Page 132 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 121/340

The Era of Reconstruction

Leaders of the Radical faction in the state were Liberty Billings, a
white who had commanded a black regiment during the war;
Daniel Richards, a white tax collector from Fernandina; and
William Saunders, an educated black from Baltimore. Richards
and Billings told black audiences that white Floridians would
reestablish slavery if they could, and urged membership in the
Union League.15 Before a gethering of blacks in Lake City Billings
reportedly asserted that the freedmen must unite and drive the
southern white from the control of government.16
In opposition to the “Radical” Republicans the state’s Demo­
crats increasingly looked upon themselves as “conservative” and,
came to adopt that designation for the Democratic Party. So the
Radical Republicans faced opposition from the moderate element
within their own party as well as from the Conservative Demo­
crats. At the same time there was virtually no coalition of forces of
these opposition groups. In Columbia County Andrew Mahoney
and William Martin were leaders of the moderate faction.
Mahoney, a white, was a former northerner who had fought in the
Union Army and was the Freedmen’s Bureau agent in Columbia
County. Martin, a Lake City resident, had been a free black before
the Civil War. He regularly advised Lake City gatherings of
freedmen against breaking with the southern whites and particu­
larly cautioned them against joining secret societies.17
A major confrontation between the moderate and Radical
Republican factions developed during the November 1867, election.
The election was called to select delegates to a state constitutional
convention and was boycotted by many of the state’s white voters.
When the convention assembled in January 1868, the Radical
faction under Richards, Billings, Saunders, and Charles H.
“Bishop” Pearce gained control. Pearce, who was head of the

"'Ibid., pp. 167-71.
"‘Tallahassee Floridian, September 6, 1867.
17 Ibid., June 25, 1867: Shofner, Nor Is It Over Yet, p. 174.
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