Source

State Archives of Florida, Series S577

Description

Letter from Chief Justice Edwin M. Randall to Governor Harrison Reed informing him that the Florida Senate had acquitted him of the impeachable charges pending against him.

Date

1872-05-04

Creator

Randall, Edwin M., 1822-1895

Format

Letters (correspondence)

Coverage

Reconstruction Era Florida (1865-1877)

Topic

Politics and Government

Subjects

Florida--Governor (1868-1873 : Reed)
Florida--Legislature--Senate
Impeachments

Geographic Term

Florida

General Note

Harrison Reed (1813-1899), a native of Littleton, Massachusetts, served as Florida governor from 1868 until 1873. Reed lived in Wisconsin until 1861, when he came to Washington, D.C. to work in the Treasury Department. He was appointed Direct Tax Commissioner for Florida and moved to Union-occupied Fernandina in 1863. At the close of the war he became a Federal postal agent for Florida. In 1868 he won election to governor, but during his term he faced virulent opposition from Democrats and even from factions within the Republican Party. The latter groups made two attempts to remove him from office. This document relates to a second effort to remove Governor Harrison Reed in 1872. Reed was impeached by the Florida House of Representatives in February 1872. Considering himself suspended until a trial was concluded, Reed left Tallahassee for his home near Jacksonville. In Reed's absence, Lieutenant Governor Samuel T. Day proclaimed himself acting governor. After the legislature adjourned without bringing Reed to trial, the governor assumed that this was the equivalent of an acquittal. In April 1872, when Day had briefly left Tallahassee, Reed returned and declared himself the chief executive. Once more Reed asked for a decision from the Florida Supreme Court on who was governor. The justices upheld Reed's claim to the office and stated that Day was "in no sense Governor." An attempt by day to hold a special session of the legislature to vote on the impeachment charges ended on May 4, 1872 with a dismissal of the charges against Reed. The controversial governor would complete his term, which ended in early 1873.