RE: I always had many friends in government and many friends among
the people. I was able through my Road Department beginning to
get to know the county attorneys, the county commissioners, the
municipal officers, and the like, I built many contacts with
those people which enabled me to make a successful campaign for
Attorney General. During the time I was Attorney General, I had
a wonderful staff of attorneys that really helped the public
officials and the citizens of the state by furnishing them
information about the laws, giving them copies of decisions and
working out legal problems for them. I had, as I said, a
wonderful staff of attorneys. I was blessed in a time when we
had great progress in Florida and reasonably peaceful times,
except on the problem of desegregation. But we were reasonably
successful in working that problem out peacefully and gradually
without great clamor or uproar in the state. During my time,
the Department of Public Safety and the Florida Highway Patrol
made great progress. We were successful in getting Florida's
claim to the tide lands in the Gulf of Mexico approved by the
Supreme Court of the United States. Those were some of the
things I am proud of, but as I say, I had the help of a lot of
people. We got along well in the Cabinet, had good Governors to
work with. Governors Fuller Warren, Dan McCarty, Charley Johns,
LeRoy Collins and Farris Bryant worked well with our state
agencies including our directors, like Colonel Kirkman.
Colonel Kirkman was there the whole time I was Attorney
General. I went to the Florida Supreme Court by appointment by
Governor Bryant in 1964 and stayed until mandatory retirement
in 1975.
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