means of support for their families and employés for the ensuing year. * * The delegates further submit that, in their opinion, formed from a careful consideration of former expenditures, the State government can be administered efficiently, and all its necessary functions performed, for a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That to establish the government upon this basis of expenditure, many of its present superfluous offices will have to be abolished, and its legion of officeholders dismissed. They respectfully submit that this necessary measure of reform may perhaps require amendments to the constitution at the hands of the people. The "grievances which oppress the people" are summarily stated as follows: 1. A law which places the immense power of taxation in the hands of a few men unacquainted with the character and value of property except in their own immediate locality. 2. A rate of taxation imposed upon an assumed valuation of property which is without a parallel in any other State, and which cannot be borne without great distress and peril to the best interests of the people. 3. Forcing the people to pay taxes to meet appropriations which are not necessary, and may be dispensed with without injury to the public service. duty to take special notice of these dangerous proceedings and seductive artifices with which the public mind is assailed, and to warn citizens against the bitter consequences in which they may thus become involved, violating the laws, subverting order, and convulsing society. The immediate occasion seized upon by those disaffected toward the government and seeking to engender agitation, disquieting the public mind, is associated with the enforcement of the collection of the taxes, under the "Equalization Act," passed by the Legislature of the State at its last session, in accordance with the imperative requirements of the constitution. Taking advantage of the diminution in the cotton crop and other products of the soil, by reason of the unfavorable seasons, causing a more than usual monetary pressure, and rendering the burden of the taxes under the Equalization Act apparently oppressive, and seeing the opportunity thus presented for stirring up opposition to the administration of the laws and encouraging seditious sentiments toward the government, it is pretended that certain constitutional formalities were not observed by your representatives in the Legislature in the passage of the Equalization Act, and therefore that the act itself is null and void, and cannot be rightfully enforced, leaving citizens to infer that there is really no obligation upon them, under the law, to pay their taxes. To this it is only necessary to say that, were the fact as alleged, the taxes must still be paid; for an act of the Legislature, approved by the Executive, as this act has been, and recorded Government, is absolute law, binding upon every in the State Department among the archives of the citizen, and is not to be infracted or opposed in its execution with impunity, nor will it be while I hold the executive power of the State, until, by a case legitimately arising and brought before the Supreme Judiciary, it shall have been declared unconstitutional, or until repealed by the law-making power itself. Until citizens shall forego the rancor and hate associated with the past, and agree by general consent to unite for the public good, yielding up, on the altar of the country, old prejudices, there can be no redemption from the woes that afflict society and jeopard the public security, while suppressing the prosperity and happiness of the people. gov-vating to the heart of man and commendable in the It is my duty to enjoin upon all this course, so elelight of Christianity. 4. Paying out to the people two descriptions of obligations or scrip, one character of which is received by the State, while the other is repudiated for public dues, thus making a large class of the paper of the Commonwealth, based upon the property of all, worthless for the only purpose for which it can have any value to the tax-payer. 5. In leaving nothing exempt from sale for taxes, neither the agricultural implements, nor the horse of the laboring-man, nor the bed upon which his family rest after their day's toil, nor the food on which they make their daily meal. 6. In the provision of the law which permits the collection of the entire tax from the personal property of the citizen. 7. In exacting this large amount of tax at a time when it is unnecessary for the due administration of the State government, and when it can serve no other purpose than to enrich the officers of the ernment and those charged with its collection. It is then resolved That the Governor be requested to suspend the collection of the taxes, both State and county, until the meeting of the next General Assembly; but if in his opinion it is beyond his constitutional power so to do, then that he convene the Legislature in special session-first, to repeal the act equalizing taxation, approved January 27, 1871; second, to so modify the act of February 18, 1870, as to authorize the receipt of every description of State scrip for public dues; third, to reduce the taxes, State and county, and limit them to such an amount as is within the reasonable ability of the people to pay. After this convention had adjourned, action of a similar nature was taken in some of the counties, and the discussions were more excited than ever. Finally, on the 6th of November, the Governor issued the following proclamation: Whereas, It is evident that agitators in the State are imperilling the public peace through their evil counsellings, and that men of high standing and influence in the estimation of certain classes of the people are seeking to bring the laws into contempt, thereby inciting to a disturbance of the tranquillity of society and to civil commotions, under the constitutional obligations resting upon me "to see that the laws are faithfully executed," it becomes my Now, therefore, I, Harrison Reed, Governor of Florida, under and by virtue of the constitution of the State, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, do solemnly command all citizens to abstain from the infraction of the laws, and from all and every act whatsoever that through opposition to the laws, or otherwise, tends to a breach of the public peace; and I imperatively enjoin it upon every one duly to pay to the proper collectors, when called upon, the taxes imposed and levied upon them under appropriations made by the Legislature for the current year, and as assessed against them through the force of the provisions of the act of January 27, A. D. 1871, styled the "Equalization Act." Done at the city of Tallahassee, this sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-sixth. HARRISON REED, Governor. By the Governor: Attest, JONATHAN C. GIBBS, Secretary of State. [SEAL.] The finances of the State, according to the official reports of January, 1872, are gradually becoming settled upon a satisfactory basis. The liabilities and resources on the 31st of December, as stated by the Governor, were as follows: Total bonded and floating debt..... $1,311,469 97 There are 6,656,817 acres of land in the State, having an average value of $2.60, making the aggregate value $16,843,542. The value of city and town lots is $5,873,940, and the aggregate value of personal property $11,781,571. The total value of real and personal property, as determined by the Board of Equalization, is $34,673,753; the State tax proper amounts in the aggregate to $301,661.44; the general sinking fund and interest tax is $104,021.07; special sinking fund and interest tax, payable in coupons of bonds of 1871, or in currency, $34,673.58; total State tax, $475,029.67, or about $1.37 on every $100 of property. The county tax amounts to about $1.00 on every $100 of property. The receipts of the Treasury for the year 1871 amounted to $275,005.59; the expenditures to $410,491.19. There were warrants and Treasury certificates outstanding at the beginning of the year amounting to $276,325.28, and $227,924.27 had been redeemed during the year. This leaves $458,892.20 outstanding on January 1, 1872. Very encouraging progress has been made in public education during the year. In 1870 there were 15 counties which failed to levy a school tax, 13 in which there were no organized boards of education, and 11 which had no superintendents; the whole number of schools then was 250, and the number of pupils 7,500. This year only four counties failed to raise a school tax, one had no board of education, and two were without superintendents; the number of schools had increased to 331, and the number of pupils to 14,000. The whole number of youth in the State, between the ages of four and 21, is 62,869, only about one-fifth of whom attend school. The average duration of the schools was 4 months, and the average salary of teachers was $30 per month. There are two seminaries in the State, one at Tallahassee, under the charge of the Leon County Board of Instruction; the other at Gainesville, entirely independent of the State system. The university which the constitution of the State makes it the duty of the Legislature to provide for has not yet been founded. In his message to the Legislature of 1872, Governor Reed commends to its consideration the policy of combining the Agricultural College Fund with such other means as can be afforded, and devoting the whole to the organization of of a single strong State Agricultural College, where thorough instruction shall be given not only in the classical, mathematical, and philosophical branches usually taught in colleges, but also in mechanics, modern languages, the physical sciences, and practical agriculture. "Then," he says, 66 we may have a State university worthy the name." Florida has never built up any creditable system of charitable and penal institutions. An old United States arsenal at Chattahoochee has been granted to the State by Congress for a penitentiary, and has been occupied for that purpose. The railroad system of Florida, which was begun on a very comprehensive plan in 1855, has not been altogether fortunate. The Florida road, 154 miles in length, was sold by the board of trustees in 1866 for $116,000, leaving $232,000 in mortgage bonds, the interest of which was guaranteed by the State. There was a large amount of accumulated interest, for the payment of which suits have been begun. The Central road, from Jacksonville to Lake City, 60 miles, was sold by the board in 1868 for $111,000, leaving a large amount of accrued interest for the State to pay. The Pensacola & Georgia and the Tallahassee roads were forfeited by the companies, with $1,424,000 of bonds outstanding, and have been sold for about the par value of the bonds, leaving no encumbrance on the State except for unpaid interest. Since 1869 the State aid has been given for the completion of railroads by a grant of $16,000 per mile in bonds. The State holds the roads as security for the payment of principal and interest. The Legislature assembled at Tallahassee for its annual session of 1872 on the 3d of January. With regard to the general condition of the State, the Governor says in his message: Among the reconstructed States of the South none started upon a more truly conservative basis than Florida, and none have progressed more successfully in the scale of social, political, and industrial improvement. distinguished among the Southern States for general Florida, upon the whole, may be said to have been peace and quiet, and obedience to law, notwithstanding reports to the contrary which have prevailed, much to the detriment of the State. tions of the law, and scenes of fatal and disgraceful Still, disturbances, breaches of the peace, infracviolence, have occurred in many localities within our borders. This I have attempted to correct by the exercise of all the power vested in me by the constitution, and by the use of all the means bestowed for that purpose by the Legislature. But at times all efforts have failed, and all the means at my command have seemed to be ineffective. Looking upon the suspension of the civil law as an experiment always full of danger, and entirely opposed to all the principles of free popular government, I have hesitated and refused to take a step so fraught with manifold dangers, except as the very last resort, even at the risk of incurring the enmity and hostility of my own political friends. And, while my heart has bled for the violence and suffering inflicted upon the more helpless classes of the community, I have steadily relied upon the civil law and the good sense and latent patriotism of the general citizenship. I have remonstrated, admonished, and entreated, with little apparent avail. The power granted me in the detective law of 1868 was rendered almost nugatory through the restrictions and want of means imposed, I fear, by the jealousies and personal animosities of so-called political friends; I still have earnestly endeavored, through the aid of special detectives, employed at my own expense, to ferret out and bring to justice the perpetrators of violence and crime, for whose detection and punishment the ordinary enforcement of our criminal laws seemed inadequate. And at last these persistent efforts seem likely to be crowned with some measure of success. A large amount of useful information has thus been obtained, and a mass of testimony, the nature and extent of which it is improper to disclose till the entire safety of the witnesses is effectually secured, is at my disposal. Of those attending school 4,524 were colored; 66,238 persons ten years old and over cannot read. Of those 21 years old and over who cannot write, 3,876 are white males, and 5,600 white females; 16,806 are colored males, and 18,052 colored females. The public debt, county, town, city, etc., amounts to $897,141. Value of farm productions, including betterments, and additions to stock, $8,900,746; 37,562 pounds of wool were produced. True value of property, $44,163,655. There are 500 tribal Indians in Florida. FLOYD-JONES, DAVID R., a political leader of New York, born at South Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1812; died there, January 8, 1871. He was the eldest son of the late General Thomas Floyd-Jones, the proprietor of the 182,781 4,967 $32,480,843 $496,166 12,778 Jones Manor, and inherited a great landed estate. He received a very thorough early education, graduated from Union College in 1832, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1835, and opened an office in New York City. In 1841 he was chosen a member of the Assembly from New York City, and reelected in 1842 and 1843. In 1844 he entered the Senate and served there two terms (four years). From 1848 to 1851 he was clerk of the Superior Court of New York City. In 1857 he was sent to the Assembly from Queens County. Chosen Secretary of State in 1859, he served in that capacity during the two following years. In the fall of 1862 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with Governor Seymour, and served during |