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.
Federalist No. 14
However, the Articles of Confederation did not prove to be effective, so in 1786, leaders called a meeting dubbed the Annapolis Convention to discuss the issues of the government. This meeting led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to discuss the formation of a new government and led to the writing of the United States Constitution. The Constitution proposed a stronger general government in which there would be three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Many concerns with the proposed document were presented by the Anti-Federalists. For the Constitution to be ratified, their concerns needed to be addressed and put to rest.