A History of the Everglades of Florida by J.E. Dovell, 1947
http://sofia.usgs.gov/memorials/dovell

CHAPTER III

FEDERAL AND STATE ATTEMPTS AT RECLAMATION OF THE EVERGLADES

1. Action to Secure Title to the Everglades

The people of the territory of Florida recognized the need for government 
financed internal improvements some years before attaining statehood.  In 
the St. Joseph Constitution, adopted by the convention which assembled in 
1838, Article XI, Section 2, declared:

"A liberal system of internal improvements being essential to the 
development of the resources of the country, shall be encouraged by the 
government of this State, and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, 
as soon as practicable, to ascertain by law proper objects of improvement in 
relation to roads, canals arid, navigable streams, and to provide for a 
suitable application of such funds as may be appropriated for such 
improvements." 1

In 1841, Congress aided the cause of internal improvements of states 
entering the Union by passing an act granting 500,000 acres of land to each 
new state. 2  This grant, which Florida received on its admission in 1845, 
formed the nucleus of the internal improvement fund of public lands in the 
state.  Further public lands granted the state on admission included eight 
sections for a seat of government, four townships each for two seminaries of 
learning, and section sixteen of every township for the support of public 
education.  In addition, the federal government allotted five per cent of 
the net proceeds from the sale of its lands within the states for the 
purposes of public education of the particular states concerned. 3

The attention of the citizens of Florida had turned toward other federal 
lands, even before the peninsular territory became a state.  On December 30, 
1842, Florida's territorial delegate to the Congress, David Levy, offered 
the following resolution on the floor of the House of Representatives:

"Resolved, that the Secretary of War be directed to place before this House 
such information as can be obtained in relation to the practicability and 
probable expense of draining the everglades of Florida." 4

The resolution was transmitted to the Secretary of War after being adopted 
by the House.  On January 7, 1843, the Secretary's reply to the resolution 
was referred by the Speaker of the House to the Committee on Territories.   
The reply contained a report by the colonel of the corps of topographical 
engineers that there was no information in the department on the matter of 
Everglades drainage, ". . . and all that has come to my knowledge is 
speculation, supposition, reasoning from supposed facts, verbally 
communicated by officers and others who have been in that region of 
country." 5  The army engineer reported that such meager data would not 
justify the practicability of the project nor furnish an estimate of the 
cost of the proposed works.  Furthermore, the colonel continued, an 
additional appropriation of $10,000 would be required to make the survey, 
since all moneys appropriated for surveys had been assigned to the 
investigation of the military defenses of the nation and to a study of the 
topography west of the Mississippi River.

Florida became a state on March 3, 1845, and assumed equal footing with the 
original members of the union.  Ten months later the legislature, now 
representing a commonwealth, passed a resolution instructing the Florida 
Congressional. delegation to bring the important subject of Everglades 
drainage ". . . to the attention of Congress at the earliest day, and 
earnestly press upon its consideration the propriety and policy of forthwith 
appointing competent engineers to examine and survey the aforesaid region." 
6  The resolution reached the floor of the United States Senate, where it 
was referred to the Committee on Public Lands and ordered printed. 7  It 
should be noted that this 1845 resolution called attention to the fact that 
these lands had hitherto been considered valueless in consequence of being 
covered by water at stated periods of the year, but that recent information 
had induced the belief that the region could be entirely reclaimed.  Such 
reclamation, the state legislature pointed out, would be to the interest of 
the national government with "its vast donation of unlocated land, to adopt 
some early and efficient measures to test the accuracy of these 
representations." 8

Senator James D. Westcott, Jr., of Florida became the champion of the 
Everglades drainage proposition in the national capital.  On May 11, 1847, 
Westcott wrote to Robert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, referring to 
the conversations and letters he had written Walker on the subject of the 
Everglades. 9  Westcott pointed out that repeated demands had been made on 
the Florida legislature, and that the legislature had passed numerous 
resolutions seeking to invoke the action of the United States government in 
making surveys of the Everglades.  He cited the opinions of army officers 
who had been on duty in southern Florida, as well as those of men who had 
lived in the vicinity, to show that the Everglades were from six to ten feet 
above sea level; that standing water on the glades was from one to five feet 
in depth; that the distance to. tidewater from the glades was in many places 
not more than a mile; and finally, that the rock ridge separating the 
Everglades front sea level consisted of soft coral rook composition, easily 
excavated, and but ten to twelve feet thick. Westcott said that he was in no 
position to set a value on the lands when once drained, but that parties 
familiar with the area assured him that many of them would be the best rice 
and sugar lands in the nation.  Lastly, he asserted that it would not be a 
chimerical idea to anticipate a channel from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Everglades for the use of small coasting vessels in the navigable waters of 
that part of the peninsula.  He closed his letter by asking that an agent be 
sent to make a reconnaissance of the lands so that a report might be laid 
before Congress at its next session.

2. The Buckingham Smith Report

Secretary Walker did not delay in taking action on Westcott's request to 
secure information on the Everglades.  On June 18, 1847, Walker sent a 
letter of instruction, detailing certain services to be performed, to 
Buckingham Smith of St. Augustine, Florida. 10  The letter directed Smith to 
examine the land offices at Tallahassee, Newnansville, and St. Augustine, 
Florida, in the capacity of auditor, and serve as an agent in ". . . the  
procurement of authentic information in relation to what are generally 
called the Ever Glades' on the peninsula of Florida." 11  In the letter to 
Smith, Walker cited the representations which had been made to the treasury  
department that there were several million acres of public lands in the area 
  that could be reclaimed at a comparatively small expense and that great 
advantages would result from such a measure.  "It is represented that these 
lands can be drained by two or three small canals from the lake into the 
rivers opposite to it, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico and into the 
straits of Florida." 12  Walker wrote that it was expected that Smith would 
visit the section and make a reconnaissance, for which the department 
furnished sundry charts and maps.

"Any information that you. can obtain in writing, from intelligent citizens 
acquainted with this subject, you will communicate with your report; and you 
will seek from them facts and specific data showing the grounds of opinions 
that may be given.  . . . the department relies with confidence on your 
impartial fulfillment of this service, free from any sectional or local 
predilections. . . . 13

During the first week of January, 1848, the Florida legislature again passed 
a resolution regarding the subject of the Everglades.  The resolution stated 
that the large tracts of public lands lying in the state south of Lake 
Okeechobee were covered with water, were incapable of survey, and therefore 
valueless to the nation, but that it was believed the lands could be drained 
and be made  valuable for the cultivation of tropical produce.  In addition, 
it declared that the reclamation would not only remunerate the state for the 
expense, but  would conceivably yield a surplus above such expense.  The 
General Assembly urged Congress to grant to Florida all of such lands lying 
south of the Caloosahatchee River and the northern shore of Lake Okeechobee  
between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean on condition that the 
state drain the lands and apply the proceeds of the land sold, after 
defraying the expense of draining, to the purposes of public education. 14  
Senator Westcott introduced this resolution on the floor of the United 
States Senate on February 29, 1848.  The resolution was read, referred to 
the Committee  on Public Lands, and ordered to be printed. 15

Approximately a year after he had been commissioned as an agent to examine 
the land offices of Florida, Buckingham Smith submitted a report on his 
inspection of the Everglades.  This report, in the form of a scholarly 
essay, remains today a monument to the resourcefulness of the man who  
gathered the material.  Smith left St. Augustine, Florida, on August 29,  
1847, aboard the revenue cutter Wolcott, w had been furnished by the 
Treasury Department, and arrived at Ft. Dallas on the Miami River the last 
day of the month.  With a small boat from the cutter he explored, the 
various streams emptying into the Biscayne Bay area and made an eight day 
trip into the Everglades.  On September 21 the cutter departed f or Key 
West, remaining there for two days before making for Cape Sable.  Smith  
investigated the islands around Whitewater Bay beyond the cape, and then  
put out for Punta Rassa on the west coast of Florida.  Pausing at Punta 
Rassa for four days, Smith made an excursion up the Caloosahatchee River to 
Lake  Flirt, which he found to be the headwaters of that river.  After 
leaving Punta Rassa, the cutter sailed to St. Marks, where Smith debarked 
and returned to his home in St. Augustine.

In his report, Smith declared:

"To reclaim the Ever Glades . . . and the low lands on the margin of the 
Kissimmee [sic] river and its tributaries, and the other rivers emptying 
into Lake Okeechobee, this lake must be tapped by such canals running into 
the Caloosahatchee on the one side, and into the Locahatchee or San Lucia, 
or both on the other, and cuts must also be made from the streams on both 
sides of the peninsula into the Glades." 17

Smith further declared that after the waters of the glades were lowered as 
much as five feet, there would probably be a necessity for several drains 
through the glades by which surplus waters accumulating from the rains could 
be conducted to tidewater.  The fact that the Everglades received a large 
share of its water from the overflow of Lake Okeechobee, which in turn 
received most of its water from the Kissimmee River, was known, but Smith 
was one of the first to publicize it.  He estimated the average elevation of 
the glades to be twelve feet above sea level, and believed them to be 
covered with water in the fall of the year to an average depth of six feet.  
With respect  to the cost of the undertaking, Smith estimated that $500,000 
would defray the outlay necessary for the successful accomplishment of 
cutting the rim of the glades on the east and west coasts at the heads of 
the various streams.   These streams, which received their initial waters at 
low places in the rim, could be made into canals and thus drain the surface 
of the Everglades. 18

In answer to the question of adaptability of the lands of the area to 
cultivation, Smith stated that the deposit of soil above the rock was 
generally two to three feet in depth, and that it was exceedingly light when 
dry and easily broken into pieces.

"The Ever Glades are entirely below the region of frost, and the 
meteorological and barometrical statistics . . . prove that the climate is 
as favorable to the cultivation of tropical fruits as that of any country 
between the twenty-eighth and twenty-fourth parallels." 19

It was Smith's belief that the land so reclaimed would be profitable for the 
growth and production of coffee, sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, sisal hemp, 
as well as citrus, bananas, figs, olives, pineapples, coconuts and other 
tropical  crops and fruits. 20  Smith concluded his report with the 
following statement:

"The Ever Glades are now suitable only for the haunt of noxious vermin, or 
the resort of pestilent reptiles.  The statesman those exertions shall cause 
the millions of acres they contain, now worse than worthless, to teem with 
the products of agricultural industry; that man who thus adds to the 
resources of his country . . . will merit a high place in public favor, not 
only with his own generation, but with posterity.  He will have created a 
State!" 21

With his report Smith submitted a number of letters, extracts of letters, 
quotations from other writers on the area, and memoranda pertaining to the 
Everglades, as had been requested in his instructions.  The first of these 
was an extract from the report of Colonel Robert Butler, surveyor general of 
Florida in 1847, to the Commissioner of the General Land Office.  From 
Colonel Butler came the dictum that the Everglades could not be surveyed 
until they had been drained.  This gentleman advised the granting of the 
area to the state of Florida, since the Everglades were in the interior of 
the state, without navigable rivers, and thus their reclamation by the 
federal  government would conflict with the sovereignty of the state.  He 
proposed the grant to the state of one moiety, conditioned on the state's 
drainage of the Everglades within a certain period of time.  The United 
States would, thereby, realize for survey and sale the other moiety, ". . . 
thus would be opened a large fertile surface for the habitation of man, 
cultivating sugar and tropical fruits extensively thereon." 22

Another letter which Smith transmitted with his report was one from General 
James Gadsden of South Carolina, who had been one of the army commanders in 
Florida during the Seminole War.  Gadsden had written Secretary Walker in 
1848 that:

"The elevation of the Everglades . . . above tidewater proved the capability 
of being drained, while the inlets along the coast, and the number of small 
rivers and creeks, which at seasons relieved the overflowings of the 
interior basin of Florida, showed that by deepening these natural outlets at 
their heads, and multiplying the number of parallel and artificial cuts at 
favorable points, the whole country at times submerged, might be reclaimed 
and brought into profitable cultivation." 23

Gadsden added that the subject was one of great public interest, for the 
reclamation of southern Florida would open the only portion of the United 
States capable of competing with the tropical latitudes in all the 
productions which enriched them.

A third letter included by Smith was one written by General Thomas S. Jesup, 
Quartermaster General of the Army in 1848.  Jesup had commanded  troops in 
Florida during the Seminole War.  Writing to Senator J. D. Westcott on the 
Everglades, Jesup declared:

"The swamps are peat swamps, which if drained, would soon be converted into 
olive, lime and orange plantations, and would be cultivated by a  numerous 
white population, which would be interposed between the sugar plantations, 
cultivated by slaves and the free blacks of the West Indies.  This in a 
military point of view, would be highly important, and add greatly to the
strength of the south." 24

General William S. Harney had made several long trips through the Everglades 
during the Seminole War.  In his letter to Buckingham Smith,  Harney 
declared that canals from Lake Okeechobee to both the Caloosahatchee and the 
Loxahatchee should be dug, as well as canals into the Ratones, Little, Arch 
Creek, Miami, and Shark rivers.  Harney declared, that the two chief canals 
should be ten to fifteen miles long, thirty feet wide, and from five to 
fifteen feet deep.  He concluded:

"No person can say with :positive certainty what the soil of the Everglades 
when drained would or would not produce; but it is my opinion it would be 
the best sugar land in the south and also excellent for rice and corn." 25

One of the correspondents from whom Smith sought information regarding the 
Everglades was Stephen Russell Mallory, Collector of Customs at Key West, 
Florida.  Mallory had lived in Key West since 1820, and had fought in the 
Seminole War. 26 Mallory, later to become a United States Senator and Confederate Secretary 
of the Navy, had closely observed that particular part of the state in 
question. He wrote:

"My own impression is that large tracts of the Glades are fully as low as 
the adjoining sea, and can never be drained; that some lands around the 
margins may be reclaimed by drainage or dyking, but that it will be found 
wholly out of the question to drain all the Ever Glades.  As the country now 
is, healthy and mild, with its good land in small parcels, with water at 
hand anywhere for irrigation, I think it offers inducements to small 
capitalists, men with from one to ten hands, to go there and raise fruits. 
Fruit will grow well there." 27

Captain John T. Sprague, whose book on the Seminole War appeared in 1848 and 
remains today the most definitive study, was astounded at any proposal to 
drain the Everglades.  He informed Smith that he had

" . . . never supposed the country would excite an inquiry, other than as a 
hiding place for Indians, and had it occurred to me that so great an  
undertaking, one so utterly impracticable, as draining the Ever Glades was 
to be discussed, I should not have destroyed the scratch of a pen [notes 
used in writing his book] upon a subject so fruitful, and which cannot be 
understood but by those who have waded the water belly deep and examined 
carefully the western coast by laid end by water." 28

3. The Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act

Among the bills submitted to the first session of the Thirtieth Congress was 
one introduced by Senator Westcott which would have given the "Peninsula 
State" all lands, lakes, and watercourses south of Township 36 South, 
through the islands or keys adjacent to the coast and north of Cape Sable. 
29   The Senator gave notice of his intention to intro' duce this bill on 
May 3, 1848, but it was not until the night of August 1 that the proposed 
law was introduced, read twice, and then referred to the Committee on Public 
Lands as  Senate Bill 338. The Westcott bill provided:

1. Commencement of drainage works construction before 1852, to be finished 
within ten years

2. All land sales proceeds to be appropriated to works of reclamation, if 
the lands were granted under this bill

3. No land to be sold within the ceded area for less than $1.25 an acre 
until drainage work completed

4. No encroachment on Seminole Indian reservations

5. One thirty-sixty of all lands granted to be reserved for the support of 
the common schools

6. One-half of the lands already surveyed to be reserved in alternate 
sections for the federal government

7. Proceeds of land sales, within this area, above the costs of drainage 
works to be devoted to the purposes of education

8. No tolls on United States government commerce in any canals that might be 
excavated in the area

9. Survey of the lids to agree with the form and plans of existing United 
States government surveys

On August 9, 1848, on motion of Westcott, the Senate resolved that the 
Secretary of the Treasury send to that body any information in his 
department on the reclaiming of the Everglades, or the expediency of deeding 
them to Florida for that purpose, and the Secretary's opinions as to the 
best mode and manner for accomplishing those objects. 32

Secretary Walker complied with the resolution on the following day, 
transmitting the Buckingham Smith report, the appendix to the Smith report 
consisting of twenty-seven sundry documents, and a letter from the  
Commissioner of the General Land Office on the quantity and quality of the
lands under consideration.  Walker called, attention to Smith's estimate 
that $500,000 would be necessary for the drainage and to the divided 
opinions on the probable worth of these lands after their reclamation; he 
concluded that "The test of experience can alone solve the doubt." 33  The 
various papers submitted by the cabinet member were read and referred to the 
Committee on Public Lands. 34

Senator Sidney Breese of Illinois, chairman of the Committee on Public 
Lands, made a report on the Everglades bill on August 12.  Members of the 
committee showed considerable interest in the conditions which the bill 
imposed on Florida. The committee agreed with the Commissioner of the Land 
Office in that, although more than six-sevenths of the region was 
unsurveyed, the concession made by the bill of the alternate sections of the 
surveyed lends below the northern boundary of the proposed grant was a full  
consideration.  The committee looked with favor on the fact that if the  
proposed improvements were carried out, the United States would derive 
pecuniary benefit, at no expenditure, in the bottom lands of the Kissimmee  
River and its tributaries which were that valueless by reason of their 
annual overflowed condition. In addition, the committee reported:

"The proposed canals being made the channels of communication by vessels 
across the peninsula from the Atlantic to the Gulf Waters, thus avoiding the 
perilous reefs further south, it is a consideration of no trifling moment to 
the navigating interests of the Union." 35

The committee reported the bill on August 12, without amendment, and 
recommended its passage.  The special reports and accompanying documents 
were submitted at the same time.  On a motion by Senator Westcott, the 
Senate ordered five thousand copies of the reports and documents printed for 
the use of the Senate. 36  Westcott had the large number of copies printed, 
it was reported, "for distribution where . . . it may be of service." 37

The first session of the Thirtieth Congress adjourned on August 14, so the 
Florida drainage bill was forced to await action until the beginning of the 
second session the following December.  On December 20, Senator Westcott 
moved that the Senate proceed to consider his bill, and appeared for 
favorable passage of his bill.  Senator John M. Hues of Connecticut inquired 
as to the extent of the area conveyed by the grant.  Westcotts answer came 
from the Commissioner of lands' report, and was broken down into the 
following categories: 38

Swamps        4,300,000  Acres
Overflow       1,000,000  "
Pine Barren   1,000,000  "
Sand Barren  1,500,000  "
Total             7,800,000  "

Senator David L. Yulee [Levy], the junior senator from Florida, gained the 
floor stating that he understood that it was his colleague's intention to 
defer final action on the bill until the members had stated their 
objections.  Yulee declared that he had not been consulted in relation to 
the bill and upon perusing it found it so objectionable that he doubted that 
he would give the bill his vote.  A similar measure was proposed, Yulee 
continued, in relation to the wet lands of the state of Arkansas, and it was 
his opinion that the latter measure would grant all of the overflowed or wet 
lands to the States within the limits of which they happened to be located 
Yulee concluded:

"If my colleague would reduce his bill to a single section -- the first -- 
making an unconditional cession to the State of Florida of these unreclaimed 
lands, I would very readily vote for it." 39

The Everglades bill was debated by the Senate again on December 22 and 29, 
but the differences of opinion of the Florida colleagues as expressed in the 
senatorial chamber were enough to prevent its final passage. 40

In a speech to the General Assembly on November 24, 1848, Governor William 
D. Moseley called the attention of that body to the effort the Senators and 
Representative had made on the subject of the Everglades in Congress. 41  On 
January 9, 1849, the Senate Committee on Internal Improvements, to whom was 
referred so much of the governor's message as related to the drainage of the 
Everglades, made a report.  The committee  expressed the belief that from 
all opinion available, there appeared to be little doubt that the Everglades 
could be drained.  This drainage would render the region valuable, but the 
committee favored the introduction of private enterprise, and could not 
consent to involve the state in the expense, especially when there was some 
uncertainty of the success of the undertaking.

On September 28, 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed, "An Act to enable 
the State of Arkansas and other States to reclaim the swamp and overflowed 
lands within their limits." 24  This act gave the Everglades area to the 
state of Florida and its destiny passed from federal into state hands.   The 
swamp 1ands act required the Secretary of Interior to make accurate lists 
and plats of swamp and overflowed lands unfit for cultivation remaining 
unsold at the time of the passage of the act.  At the request of the 
governors of the several states for lands covered by this act, the Secretary 
would cause a patent to be issued to the state.  On that patent the fee 
simple to such lands would be vested in the state, with the provision that 
the proceeds of the sale of those lands be applied exclusively to the 
purposes of reclaiming the 1ands.

4. Creation of the Internal Improvement Fund

The Florida 1islature, in session the following January, 1851, accepted the 
grant from the nation.  The legislature instructed, the governor to secure 
the necessary plats and deliver them to the Register of Public Lands, said 
lands ". . . to be subject to sale under the same rules, regulations, and 
restrictions as are now, or may hereafter be imposed upon the sale of 
Seminary Lands." 43  By its action the 1egis1ature created and constituted a 
Board of Internal Improvement for the state, the. ex-officio members of which included, the 
governor, attorney-general, treasurer, comptroller, and the register of 
public lands.  The elective members included one member from each of the 
judicial districts of the state, to be elected by the General Assembly for 
two year terms.  The treasurer was instructed to keep separate records of 
all moneys from sale of these lands, making an annual report to the governor 
who in turn would lay the report before the General Assembly at its regular 
sessions.   In 1854, the Board of Internal Improvement

" . . . prepared a report setting forth  the reasons why the board found 
itself unable to handle the fund and their efforts and views, accompanied by 
a bill, which it recommended the legislature pass.  . . ." 44

Governor James E. Broome, on January 6, 1855, approved an act passed by the 
legislature creating the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund 
of Florida.  This act consolidated the grants made to the state by  Congress 
in 1845 with those secured under the swamp and overflowed lands act of 1850, 
together with all proceeds that had accrued from their sale, in a separate 
and distinct classification from other state lands.  The lands and funds 
from their sale were irrevocably vested in five trustees: the governor, 
comptroller, treasurer, attorney-general, and register of state lands and 
their successors.  With regard to the investment of surplus moneys, the act 
directed the trustees to invest such funds in stocks of the United States, 
the several states, or the Internal Improvement bonds issued by the trustees 
under the provisions of this law.  In providing for aid to railroads built 
under the auspices of this act, the trustees were empowered to guarantee 
interest of the bonds of the carriers, receiving Securities and half the 
receipts of the corporations for a mortgage.

The trustees were given authority, in the sixteenth section of the act, to 
fix the price of these swamp and overflowed lands, and to make such  
arrangements for draining them as in their judgment appeared most 
advantageous to the Internal Improvement Fund and to the settlement and
cultivation of the lands.  They were further instructed to encourage the 
settlement and cultivation of such lands by allowing the preemption of a 
section of land to any one settler. Section twenty-nine of the act allowed 
the General Assembly to grant "the alternate sections of swamp and 
overflowed lands, for six miles on each side . . ." 45 of the right-of-way 
to railroad and  canal companies incorporating under the laws of Florida 
whose work of construction was approved by the trustees.  It will be seen 
that the trusts to which the 1ands were devoted by the federal swamp land 
act of 1850 were

" . . . in the direction of drainage and rec1amation of the lands, but may 
be divided as to the means by which that end is to be accomplished into 
three [parts] . . . 1. Internal Improvement by railroads and canals; 2. 
Drainage  devoted immediately to that purpose; 3. encouragement of actual 
settlement .  . . by allowing preemptions." 46

The foundation for internal improvements in Florida was laid on the grant of 
the swamp and overflowed lands.  On this foundation the General Assemb1y 
built the 1855 internal improvement act, ". . . the product of the brain of  
Hon. David Yulee, he [sic] consulting with the Hon. James T. Archer and 
Governor James E. Broome." 47

The Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund he1d their first meeting on 
January 18, 1855, and proceeded to organize as a Board.  The members of the 
original board included Governor James E. Broome, State Register of Lands 
David S. Walker, Attorney-General Mariano D. Papy, Comptroller Theodore W. 
Brevard, and Treasurer Charles H. Austin.  Governor Broome was elected 
president and Attorney-General Papy was chosen secretary.  As its first 
official act the board ordered the payment of $l6,000 to the selecting 
agents of the Board.  From the inception of the first improvement board in 
1851, swamp and overflowed lands had been selected by agents who submitted 
their proof to the Secretary of Interior in Washington, who, in turn, caused 
the lands in question to be examined by federal agents.  Lands found to 
qualify as swamp and overflowed were then patented to the state on the 
request of the governor, who vested them in the Improvement Fund upon the 
receipt of the patent from the Interior Department.

Chapter Notes

1 Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 5  
Session, 1851, XVI.

2 5 United States Statutes at Large, 455.

3 5 United States Statutes at Large, 455.

4 Congressiona1 Globe, 27 Congress, 3 Session, XII, 102.

5 House Documents, Number 43, 27 Congress, 2-3.

6 Acts and Resolutions of the First General Assembly of the State of 
Florida, Adjourned Session, 1845, 151.

7 Senate Documents, Number 35, 29 Congress, 1 Session, 1-2.

8 Senate Documents, Number 35, 29 Congress, 1 Session, 2.

9 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 66-69.

10 Thomas Buckingham Smith (1810-1871), lawyer, politician, and antiquarian, 
was born on Cumberland Island, Georgia.  He moved with his family to St. 
Augustine, Florida, during the second period of Spanish rule. He attended 
Washington College, Hartford, Connecticut, and was graduated from Harvard 
law school in 1836.  In 1839 he was secretary to Robert R. Reid, governor of 
Florida, and in 1841-43, a member of the territorial legislative council, 
being e1ected Speaker in 1843. He later entered the diplomatic service of 
the United States, and was stationed at different times in Spain and Mexico. 
  While in Spain he did considerable research in the national archives, from 
the results of which he published narratives of the various documents 
concerning the history of Spanish Florida. James Alexander Robinson, "Thomas 
Buckingham Smith," "Dictionary of American Biography," XVII, 243-244; 
William T. Cash, "The Story of Florida," I, 402-403.

11 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, I Session, 71.

12 Ibid., 71.

13 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, I Session, 72.

14 Laws of the State of Florida, Passed at the Third Session of the General  
Assembly of the State, 1847, 80-91.

15 Senate Documents, Number 69, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 1.

16 Senate Documents, Number 69, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 10-38.

17 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 16.

18 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 17.

19 Ibid., 31.

20 Ibid., 30-33.

21 Ibid., 34.

22 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 155.

23 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 42.

24 Ibid., 43.

25 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 44-45.

26 Kathleen Bruce, "Stephen Russell Mallory," Dictionary of American 
Biography, XII, 224-226.

27 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 55.

28 Ibid., 58-59.

29 Ibid., 7-8.

30 Congressional Globe, 1 Session, 723, 1025.

31 Senate Document, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 1-2.

32 Senate Journal, 30 Congress, 1. Session, 551.

33 Senate Documents, number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session,  3-4.

34 Senate Jounral, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 557.

35 Senate Documents, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 2.

36 Senate Journal, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 580-581.

37 Senate Documents, Number 89, 30 Congress, 62 Congress, 1 Session, 5.

38 Congressiona1 Globe, 30 Congress, 2 Session, 69-70.

39 Ibid., 70.

40 Ibid., 87, 120.

41 Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the General Assembly of 
Forida, 4 Session, 1848, 11.

42 Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 31 Congress, 1 
Session, 695; also 9 United States  Statues at Large, 519-520.

43 Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the Slate of F1orida,  
Passed at its Fifth Session, 1851, 93.

44 Senate Documents, Number 89, 62 Congress, 3. Session, 8.

45 Laws of Florida, Number 1, Chapter 610, 1855; Minutes of the Proceedings 
of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the State of 
Florida, I, xv-xxi. Hereinafter cited as I.I.B. Minutes.

46 Letter of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund to the United 
States Senate Sub-Committee of the Committee on Public Lands, I.I.B.  
Minutes, III, 508.

47 Report of the Joint Commission Created by the Legislature of 1907 to 
Investigate the Acts and Doings of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement  
Fund, 33. Hereinafter cited as "1907 Commission Report."