Florida Admitted to the Union

Florida Admitted to the Union

Florida was the last of the Atlantic seaboard states to gain admission to the Union. Twenty-four tumultuous years passed from the time the United States acquired possession of the Florida territory from Spain before statehood was granted, on March 3, 1845.

The United States acquired Florida from Spain under the Adams-Onis Treaty (known also as the Florida Purchase Treaty) of February 1821. Formal transfer of the territory to the United States was made on July 17, 1821. The only sizable settlements were at Pensacola on the north Florida panhandle and at the towns of St. Augustine and Fernandina on the Atlantic coast of northern Florida at the time. Fewer than 5,000 settlers lived in Florida. The man chosen to be the first American governor was Andrew Jackson, military hero and later president of the United States. He was no stranger to the area. With his troops, Jackson had twice captured Spanish-held Pensacola, once during the War of 1812, just prior to his victory in the battle of New Orleans, and again in 1818. He was unsuccessful in his new post, however, and after eight months he resigned.

Florida was organized as a territory in 1822. More settlers came to the northern part of the territory, but settlement of south Florida was slow due to the hot and humid climate and swampy terrain. So greedy for land were the newcomers that they brought great pressure to bear on the U.S. Congress to remove the Seminole tribe from the territory and make the entire area available for settlement. The Seminoles were actually an amalgam of Native American tribes, many of whom had intermarried with runaway slaves from the American states who had fled to Florida for sanctuary under Spanish rule. As the number of settlers increased and pushed steadily southward and into the interior of the peninsula, they came into conflict with the Seminoles.

After a series of costly wars with the Seminoles in the 1830s and 1840s, the federal government finally prevailed. Some of the Seminoles were forced to immigrate to Oklahoma, but many were able to stay in Florida reservations, which still exist today. The famous Seminole leader Osceola fell into federal hands and died in prison in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1824, Tallahassee, on the north Florida panhandle, was selected as the capital of the new territory. It was an important Native American town at least as early as 1539, when the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his party visited it; its name, of Native American origin, means “old town.” The development of Tallahassee and north Florida was spurred by the construction of a road linking Pensacola with St. Augustine. Pensacola, with its excellent harbor, was of major importance during the period of Spanish sovereignty. St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, dated its existence as a permanent settlement from 1565, when Pedro Menendez de Avilés claimed the site for Spain. In the area between these two historic cities, many large plantations were founded after American sovereignty was established. New towns came into existence, and a substantial number of northerners settled in those along the eastern coast. Jacksonville, near the mouth of the St. Johns River, about 35 miles north northwest of St. Augustine, was laid out as a town in 1822.

Floridians gained the right to elect their territorial legislative council in 1826. The council was superseded in 1838 by a state house of representatives and a senate. In December 1838 and January 1839 a convention meeting in the town of St. Joseph drafted a proposed state constitution. The citizens of Florida, however, held varying opinions as to the desirability of gaining statehood. Ratification of the proposed constitution was by a slim margin of about 100 votes. The resulting controversy and delay went hand in hand with the congressional desire not to admit another Southern slave state, as Florida would be, without admitting a free state at the same time. Finally, when Iowa was ready for admission as a free state, Florida was admitted to the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, with its capital at Tallahassee.

Only 16 years later, Florida declared itself seceded from the Union on January 10, 1861, and joined with other Southern states to form the Confederate States of America. During the ensuing Civil War, Union forces captured Florida's chief ports and blockaded its coast, but the area's many inlets provided both refuge and bases of operation for blockade runners. The interior of the state remained in Southern hands, and, apart from a major battle at Olustee in 1864 and another engagement outside Tallahassee in 1865 (both resulting in Confederate victories), there was little actual fighting in Florida. Throughout the war Florida was an important source of supplies, foodstuffs, and manpower for the rest of the Confederacy.

At the close of the Civil War in 1865, a new state government was organized and a new state constitution was framed. However, neither met with federal approval, for Florida's proposed constitution withheld the vote from African Americans and the new legislature in 1866 refused to ratify the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which included a provision granting citizenship to former slaves. In accordance with the federal Reconstruction policies in effect in the South, therefore, a quasi-military government was instituted in Florida, which became part of the Third Military District. In early 1868, a revised state constitution was drafted, which proved to be acceptable to the federal government given Florida's acceptance of a stipulation that universal manhood suffrage would never be repealed. The U.S. Congress voted to restore the full rights of statehood, including representation in Congress, to Florida on June 25, 1868.