FLOEIDA. 



265 



THE MONTHLY RANGE OF GOVERNMENT SECURITIES, AS REPRESENTED BY DAILY SALES AT 

 THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE, DURING THE YEAR 1868. 



FLpKIDA. In this State, more perhaps 

 than elsewhere in the South, the principal bus- 

 iness that engaged the people during the year 

 1868 was the moulding of the new organic 

 law, as required by the reconstruction acts 

 of Congress, as a condition for readmission 

 within the Union, and participation, through 

 their representatives, in the administration of 

 the Federal Government. The contest thus 

 raised was even pushed to the last extremities, 

 and appears not to have ended with the close 

 of the year ; though Florida had been actually 

 recognked as a State in the Union since the 

 month of June. It seems worthy of notice that 



this conflict was from the beginning, and is 

 still carried on, not so much between opposite 

 parties, as between the members of that party 

 which favored reconstruction, and was the 

 dominant political power in the State. 



Shortly before the end of the year 1867, a 

 general election having been held, and dele- 

 gates chosen to meet in a convention for the 

 purpose of framing a new State constitution, 

 to be then submitted to the people for their 

 ratification or rejection, General Pope, com- 

 mander at the time of the Third Military Dis- 

 trict, in which the State of Florida was com- 

 prised, issued an order dated December 28, 



