certificates at registration centres, residence in the state one year and in the county six months, and registration. To these requirements the payment of a poll-tax has been added by legislative enactment, such an enactment having been authorized by the constitution. Insane persons and persons under guardianship are excluded by the constitution, and “all persons convicted of bribery, perjury, larceny or of infamous crime, or who shall make or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager the result of which shall depend upon any election,” or who shall participate as principal, second or challenger in any duel, are excluded by legislative enactment.
Amendments to the constitution may be made by a three-fifths vote of each house of the legislature, ratified by a majority vote of the people. A revision of the Constitution may be made upon a two-thirds vote of all members of both Houses of the legislature, if ratified by a majority vote of the people; a Constitutional Convention is then to be provided for by the legislature, such convention to meet within six months of the passage of the law therefor, and to consist of a number equal to the membership of the House of Representatives, apportioned among the counties, as are the members of this House.
A homestead of 160 acres, or of one-half of an acre in an incorporated town or city, owned by the head of a family residing in the state, with personal property to the value of $1000 and the improvements on the real estate, is exempt from enforced sale except for delinquent taxes, purchase money, mortgage or improvements on the property. The wife holds in her own name property acquired before or after marriage; the intermarriage of whites and negroes (or persons of negro descent to the fourth generation) is prohibited. All these are constitutional provisions. By legislative enactment whites and blacks living in adultery are to be punished by imprisonment or fine; divorces may be secured only after two years’ residence in the state and on the ground of physical incapacity, adultery, extreme cruelty, habitual indulgence in violent temper, habitual drunkenness, desertion for one year, previous marriage still existing, or such relationship of the parties as is within the degrees for which marriage is prohibited by law. Legitimacy of natural children can be established by subsequent marriage of the parents, and the age of consent is sixteen years.
The bonded debt was incurred during the Reconstruction Period (1865–1875). In 1871 7% 30 year bonds to the extent of $350,000 were issued and in 1873 another issue of 6% 30 year bonds to the value of $925,000 was made. Most of these were held by the Educational Fund at the time of their maturity. By 1901 all but $267,700 of the issue of 1871 had been retired and this amount was then refunded with 3% 50 year bonds which were taken by the Educational Fund. In 1903 $616,800 of the 1873 issue was held by the Educational Fund and $148,000 by individuals. The first part of this claim was refunded by a new bond issue, also taken by the Educational Fund, the second was paid from an Indian war claim of $692,946, received from the United States government in 1902, when $132,000 bonds of 1857, held by the United States government, were also extinguished. The bonded debt was thus reduced to $884,500; and on the 1st of January 1909 the debt, consisting of refunding bonds held as educational funds, amounted to $601,567.
Penal System.—There is no penitentiary; the convicts are hired to the one highest bidder who contracts for their labour, and who undertakes, moreover, to lease all other persons convicted during the term of the lease, and sub-leases the prisoners. In 1889 the convicts were placed under the care of a supervisor of convicts, and in 1905 the law was amended so that one or more supervisors could be appointed at the will of the governors. In 1908 there were four supervisors and one state prison physician, and there are special laws designed to prevent abuses in the system. In 1908 the state received $208,148 from the lease of convicts. Decrepit prisoners were formerly leased, but in 1906 the lease excluded such as were thought unfit by the state prison physician. Women convicts were still leased with the men in 1908; of the 446 convicts committed in that year, there were 15 negro females, 356 negro males and 75 white males. In the same year 54 escaped, and 27 were recaptured. The leased convicts are employed in the turpentine and lumber industries and in the phosphate works. The 1232 convicts “on hand” at the close of 1908 were held in 38 camps, 4 being the minimum, and 160 the maximum number, at a camp. In 1908 two central hospitals for the prisoners were maintained by the lessee company. County prison camps are under the supervision of the governor and the supervisors of convicts. The state supervisors must inspect each state prison camp and each county prison camp every thirty days.
Education.—As early as 1831 an unsuccessful attempt was made to form an adequate public school fund; the first real effort to establish a common school system for the territory was made after 1835; in 1840 there were altogether 18 academies and 51 common schools, and in 1849 the state legislature made an appropriation in the interest of the public instruction of white pupils, and this was supplemented by the proceeds of land granted by the United States government for the same purpose. In 1852 Tallahassee established a public school; and in 1860 there were, according to a report of the United States census, 2032 pupils in the public schools of the state, and 4486 in “academies and other schools.” The Civil War, however, interrupted the early progress, and the present system of common schools dates from the constitution of 1868 and the school law of 1869. The school revenue derived from the interest of a permanent school fund, special state and county taxes, and a poll-tax, in 1907–1908 amounted to $1,716,161; the per capita cost for each child of school age was $6.11 (white, $9.08; negro, $2.24), and the average school term was 108 days (112 for whites, 99 for negroes). The state constitution prescribes that “white and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, but impartial provision shall be made for both.” The percentage of enrolment in 1907–1908 was 60 (whites, 66; negroes, 52). The percentage of attendance to enrolment was 70%,—68% for white and 74% for negro schools. Before 1905 the state provided for higher education by the Florida State College, at Tallahassee, formerly the West Florida Seminary (founded in 1857); the University of Florida, at Lake City, which was organized in 1903 by enlarging the work of the Florida Agricultural College (founded in 1884); the East Florida Seminary, at Gainesville (founded 1848 at Ocala); the normal school (for whites) at De Funiak Springs; and the South Florida Military Institute at Bartow; but in 1905 the legislature passed the Buckman bill abolishing all these state institutions for higher education and establishing in their place the university of the state of Florida and a state Agricultural Experiment Station, both now at Gainesville, and the Florida Female College at Tallahassee, which has the same standards for entrance and for graduation as the state university for men. Private educational institutions in Florida are John B. Stetson University at De Land (Baptist); Rollins College (1885) at Winter Park (non-sectarian), with a collegiate department, an academy, a school of music, a school of expression, a school of fine arts, a school of domestic and industrial arts, and a business school; Southern College (1901), at Sutherland (Methodist Episcopal, South); the Presbyterian College of Florida (1905), at Eustis; Jasper Normal Institute (1890), at Jasper, and the Florida Normal Institute at Madison. The negroes have facilities for advanced instruction in the Florida Baptist Academy, and Cookman Institute (Methodist Episcopal, South), both at Jacksonville, and in the Normal and Manual Training School (Congregational), at Orange Park. There are a school for the Blind, Deaf, and Dumb (1885) at St. Augustine, a hospital for the insane at Chattahoochee and a reform school at Marianna, all wholly supported by the state, and a Confederate soldiers’ and sailors’ home at Tallahassee, which is partially supported by the state.
History.—The earliest explorations and attempts at colonization of Florida by Europeans were made by the Spanish. The Council of the Indies claimed that since 1510 fleets and ships had gone to Florida, and Florida is shown on the Cantino map of 1502. In 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon (c. 1460–1521), who had been with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage and had later been governor of Porto Rico, obtained a royal grant authorizing him to discover and settle “Bimini,”—a fabulous island believed to contain a marvellous fountain or spring
