tutor 

 in the University of Vermont, and Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy in the Vermont Academy 

 of Medicine. Devoting himself to the study of 

 law, he was admitted to the bar in 1831, and at 

 once entered upon an extensive and successful 

 practice of his profession in Rutland, where ho 

 resided until his death. But tho appreciation 

 of his fellow-citizens soon called him from his 

 chosen sphere of action and he was elected to 

 the legislature of his State, serving several terms, 

 during three of which he was Speaker of the 

 House. In 1836 he was a member of the Con- 

 vention for altering the State Constitution, and 

 was a State attorney from 1836 to 1842. After 

 this a wider sphere of duty demanded his pres- 

 ence, and he was a Representative in Congress 

 from 1843 to 1847. Returning to his home in 

 Rutland, after declining reflection, he resumed 

 his legal practice, but was suffered to retain it 

 but four years, being elected United States Sen- 

 ator in 1850, and continuing to servo in that 

 capacity until his death. During this period he 

 was on several important committees. Ho was 

 part ieularly active on the Committees of Foreign 

 A Hairs, Pacific Railroad, Pensions, and Com- 

 merce. He was also chairman of several commit- 

 nd through nearly three Congresses was 

 President pro tern, of the Senate, in which posi- 

 tion he displayed ft thorough knowledge of 

 parliamentary law. In 1854 or 1855 Mr. Foot 

 was chosen "President of the Brunswick and 

 Florida Railroad Company in Georgia, and 

 during the recess of Congress visited England, 

 ated the bonds of the company, and pur- 

 clia-ed the iron for tho railroad, after which he 

 resigned his post as president. 



Mr. Foot was known as a man of indisputa- 

 ble integrity and ever faithful to his principles. 

 He was a thorough Whig while that party was 

 in existence, and when the organization was 



