Murat's political sympathies seem to have been Jacksonian throughout his time in Florida. At a political rally in 1826, he called one of the candidates, his neighbor David Betton Macomb, a "turncoat"; Macomb had led a toast to Kentucky statesman Henry Clay on at least one occasion that summer (an alternative version of the story has Macomb upset that Murat's slaves were stealing his hogs). Macomb and Murat met at a local dueling ground near Hiamones Lake. Murat's shot went through Macomb's shirt without touching flesh, and Macomb's took off half of the little finger of Murat's right hand.