FHS, FL 6/19/1863

Florida Rail Road Office
Gainesville June 19, 1863
 
His Excy John Milton
Gov &c
 
Sir,
   Your letter of 8th June postmarked 11th came here during my absence, which will account for delay in acknowledging it.
   I do not perceive any probable utility in an extended correspondence upon the subject to which it relates, nor in a discursive controversy. It is sufficiently evident that you are desirous to effect the destruction of a considerable part of the track of this road, and the transfer of its iron to the use of the connections in Middle Florida and Georgia. I hope my letters have made it equally evident that I am opposed to this movement, and will endeavor to prevent its success.
   It is very clear that we entirely differ in opinion. You think it will be beneficial to the cause and to the State to do what your propose. I, on the contrary, think that the general cause, and the proper defence of East Florida and advantage of the State, will be best served by preserving & holding the military base which the Florida Railroad furnishes to the Peninsula. My reasons I believe are sound; but I do not deem it proper or necessary to stat or discuss them in this correspondence, as you do not claim authority to execute what you advise. Your opinions are of course entitled to respectful consideration; but I concur with the united sentiment of this part of Florida, that the policy you urge is not only not advisable, but if carried into execution, would inflict a serious injury upon the State, and occasion more damage to the general cause than it will redeem by its benefits.
   In respect to many of the facts and inferences of your letter, I deem it proper, without entering now into a review of them, to say that I think you are mistaken: but I do not see any present advantage to the object which alone concerns me in contravening them.
   I will however briefly state, to prevent any misapprehension, the position which this Company, in agreement with the population of this section, holds. They are all ready to make any sacrifice to the common cause, which good citizenship, and an earnest devotion to its success, can require. To all calls for contribution, whether equal, or special, which the Constitution and laws authorize and demand, they will cheerfully and promptly respond. In cases of special contribution which officers of Government, without legal authority, require, they will judge of the discretion and wisdom of the requirement, and will contribute, or reuse, as their judgment, exercised in the interest of the cause, may determine them. In the present instance, when a contribution of what is, to them, so large an interest, is demanded, and which no authority but that of the Congress of the Confederate States is, by the Constitution, competent to demand, they think they have a right to require that their judgment be convinced, and their assent obtained before the attempt is made to enforce it. They know that notwithstanding the project has all the while during the provisional government and since, been urged at Richmond by the interests, particularly concerned, with remarkable perseverance and energy, the Legislative Department of the Confederacy has persistently refused to regard the Florida Connection as a Military necessity, and that the Confederate Executive has, with equal persistency, refused to recommend it to Congress. They knew too that their own State has, by law, at its last session, prohibited the removal of any iron new laid upon the public roads, for use in making the only connection which in the opinion of the Legislature had military utility. They also know that the aid of the State to a connection which was the shortest, and was thought by many to be the best, was defeated at the last session by the strenuous efforts of the very interests which have since been active in influencing the aid of Military Authority for the movement now afoot. They knew further that the companies which run the connections have ample length of track, of their own property, which can be diverted to these connections, with more propriety (because for their own profit), and with a les amount of patriotic sacrifice on the part of the communities on the line, than is demanded of them. With such knowledge, and with a confident belief that the roads you propose to destroy are a material part of their defences, and that the preservation of them will contribute more to the general cause (for reasons not deemed proper to be produced in public discussion) than their destruction for the uses you propose, you cannot be surprised at the earnestness of their resolution to resist by every legal means any violent attempt to execute, against their consent, the threatened injury.
I have the honor to be
Very Respectfully
Your obt st
D. L. Yulee

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