Now it happened that a new Constitutional Convention
was in session at Tallahassee during this last summer,
which possibly — I do not say, or think, probably — might
have been induced to modify in our favor so odious a retro-
active provision. Our vigilant associate, Judge Manning,
kindly wrote me word of the sitting of this convention as
soon as he heard of it ; but I was then at a long distance
from home, for the health of one of my family, and was
without any of the papers necessary for dealing with the
subject intelligently. Had not General Jackson already
gone to Mexico, as the Minister of the United States, I
should have written at once to him to beg his renewed
attention to our Memorial. But soon after my return
home, when the necessary papers were once more within
my reach, I learned that the Florida Convention had fin-
ished its work and had adjourned without day. Let me
add, that the action, or non-action, of the Board at their
last meeting left me in some doubt whether the matter
could have been wisely or usefully pursued, even if General
Jackson had been in the way of attending to it ; and a
recent letter from him confirms me in that doubt.
The practical question, however, remains to be decided,
— whether, in continued default of any payment or recog-



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200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE TRUSTEES [Oct.
