FLOEIDA. 



303 



hundred and seventy-one, and on divers other 

 days and times in said year, at Tallahassee, in 

 the State of Florida, divert, misapply, and un- 

 lawfully and improperly appropriate the sum 

 of $11,000 of the Contingent Fund, appro- 

 priated by the Legislature of the State of 

 Florida, and did appropriate and apply a large 

 portion of said sum to his own personal use 

 and benefit." 



14. That he did, "on the eighth day of June, 

 in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 

 hundred and seventy, at Tallahassee, in the 

 State of Florida, unlawfully and maliciously 

 misrepresent and falsify his official acts and 

 doings to one T. W. Brevard, with full intent 

 thereby to misrepresent and falsify, for the 

 purpose of affecting the interest of certain 

 persons and parties, and to the detriment of 

 the public interests and in violation of the 

 express provision of the constitution of the 

 State, whereby said Harrison Eeed, Governor 

 of Florida, did then and there commit and was 

 guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor in 

 office, of incompetency, malfeasance, and of 

 conduct detrimental to good morals." 



The Governor announced himself ready to 

 meet and answer these charges, and demanded 

 a prompt and speedy trial. After plea had 

 been entered, the managers applied for a con- 

 tinuance of the trial, and for time to procure 

 the attendance of witnesses residing out of the 

 State, against which the Governor entered a 

 protest. The High Court refused to postpone 

 the, trial, and, the managers failing to produce 

 any evidence in support of the charges, it 

 finally adjourned without action. 



In accordance with a section of the consti- 

 tution which provides that "any officer, when 

 impeached by the Assembly, shall be deemed 

 under arrest, and shall be disqualified from 

 performing any of the duties of his office until 

 acquitted by the Senate," Governor Eeed had 

 been suspended from the exercise of the 

 executive functions by the action of the Assem- 

 bly on the 10th of February, and Samuel T. 

 Day, the Lieutenant-Governor, had issued a 

 proclamation assuming "the powers, duties, 

 functions, and authority of Governor of the 

 State of Florida in place of the said Harrison 

 Eeed, suspended from office." Mr. Eeed, on 

 the other hand, held that the adjournment of 

 the High Court of Impeachment, and of the 

 Legislature, without action on his case, was 

 equivalent to an acquittal, and called on Mr. 

 Day to surrender the office to him. This the 

 latter refused to do, at the same time declin- 

 ing to submit to the judges of the Supreme 

 Court the question of the respective claims of 

 himself and Mr. Eeed to the executive office. 

 Eeed had meantime taken up his residence at 

 Jacksonville, but on the 8th of April, during 

 the temporary absence from the capital of the 

 acting Governor, with the aid of the Secretary 

 of State, Jonathan 0. Gibbs, entered the ex- 

 ecutive office at Tallahassee, secured the great 

 seal of the State, and issued a proclamation, 



wherein he recited the action of the Legisla- 

 ture, and of the Court of Impeachment, and 

 then proceeded as follows : 



In virtue of such action, I, the said Harrison Eeed, 

 Governor as aforesaid, was duly discharged and ac- 

 quitted of and from all and singular the charges so 

 as aforesaid preferred, and any constitutional disa- 

 bility which before then rested upon me was thereby 

 removed ; and I had well hoped, the premises con- 

 sidered, that Samuel T. Day, impressed with a due 

 regard for the rights and majesty of the people asso- 

 ciated with myself, would have, upon the said ad- 

 journment and acquittal, quietly ceased so to act 

 as Governor, well knowing my presence in the State. 

 But now so it is that said Samuel T. Day, regard- 

 less of these high and sacred rights of the people, 

 and of their majesty as imparted to me at the polls, 

 unmindful of the confusion, delay, and actual public 

 injury resulting therefrom, has made and is making 

 removals from office and appointments thereto, 

 without authority therefor, thereby calling for this 

 my proclamation ; 



That to the end that the rights of the people in. 

 the proper exercise of lawful authority shall be main- 

 tained, that the property of the State shall be pre- 

 served, that the imposition and collection of oppres- 

 sive taxes without authority of law shall be stopped, 

 that the free and equal exercise of political rights in 

 the elections soon to occur shall be had, and that all 

 things whatsoever aft'ecting the public welfare shall 

 be legitimately done : 



Now, therefore, I, Harrison Eeed, Governor of the 

 State of Florida, do hereby proclaim my authority 

 and power in the performance of all chief execu- 

 tive duties, and the acts and doings of Samuel T. 

 Day since the actings and doings of the Assembly, 

 Senate, and High Court of Impeachmtent, as afore- 

 recited, to be without authority of law, and forbid 

 him, and all persons acting under and by his au- 

 thority so since then delegated, from exercising any 

 official power or authority under peril of law, and 

 forbid all obedience to them. And I command full 

 obedience to the lawful authority of the duly-elected 

 Chief Magistrate of the State. 



In testimony whereof, I do hereunto set my hand 

 and cause the Great Seal of the State to be 

 affixed at Tallahassee, the capital, this eighth 

 [L. s.] day of April, A. D. 1872, and of the Inde- 

 pendence of the United States the ninety- 

 sixth. 



HAEEISON EEED, Governor of Florida. 

 By the Governor: 



Attest, JONATHAN C. GIBBS, Secretary of State. 



On the 15th of April Mr. Day issued a proc- 

 lamation, in the preamble of which he re- 

 called the fact of the impeachment, set forth 

 his own right to hold the executive office in 

 view of the suspension of the Governor, and 

 alluded to the recent proclamation of Eeed. 

 The body of this proclamation of the acting 

 Governor was as follows : 



Now, therefore, I, Samuel T. Day, the duly-elected 

 Lieutenant-Governor and now Acting Governor of 

 this State in the place of the said Harrison Eeed, so 

 as aforesaid impeached and disqualified from per- 

 forming any official duty, do hereby issue this my 

 S reclamation, declaring the acts of the said Harrison 

 eed, in issuing his so-called proclamation, an at- 

 tempted usurpation of the authority of the Chief Ex- 

 ecutive of the State, and in total disregard of law and 

 good government, and revolutionary in its tenden- 

 cies ; and. hereby warn all good citizens, as well as 

 all designing men, that, while the duties of the office 

 of Governor are devolved upon me, I shall execute 

 the laws of this State, and to this end and for the 

 purpose of suppressing any attempt at usurpation 

 or revolution, and to protect the law-abiding citizens 



