FLORIDA. 



271 



of Begistration, as provided by law, and polls will be 

 opened, after due and sufficient notice, at as many 

 points in each county, not exceeding three, as, in the 

 opinion of said Boards, may be required for the con- 

 venience of voters. And in any city, or other place, 

 where there is a large number of voters, it is hereby 

 made the duty of said Boards to open as many polls 

 as may be necessary to enable the voters to cast their 

 votes without unreasonable delay. 



VII. Any person, duly registered in the State as a 

 voter, may vote in any county in the State where he 

 offers to vote, when he has resided therein for ten 

 days next preceding the election. When he offers to 

 vote in the county where he was registered, and his 

 name appears on the list of registered voters, he shall 

 not be subject to question or challenge, except for the 

 purpose of ^identification, or as to residence. And 

 any person so registered, who may have removed 

 from the county in which he was registered, shall be 

 permitted to vote in any county in the State to which 

 he has removed, when he has resided therein for ten 

 days next preceding the election, upon presentation of 

 his certificate of registration, or upon making affidavit 

 before a member of the Board of Eegistration, or a 

 judge or manager of the election, that he is registered 

 as a voter, naming the county in which he is so re- 

 gistered ; that he has resided in the county where he 

 offers to vote for ten days next preceding the election, 

 and that he has not voted at this election. Blanks 

 for such affidavits will be supplied by the Boards of 

 Eegistration, and the name of the voter making oath 

 must be indorsed on his ballot, and all such affidavits 

 must be forwarded with the returns of the election. 



VIII. The polls shall be opened at each voting-place, 

 during the days of election, at 7 o'clock A.M., and 

 close at 9 o'clock p. M., and shall be kept open be- 

 tween those hours, without intermission or adjourn- 

 ment. 



IX. All public bar-rooms, saloons, and other places 

 for the sale of liquor at retail, at the several county 

 seats, and at other polling-places, shall be closed from 

 6 o'clock of the evening preceding the election, until 

 6 o'clock of the morning after the last day of the elec- 

 tion. Any person violating this order shall be subject 

 to fine or imprisonment. Sheriffs and their deputies 

 and municipal officers will be held responsible for the 

 strict enforcement of this prohibition by the arrest of 

 all persons who may transgress the same. 



X. The sheriff of each county is hereby required 

 to be present at the county seat, and to appoint 

 deputies to be present at each polling-place in his 

 county, during the whole time that the polls are kept 

 open, until the election is completed, and is made re- 

 sponsible that no interference with the judges of 

 election, or other interruption of good order, shall 

 occur. And any sheriff, or deputy sheriff, or other 

 civil officer, failing to perform with energy and good 

 faith the duty required of him by this order, will, 

 upon report made by the judges of the election, be 

 arrested and dealt with by military authority, and 

 punished by fine or imprisonment. 



XI. The commanding officer of the District of Flor- 

 ida will issue, through the Superintendent of Eegistra- 

 tion for this State, such detailed instructions as may 

 be necessary to the conduct of said election in con- 

 formity with the Acts of Congress. 



XII. The returns required by law to be made of 

 the result of said election, to the commanding gen- 

 eral of this military district, will be rendered, by the 

 person appointed to superintend the same, through the 

 commanding officer of the District of Florida, and in 

 accordance with the detailed instructions already re- 

 ferred to. 



XIII. No person who is a candidate for office at 

 said election shall act as a registrar, judge, inspector, 

 manager, clerk, or in any other official capacity con- 

 nected with conducting election. 



XIV. Violence, or threats of violence, or any op- 

 pressive or fraudulent means employed to prevent 

 any person from exercising the right of suffrage, is 



positively prohibited, and every person guilty of 

 using the same shall, on conviction thereof before a 

 military commission, be punished by fine or other- 

 wise. 



XV. No contract or agreement with laborers made 

 for the purpose of controlling their votes, or of re- 

 straining them from voting, will be permitted to be 

 enforced against them in this district. 



By order of Major-General MEADE. 



E. C. DETTM, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



By a separate order dated March iTth, tlie 

 General extended the provisions of the fore- 

 going to the election for State officers also, 

 prescribing " that at the same time and place 

 at which an election shall be held in the State 

 of Florida upon the ratification of the consti- 

 tution submitted by said convention, an elec- 

 tion shall also be held for the Governor, Lieu- 

 tenant- Governor, one member of Congress, 

 State Senators and Representatives, and county 

 officers," and that the last-named election 

 " shall be conducted by the same persons and 

 in the same manner " as the first. 



The results of thes'e elections were that the 

 new constitution was ratified, and the above- 

 named Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and 

 member of Congress elected by the people with 

 a large majority of votes, notwithstanding the 

 seemingly strong opposition early set on foot, 

 and long continued, on the part of the Demo- 

 crats to hinder them. Complaints of illegality 

 and fraud in the registration, or voting, were 

 made after the election, and affidavits that false- 

 bottomed boxes had heen used in it were 

 published by Democrats under the names of 

 those who had constructed them ; but counter- 

 affidavits of the same persons, declaring the 

 former to be false, were also published by the 

 Republicans ; and even a special committee of 

 the Democratic party, " to whom was referred 

 the matter of inquiring into the frauds com- 

 mitted at the late election," finally reported 

 that "it would be utterly impossible for them 

 to ascertain the number or quantity of said 

 frauds." 



As to the State Legislature, however, not a 

 few of its members, both in the Senate and 

 House of Representatives, were elected from 

 among the Democrats ; they being so styled 

 in the return lists published at the time by 

 Republican papers, to distinguish them from 

 the other members whom they called after the 

 name of their own party. 



This Legislature, for whose first session the 

 new constitution had fixed the 1st of June, 

 1868, met, and adopted the amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States, commonly 

 known as " Article fourteen." In consequence 

 of this, Florida was recognized as a State, and 

 her representatives were allowed to take their 

 seats in both halls of the Federal Congress, not- 

 withstanding the veto of the President, who, 

 on June 25th, returned the bill unsigned. 



On June 29th, General Meade provided for 

 the surrender of the government of Florida 

 by the military power of the United States to 

 the civil authority of the State, as follows : 



