Bryan Croom & Arvah Hopkins Request for Legislation, 1846

MEMORIAL

OF

CITIZENS OF TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA,

PRAYING

The encouragement of the General Government in the cultivation of tropical plants

March 9, 1846

Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the undersigned, citizens of Florida, would respectfully bring to the attention of your honorable bodies the subject of encouraging the introduction and cultivation in Florida of such plants, tress, &c., of tropical climates, as conduce to the health and comfort of the inhabitants, or have become valuable as articles of commerce.

Your memorialists believe that a large part of this State, although not within the tropics, enjoys so nearly tropical as to justify the opinion that many, if not all, of the valuable products of warm latitudes may be successfully cultivated in Florida.  Experience has proven that vegetable, like the animal kingdom, will gradually adapt itself to very material changes of climate, under persevering, judicious management, Cotton, rice, tobacco, indigo, sugar-cane,  so extensively cultivated at the present day in our southern and southwestern States, are all believed to have been indigenous to the torrid zone;  and we may hope that, in like manner, many other of its valuable products, once successfully introduced, even into the south of Florida, will be gradually extended over many of the adjoining States.

This adaptation of plants to change of climate usually proves to be a slow process, and only succeeds after many failures and much expense.  The result of first experiments rarely remunerates those who embark in them, and therefore they are properly entitled to the fostering aid of government.  The forms in which this aid may be best extended, your memorialists will not assume themselves to decide.

The subject has been forcibly presented in the report of a committee of our Territorial legislature, made March 3, 1845, a copy of which accompanies this memorial; and the undersigned most respectfully reiterate the language of the resolution at the close of that report, which urges "that the United States consuls in the tropical countries, and the officers of the navy visiting such countries, be requested to procure and transmit to Florida such seeds, roots, plants, and products, as may be introduced and cultivated here, with such information about their cultivation as may be useful."

MEMORIAL

OF

CITIZENS OF TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA,

PRAYING

The encouragement of the General Government in the cultivation of tropical plants

March 9, 1846

Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the undersigned, citizens of Florida, would respectfully

To those who will settle in the southern part of Florida and devote themselves, for a series of years, to the culture of such new and valuable products, it would seem highly proper for Congress to continue to offer inducements by donations of public lands, upon terms similar to the offer made to the late Dr. Henry Perrine.  At the same time, the undersigned believe that there are many intelligent and enterprising citizens in the settlements of Florida now willing to devote a portion of their time and labor in making trial of the articles proposed, without further inducement or expense by the general government than the procuring and distribution amongst us of the seeds, roots, plants, &c., which can be so readily in the manner above pointed out.  They therefore earnestly ask that Congress will give the matter due consideration, and will adopt such means as will secure the objects of their memorial; and as in the duty bound, will ever pray.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA, February 19, 1846.

List of 72 names, including:

Bryan Croom

Arvah Hopkins
R. A. Shine (was the builder of Goodwood)

Surnames of old Tallahassee on the list include:  Anderson, Gamble, McDougall, Bellamy, Chaires, Westcott, Betton, Long, Duval, Branch, Byrd, Eppes, &c.