Florida, and had a large majority of the delegates elected and returned. General Meade had hesitated to endorse the action of the adjourned convention of 22 delegates, for the reason that they had not a majority of the delegates elected to sign the constitution. A majority of those who had duly taken and subscribed to the oath, as required by the rules, had signed it. The general admitted to the messenger sent to confer with him that the convention, as first organized, was the only legal organization, and said if two more names could be procured to the constitution he would approve of it at once, and indorse the election ordinance.

The organization that held possession of the hall continued in session through the week, sending their published proceedings to General Meade, and their gross misrepresentations by telegraph through the Associated Press all over the country.

When the day arrived to which the regular convention stood adjourned, the delegates were confronted on their entrance to the hall with bayonets of United States soldiers. Application was then made to Governor D. S. Walker, as the chief executive civil officer in the State, to have all parties arrested and removed from the hall who were hindering the constitutional convention from assembling, and were thereby obstructing reconstruction in the State. He refused to take any

action in the matter in behalf of the convention. Lieutenant Colonel F. F. Flint, commanding post of Tallahassee, was then informed that the civil authorities refused to aid in securing the hall to the convention, and was asked to assist the officers of the convention, with the military under his command, in entering upon the discharge of their duties. He declined to interfere, but kept up his guard around the concern then in the hall.

The correspondence upon this subject is enclosed; also, correspondence with General Meade, after he arrived at the capital. The communications are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and especial attention is called to them. It will be noticed that Governor Walker says he shall use all the power he possesses to prevent one party ejecting the other from the hall, which, of course, means that he should protect the seceding revolutionary body, as he had helped them to the possession of the hall, and they were occupying it.

Thus it will be seen that, by the aid of Governor Walker and the military, the convention was prevented from assembling on the day that it was adjourned to and the illegal midnight assemblage was protected, receiving the high sanction of the civil and military authorities of the State. The correspondence with Governor Walker and Colonel Flint was on Saturday, February 15. On Monday, the 17th, General Meade arrived at Tallahassee. A committee of delegates from the convention

waited upon him at once to learn his views. It was believed that if the legally organized convention were permitted to peaceably assemble in the hall where they were to meet, enough of those men in the hall would cheerfully join with the twenty-two delegates to make a majority of all elected. Indeed, many of the delegates in the hall said, "That as the ordinance providing for pay of the members had to be indorsed by the commanding General to render it valid, and as the authorities seemed to favor them, they thought it safer to remain with the organization than in the hall so long as they were sustained by the military.

The committee failing to get any satisfactory reply from the General, and understanding him to say that "the organization in the hall had no legal status, nor could get any," the President of the convention addressed the General a letter, marked No. 5, asking him to withdraw the forcible opposition to the assembling of the convention. No answer was returned; guard was continued in the hall and around the State-house after General Meade arrived there, with the concern he himself said had no legal status, in possession and in session.

The next day the General sent for the President and told him if he did not resign as President of the convention he should recognize the other body as the legal organization. Colonel Sprague also sought a number of interviews with the President and urged him to resign, saying if he did not the other body would be recognized, and then you will have to take your chances of getting in there at all," (meaning the twentytwo delegates by you), while he (Colonel Sprague) with the whole military power was protecting the other organization in possession of the hall. The President desired General Meade to state his request that he resign in writing, which being complied with, the resignation was tendered under protest.

See letter from General Meade marked No. 6, and enclosed therein is the proposition to compromise to which he refers, and also the President's resignation.

At three o'clock, on Tuesday, February 18, delegates all met in the hall by request of General Meade. Colonel John T. Sprague took the president's chair. He called the meeting to order and made a speech to the delegates. He received and put motions, and decided questions, while two or three of his subordinate officers of his own regiment were sitting as delegates, and voting on motions put by their Colonel, S. B. Conover and W. J. Purman are both officers in Colonel Sprague's regiment, and were sitting as delegates.

Horatio Jenkins was elected President. The standing rules,

*NOTE.-Purman was not an officer and Conover had only been a contract sur

geon.

which had been unanimously adopted by the convention the second day after organizing, and which provided that said rules could not be amended nor changed without one day's notice, were all swept away by a resolution. By another motion the rules of Jefferson's Manual were adopted to govern the body, and within a half hour after the rules of the Florida House of Representatives were adopted under the operation of the previous question, without a word of debate. All the motions. were made by the same delegate. All officers of the convention were summarily turned out by resolution, and all motions and resolutions were rushed through under the previous question without debate. The previous question was moved and ordered fourteen times within half an hour, and nine times in rapid succession by the same delegate, without yielding the floor. The journal next morning did not show that the previous question had been ordered at all the day previous, and omitted to give the yeas and nays on the most important resolution acted upon the day previous. It was ordered that the journal be corrected, but when it appeared again not more than half of the corrections had been made. After that, during the entire session, there were no minutes of proceedings ever read to the convention nor approved by it. It is a humiliating fact that not a single page of the journal, as published after the reorganization, is anything like a correct record of the proceedings.

On Wednesday, February 19, the day after the reorganization, the convention met and under the operation of the same inexorable previous question, expelled four delegates by a majority vote. They then swore in four others in their places, who had received but a small minority of the votes cast at the election, one receiving only nine votes, while the delegate turned out to give place to him had twenty-four hundred and twentyfour votes. They also swore in a Mr. J. W. Butler in place of George W. Walker, who had been returned as elected, but had not yet been in attendance. General Meade had said when in Tallahassee, that if the convention should swear any one in who was not returned as elected by General Pope's order, he should interfere. But Mr. John W. Butler, O. B. Hart, J. E. Davidson, M. L. Stearns, Mr. Wells, were all sworn in as soon as the General left the city, and acted with the convention until its close, and then signed the constitution.

Thus, with the aid of all the civil and military authorities, and a free use of money, whisky, and the previous question, the regular Constitutional Convention of Florida was broken up by the Johnson Federal office-holders, led on by Harrison Reed, United States mail agent, and David S. Walker, Governor of Florida.

After the adoption of the constitution an ordinance was

introduced and passed that any member who did not sign the constitution should be deprived of his pay for the entire session. See last day's proceedings.

The constitution provides that the Governor shall appoint the following State officers, viz: Secretary of State, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, surveyor-general, superintendent of public institutions, adjutant general, commisioner of immigration, the Supreme Court judges for life, seven circuit judges, seven states attorneys, and all commissioned officers in the militia. Lieutenant Governor is elected. The Governor also appoints, with power to remove at pleasure, the following county officers in each county in the State, viz: An assessor, collector, treasurer, county surveyor, superintendent of schools, county judge, sheriff, clerk of Circuit Court, five county commissioners, and as many justices of the peace as he pleases, and for life. Constables are elected by the people.

By the appointment provided for in said constitution, less than one-fourth of the registered voters will elect a majority of the State Senate, and less than one-third will elect a majority of the Assembly; 6,700 voters in the rebel counties elect as many senators (twelve and one Indian) as 20,282 voters elect in Union counties. Seven senators are elected by 3,027 voters in rebel counties, and only one senator is elected by 3,181 in a Union county (Leon), and twenty-three voters elect one senator in a rebel district.

In the Assembly, 8,330 voters in rebel counties choose twenty-seven members and one Indian, while 18,652 voters in Union counties only choose twenty-six members. Madison county (Union), with 1,802 voters sends two representatives, while the rebel sent from Dade county has a constituency of fifteen voters, and the rebel from Brevard county represents a bona fide constituency of eight registered voters.

It grants suffrage to, and removes all disabilities from, the vilest rebels and haters of the government, and permits them to be elevated to places of power and trust, without regard to the reconstruction acts of Congress, and disfranchises thousands of the colored voters. All rebels are relieved from taking the registration oath that Congress has prescribed, and from taking the oath of office prescribed by the act of Congress and required of every officer under the General Government. It also assumes to regulate the eligibility of United States senators and members of Congress from that State.

The constitution having been formed in the manner above described, it is evident that means will be found to ratify it without regard to the number of votes actually cast for it, should the boards of registration be in any manner under the control of the men who broke up the convention.

The constitution formed by the legally organized convention before it was broken up extends the right of suffrage to just the class entitled to it under the reconstruction acts of Congress, and requires officers to take the same oath now prescribed for officers under the General Government, but authorizes the legislature by a vote of two-thirds to remove all disabilities imposed for having engaged in the rebellion. It apportions representatives in the Legislature upon the basis of registered voters; makes all State officers, except the judiciary, and many county officers, elective by the people, and jealously guards and protects the rights and interests of all classes in the State alike. Had the sanction of such high authority, both civil or military, been thrown around the legally organized convention, as seemed to be so eagerly extended to the midnight concern, there can be no question but what accessions would thus have been induced to their number, so that a very large majority of the convention would have cheerfully co-operated with the twenty-two delegates in forming and signing said constitution.

When we, with so much pride, recollect that General Meade is the hero of Gettysburg, it must not be forgotten that he is human, also, and fallible; and that he is more liable to make a mistake in dealing with civil affairs, when surrounded by designing, unscrupulous, intriguing politicians, than he is in his profession as a soldier. That he should not have sustained the organization he himself had before recognized as legal and regular, instead of breaking it up, was undoubtedly a great mistake.

Colonel Sprague, commander of the State, whose advice in relation to all local matters must necessarily have great weight with the General, is in thorough sympathy with the most conservative conservatives in the State. He has passed through three wars without being in either, having asked and obtained a position on Governor Seymour's staff during the last war, while his regiment was in the field.

For a truthful and more graphic account of the Florida convention see the letters of Solon Robinson, one of the editors, in the New York Tribune of the 8th, 10th and 12th of February last. Also see editorial in the Tribune of the 10th, fully sustaining and indorsing what Mr. Robinson had written.

Your memorialists pray that Congress may, in its wisdom and in view of all the facts set forth above, find that the constitution formed by the twenty-two delegates who remained and completed their work before the convention was broken up is the only one that should be submitted to the voters of that State for ratification.

D. RICHARDS,

W. U. SAUNDERS.