Florida Becomes a State

Floridians had voted in a referendum in favor of statehood in 1838 and a state constitution was approved in 1839, but it was not until the U. S. Congress approved the act in 1845 admitting both Florida and Iowa that it became official.

 1845 – Florida is admitted into the United States as the 27th state on this date! After centuries of Spanish rule, 20 years of British control, and almost 25 years as a U.S. territory, Florida was finally voted in as a state. 

President John Tyler signed the admission bill. After admission the State Legislative Council began in haste to organize its first state election, which occurred in May of 1845, to elect a governor, a member of the U.S. Congress, 17 state senators and 41 state representatives. The total population of Florida in 1845 was approximately 66,000.

 By 1845, when Florida was admitted to the union, only a few hundred Seminole remained in the state. The Third Seminole War (1855–58) was their final conflict with the federal government.

Until the 1880s, Florida’s economy had been dominated by small-farm and plantation agriculture; the supplying of naval stores and the production of beef and hides, pork, salt, tobacco, and cotton were the main activities. 

In 1881 phosphate—the state’s most important mineral—was discovered in the Peace River valley, and extensive mining began immediately. In the late 1800s the lumber industry, based in northern and western Florida, grew rapidly. At the same time, in Tampa, cigar manufacturers, originally from Cuba, began producing for the U.S. market.

Agricultural development, settlement, industry, and tourism all followed the rails.

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Spain passed Florida along to the United States in 1819 with a treaty (ending the 1st Seminole War) that included a statement that Florida “shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, as soon as may be consistent with the principles of the Federal Constitution, and admitted to the enjoyment of all the privileges, rights, and immunities of the citizens of the United States. . . .”

This made the people of Florida think they should be able to become a state quickly. After all, the Constitution says very little about how a territory can become a state. Basically, the Constitution just says that Congress can make states whenever it feels like it. Other affected states must agree, but when a territory becomes a state, there’s no effect on neighboring states.

So Florida started petitioning for statehood almost as soon as they became a territory. They didn’t think they should have to have a certain population size (and in fact, another former Spanish colony, Arkansas, became a state before Florida, with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants). They didn’t worry about what languages were spoken in Florida or how financially stable they were. They had been promised statehood.

Florida conflicts

Florida had a big problem, though. The Eastern part of the territory was involved in the Seminole War, a conflict between the Native Americans and the European settlers that made Congress think seriously about dividing the territory and admitting only the Western part. And it was “Middle Florida,” the prosperous central division of the territory with plantations and banks that was most strongly in favor of statehood.

The territorial delegate proposed different solutions at different times. Sometimes he argued for Florida to be admitted as one state. At another time, he wanted Florida to be admitted as two states. And sometimes he argued for admission of just part of Florida as a state, leaving the rest as a territory until they got their conflicts settled.

Florida wanted statehood so they could have sovereignty and self-government. The people in Florida who did not want statehood were worried about paying higher taxes.

Florida had also, by 1834 when they wrote their constitution, made three different proposals to Congress. They added a couple of additional ideas, suggesting that the different parts of Florida could become part of Georgia and Alabama instead of becoming a new state, or that Georgia and Alabama should both give part of their states to Florida to make the population large enough for statehood.

A few years later, after sending two more statehood petitions to Washington, reminding Congress of the guarantee of statehood in their treaty, Florida’s territorial government changed parties. The new governor didn’t want to push for  statehood. Instead, Florida asked to be made into two territories… but Congress refused.

The report of the Committee on Territories

In 1844, after another petition for statehood from Florida, the federal Committee on Territories produced a report on Florida. They said that they didn’t want Florida to continue under “the burdens and tyranny of a territorial condition.” But they also said that the United States was still divided on the question of slavery. Adding another slave state like Florida without also a adding a free state, they feared, would threaten the “harmony” of the United States.

They proposed waiting till a territory which didn’t allow slavery was also ready to become a state.

Michigan had been a possible partner for Florida, but Arkansas slipped ahead of Florida and joined along with Michigan. Florida would have to wait for Iowa, which was having problems settling its boundaries. Eventually, the two territories had one bill calling for admission of both as states.

Congress got mired in controversy at this point, suggesting not only that Florida should be divided into two states, but that Iowa also should be made into two states. The arguments were about geography, but they were also about slavery. Each side worried that the other side would end up with an extra state.

What’s more, the Florida constitution contained racist restrictions on immigration which were considered un-American by some representatives, and these restrictions also became part of the argument. One congressman pointed out that Virginia had “these same obnoxious provisions,” but was a state.

At one point, some members of Congress wanted to scrap the whole bill and start over with separate bills for Iowa and Florida.

In the end, the bill passed and Florida gained its statehood — as one state. They sent senators and congressmen to Washington in December of 1845, 26 years after Spain agreed to give Florida to the United States on the understanding that Florida would become a state as soon as possible.

Statehood turned out well for Florida, as it has for all the territories which have been admitted to the Union.

It wasn’t easy.