The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-09-23
By Senator S. r. Mallory.

BY Senator >. n. Mallory.
The writer has been requested by
The Journal to contribute something
to it's columns concerning the news.
papers that have figured in the his
tory of the place. While perfectly
willing to do what he can in that d.
rection, he is conscious of his inabil-
ity to tell more than very fragment
airy part of the StOry-that part only
of which he has personal knowledge.
When the writer first knew Pen
sacola it was able to boast of two
fairly good papers, the Gazette and
Observer, both weekly. The Gazette
at that time enjoyed the prestige
which is attached to most institutions
that SAVIOR of antiquity, for a paper of
that name, though possibly under diff
ferent management, had been in eX-
istence for many years prior to the
advent of the Observer. Up to about
the time when the writer first came
TO Pensacola, that portion of Florida
west of the Apalachicola river had
been politically Wing, and the Ga
zette had been the exponent and de-
fender of Wing policies, state and ma,
tional. The defeat of Gen. Scott for
the presidency, however, and the in.
creasing menace to the institution OF
slavery presented by the growing
abolition sentiment of the north so
disintegrated and weakened the Wing
party in the south, that at the period
referred to, that organization was no
longer assuredly dominant in this
part of the state
Mouthpiece of Democracy.
The late Judge A. E. Maxwell, then
young man of exceptionally bril-
liant parts, and an orator of great
force and power, had just defeated
Darlington Cobell, the Wing candi-
date for Congress, after most ex-
citing and laborious canvass of the
whole state. This victory encouraged
the Democrats of West Florida to
make determined effort to over
throw their old antagonists in their
very stronghold, and the Observer
under Democratic colors became the
mouthpiece of the Democracy OF
West Florida.
The writer has distinct recollec-
ton of the municipal contest that
took place here about that time, in
which Celistino Gonzalez and Judge
Benjamin d. Wright, respectively,
were the Democratic and Wing can
didates for Mayor. 1t was battle
royal and resulted in the election Of
Mr.. Gonzalez, and the dissolution Of
the local Wing party.
From that time until the beginning
of the Civil War the two papers were
bitterly antagonistic. In the political
80 a N
tanned the cause of Breckenridge and
Lane and the Gazette that of Bell and
Everitt, under whose banner, as the
leaders of the American party, many
of the old-time Wings had enlisted.
At that time the Observer was edited
and managed by Mr.. Marzoni, the
father of Louis Marzoni, now Of this
city, and the Gazette was owned and
run by Mr. John Mckinley.
They were both clean papers and
true to their principles, but like their
successors of this generation, they
continuously hit their antagonists
jaw-jolters and solar-plexus blows
that were in no sense calculated to
turn away wrath.
End of Contention.
The War, however, put an end to
their contentious and at the same
time put q quietus on the papers
themselves. because during the great,
er part of that civil cataclysm there
were not people enough residing In
Pensacola to maintain newspaper of
any kind.
After the war and during the earli,
er part of the period Of Reconstruc.