Existing comment:
Joseph Marion Hernandez
Shortly after the ratification of the Adams-Onís Treaty, which transferred political control of Florida to the United States, Joseph Marion Hernández became the first Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Congress. Born in St. Augustine to Minorcan émigrés, he was a territorial delegate-able to voice an opinion but not vote-from September 1822 to March 1823. After returning to Florida, he acquired land through purchases and grants, becoming quite wealthy. He participated in the Seminole War and accepted Osceola's surrender in 1837. For his efforts in this vicious struggle, he gained the title of brigadier general in the Florida Militia. When Florida became a state in 1845, Hernández ran again for Congress, lost, retired to Cuba, and died there. It is not known what took him to Washington in 1841, where Auguste Edouart, a Frenchman who was in America between 1839 and 1849, made this jaunty image.
Auguste Edouart, 1841 |