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Governor Brown’s reply
Executive Department Florida
Tallahassee March 9 th 1853
Gentlemen
I have just rec’d your letter dated 25 th Febry, offering the services—free of expense—of a Company of forty students of the University of Virginia, who are anxious to participate in the expulsion of “Billy Bowlegs” from our State.
I admire, Gentlemen, your patriotism and public spirit, and so far as my authority may be necessary, I grant it with cheerfulness. But I am only the Commander –in-Chief of the Militia of the State, and have no authority to organize a military force, or to commission officers, in any other State. Nor do I think a State has authority to raise an army, or to make war—even upon Indians. Those Such powers appertaining solely to the General Government—the authority, I think should be obtained from the President of the United States—particularly if your object is to go into the Indian Territory.
I do not question your ability to “whip Billy Bowlegs and a hundred like him” in a fair field; but in his swamps and Everglades it would be a very different matter. There he would have the aid of some very effective allies in the form of alligators, mosquitoes, and swamp fevers, especially during the rainy and summer and fall seasons. Therefore, with full and unquestionable authority, my advice would be to pause and obtain better information in regard to the character of your enemy before you make the adventure.
Messrs. B. A. Vaughan I am with highest respect
T. S. Rogers T. B. Goldsby Governor of Florida Thomas Brown
