USA > Arkansas > The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
Gc 976.7 C57a 1620681
M. L
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02302 5932
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/aftermathofcivil00clay_0
THE AFTERMATH OF THE LANSAS CIVIL IN AR
POWELL CLAYTON ABBAS. 1508 To 1871
THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
UBEIST
BET YO TICAMASTIA UHT
THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
BY POWELL CLAYTON GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS, 1868 TO 1871
NEW YORK THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1915
1620681
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY POWELL CLAYTON
TO MY DEAR FRIEND Richard C. Kerens IN TESTIMONY OF OUR FIRM FRIENDSHIP WHICH HAS REMAINED UNBROKEN FOR FORTY YEARS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD 9
CHAPTER I. INAUGURATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF 1868 ·
13
II. THE MURPHY GOVERNMENT . 17
III. MY FIRST MESSAGE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, DELIVERED JULY 3, 1868 38
IV. REGISTRATION 50 ·
V. ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS OF KU KLUX KLAN IN ARKANSAS · 56
VI. MARTIAL LAW AND OPERATIONS THEREUNDER OF STATE MILITIA . 106
VII. MARTIAL LAW IN THE COUNTIES OF CRITTENDEN AND CONWAY NOT PERMANENTLY EFFECTIVE 175
VIII. PEACE AND PROSPERITY PRODUCED BY MARTIAL LAW . . 195
IX. IMMIGRATION . . 207
X. EDUCATION . 220 .
XI. STATE AID TO RAILROADS . 237
XII. FUNDING THE STATE DEBT . . 251
7
8
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XIII. WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, OR DEMOCRATIC PER-
VERSIONS OF HISTORY . . 282
XIV. MY OCTOBER SPEECH . 312
XV. THE IMPEACHMENT . · 319
XVI. MY SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION . · 329
XVII. DEMOCRATIC ACCESSION TO POWER AND THE
USE MADE OF IT
· 351
INDEX .
· · 371
FOREWORD
For over thirty years I have contemplated writing a history of Reconstruction in Arkansas. Having relin- quished all political and business activities, I have, in my eighty-second year, completed this volume of memoirs.
My work gives an account of my administration as Governor; also of those events that commenced before and entered into it, and those that occurred during that period and continued beyond it. It closes with a brief comparison between my administration and that of the opposition, which followed.
I am not regardless of the fact that I have outlived the most of those to whom I have referred in these mem- oirs and that the criticism may be made that I have waited until their death to make charges that they can no longer answer. I beg that the reader will keep constantly in mind that I am writing of the official acts of my contem- poraries and not of their personal characters.
In view of my well-known Republican proclivities. ex- tending over a period of forty-seven years, I have been fully aware of the necessity of substantiating every con- trovertible and important assertion. In preparing this work for the public I have gathered an immense amount of documentary evidence, from which I have selected the most appropriate for that purpose, and have embodied it either in whole or in part, or have cited the reader to where it can be found. Unless otherwise stated, all doc-
9
IO
FOREWORD
uments quoted or referred to are on file in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
Throughout this history I have quoted freely from the "Arkansas Gazette," the organ of the Democratic Party. The reader must not confound the "Arkansas Gazette" of today with the "Gazette" of the period covered by this work. Then it was private property and one of its pro- prietors was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan at Little Rock, Ark. The "Arkansas Gazette" was then the owner of the Associated Press franchise for Arkansas and through that agency it scattered at home and abroad its false representations. Now it is owned by a corporation and is entirely different except as to name, and in my judg- ment it is at present one of the best newspapers west of the Mississippi River.
The reader will naturally ask why I should have had recourse to such an agency for information. The fol- lowing are my reasons : first, the accessibility of its files in the Congressional Library, which cover the paper's entire publication from its establishment in 1819, at Arkansas Post, down to the present time. Second, it enabled me to fix the chronology of events. Third, as a reflex of the political conditions, animosities, and prejudices then ex- isting. Fourth, to show the "Gazette's" duplicity in deny- ing the existence of the Ku Klux organization, and its con- stant attempts to shift the burden of Ku Klux atrocities to the shoulders of the Republican Party.
Strange as it may seem, I shall frequently use it as my witness to the good effects resulting from some of my most important policies -- policies which it had previously denounced as ruinous.
To Miss Flossie V. Alexander, my Secretary, I wish here to offer my heartfelt thanks for her assistance in the preparation of this book. With untiring zeal and with rare intelligence she has helped me in every possible way.
II
FOREWORD
No terms of appreciation that I could employ would be too strong in which to express my obligation to her.
I desire here to express to my many friends in Ar- kansas and elsewhere my appreciation of their unfailing kindness in assisting me to obtain information for use in my book. I have found them ever ready to aid me, and I sincerely regret that I cannot mention them by name.
WASHINGTON, D. C. August, 1914.
P. C.
THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
CHAPTER I
INAUGURATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF 1868
On the second day of July, 1868, in the Old State House grounds at Little Rock, Ark., was gathered a large but incongruous assembly. The seats especially provided in front of the Speaker's stand were occupied by ladies, who, with their multi-colored dresses and vibrant fans, gave dignity and animation to the scene. There was also present a large representation of the Unconditional Union men who had furnished to the Federal Army in Arkansas over ten thousand soldiers.
The newcomers,-composed almost entirely of ex- Union officers and soldiers who had been impressed dur- ing their period of service with the genial climate and great natural resources of Arkansas and who when mustered out of the service had consequently adopted that State as their home,-were well and actively repre- sented.
Standing in groups under the shade of the old oaks were gathered members of the ante-bellum régime, --- men whose contemptuous facial expressions indicated that they were present not as participants in the cere- monies about to take place, but for the purpose of noting them, probably with a view to reporting and discussing them that night in their secret conclaves.
/2-13
14
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
On the outskirts of the crowd stood, in respectful silence, a large number of the lately enfranchised negroes, who fairly pinched themselves to make sure that they were not dreaming, so great and sudden had been the change from slavery to American citizenship.
About 10 A. M. along the Main street leading to the Capitol an open carriage with a military escort approached. The back seat was occupied by two men,- the one on the right being about sixty-five years old; the other, about thirty-five. The elder, clad in the home- spun garb of the mountaineer, noted the more fashion- able attire of the younger man and said: "Why do you wear gloves in July? Only dudes wear gloves in summertime." The younger man took no offense, but quickly replied: "Governor, it is not the garb that makes the man, yet in deference to your opinion, and especially in view of the character of the work I am about to enter upon to-day, which will doubtless require 'handling with- out gloves,' I now remove mine." Both men cordially grasped hands, the elder remarking : "I appreciate the magnitude of the work you are about to undertake. May God help you!"
The carriage soon arrived at the gates of the State House grounds, where it was met by a deputation of citizens, who escorted the occupants to the platform where the Inaugural Ceremonies were to take place.
The elder of these two men was Isaac Murphy, then the Provisional Governor of Arkansas; the younger was the writer of this History, and the occasion, his inaugura- tion as the first Governor of Arkansas under the Recon- struction Measures of Congress.
The form of the official ceremonies that followed was, on a small scale, similar to the one that is gener- ally used in Presidential inaugurations. I omit here my inaugural address, its main features being embodied in
I5
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
my message to the Legislature, which was delivered the next day.
Upon the termination of the inaugural ceremonies, and at the suggestion of ex-Governor Murphy, we repaired to the State House, where we first visited the executive chambers. Upon entering the executive office I saw be- fore me, placed against the opposite wall, a long table with three convenient drawers and on the table a case of open pigeonholes. There was no carpet on the floor, and the rest of the furniture consisted of about two dozen homemade, split-bottomed chairs. On the other side of the room, over the fireplace, was a print of George Washington,-the only picture on the walls. From this room we entered a small anteroom, which contained no furniture nor other movable objects, except a barrel stand- ing on end in the middle of the room. This barrel was apparently filled with straw. From it ex-Governor Mur- phy fished out a gallon stone jug, removed the cork, and politely presented the jug to me. After proposing his good health and future prosperity "at the word of mouth," I partook of its contents. It was the real "mountain-dew," as the Governor had characterized it. He now closed his hospitalities by a similar potation and with words kindly expressive of his good wishes. We then made the rounds of the building, visiting such pro- visional officers as had not yet vacated their posts.
On our way Governor Murphy pointed out to me the exact spot where had occurred a tragedy that was per- haps unexampled in its horrible details in the whole his- tory of legislative proceedings in America.
In the year 1837 the House was in session, with John Wilson, Speaker, in the Chair. J. J. Anthony, the mem- ber from Randolph County, had the floor and was ad- dressing the House. The proposition under consider- ation was that upon the delivery of wolves' scalps to
16
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
Justices of the Peace certificates indorsed by them should be receivable in payment of county taxes. Anthony sar- castically suggested that such certificates should be coun- tersigned by the President of the Real Estate Bank, who was the same John Wilson then occupying the Chair. To these remarks the Speaker took offense and ordered Anthony to take his seat, which Anthony refused to do; whereupon the Speaker, without invoking the authority of the Sergeant-at-Arms, left the Chair, saying, "Then . I will make you." As he descended from the Speaker's stand he drew his bowie-knife and advanced down the aisle to where Anthony was standing behind his
desk. Anthony drew his knife and a struggle en- sued. Grandison D. Royston, who occupied a seat ad- jacent to Anthony's, thrust a chair between the com- batants. In the scuffle Anthony dropped his knife, whereupon Wilson with his left hand raised the chair, and stooping down to make his aim sure, thrust his bowie-knife into the vitals of Anthony, who exclaimed as he fell, "I am a dead man." He instantly expired in a pool of his own blood. Wilson was promptly in- dicted by the Grand Jury for murder in the first degree, but upon a change of venue to Saline County, at that time sparsely settled by a very ignorant class of people, he was acquitted on the ground of excusable homicide.
I cannot close this chapter without paying a just tribute to Governor Isaac Murphy. He was a diamond in the rough, but the very personification of honesty and loyalty to his country. May his name live in History as long as the annals of Arkansas exist.
I shall simply add that on the day of my inauguration. on my taking the oath of office, the "Ship of State" was launched on what afterwards proved to be a most tem- pestuous sea.
---------
17
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
CHAPTER II
THE MURPHY GOVERNMENT
At the very outset of my administration I was con- fronted with the contentions of the Democratic Party. It claimed that the government created under the Recon- struction Acts of Congress, according to the views ex- pressed by the Democratic National Convention, was "unconstitutional, revolutionary and void," and that the Legislature which the Reconstruction Measures under the existing conditions had characterized as "provisional" was "in no sense provisional, but the Legislature of the State of Arkansas, created and elected according to the forms of law and the Constitution."
That the reader may understand the basis of these insurrectionary and anarchistic contentions, I shall now give a history of the closing period of the war in Arkansas and the origin and attempted usurpations of what was known as the Murphy Government. During its forma- tive processes it was characterized by the Secessionists as "bastard and bogus." The Confederates in the field were given orders to suppress it and its meetings as far as possible; but later, when by the devious devices here- after described, it came under the control of the Seces- sionists, or Democrats, they assumed for it all the powers of an equal and coordinate State of the American Union.
1863 was a prosperous year for the Federal cause in Arkansas. Its successes at Arkansas Post, Helena, Little Rock and Pine Bluff were complete. The reverses were few and of small importance.
I8
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
From these favorable conditions resulted the follow- ing Federal military dispositions: the Arkansas River became the military base, with the main body of the army and its headquarters at Little Rock, the Capital and the geographical centre of the State,-a strategic position of great military importance. This base was strengthened by auxiliary posts at Ft. Smith, Van Buren, Dardanelle, Lewisburg and Pine Bluff; and in the rear, to protect its communications and the territory recovered from the Confederacy, posts were established at De Valls Bluff, Helena, Batesville, and Fayetteville.
These dispositions practically dominated the rich val- ley of the Arkansas and all of the State Territory to the southward. The hitherto hounded and harassed Union men of the State, with new hope and courage, now came from their hiding places and flocked by thousands to the Federal posts, where, to a great extent, they entered the Federal volunteer service.
Desertions from the Confederate army by Union men forced into the Confederate service by conscription now became frequent. To a large extent they too enlisted in the Union army.
Adjt .- Gen. A. W. Bishop in his report of 1863, printed by authority of the United States Senate, fixed the whole number of white officers and enlisted men belonging exclusively to Arkansas organizations at 8,789. If we add to these figures the number of Arkansas men who joined Northern regiments serving in Missouri and Arkansas, the whole number would certainly exceed 10,000.
Under these conditions, on the 24th of October, 1863. twelve self-constituted Union men, from the contiguous counties of Sebastian and Crawford, met in conference at Ft. Smith and issued a call to the Union men of their counties advising them to assemble in mass meet-
------
19
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
ings at their respective County seats (Ft. Smith and Van Buren) for the purpose of inaugurating a movement for the formation of a loyal State government in Ar- kansas. Meetings were held and resolutions adopted, calling upon the loyal people of the several counties of the State to hold conventions and select delegates to a State constitutional convention, to assemble in Little Rock, January 4, 1864. Information, especially docu- mentary, as to the extent and manner of response to this call is meagre.
All of the Federal military posts were located at County seats, places of refuge for the Unionists and of safety for the holding of such meetings. Unless the meet- ings at Ft. Smith and Van Buren to which I have referred selected delegates, I know of but one other that did. In William M. Fishback's newspaper, The Unconditional Union, of January 23, 1864, is an account of a meet- ing held January 2 in the Episcopal Church at Helena, presided over by Federal Brigadier-General Buford, at which delegates for Phillips County were chosen.
From the able article by Prof. John Hughes Rey- nolds, styled "Presidential Reconstruction in Arkansas," Vol. I, Publications of the Arkansas Historical Asso- ciation, I quote as follows: "If conventions were held, many of them could not have been more than quiet, informal, irregular gatherings of loyal men in the sev- eral counties. ... In some cases the delegates were self- appointed; others were selected by home caucuses; and in a few cases citizens of different counties, residing in Little Rock for protection, got together and selected one or more of their number." 1 While the title of this article is misleading, there being no such thing as "Presi- dential Reconstruction," the quotation I have used cor- rectly describes the methods pursued in the selection of delegates.
20
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
In this irregular manner a comparatively small num- ber of delegates was chosen,-a few of whom assembled at Little Rock on the 4th day of January, 1864, the day fixed for the meeting of the Convention, and effected a temporary organization.
I now present a brief account of the subsequent pro- ceedings of the Convention, as gleaned from its journal.2
January 6 a Committee on Credentials was appointed.
January 8 the Committee on Credentials reported twenty-six delegates, from eleven counties, entitled to seats.
January 9, on report of the Committee on Creden- tials, four delegates from 'Pulaski County were seated. Why the delegates from the county where the Conven- tion was held did not participate in the first day's pro- ceedings, and, in the absence of any contest, did not take their seats until five days thereafter, I can only account for upon the theory that they were chosen after the Convention assembled.
January II the Committee on Credentials reported as follows: "We have received applications from in- dividuals from counties unrepresented, and in which no elections were held, desiring to be reported as members of this Convention. The Committee have considered these applications for several days and have finally de- cided to report no persons as entitled to seats without certificates of election emanating from the authority of the people."
Two days thereafter the same Committee recom- mended the seating of three citizens of Jefferson County, in support of which the Committee said: "After due deliberation, we agree to recede from so much of our former practice as required the delegates to furnish a certificate of election and we further agree to admit them (the three citizens) to seats with us." Altogether there
-
----
21
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
were eleven delegates so seated, one of whom, William Cox of Drew County, is recorded as having voted for the adoption of the Constitution on January 19, whereas he was not admitted to a seat in the Convention until two days thereafter.
During the first nine daily sessions, in addition to the proceedings already mentioned, committees on rules and for the drafting of a constitution and ordinances were appointed and a permanent organization efected. Rules were adopted and other important business trans- acted without any roll-call. Hence I am unable to state the number of delegates who participated in these pro- ceedings.
The largest number of delegates present at any ses- sion was forty-five. The largest number of counties represented in whole or in part was twenty-three. The entire number of counties in the State was fifty-five.
Geographically, the State of Arkansas consists of two nearly equal and compact sub-divisions,-Highlands and Lowlands. The Highlands,-exclusive of the Arkansas Valley,-were not adapted to the culture of cotton by slave labor, and to a major extent were inhabited bv the non-slaveholding class, who, having no interest in slavery, naturally refused to fight its battles. Hence the strong Union sentiment which existed there.
In the Lowlands at the commencement of the war were located the cotton-producing and slave-holding inter- ests. Possessed of wealth and educational advantages, firmly united by a community of interests, the slave- holding class there effectually controlled the ignorant and, in most cases, wretchedly poor, non-slaveholding people.
The small Union sentiment which may have existed among the non-slaveholding class was largely dispelled by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and
22
THE AFTERMATH OF THE .
by the enlistment into the Union army of negro soldiers. The fixed policy of the slaveholders was to keep this class in a continuous state of illiteracy, hence the failure of the State to provide free schools, a subject that I shall treat more fully further on.
I return to the consideration of the composition of the Convention. From the Highlands there were twenty- five delegates representing either in whole or in part twelve counties, with an aggregate white population of about 76,000. In this region there were sixteen coun- ties, with an aggregate white population nearly equal to that of one-third of the entire State, wholly unrepre- sented.
From the Lowlands there were twenty-four delegates, representing either in whole or in part eleven counties, with an aggregate white population of 68,000. There were sixteen unrepresented counties in that region with an aggregate white population of about 66,000. The white population of the Highlands exceeded that of the Lowlands by about 40,000.
The Highland county of Washington, the most pop- ulous in the State (and with the largest Union senti- ment), with Fayetteville, its county seat, garrisoned by Arkansas Federal troops, had no delegates in the Con- vention. On the other hand, the Lowland county of Clark had four delegates, though it had only about half the population of Washington county and a very insig- nificant Union sentiment, and its county seat of Arkadei- phia (according to Professor Reynolds "the manufac- turing centre of the Confederacy") was garrisoned by Confederate troops.
The Highland county of Independence, the next most populous county in the State, containing an unusually large Union sentiment, with a garrison of Federal troops at Batesville, its county seat, had but one delegate, who
23
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
was admitted without credentials, and who served only five days; while the Lowland county of Saline, with less than one-half of the population of Independence, and a very small Union sentiment, had four delegates. These two contiguous Lowland counties, Clark and Saline, had altogether during the sittings of the Convention, as shown by its journal, eight delegates, -- about one-sixth of the entire body, or one delegate for every 1,676 white inhabitants. Upon this basis Washington and Independ- ence counties together would have been entitled to six- teen delegates and the whole State to about one hundred and ninety.
The journal shows that of the twenty-four delegates from the Lowlands ten were admitted without creden- tials, while a number of others were seated from counties within the Confederate lines, where public meetings for the selection of delegates could not possibly have been held.
From the foregoing two pertinent questions arise : first, Why, considering the easy and secure methods of selecting delegates from the Highlands region, had it such a small representation in the Convention? second, Why, in view of the difficulties and dangers attending the selection of delegates from the Lowlands, the com- paratively small Union sentiment existing there and the fact that its population was about 40,000 less than that of the Highlands, were there such comparatively exces- sive delegations from that region ?
Having continuously served in Arkansas, as a com- mander of Federal troops, during the last three years of the war, and having had favorable opportunities for observing this movement throughout its different stages, I know that the consensus of opinion at that time in army circles was that, with the exception of a few pro- moters whose eyes were doubtless turned to the vacant
24
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
Federal and State offices, the Union men of Arkansas took but little interest in the movement.
A State constitutional convention under our system, as I understand it, is a parliamentary body of delegates, previously called, and its delegates apportioned by law- ful authority among the several counties, or other legal sub-divisions of a State, its delegates having first been chosen by lawfully qualified electors at elections provided for by law, conducted and returns made by election offi- cers duly and legally qualified.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.