Representative Government.
When the governments of West and East Florida were established, as
before related, their governors were, severally, vested with authority,
their councils consenting and the condition of the provinces being
favorable, to call for the election of general assemblies by the people.
In 1773, Governor Chester concluded that the time had arrived when it
would be expedient for him to exercise this power. He, accordingly,
issued writs authorizing an election, fixing the time it was to be held,
the voting precincts, the qualifications of voters, and the number and
qualifications of assemblymen to be chosen, as well as the day of the
sitting of the general assembly at Pensacola.
But the writs, unhappily, fixed the terms of assemblymen at three years;
a provision which proved fatal, not only to this first attempt, but
likewise to all future efforts to establish representative government in
West Florida. The election was held throughout the province, and the
members of a full general assembly elected. But whilst the people went
to the polls with alacrity, and hailed with pleasure the advent of
popular government, they were opposed to the long tenure fixed by
Governor Chester; and so determined was that opposition that they
resolved that it should not receive the implied sanction of their votes.
They accordingly cast ballots which declared that they were subject to
the condition that the representative should hold for one year only. To
that condition the governor refused to consent. The people, on the other
hand, were equally unyielding in their opposition. Efforts were made,
but in vain, to induce a concession by one side or the other;
consequently, during the following years of English dominion, as before,
the province knew no other civil government than that of the governor
and his council.
It is difficult to understand the motives which prompted the people to
so stubborn an opposition. The tenure of three years might, indeed, seem
long to voters who had probably lived in colonies, where it was a third
or two-thirds less. But still, if there was any value to a people in
representative government, surely an assembly holding for three years
was better than none; especially as it would have so concentrated the
influence and power of the community as to enable it at some auspicious
conjuncture to remove the one popular objection to the system.
On the other hand, we can better appreciate the conduct of Governor
Chester. An Englishman with the Tory conservatism of that day, he would,
naturally, fear the effect of short terms and frequent elections, aside
from economical considerations. All the northern colonies were in a
state of ferment bordering on revolution, and that consideration,
doubtless, intensified his opposition to anything that savored of
opposition to the wishes of the king or his representatives. Indeed,
from his stand-point, to yield to the popular wishes in array against
his own will and judgment, was to leaven the province with a pestilent
political heresy which was seeking to substitute the power of the people
for the authority of the crown.
Governor Chester seems to have possessed superior talents for
government, the best evidence of which is found in the prosperity of the
colony during his administration, the harmony that existed between him
and the military, and the high respect and deference he received from
General Haldimand.
Such a man, conscious of his rectitude and good intentions towards the
province, evinced by his readiness to afford it the privilege of
representative government, somewhat at the expense of his own authority,
would naturally feel that the condition attached to the ballots, and
adhered to with much insistance, manifested such a want of confidence in
him as to justify his distrust of the people.
But what Governor Chester’s zealous endeavors could not accomplish in
West Florida, the reluctant efforts of Governor Tonyn achieved in the
eastern province. In 1780, the latter, against his own wishes, and
solely at the suggestion of others, called for the election of a general
assembly. The call having been promptly obeyed, the first popular
representative body in Florida met at St. Augustine in January,
1781.[14]
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Footnote 14:
Fairbank’s Florida, p. 232.
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