Florida Breezes; or, Florida, new and old

Front matter

Florida Breezes; OR, Florida, New and Old, BY ELLEN CALL LONG. JACKSONVILLE, FLA.: ASHMEAD BROS., BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1883. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1883, By ASHMEAD BROTHERS, in the ( Iflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Jbiruflituiu I do not think that I can more appropriately dedicate this book than to the memory of my Father, Richard Keith Call, from whom in fireside talks and forest ramblings, I gathered most of the material herewith reflected ; which, if I could render in his finished language ancl toned emphasis, would be greatly enhanced by grace and fact. History records his work — Memory recalls his eloquence — ancl the fields of Tallashatchee, Talladega, Emuckfaw, Enoto chopco, Pensacola, New Orleans, Withlacoochie and Washoo witness his valor ; ancl in the vicissitudes of national progress mid passions' blaze, he plead with the North for life ; and to the South in prophetic warning he told the tale at which, since, the world has paled ancl trembled ; and while Freedom drooped he died, despairing to save.

But Time has proved his disregarded word, and the honor and glory of his country is the recompense. Yet higher still is the recollection of his moral worth, and the generous impulse of his noble heart, for they can never die in the hearts of those who knew and loved him best ; and here as a grateful daughter, I render him honor. E. C. L.

Introduction

. was somewhat remarkable in its history, ancl its c*Hgearly social life is interesting ancl worth preserving, in con (§)}_]tyast with the present and probable future; ancl though not % exclusively of this section, I have made a record of facts and * J» events, gathered traditionally as well as from personal ■ that I think will find favor. The semi-romance of the style does not admit always oi' chronological exactness, but, except the medium of narration, the characters are all veritable people and events — real matters of fact. With these, I have mingled a little ot' slavery, that our children's children may know how a great evil grew upon the Southern people, and in what patience of duty they accepted it — and there is intertwined a thread of Indian presence, merely to distinguish individual merit or make sequence of time.

Of the ten letters referring to the civil ivar, they are merely a contemporary record of rumors and opinions made without reference to publication at the hour of announcement ; and, though thev do not always correspond with subsequent reports, they are interesting from that very difference. Nothing existed long ; the rumor of to-day gave place to that of to-morrow, and it was months (even if we know it now,) before judgment secured the truth. News came and went through doubtful channels ; some times a whisper was wafted through the picket lines, a smuggled letter, or newspaper, or memoranda found on the battle-field, subjected to bias representation — were the only sources of infor mation, and these are now curious from their incongruity with later thought and action ; ancl, although it may be denied by some that the popular feeling of either section is expressed, yet the fact that the record was made daily, proves at least, that such things were said by the way. The correspondents are waifish, and VI

INTRODUCTION.

. there are discrepancies in date, but, with the glamour of a love knot, I hope it may hold fast. I have purposely avoided a more extended account, or anec dotes of individual suffering and depredations during the civil war. because ofthe numberless hooks already furnished the read ers on these subjects. Sept. 9, 1880. E. C. L. FLORIDA BREEZES.

Chapter I. Boston

It was September 18, . From an invalid's bed, nothing met the eye outward, upward, below, far or near, but snow-clad roofs, icicled eves and frosted pavements, while my poor body racked painfully within the stone walled climate of a furnace — coughing, chilled and feverish bv turns, a condition little cheered by the gruff voice of my Doctor, who growled like one who had arrived at a conclusion. " You must be oft* South, sir! or you are a dead man. You can't breathe here, and you know people die sometimes for want of that very simple thing. Too many books. The health ofthe body is now the best study for you. Go South you must, where you can live out of doors, develop muscular strength and vital vigor — knowledge is nothing unless it brings health." " For the sake of all that is good, M. D., don't send me down among the Indians and negroes to be scalped or massacred.

I would far rather take my chances for life in this warm room." " Chances I I tell you, man, there are no chances here. It is settled — you die if you stay. This nonsense about coal bring ing the tropics to your chamber won't do, and even grant that, you could as easily extract sunbeams from a cucumber as life from vitiated hot air. Ancl this reminds me that rattlesnakes are said to smell like cucumbers, ancl this in turn that I want a specimen of his snakeship — so with your gun, rod and traps be off — ten feet of snake ancl forty-five rattles is my order. Leave it for politicians to tip their glasses over the tomfoolery about Indians and negroes, and if needful, old maids can sip their tea, the devil take them all ; we might have less of winter even here in Boston, but for their cold blasts of fanaticism."

" But, Doctor, I might die down South." " Well, sir, if you do, I suppose they can find dirt enough to cover you — and, sir, if die you must, see that you die game. Find comfort in having the magnolia and myrtle soughing over vou. So go to the land where the "Citron blows," the "Orange '2 FLORIDA BREEZES. glows," and the " Laurel and the Myrtle grow freshly " — death or the South ; take your choice." Thus, the gruff old man, bringing Goethe to his aid, disposed of me, repeating the refrain until the heavy door of the house shut him out, thinking of me only as one less off his suffering roll.. And, indeed, as all the wild stories of Indian massacre, and negro abuse, crowded my mind, the alternative weighed equally in the balance, as far as will to accept or reject, but finally I embraced the situation and determined to make the best of it, which was the more easy when I recalled the frequent invitations of a college chum to the hospitalities of his Southern home; and more than all it was in the whilom Spanish Peninsula he lived, and to him I wrote for advice and sympathy, receiving by return of mail (a period of weeks,) the answer which faith in my friend as sured me so certainly of, that I commenced at once my preparations for the journey and sojourn South, pronounced so imperative in my case.

My clear old Aunt Hepzibah, with moistened eye and often nervous hands, packed my trunk in the first days of M. D.'s order, but daily thereafter, and sometimes more than once per day, the contents were overhauled to add and to perfect. The robe and slippers — vestments for the lowest, highest and inter mediate temperature were provided — buttons and tapes were doubly secured, rolls of flannel and linen, vials as variously labeled as tinctured — all going to prove her fixed idea that I was banished beyond the confines of civilization. Above all and conspicuously was the Book of Books, in blue and gold, and the Prayer book to match, on which I smiled with some self-reproach as I remembered the solicitude of school days — that placed the same valued guides among my effects on each successive annual packing, only varying the color or cost of binding, the un tarnished gilt of which was my questionable accuser ou my return — but a kiss and the declaration that I thought too much of them as her gifts slo make common use of them, satisfied my good Aunty, who had little in life to love beside her orphaned nephew. ******* Ready, yet I waited, but without reason, as the following whole-hearted letter expressed : Mt Dear Barclay.— Why was not the Doctor's mandate and your coming simultaneous ?

Wheu I reflect that your letter to me ancl answer thereto are subjected to the detentions incident to swollen rivers, bad roads, as well as drunken drivers of dilapidated stages, I am mortified ancl harrassed, and hasten to say WASHINGTON. come at once.. I wish you could bestride the clouds or electric flashes of a prevailing thunder storm and dash into an ethereal bath some thirty or forty degrees higher than the frosty air that surrounds you. I hail almost with delight the cause of your coming, for I know that the panacea awaits you here in the restorative of Gulf breeze and a wealth of sunshine. Throw physic to the dogs, dear boy — make a Fourth of July of your bottles ancl pills; declare your independence of all such impists ; come to our highlands, and you shall have a welcome as broad as our fields, and where nature will battle by your side for a con stitution that will defy over-taxation of any kind; in short, be it tuberculosis or tic doloreaux, you shall here take up your bed mid walk ; only metaphorically, clear fellow, for Southern hospitality requires a darkey to clo all chores ( I borrow the word), and fortu nately for them they cannot assume our heartaches or physical troubles.

The disappointed " settler," who reported forty bushels of frogs to the acre, and alligators sufficient to fence them, explains your sarcasm, speculating as you do of web feet and amphibious habits. Look to your charts and you will see that, though three fourths of Florida is under water, there is yet land equal to two or three ofthe New England States firm and wooded, 'inviting all the sport we have so often contemplated in former chimney talks. Beside your city preparations for red snapper and pompano fishing are unnecessary ; lazy Indians and idle dejos Will initiate you into ways ' natral ' to the waters. But really nothing is Acces sary, and yet this long letter, which only means, come ! come ! The 'good-bye' was said with tears and sobs on the part «f my devoted Aunt, but the hope of health, inspired by the hospitable letter of McLean, buoyed me above all present considerations, and I rushed from old Boston's commons as a groom to meet his bride — as the caged bird to freedom.

WASHINGTON. A little of railway, very much of steamboat route, and some of road staging brought me, in the course of three or four days, to the Capital of the country, " Federal City," as Washington called it, which I fouud a primitive village, unbusinesslike, here and there a good house, then vast waters. The Capitol and the Palace (or as now more frequently called the White House,) are the features of the place, with the varied characters who assemble here furnishing its attractions. Never out of New England before, the interest of novelty attends everything I see and hear in the nation's ten miles square, which affords a stage, upon which strut clivers actors, and many puppet players, foreign as well as home-bred. At one moment a gilded equipage, with livery, dashes by, as well as mud and stones will permit, bearing some bedizened representative of a foreign court, like which we have never seen before, except in " Cin derella " illustrated.

Then a time worn country landau whose well-used harness, trappings and ebony driver, tell of another people ; and the well-poised dignity of the occupants declare them of not less consequence; and up and down every where are pedes trians and equestrians of this great company, eager and waiting for the cue that is to lead them on to fortune or distinction ; and as I walked beside " Goose Creek once, Tiber now ;"* I wonder what Statesman this — what 'hero that — my preconceived ideas not admitting anything common-place into this national arena. The collective wisdom of the nation attracted me first to the Capitol, and as I ascended the broad steps and entered its halls, a feeling of individual proprietorship filled my heart, and I realized perhaps more than at any other moment of my life the proud privilege of being an American citizen — an elation not dispelled as I viewed from the galleries the luminaries of the land.

The American Cincinnatus was prominent, (Nat Macon,) who goes from Congress halls to follow his plough, preferring to fill his own, to 'living upon the people's crib, and whose name has become synonymous with the highest integrity; and Webster's well-developed form ancl lustrous eye bespeak the man within. Clay ancl Calhoun show the well-bred polished gentlemen they are, whose statesmanship is too well recognized to admit of com ment from a mere "looker on in Vienna." But Randolph, the Ishmaelite of politicians, forces notice, however impertinent in a tyro like myself, especially when he enters Congress halls with boots and spurs, whip in hand, followed by his hound. His lean lank form, his clear thin voice, so little suggest the intellect awarded, that when my attention was directed to him I involuntarily exclaimed, 'can't be!' He is certainly the nearest approach to a disembodied spirit that I have ever seen, so little of the one, so gigantic in the other.

He spares neither friend nor foe in the interest ofthe people. Their sovereigntv and no con cession are his fixed principles, and moved by his earnestness he crushes an opponent by a single blow, and in a few words or an apt anecdote, false promises vanish as mist before the sun. The mysteries ofthe duel between himself ancl Clav are yet too recent not to be discussed, and the cause well illustrates the concentrated power of a few words from him — "Puritan and Blackleg" — ancl the contrast further presented by the heroes of " Tom Jones " expressed more venom than an hour's invective from most men. *Tom Moore. WASHINGTON. 5 Even the fair sex clo not escape unscathed, whom frequently visit the halls ostensibly to hear the debates, for only a few days since he threw a shell among them that caused eyes to flash, and silk to rustle.

Arising from his seat, he sharply asked : " Mr. Speaker, I wish to know what are all these women doing here . Their place is at home, attending to their knitting and house wifery." It was well doubtless for him that he was screened bv parliamentary rule, or he might have suffered by the " retort courteous." And yet with all his talent, he says he would rather have the physical strength of a negro, than the wisdom of Solomon. This gilded puddle is not without its muddy places, and a nearer acquaintance proves that the great, good and happy are here as elsewhere the exceptions ; and cringing, time-serving deference to those in power or high station, give the reverse of the picture. But Congress is indulging at present in a "masterly inac tivity," and, therefore, they present the aspect of ordinary men, and might be sitting in a county or municipal body, characterized by a bow, or a smile.

It is only when occasion calls that mind and principle contend, and with the ebb and flow of public sentiment they speak and act history ; but, for the nonce, they are as the limpid lake that may be lashed into fory by a prevail ing storm. Foreign representation, and the different types of men and women meeting here from the East, West and South, give a very cosmopolitan character to the place. The learned statesman, the revolutionary patriot, the long, loud, large West ern man, who are as distinct from the Virginian and Southern man, as Russia's Minister from that of France. From the prox imity of the State, Virginia prevails, which is, and is always to be, as much so as the marked race of Israel, a unit in allegiance or opposition. Their Royal named counties tell of a former love, but the now pride in State tell of a patriotism born of a revolutionary struggle higher and greater, because gained through suf fering.

And though proud of Virginia's confederate action during the war — proud of her federalism — they are still more proud that she was the first to resolve against the encroachments of power, and the years 1798-99 is the higera of their greatness as the house of Burgesses is their political Alma Mater — proud as Lucifer, chivalrous as Knight Templars, polite without pomp, kind and cordial, they bear over all the manner of those accustomed to command. Their dress even is distinctive, consisting of a blue coat, brass buttons and ruffled shirt, make almost an uniform complete with the gold finished cane, which, with them, gives emphasis to speech as the fan does with ladies fair. All my life on New England soil, I am for the first time face to face with slavery — always more or less the subject of conversation in Southern circles, and having looked on the one from a Northern standpoint, to some extent, I wish disinterestedly and fairly to look upon the other ; which advantage I shall most likely enjoy, for it is safe to predict that wherever two or three are gathered together the subject of conversation is slavery, discussed constitutionally, and what they term as impertinent inter ference.

A listener, I only record what I heard among them, and thus they talk : " At the convention made to amend the Constitution we were deluded, ancl the difference between confederation and consolidation is just that power that enables Northern slanderers to meddle with our domestic matters — great impertinence to say the least — as they suffer none of the consequences of slavery, ancl if it is a sin, it is our own." But while defiant, they are yet boastful that one Virginian ( Patrick Henry,) was not deceived, but saw the trap to "State's Rights," ancl gave warning ofthe larvæ, that has quickened into discord, fulminated in petitions against evils ancl cruelties that have no existence, and in unlawful restrictions, as offensive as unjust. And although ithey say,) slavery was entailed upon us, it was Southern foresight that first moved to curtail its importation beyond 1808, after which it was to be criminal ancl piratical, and so punished ; and Virginia early moved to make a code by which it should be a truly patriarchal institution, and by which the negro's welfare should not be dependant upon the accident of a good master.

And although Patrick Henry, Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Randolph, Monroe and Clay were all slave-holders, the antislave rv sentiment arose in the South long before Quakers aud Abolitionists invoked their ill-spirits; and in the South the feeling was higher in its purity, based upon acquaintance and selfsacrifice. The philanthropy of the East was easy, it involved no loss. Aud seeing the evils that must result from an increase of slaves, a colonization society was formed for the transport of negroes to Liberia, and that colony was especially under the auspices of slave-holders, ancl hundreds of negroes were voluntarily freed by their owners, and shipped to the African coast, and if it could be allowed to progress it most likely would meet all the necessities of the case. Biit the majority of Missouri, and her advent as a State, was the bugle note of conflict, and where vague ideal imaginings had before prevailed, adverse prejudice succeeded and established a principle, and champions pro and con were arrayed in almost frenzied bitterness.

" Bv what right (say these Virginians i do we, the North, interdict slavery any where, when the Constitution says expressly the States shall de- WASHINGTON. 7 cide that question for themselves? John Randolph, before an anti-slavery man, said, no compromises ! stand by the Constitution ! but Henry Clay and even Calhoun (in his own State) sustained a compromise. " What (says Randolph) is the South to gain bv a compromise? The matter is potentous of evil, nip it in its birth." And he had as much venom for the South that offered the com promise as for the dough-faces (as he termed them) that ac cepted it. And as certainly as it was agreed that there was no more slavery North of the Territory lying above 363 30', so was there no more freedom below it, and a division* made in another in terest (that of British subjects) has become the dead line ni' -a once bravely united people, and there is such a tangled web of benevolence aud malice — of meddling and spite — of policy and resentment, that the poor negro will suffer by the restrictions im posed through interference.

No more colonization work — no more freeing of negroes — no more instruction, because an extension of these is a tacit acknowledgment of abolition motives. Nothing certain, however, hut that we do not know where we are wandering in this wilderness of divers teachings. The time seems momentous, and thus these representatives of a generous, chivalric brave people talk here within the precincts of our National Capitol, of the questionable value of the Union, and Tkoup's call " to arms " far down Smith echoes practical opposition to Federal rule ; and this and these are of what Southern men prate, and from them it bears a significance not understood beyond their limits. Introductory and letters of credit gave me entree to all circles. of which I availed myself to study this society, which assumes all phases.

Among the great are often small people dancing attendance upon power and fashion. With many others life here is a daily labor of trifles, idle women and gigliug girls seeking the happiness they do not find at home. Women are very prominent, and as elsewhere they are good and bad, pretty and ugly, fashionable and dowdy, and as sometimes elsewhere they are assailed for questionable manners and conduct. There are some, doubtless, who neglect opportunities, living merely on vanity and frivolity, but there are many more who, by grace, in telligence and elegance, shed an influence on society and the world, as powerful and as essential as is the sun to color the rose or to ripen the peach. Women possess the strange gift of put ting away out oi sight the sterner work of life, and most generally the elegantlv dressed chatterer of nothings could tell of loving sacrifice, of endurance, practiced in the home circle and in charity sMason and Hixon to neighbors, that if common among men, would be harangued from the forum, pulpit or wherever they could secure listeners ; but these dear almoners of good believe and do ancl too often suffer.

Yet, while they enjoy, they keep close the curtain over the bark ground of care, and of responsibilities, which men could not and would not if they could assume. Such I find here ( who form the large proportion) good and attractive, ancl this would be a desolate wilderness without them, even in this city. The marriage of Miss Delia Lewis to Alphonse Pagent, Secre tary of the French legation, gave me an opportunity to see the elegant ancl distinguished assembled — the second marriage in the Palace — the first having been Miss Maria Munroe to M. Gon verneur, of New York. The President's house, sometimes called " Palace." but more frequently the " White House," conveys no idea of finished elegance in its appointments. The east room is long and empty — three chandeliers with crystal pendants adorn its length, and under each is placed a circular table, while chairs ancl sofas sit close to the walls, wliich, without pictures, look bare and cold.

My cicerone whispered that, until the present admin istration, it was not furnished at all, but was used as a play-room for children, or as a drying-room for the family wash. Mrs. Adams was the first mistress of the Palace, ancl her letters give the best idea of the Magisterial home, its cold, bare and dark rooms — of the Capital, its woods, and mud, and the inefficiency of wood fires to warm, and the difficulty to get fuel even in this wilderness — ofthe unhealthfulness from und rained morasses that forced Congressmen to board ancl sleep at Georgetown ; and, in short, there was so little to mark even a town, that the story is told of an M. C. who, seeking the Capital for the first time, rode liis horse through it before discovering. But the plan proposed by the Frenchmen, L'Enfant, if ever perfectedwill make this one ofthe most beautiful cities of the -world, crowned as it is with the sublime grandeur of the Republic's Capitol.

The development ofthe choseu locality into a planned city was early checked by the avarice of speculators who crippled progress by monopolies and, driving enterprise away, made solitude from which theni~ yet no re-action. Tom Moore, on his visit here, likens it to Hume, — describes squares in morasses, obelisks in trees, and "shrines unbuilt," to "braves yet unborn;" but how vital the difference of stagnation — one the union osage, the other only the waywardness of youth — one ended, the other beginning ! A lady ofthe old regime told me, with a sigh, of the court] v grace prac ticed in the days of Washington and Adams, who, in cere monial life, sustained the prestige of rovaltv itself. She blamed .Jefferson for abolishing Levees, but gave "Dolly Madison" gre.at WASHINGTON. 9 credit for the warm-hearted cheerfulness that made the Palace attractive under his charge, and drew a pretty picture of that lady in her bright turbans, so gay, so gracious and hospitable, so genial in the use of the snuff-box, made an auxiliary to socia bility in her graceful hands.

But " Dolly's" reign was interrupted by the British burning the Palace in the year 1814, ancl it was not until the time of Mr. Monroe that it was rebuilt in its present style, and not until the present administration (of President Jackson) that it was finished ancl furnished as it is at present. Gen. Jackson is the President of the 'people, and the people know it and claim him. The de clared policy, that to victor belong the spoils, and consequent rotation in office, has brought a clamoring crew to the front, and produced an upheavel of social strata that drives exclusive ness to the rear. From the mountain knobs, from the swamps and jungles, as well as cities, they come, many merely to shake hands with Old Hickory, but more frequently to claim reward for their services and adulation. And though many of them are un lettered and unniannered, General Jackson himself is elegant and courteous in his dignity, unostentatious, having the perfect ease of manner common to all well-bred.

Mr. Jefferson, whose early training was in the refined circle of a Virginia home, ancl subsequently in foreign courts, is said to have wondered where this favorite of the people learned his manners. I stopped at the Franklin House, kept by a Mr. O'Neil, the home or resort especially of the administration, which brought me somewhat into the magic circle. Moreover, O'Neil, is the father of America's " Helen " (Mrs. Eaton, one who has occa sioned more discord socially and politically than is common to women in the modern world), nee Margaret O'Neil, whilom Mrs. Timberlake, and now the wife of Gen. John H. Eaton (once United States Senator from Tennessee, and later of'Gen. Jackson's Cabinet ), is beautiful and fascinating without doubt. Osgood height ancl graceful form, a wealth of brown hair encircling a face of bright complexion, made variable iu its expression by an ever-sparkling deep and clear blue eye, with mouth and chin of finished beauty, together with a vivacious and affable manner, she is the possi ble heroine of prose and poetry, ancl though not yet sung in ballads, she fills momentous pages in her country's history.

Mrs. Eaton sat iu view rolicking and frolicking with two bright and pretty little girls (her children of the first marriage), while one of the regime talked as follows : " Her husband, Capt, Timberlake, was on a three years cruise to the Mediterranean. Gen. Jackson and Gen. Eaton were both U. S. Senators from Tennessee, and boarded with us at this (O'Neal's) house. It was soon evident to every one that Eaton had fallen a victim to the fascinating Margaret. Friends weut every length to save him. Gen. Jackson himself advised him to avoid her as the devil ; denying ancl still denying, Eaton promised. A more noble, amiable, high-toned gentleman never lived than Eaton; unselfish and self-sacrificing, he promised the nn st de voted friends who made every effort to turn him from this direful passion.

Gen. Jackson made his health an excuse for returning to Tennessee, and under the pretext of not wishing to travel alone, gave Eaton a chance of escape, by asking him to accompany him to the Hermitage before the close of the session. The next morning at breakfast the plan was announced as agreed upon, neither Eaton ortheTimberlakes were present, but the couple (O'Neils) looked surprised. During the day I left the Capitol with Gen. Jackson, and as he descended the steps, he remarked : 'I wonder where Eaton is?' Very shortly after the sitting of the Senate, a page brought him a rose-tinted note, after reading which, he hurriedly left the Hall. At dinner it was seen that some terrible conflict of feeling had disturbed both Major Eaton ancl the generally vivacious daughter of the house. The infer ence was, that upon the news communicated at breakfast being repeated to her, she had at once dispatched the note demanding an explanation, hence the tearful traces in both as seen at din ner.