Answer:
to insure domestic tranquility
Step-by-step explanation:
In preparation for statehood, fifty-six delegates from Florida’s twenty
counties assembled in the Panhandle town of Saint Joseph (near Port St. Joe)
to frame the 1838 Constitution (cover). The delegates were mainly planters
and lawyers from thirteen of the nation’s twenty-six states and four foreign
countries; only three were native Floridians. Three delegates would later
become U.S. Senators; two, governors; and five, members of the state
supreme court. The convention was called to order on December 3, 1838
and elected Robert Raymond Reid of St. Augustine as president.
The constitution divided the government into the traditional three
branches – an executive headed by the governor elected to a single four year
term, a bicameral legislature that met annually, and a judiciary headed by a
supreme court. It banned bank officers, clergymen, and duelists from
election to the legislature and governorship; and declared free men equal
while at the same time preserving slavery. The constitution was approved by
popular vote in 1839 and served as Florida’s constitution from statehood in
1845 until Florida seceded from the Union in 1861.
The original 1838 Constitution, signed by forty-one delegates on
January 11, 1839, has disappeared. The only surviving handwritten copy is a
clerk’s copy signed by Reid and Joshua Knowles, convention secretary,
found by the William N. “Bill” Galphin family in Fernandina Beach in 1982.
The family inherited the copy from Galphin’s grandfather William
Thompson. Thompson married the niece of Judge John C. McGehee, a
delegate to the 1838 convention and president of the Secession Convention
of 1861.
The 1838 Constitution is one of many historical documents that may
be found at the Florida State Archives. Located in the R.A. Gray Building in
Tallahassee, the Archives is mandated by law to collect and preserve
documentation of Florida’s past; including photographs, state records, and
private papers of individuals and organizations.