The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-06-11
TWO DISTINGUISHED FuoRIDIANs

The June number of the Florida
Historical Society Quarterly contains
interesting sketches Of the late Gov
ernor Francis P. Fleming and Senator
David L. Yulee.
The former appears as an editorial.
The sketch states that the late gov
ernor was descended of very distin-
guished ancestry, bearing titles for
conspicuous acts of bravery, but lost
both titles and estates for their adj
herence TO the Stuarts. Governor
Fleming's grandfather married a
daughter of Francis Phillip Fatio, a
Swiss immigrant of wealth. Governor
Fleming inherited the military cour-
age of his ancestors and bore a con-
spicuouS part in the battles of Peach
Orchard, Williamsburg, Seven Pines,
Second Manassas, Fredericksburg,
Charlottesville, Harpers Ferry, the
Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Har-
Dor, Petersburg, Seven Days Fight
around Richmond, Antietam and Get
tysburg, and in the western army
took part in the battles of Chicamau-
ga, Missionary Ridge, Tunnel Hill. Re
SAGA, Cassville, Dalton, New Hope
Church, Kennesaw, Dead Angle,
Peach Tree Greek, Atlanta and Jones
boro. In 1865, while at home on sick
leave, he commanded a company of
volunteers at the battle of Natural
Bridge, near Tallahassee.
The sketch of Senator Yulee is by
his son, Mr.. c. Wyckliffe Yulee, of
Washington, D. c., and is a most in
teresting article, and will be read
with pleasure at least by the older
residents of Florida.
Mr.. Yulee was born on the island
Of st. Thomas in 1910. His grand
father was racially Portuguese, a high
official in the Emperor of Morocco's
court, and as such had been given the
rank of prince. Upon the death of
the emperor he had to fee to England,
taking with him his wife, an English
Jewess, and their infant son. The last
named, when he grew up. had to go
into trade, and as his mother had an
exaggerated idea of the princely title,
insisted upon his dropping it and
adopting the name of Levy, the name
of her father. This he did and retain
ed IL until the day of his death, even
after acquiring a fortune in the lum
Der business in st. Thomas. He had
his son, however. to adopt the name
Of Yulee.
Further along in the sketch, Mr.
Yulee says:
Educated at an English university,
his father Mahometan, and his moth
er a Jewess, his mind, as was indi-
Gated by marginal notes on books,
seemed ever reaching out for some
foundation upon which alike could
stand the most humane, the most ex-
tensive, and the oldest of existing re-
ligions. The precept by which he f.
nally enunciated this universal relig-
ion was: All our actions must be for
the love of God only which, while
theoretically most sound. led practi-
cally to a few spasmodic ultra exam
pies, but far oftener resulted in So
phistic self-reasoning, through which
he did whatever he wished"
The sketch. though as yet uncom-
pleted, is quite entertaining. Sena-
tor Yulee, with perhaps the excep-
ton of Senator Westcott, his first col
league in the United States senate.
was easily the greatest man that ever
claimed citizenship in Florida. Had
not the civil war interviewed and put
an end TO the plans that he matured
and had already put in action, Flor
ida would early have been one of the
great states of the Union. and the ca
nal connecting the Gulf of Mexico
with the Pacif1s ocean would have
been through Tehauntepec instead of
Panama, and the great bulk of the
trade and travel would have been
through Florida.