Representatives did actually pass a bill, in secret session, June 21, authorizing the President to take possession of east Florida. The Senate rejected it, for it would have been unwise to quarrel with Spain at the moment when war was about to be declared against Great Britain. the affairs of a foreign nation, must take the consequences. Secretary Adams and the Spanish minister, Don Onis, had been in correspondence for some time concerning the settlement of the Florida question and the western boundary of the United States next to the Spanish possessions. Jackson's invasion of Florida and his Finally, pending discussion in Congress on capture of Pensacola caused much politi- Jackson's vigorous proceedings in Florida, cal debate in and out of Congress. By the Spanish minister, under new instrucsome he was much censured, by others tions from home, signed a treaty, Feb. praised. The United States government 22, 1819, for the cession of Florida, on the upheld him, and the Secretary of State, extinction of the various American claims John Q. Adams, made an able plea of for spoliation, for the satisfaction of justification, on the ground of the well- which the United States agreed to pay to known interference of the Spanish au- the claimants $5,000,000. The Louisiana thorities in Florida in American affairs, boundary, as fixed by the treaty, was a and the giving of shelter to British sub- compromise between the respective offers jects inciting the Indians to make war. heretofore made, though leaning a good It was thought the British govern- deal towards the American side. It was ment would take notice of the summary agreed that the Sabine to lat. 33° N., execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister thence a north meridian line to the Red (see SEMINOLE WAR); but it took the River, the course of that river to long. ground that British subjects, meddling in 100° W., thence north by that meridian to the Arkansas River to its head and to lat. 42° N., and along that degree to the Pacific Ocean, should be the boundary between the possessions of the United States and Spain. The Florida treaty was immediately ratified by the United States Senate, and, in expectation of a speedy ratification by Spain, an act was passed to authorize the President to take possession of the newly ceded territory. But there was great delay in the Spanish ratification. It did not take place until early in 1821. The ratified treaty was received by the President in February. 66 vote of 62 against 7. In its preamble it was declared that "all hopes of preserving the Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the slaveholding States" had been "fully dissipated." It was further declared that by the ordinance Florida had withdrawn from the Union and become "a sovereign and independent nation." On the following day the ordinance was signed, while bells rang and cannon thundered to signify the popular joy. The news was received by the Florida representatives in Congress at Washington; but, notwithBefore the Florida ordinance of se- standing the State had withdrawn from cession was passed Florida troops seized, the Union, they remained in their seats, Jan. 6, 1861, the Chattahoochee arsenal, for reasons given in a letter to Joseph with 500,000 rounds of musket cartridges, Finnegan, written by Senator David L. 300,000 rifle cartridges, and 50,000 lbs. Yulee from his desk in the Senate chamof gunpowder. They also took possession ber. "It seemed to be the opinion," he of Fort Marion, at St. Augustine, formerly said, that if we left here, force, loan, the Castle of St. Mark, which was built and volunteer bills might be passed, by the Spaniards more than 100 years which would put Mr. Lincoln in immebefore. It contained an arsenal. On the diate condition for hostilities; whereas, 15th they seized the United States coast by remaining in our places until the 4th survey schooner F. W. Dana, and appro- of March, it is thought we can keep the priated it to their own use. The Chat- hands of Mr. Buchanan tied, and disable tahoochee arsenal was in charge of the the Republicans from effecting any legiscourageous Sergeant Powell and three lation which will strengthen the hands men. He said, "Five minutes ago I was of the incoming administration." Senin command of this arsenal, but in conse- ators from other States wrote similar quence of the weakness of my command, letters under their official franks. The I am obliged to surrender. . . If I convention was addressed by L. W. had force equal to, or half the strength of Spratt, of South Carolina, an eminent yours, I'll be d-d if you would have advocate for reopening the African slaveentered that gate until you had passed trade. Delegates were appointed to a over my dead body. You see that I have general convention to assemble at Montbut three men. I now consider myself a gomery, Ala., and other measures were prisoner of war. Take my sword, Captain taken to secure the sovereignty of FlorJones." ida. The legislature authorized the emission of treasury notes to the amount of $500,000, and defined the crime of treason against the State to be, in one form, the holding of office under the national government in case of actual collision between the State and government troops, punishable with death. The governor of the State (Perry) had previously made arrangements to seize the United States forts, navy-yard, and other government property in Florida. Anxious to establish an independent empire on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida politicians met in convention early in January, 1861, at Tallahassee, the State capital. Colonel Petit was chosen chairman of the convention, and Bishop Rutledge invoked the blessing of the Almighty upon the acts they were about to perform. The members numbered sixty-nine, and about one-third of them were Co-operationists" (see MISSISSIPPI). The legislature of Florida, fully prepared to co-operate with the convention, had convened at the same place on the 5th. On the 10th the convention adopted an ordinance of secession, by a 66 In the early part of the Civil War the national military and naval forces under General Wright and Commodore Dupont made easy conquests on the coast of Florida. In February, 1862, they capt ured Fort Clinch, on Amelia Island, which the Confederates had seized, and drove the Confederates from Fernandina. Other posts were speedily abandoned, and a flotilla of gunboats, under Lieut. T. H. Stevens, went up the St. John's River, and captured Jacksonville, March 11. St. Augustine was taken possession of about the same time by Commander C. R. P. Rogers, and the alarmed Confederates abandoned Pensacola and the fortifications opposite Fort Pickens. Before the middle of April the whole Atlantic coast from Cape Hatteras to Perdido Bay, west of Fort Pickens (excepting Charleston and its vicinity), had been abandoned by the Confederates. See UNITED STATES, FLORIDA, vol. ix. TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS. UNITED STATES SENATORS. [37th, 38th, and 39th Thomas W. Osborn... Abe, the Wisconsin War Eagle; Life of Matthew H. Carpenter; and a History of the Republican Party. Flower, GEORGE, colonist; born in Hertfordshire, England, about 1780; came to the United States with Morris Birkbeck in 1817; and established an English colony in Albion, Ill. He was the author of a History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois, founded in 1817 and 1818 by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower. He died in Grayville, Ill., Jan 15, 1862. Flower, RoSWELL PETTIBONE, banker and philanthropist; born in Jefferson county, N. Y., Aug. 7, 1835; removed to New York City in 1869, where he was very successful in business. Elected to Congress, 1881; re-elected, 1888 and 1890; elected governor of New York in 1891. 1822 1834 He died suddenly in Eastport, N. Y., May 1834 ❝ 1836 12, 1899. 1836" 1839 Term. 1821 to 1822 1839" 1841 Floyd, JOHN, statesman; born in Jef1841 1844 ferson county, Va., in 1770; member of Congress in 1817-29; governor of Virginia in 1829-34; received the electoral vote of South Carolina in the Presidential election of 1832. He died in Sweet Springs, Va., Aug. 16, 1837. Term. 1845 to 1849 1849 1853 1853 1857 1857" 1861 1866" 1868 1877" 1881 1889 " 1893 1897" 1901 Floyd, JOHN BUCHANAN, statesman; 1865 1866 born in Blacksburg, Va., June 1, 1807; was admitted to the bar in 1828; practised 1872 1874 law in Helena, Ark.; and in 1839 settled 1874 1877 in Washington county, in his native State. 1881 1885 He served in the Virginia legislature sev1885 1889 eral terms, and was governor of the State 1893 1897 in 1850-53. His father, John, had been 1901 1905 governor of Virginia. In 1857 President 1905 1909 Buchanan appointed him Secretary of War. As early as Dec. 29, 1859, according to the report of a Congressional committee, he had ordered the transfer of 65,000 percussion muskets, 40,000 muskets altered to percussion, and 10,000 percussion rifles from the armories at Springfield, Mass., and the arsenals at Water-' vliet, N. Y., and Watertown, Mass., to the arsenals at Fayetteville, N. C., Charles1879 ton, S. C., Augusta, Ga., Mount Vernon, 1887 Ala., and Baton Rouge, La., and these Date. 1851 1845 to 1849 46 1855 29th 31st 40th to 42d 1855 1861 1868 to 1873 50th 56th 1887 1899 were distributed in the spring of 1860, 54th " 1897 ** Flower, FRANK ABIAL, author; born in Cottage, N. Y., May 11, 1854; removed to Wisconsin. His publications include Old before the meeting of the Democratic Con sale of public arms to the several States and Territories, and to regulate the appointment of superintendents of the national armories." Davis reported the bill from the military committee of the Senate, and, in calling it up on Feb. 21, said: "I should like the Senate to take up a little bill which I hope will excite no discussion. It is the bill to authorize the States to purchase arms from the JOHN BUCHANAN FLOYD. national armories. There are a number of volunteer companies wanting to purchase arms, but the States have not a sufficient supply." Senator Fessenden, of Maine, asked, Feb. 23, for an explanation of the reasons for such action. Davis replied that the Secretary of War had recommended an increase of appropriations for arming the militia, and as "the militia of the States were not militia of the United States," he thought it best for the volunteer companies of States to have arms that were uniform in case of war. Fessenden offered an amendment, March 26, that would deprive it of mischief, but it was lost, and the bill was passed by a strict party vote-twenty-nine Democrats against eighteen Republicans. It was smothered in the House of Representatives. By a stretch of authority under an old act of Congress (1825), Floyd sold to the States and individuals in the South over 31,000 muskets, altered from flint to percussion, for $2.50 each. On Nov. 24, 1860, he sold 10,000 muskets to G. B. Lamar, of Georgia; and on the 16th he had sold 5,000 to Virginia. The Mobile Advertiser said, "During the past year 135,430 muskets have been quietly transferred from the Northern arsenal at Springfield alone to those of the Southern States. We are much obliged to Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has thus displayed in disarming the North and equipping the South for this emergency. There is no telling the quantity of arms and munitions which were sent South from other arsenals. There is no doubt but that every man in the South who can carry a gun can now be supplied from private or public sources." A Virginia historian of the war (Pollard) said, "It was safely estimated that the South entered upon the war with 150,000 small-arms of the most approved modern pattern and the best in the world." Only a few days before Floyd left his office as Secretary of War and fled to Virginia he attempted to supply the Southerners with heavy ordnance also. On Dec. 20, 1860, he ordered forty columbiads and four 32pounders to be sent from the arsenal at Pittsburg to an unfinished fort on Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico; and seventy-one columbiads and seven 32-pounders to be sent from the same arsenal to an embryo fort at Galveston, Tex., which would not be ready for armament in five years. When Quartermaster Taliaferro (a Virginian) was about to send off these heavy guns, an immense public meeting of citizens, called by the mayor, was held, and the guns were retained. When Floyd fled from Washington his successor, Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, countermanded the order. Indicted by the grand jury of the District of Columbia as being privy to the abstracting of $870,000 in bonds from the Department of the Interior, at the close of 1860 he fled to Virginia, when he was commissioned a general in the Confederate army. In that capacity he was driven from West Virginia by General Rosecrans. The night before the surrender of FORT DONELSON (q. v.) he stole away in the darkness, and, being censured by the Confederate government, he never served in the army afterwards. He died near Abingdon, Va., Aug. 26, 1863. and in 1880 became chief-justice. In November of the latter year he was re-elected to the Court of Appeals, but resigned in 1881 to accept the office of Secretary of the United States Treasury. In 1882 he was the Republican candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated by Grover Cleveland. He died in Geneva, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1884. Floyd, WILLIAM, signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Brookhaven, Suffolk county, N. Y., Dec. 17, 1734; took an early and vigorous part in the Revolution; was a member of the New York committee of correspondence; and a Folger, PETER, pioneer; born in Engmember of the first Continental Congress land in 1617; emigrated to America with in 1774, and until 1777. He was again a his father in 1635; settled in Martha's member after October, 1778. He was a Vineyard in 1641; became a Baptist State Senator in 1777. During the occu- minister and was one of the commissioners pation of Long Island by the British, for to lay out Nantucket. In his poem ennearly seven years, his family were in titled A Looking-glass of the Times; or, exile. He held the commission of briga- The Former Spirit of New England Redier-general, and commanded the Suffolk vived in this Generation, he pleaded for county militia in repelling an invasion of liberty of conscience and toleration of all Long Island by the British. General sects. He died in Nantucket, Mass., in Floyd was a member of the first national Congress, and as Presidential elector gave his vote for Jefferson in 1801. He died in Weston, Oneida co., N. Y., Aug. 4, 1821. Folger, CHARLES JAMES, jurist; born in Nantucket, Mass., April 16, 1818; graduated at Geneva (now Hobart) College in 1836; studied law in Canandaigua, N. Y.; was admitted to the bar in Albany in 1839; and returned to Geneva to practise in 1840. He was judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ontario county in 1843-46; county judge in 1852-56; State Senator in 1861-69; in 1869-70 1690. Folk, JOSEPH WINGATE, lawyer; born in Brownsville, Tenn., Oct. 28, 1869; son of Judge Henry B. Folk; was graduated at Vanderbilt University; admitted to the bar in 1890; practised in Brownsville till 1892; removed to St. Louis; was conspicuous in the settlement of the great streetcar strike in 1900; became district attorney; made himself widely known by his successful prosecution of bribery cases against members of the municipal assembly in 1902-03; and was the Democratic was candidate for governor of Missouri in 1904. Folsom, GEORGE, historian; born in Kennebunk, Me., May 23, 1802; graduated at Harvard in 1822; practised law in Massachusetts until 1837, when he removed to New York, where he became an active member of the Historical Society. He was chargé d'affaires at The Hague in 1850-54. He was the author of Sketches of Saco and Biddeford; Dutch Annals of New York; Address on the Discovery of Maine. He died in Rome, Italy, March 27, 1869. Food Adulteration. The United States of America, the greatest foodproducing country in the world, is suffering from the adulteration of food products to an extent which it is difficult to comprehend. There is hardly an article United States assistant treasurer in New of food that has not been adulteratedYork City; in 1871 was elected associate flour, butter, cheese, tea and coffee, judge of the New York Court of Appeals; syrups, spices of all kinds, extracts, bak CHARLES JAMES FOLGER. |