<P>' The inhabitants of the territories which His Catholic Majesty cedes the United States by this treaty 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 the privileges, rights, and immunities of the citizens of the United States .' (8 Stat . at L. 256 .) </P> <P> (195 U.S. 138, 142)' This treaty is the law of the land, and admits the inhabitants of Florida to the enjoyment of the privileges, rights, and immunities of the citizens of the United States . It is unnecessary to inquire whether this is not their condition, independent of stipulation . They do not, however, participate in political power; they do not share in the government till Florida shall become a state . In the meantime Florida continues to be a territory of the United States, governed by virtue of that clause in the Constitution which empowers Congress' to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States ." </P> <P> President James Monroe was authorized on March 3, 1821, to take possession of East Florida and West Florida for the United States and provide for initial governance . Andrew Jackson served as the federal military commissioner with the powers of governor of the newly - acquired territory, from March 10 through December of 1821 . On March 30, 1822, the United States merged East Florida and part of what formerly constituted West Florida into the Florida Territory . William Pope Duval became the first official governor of the Florida Territory and soon afterward the capital was established at Tallahassee, but only after removing a Seminole tribe from the land . </P> <P> The central conflict of Territorial Florida was the Seminole inhabitants . The federal government and most white settlers desired all Florida Indians to migrate to the West . On May 28, 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act requiring all Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River . The Act itself did not mean much to Florida, but it laid the framework for the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which was signed by a council of Seminole chiefs on May 9, 1832 . This treaty stated that all Seminole inhabitants of Florida should be relocated by 1835, giving them three years . It was at this meeting that the famous Osceola first voiced his decision to fight . </P>

When did florida become a territory of the united states