county was in a state of turmoil. The worst feelings existed between the races, and nothing but the tact and prudence of the older and wiser heads on both sides prevented general bloodshed.

In September of that year, while a party of colored people were holding a picnic near the Natural Bridge, they were fired upon by a party in ambush and one man and a child were killed. This was the occasion of arousing the blacks to the highest state of excitement and the bitterest feelings of revenge. On Friday night of the same week a party of white people were sitting on the piazza in front of the hotel in Marianna when a volley of shot was discharged at them from the cover of some trees near by, and the daughter of Colonel McClellan was instantly killed and the Colonel himself badly wounded. once a large portion of the county was under arms. The greatest excitement prevailed, and a general massacre was threatened. Some of the parties implicated in the shooting fled for their lives, while others were taken and speedy vengeance visited upon

them.

The Rev. Mr. Gilbert, a colored minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who was born and raised in Jackson County, informed me that Purman, in the League meetings, would advise the people to burn the gin houses and other property of the whites, and this teaching would be reported to the whites by some members of the League, and not many nights after this advice would be given the witness of a flaming gin house would tell that his advice had been followed. The shooting of McClellan and daughter was the last tragic scene in the drama of reconstruction; the last act of lawlessness that can be traced directly to the administration of the Freedman's Bureau in Jackson County. It is well to state that while these troubles were at their worst the great agitators, Hamilton and Purman, who had kindled the flames of discord and strife, absented themselves from the county and were sending incendiary messages from a safe distance.

Thus it was they plunged the colored people unnecessarily into a vortex of trouble and left them to work their way out the best way they could.

Governor Reed, whose administration, now reeling and

tottering from centre to circumference for want of confidence abroad to purchase the State securities, by reason of the repeated attempts at impeachment, was called upon by Purman and others who previously had joined with the Democrats to destroy the Republican administration, to declare martial law in Jackson County. The Governor informed them that if this was done it would be the end of Republican government in Florida, and refused peremptorily. First, because there were no circum. stances that would justify it; and, second, there were no means provided by which to defray the expense. It was still insisted on, when the proposition was made that if Purman would take command a regiment should be raised. Of course he declined, as the Governor knew he would. The demand was then laid before the Republican State Executive Committee, who unanimously sustained it, and called the Governor into council at Jacksonville to enforce the decree. He demonstrated the impropriety of a resort to military force, as well as the utter impossibility of doing it for want of means, and pledged himself to maintain the peace of the State by the employment of a civil police under the existing law if they would pledge themselves to appropriate the amount necessary. He was finally pledged the support of the committee to procure a loan sufficient to defray the expense. On his own personal responsibility he raised $3,500 and appointed colored and white agencies to quiet the misapprehensions and allay the excitement. He sent as commissioners to Jackson County Dr. John Westcott and J. S. Adams, with authority to confer with the people and secure their co-operation in maintaining the civil law. These gentlemen immediately repaired to Jackson County, and after a thorough investigation reported that Purman and Hamilton were the cause of all the bloodshed that had occurred in the county. This state of affairs furnished the opportunity for the desperadoes-that can be generally found in all communities after the ravages of a war -to put in their work without hindrance. Dickinson was killed, it was generally believed, by the notorious Luke Lott, purely from an old grudge he had against him; but in those days every murder committed was swelled into a political murder, and under the then existing circumstances the true cause of a murder could not be justly ascribed. This was a trying time

for the true friends of an honest Republican administration; and it was seriously doubted by Governor Reed and the friends of Republican government as to whether he would be able to maintain himself; but the Governor, faithful to the promise made in his inaugural address, stood his ground against fearful odds until the terrific storm of bitterness raised by Purman sullenly but gradually passed away.

Purman now, who had wooed a young lady of the people whom he had so terribly oppressed and whom he finally married, was anxious to return and reside in the county, after things had got quiet. He issued a circular to different leading Republicans asking them to attend a public meeting in Jackson County. Hon. J. C. Gibbs was invited and attended the meeting. Hamilton, the cats-paw of Purman, accompanied him. Large crowds of whites and blacks assembled, and any one who was present need not have been a close observer to discern "blood in the

eyes" of that crowd. Purman attempted to speak and was howled down by the whites, with a good sprinkling of the blacks. Hamilton attempted to speak, but he was treated in the same manner. Mr. Gibbs was introduced, who spoke more than an hour, and was listened to with close attention by the people. He charged Purman and Hamilton, in their presence, and in the presence of the people, with having been responsible for the troubles in this county. Purman now saw that he had been caught in the trap which he had constructed with his own hands, and called upon the sheriff to guard, protect and give him safe deliverance from the county; and the very people whom he had oppressed accompanied him across the Chattahoochee river into Gadsden County. and he returned to Tallahassee as his city of refuge.

CHAPTER XI.

The Meeting of the Legislature of 1870. Extracts from the Governor's Message. Attempt to Force Old Man Gilbert, United States Senator, to Come Down With More Cash. Schemes of Plunder. The Third Attempt at Impeachment-its Incidents and Results. Bloxham Confronts the Ring. Carpetbaggers

Teaching the Freedmen Their Idea of Free Citizenship. Bloxham Elected and Counted Out. Meeting of the Legislature of 1871.

The Legislature met on the fourth day of January, 1870, this being the third regular session under the Constitution of 1868. There being no quorum present the two Houses adjourned until next day, when they met and organized, and notified the Governor that they were ready to receive any communication he would be pleased to make. At 12 o'clock M. the two Houses met in joint session and received the Governor's message, which was admitted, even by his enemies, to be a very able one. A large crowd of lobbyists was on hand, as usual, to aid in getting through corrupt measures, they knowing what material they had to treat with in the Legislature. The Governor said that "during no period in the history of the State has there been more marked improvement and general prosperity than in the year just passed, and never have the laws been more generally and efficiently executed. In several counties organized bands of lawless men have combined to override the civil authorities, and many acts of violence have occurred; but these have been incidental to the State in all its past history, and arise less, perhaps, from special enmity to the present form of government than from opposition to the restraints of law in general. When we consider what has been accomplished towards the establishment of equal laws and the acknowledgment of equal rights within the brief time since Republican government has been inaugurated, I think we find little cause for complaint, and less cause to reflect upon either the form of government or its official exponent. The chief

executive and judicial departments of the government have been tested in a manner unparalleled in the history of civil government, and have stood that trial in such a way as to afford assurance of future integrity and to command the respect of the people. Every weak point in the New Constitution has been taken advantage of, by parties who contributed to the formation of that instrument to bring dishonor upon the administration and the State. Conspiracies have been formed to secure the control of the financial and railroad policy of the State in the interest of corrupt men, and to render the government subservient to the pecuniary aggrandizement of a few at the expense of the best interests of the State and people. As the representatives of those interests, many of you, for the first time, are admitted to the rights of freemen. You have thus far resisted these extraordinary efforts to mislead, intimidate or subsidize you from the path of duty, and you have preserved the State from the incubus of a corrupt and corrupting power, which has fastened itself upon so many of the States now struggling to rise from the ruins of war. We received the high trust now held by us with the State desolated by seven years of anarchy and misrule, with an empty treasury, with six hundred thousand dollars acknowledged debt, and a much larger amount repudiated and hanging like a cloud upon our financial escutcheon, with bonds dishonored by years of neglected interest, with a school fund robbed of its last dollar to aid in a war upon the republic, with a railroad system half completed, bankrupted and at the mercy of an adjoining State; with revenue laws inadequate to the current expenses of the government, and which contemplated no payment of interest upon the State debt; with no schools or school system; no benevolent institutions, no alms-houses, no penitentiary, and scarcely a jail. Such was the inheritance bequeathed to us by the fortunes of war, and under such incumbrances we were required to establish and maintain a republican government, under which master and slave, whose relations had changed from the results of war, were to yield obedience to the same law and be entitled to the same privileges."

The Governor said that George J. Alden, late Secretary of State, stands indebted to the amont of $1,284 for commissions, as appears on record in the Secretary's office.