374 



FLORIDA. 



ing swamp and overflowed lands as contem- 

 plated by the act of Congress of September 

 28, 1850, and decided by the Supreme Court 

 in the case of the Trustees of the Internal Im- 

 provement Fund m. Gleason (15 Florida), and 

 to manage and sell the lands. The net pro- 

 ceeds of the sales of these lands, over and 

 above the amounts necessary for the purpose 

 of management and reclamation, were, by this 

 act of January 6, 1855, pledged to the payment 

 of the interest on the bonds which might be 

 issued by railroad companies which should un- 

 dertake the construction of any part of the 

 line of railroad from the St. John's Kiver to 

 Pensacola Bay, with an extension from suitable 

 points on this line to St. Mark's River, or 

 Crooked River at White Bluff on Apalachicola 

 Bay in Middle Florida, and to the waters of St. 

 Andrew's Bay in West Florida, and a line from 

 Amelia Island to Tampa Bay, with an exten- 

 sion to Cedar Key. Certain companies con- 

 structed railroads on these lines from Jackson- 

 ville, on the St. John's River, to Quincy, in 

 Middle Florida, and from Tallahassee to St. 

 Marks, and from Amelia Island to Cedar Key. 

 To aid in their construction, the secorapanie.s 

 issued bonds, which were endorsed by the 

 trustees of the fund, with an agreement guar- 

 anteeing the payment of the interest thereon 

 out of the proceeds of the land. Thus these 

 lands became pledged to the payment of this 

 interest. It was a provision of this act of Jan- 

 uary 6, 1855, that no bonds issued after the 

 end of eight years from its passage should be 

 so guaranteed. 



The reare now outstanding of the past-due 

 coupons representing the interest on these 

 bonds about $367,000; and as these coupons, 

 like other negotiable paper, bear interest them- 

 selves, there is now due upon these about 

 $650,000. There are additional coupons. It 

 was the evident intent and purpose of the in- 

 ternal improvement law that these lands or 

 their proceeds should be applied to no pur- 

 poses of internal improvement other than those 

 named in the fourth section of that act, until 

 the coupons had all been paid, or at least 

 placed on a safe basis of payment. That this 

 was the contract between the coupon-holder 

 and the State, is not only plain from the lan- 

 guage of the act, but it has several times been 

 adjudged by the courts, and it is shown by the 

 history contemporaneous with the enactment 

 of the law. Therefore, he concludes that nei- 

 ther the Legislature nor the Trustees can di- 

 vert the lands from the payment of the inter- 

 est on the bonds. 



The whole quantity of land so far selected in 

 the State as swamp and overflowed lands is 

 about 15,000,000 acres. Of this, about 1,600,- 

 000 have been heretofore disposed of, leaving 

 about 13,400,000 acres selected. Only, how- 

 ever, 11,794,000 acres have been confirmed 

 by the United States Government, and taking 

 from this the amount disposed of, there is on 

 hand, under the control of the Board, only 



10,200,000 acres. The act of Congress above 

 mentioned granted to the State all the lands 

 within its limits which were swamp and over- 

 flowed, and too wet for cultivation without 

 artificial drainage. But, before the lands so 

 granted could be ascertained and set apart to 

 the State, a large quantity claimed as swamp 

 was entered at the United States land-offices. 

 Not wishing to disturb the possession of pur- 

 chasers under these circumstances, Congress 

 passed the acts of March 2, 1855, and March 

 3, 1857, which confirmed to such purchasers 

 the lands entered by them between the date of 

 the grant and the passage of the last-named 

 act, agreeing to pay over to the State the pur- 

 chase-money received from such lands. The 

 amount due the State as indemnity for these 

 sales is about $200,000, and frequent efforts 

 have been made on the part of the State to 

 procure an adjustment, but, thus far, without 

 success. At last, however, the United States 

 authorities have consented to send out three 

 agents to examine the lands for which indem- 

 nity is claimed, and they have commenced the 

 investigation. To enable the State to get the 

 purchase-money paid for any tract sold by 

 the United States, proof must be made of the 

 swampy character of the land at the date of 

 the grant (1850), and two witnesses are re- 

 quired for each tract. 



The Lieutenant- Governor, Noble A. Hull, 

 was a candidate for Congress at the election on 

 November 5, 1878. After this election it was 

 asserted that frauds were committed in Bre- 

 vard County, and grave charges were made 

 against Mr. Hull in connection with them, and 

 an indictment was found against him in the 

 United States Court. A committee of five 

 was appointed in the Senate to investigate the 

 charges. The committee reported, on Febru- 

 ary 27th, that " they had assumed, for the pur- 

 pose of this inquiry, that such a fraud was 

 committed, and confined themselves to the 

 inquiry whether Lieutenant- Governor Hull 

 was in any way connected with it, or had any 

 knowledge of it." 



The report is lengthy, and concludes in the 

 following words: "Your committee respect- 

 fully submits that the evidence in this case 

 proves that Lieutenant-Governor N. A. Hull 

 had no connection with the alleged election 

 frauds in Brevard County; that he had no 

 knowledge of them, either before or after their 

 alleged commission; that there is no reason 

 for even a suspicion of any complicity on the 

 part of Governor Hull in them, either directly 

 or indirectly ; and that there is no reason for 

 any further action on the subject by the As- 

 sembly." 



The competitor of Lieutenant - Governor 

 Hull, Mr. Horatio Bisbee, contested the de- 

 clared result at every point. (For the inspec- 

 tors' return of votes, see " Annual Cyclopae- 

 dia," 1878 FLORIDA.) On his application the 

 Supreme Court issued a peremptory mandamus 

 under which the County Canvassers of Ala- 



