New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-20
Nep91ork Dailp G.ibn,re
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES-FLOR
BONDS AND COL. GAMBLE.

,be Mixed Commission at London Of the claim made
AGAINST the United States by the unfortunate English
holders Of tie Florida Bonds, | am reminded that
am able to give the private history Of the origin Of
those bonds, which may prove both entertaining and
edbing aud which, If omit to write It out, no other
person perhaps will ever put upon paper.
Those bonds originated solely and exclusively with
the late Col John G. Gamble the father Of the young
lady of whom Mr.. Wikof has lately made heroine
Mr. Gamble wss a remarkable He was a Vir-
gilman by BIRTH Of Scotch Irish descent, and had in
reu arkable degree those pecuarites both Of fea-
lures and character which plainly distinguish our
citizens ofihs Scotch blood from those Of pure English
origin Mr. Candles grandfather settled originally
if mistake not in Pennsy lvania, but was one OF
those immigrants from that State by whom the orig
nal sett els of the Virginia Valley were sup
planted and driven TO seek their fortunes still further
west, selling ont their Improvements in the Valley to
this SUP erior and more thrifty class.
Mr. CANDLES father removed 10 Richmond,
where lie became leading merchant, aud where
his two sons John and Robert became associated
with him in business. The CANDLES were ardent
Federolists. John c., then quite young man,
accompanied the late Chief Justice Marshall as
bis private secretary when he went to France
in 1898 as enc Of the famous Y. Y. Z. Mission.
Hps. when Aaron Burr was arrested and brought to
Richmond, charged 18th treason II was given out by
.Jefferson1s friends thet nobody would dare become
be- for him. As Federalst and an sdmrer of
Hu nifop. Mr.. Gamble detested Burri but when he
heard this brag of the Democrats lie offered himself
as one Of Burrs bail. Burr aitergard wished TO wait
upon him to thank him for this service but be declined
the Interview stating tina, what he bad done had not
been Gene as private favor, but merely public
protest against an attempt Of official oppression.
MIR Gamble who had all the peyfe,cifa Dts of
Scotct mon become early in life implicated in a duel
think. however. not on his own account, but as a
second The cea,h Of one of the parties to this duel
made so deep impression upon him that he not only
fore wore dues for the future but joined the Pfesby-
,efiap Church, Of which he continued a Jealous mem-
Der himself, regularly conducting private worship in
his own family
After the death Of his first wife the mother Of n
Miss Gamble who was the only surviving child by
that marriage Col. Gamble married as second wife
a daughter Of Gov Grtenup of Kentucky, by whom
he had large family sister Of his was the second
Mrs. Writ. VIM. Wiz; who was in his youth an ar
dent JefIe,sonian is said % have Joined with other
wi young men of the party in breaking the windows
Of the grabbed old Gsnble, they esteemed him, by
way Of showing their disapprobaton of his high Fed
eraI politics; our ardent young Republican little
thinkn at that time that he would before long be
seeking wife ont Of the same house.
The embargo the war with England, and the com
norciI revulsiors which followed that war,
broke down the ercantie firm Of the CANDLES, as 1t
did almost every mercantile house in the countryi
and Col John G.. Gamble and hs brother Robert, both
with large and growing families on Their hands were
thus driven to seek some other business. They be-
came engineers or contractors, or BOTH on the James
River Canal. and when that was finished were among
the earliest emicrants to Flcrida-I think about the
wear 1925 or ls26-hen proclaimed as the Planters
Paradise. They carried with them some fifty slaves
apiece and settled on two adjoining plantations about
twenty miles west OF Tallahassee Col. John called
his plan, alton IVakenal, an Indian word of which
don't know the mesa.-s.. Col Robert called his VIII
laure Seminole for yellow water rom tie name of
brook which ran through il. They were accompanied
b, Mr.. Randall the husband Of The eldest daughter
of Mr.. Writ, very beautiful and accomplished
woman. whose early death, leaving number Of
Young children, was severe loss TO the circle OF
which she was tne life and the ornament. Her hus-
banda Marylander by birth, and every way gen.
semar-had been during the war with England an
officer in the amy but having before after studied
tbelaw. Mr. WHIT had obtained for him the appoint
mont of Territorial Jadge for the Middle District Of
Florids. Mrs Randall rejected The Indian name Of
tsrlusbands plantation, and insisted upon calling It
BeNcctr.
Mr. WHIT himself also entered plantation not IN The
immediate vicinity Of the three above mentioned but
about twenty miles to The noth the shore Of Lake
Mnosakcc. lie had project in his head Of ra'sing
ottn by fee labor and thus Of abollshing slavery,
ard with this view GOT q number OF FIench aud Swiss
20 cone 10 Florida 20 work as aboTeIs ON h' piana-
tion. Blu, his project did no. succeed. 10 short
tine hey al oA and sqaated about IN The woods on
plantation Of their owY This plantation, which tie
family called Uricld, was, l believe, almost the
only property which III Writ a bis death lei behind
HIM. The Cherokee whose cause against the state
OF GtOrgia he had generously but unavaiugy pleaded
before tie Supreme Cogr' OF The United States made
his family prtson; o. slCoco, and lis money, by the
advice Of Col. John Gamble and other friends was
laid ont IN stocking Wirtan with slaves.
The slaves bought for this purpose had belonged
70 Aebile M.rs', eldest soa q the King OF Ma
pee, who, along with NJ. GadsdeD, or present
Minister to Mexico had been one of the first
settlers Of Mode Florida, ana both Of whom had
plantations three or four miles west Of Col. Gam
ble's, being much nearer Tallahassee. Aurai
called bis plantation Lpona, being Napoh Vhe
itsisn fer Naples, with the syIables transposet
TIE French Revolution Of s3ohsd thenjust occurred;
ard hmai-whohad marro3 q Niss Willis from Alex
9erie, grGnd-nieoe Of Washington, and a very
oeautiai and sensible woman who bed selected BIN