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]