Constitution of Florida
One of the requirements for a United States territory to become a State of the Union is that its constitution must be approved by the United States Congress. In order to fulfill that requirement, an Act was passed by the Florida Territorial Council in 1838, approved by Governor Richard Keith Call, calling for the election of delegates in October 1838 to a convention to be held at St. Joseph, Florida. The delegates were to draft a constitution and bill of rights for the Territory of Florida. The Constitutional Convention convened on December 3, 1838, with Robert R. Reid presiding as president and Joshua Knowles secretary. The work of the Convention was carried out by eighteen committees, whose members were familiar with that particular area of government. The process was a relatively simple one since they used the constitutions of several other Southern states as models. Only on the subject of banking did much debate take place. The Convention adjourned "sine die" on January 11, 1839.
Constitution of Florida
Florida became subject to the military authority of the federal government in 1867. Pursuant to an Act of Congress, General John Pope, Commander of the Third Military District, issued an order on April 8, 1867, dividing the 39 counties of the State into 19 districts for the election of delegates to a convention to frame a new State Constitution. The Constitution had to conform with the Federal Constitution and with the 13th and 14th Amendments. The Convention met in Tallahassee on January 20, 1868. As the Convention began its functions, bitter factions were formed. "The radical delegates were in the vast majority and backed by a large militant black electorate." For two weeks, the "radical" and "moderate" factions, the latter "a powerful organized lobby of Southern planters, Northern capitalists, and capitalists", debated. "Moderates", under the leadership of future governor Harrison Reed, tried to give the sparsely populated white counties the same voting power as the heavily populated black counties. However, the "radicals" (28 of the 46 elected delegates, 18 of which were black and at least 15 of were former slaves, literate, "gentlemen," and "eloquent" as a Northern reporter who was present described them,), would not agree to this.