Purman's days in the Bureau draw to a close

At the close of the constitutional convention, the delegates remained to hold a convention to nominate candidates for the May election for the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and congressman. Charles M. Hamilton ended up as the congressional nominee. This is surprising since Hamilton had not been a delegate to the convention, although he did hang around Tallahassee and Monticello providing some kind of assistance. Certainly, it may be assumed, that Purman’s influence was the leading factor in his friend’s nomination. Purman, as much as anybody, had left the convention in the position of a party leader, although apparently still submitting to the overall leadership of Osborn. Later events showed that Osborn was calculating on becoming a US senator. Perhaps by not being a part of the convention, but still a recognized and charismatic Republican, Hamilton was an appropriate candidate for unifying the moderate and radical wings of the party that had come to blows at the convention. Purman, by contrast, through his scheming at the convention, had already earned the life-long hatred of the radicals and, likely, only guarded appreciation from his allies.


Soon after his return, Purman and the other Jackson Co. delegates to the convention enjoyed the tributes in their honor from a county-wide Republican meeting organized to ratify symbolically the new constitution and the parties’ selection of candidates. Presumably at this point, Purman was selected as the Republican candidate for Jackson County’s state senate seat. This celebration, however, could not disguise that the Bureau’s efforts and achievements of the last two years were unraveling. Violent incidents between the races had shaken both communities. Furthermore, Purman was disgusted by the labor contracts he discovered to have been executed and declared them void. White farmers resented this perceived interference in private contractual rights, questioning once more the uncertain authority of the Bureau. Also unsettling, Purman quickly learned that Lt. Col. Flint’s distaste for the Jackson County Bureau officers had filtered down his subordinates. Lt. Bomford, commanding the 7th US Infantry contingent sent over to quell the violence, noticeably dragged his feet in response to any request from Purman. This obstinance provoked Purman go over Flint’s head to appeal to Col. Sprague to instruct the officer that he orders were to cooperate the with civilian authority represented by the Bureau.

As part of his Bureau duties, Purman was required to dispense government issued rations to freedmen families who were prone to suffer from hunger during the winter and early spring before the crops were ready for harvest. Flint claimed that Purman was going beyond the narrow eligibility restrictions in his distribution of rations in order to further his political ambitions. Purman also faced a problem in financing the transportation of rations by cart from the closest railroad depot fifty miles away at Quincy. The solution Purman devised of paying the carters with rations they could then sell drew the scrutiny of authorities and eventually brought Purman to the attention of a congressional investigatory committee.

In early May, Jackson County voters ratified the constitution and sent Hamilton to Congress and Purman to the state senate. Purman prepared to depart Marianna. He appointed Dr. John Finlayson to lead the Bureau in his absence. The unraveling that began at the beginning of the year now accelerated. Purman received his first threatened note from a group identified as the “Ku Klux Klan.” Also, while on a tour of the peninsula, he had a terrifying encounter with a Regulator party in the woods of Calhoun County. The determination of Purman’s party to ride through a roadblock apparently stunned the Regulators and they allowed Purman and his men to pass unmolested. In early, however, Purman left to attend the opening of the legislature in Tallahassee and his days as a Bureau agent effectively administering the daily affairs of Jackson County were at an end.

The 1868 FL Constitutional Convention

Purman was present among the thirty delegates (out of 46 elected) in attendance at the convention's opening on Jan. 20. He immediately threw himself in with the moderate Republican contingent led by Osborn to devise a plan to thwart the “radical” republicans who initially seized control of the convention. This moderate opposition included eventual governor Harrison Reed, O.B. Hart, Marcellus Stearns and future U.S. Senators Osborn and Conover. The moderates sought to delay the convention until more allies arrived, but radicals insisted on proceeding. Purman took a leading role in the schemes to prevent the radicals from obtaining a quorum, including challenging the credentials of delegates and finally leading 18 delegates (including all four Jackson Co. delegates) to form a separate convention in Monticello. The radical delegates worked in Tallahassee until Feb. 8 when they completed a constitution. The rump moderate convention, now 22 strong, returned to Tallahassee, convening in the state house close to midnight. (The Radicals accused Hamilton, not a delegate, of allegedly rousing two radical delegates from their beds and bringing them to the capitol to give the moderates a quorum, but the Moderates claimed this account was “false in every particular”). Purman presented resolutions protesting the actions of the radicals, and calling for the re-election of a new president and officers to form a new convention. Purman then led the Committee on Eligibility which declared the radical leaders as ineligible as delegates based on residency requirements. The moderates drafted and signed their own constitution and the competing document was sent to Congress and accepted in place of the radicals’ document.


Solon Robinson, reporting for the New York Tribune, described Purman as the moderates' “chief speaker” and a leader. The source of Purman’s confidence and brazenness in parliamentary tactics is a mystery. Nothing in his previous record, other than his experience as a public speaker and organizer for the Republican Party, suggested he was capable of the schemes involved in seizing control of the convention. It is also a surprise that immediately on his arrival at the convention, Purman assumed the role of leader on behalf of Osborn’s faction. The is no hint from the existing record of the development of such a close working relationship between the two men. The irony that Purman went to such extremes on behalf of the moderates was completely lost to his white, Jackson County constituents who continued to consider Purman, and Hamilton, the most vile of radicals.