USA > Arkansas > Faulkner County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Garland County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Grant County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Hot Spring County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Lonoke County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Perry County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Pulaski County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
USA > Arkansas > Saline County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 5
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30
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
cover and utilize the valuable waters of the salt springs of that place. He engaged in the suc- cessful manufacture of salt, and was in time suc- ceeded by his son-in-law, Jonathan O. Callaway. Jacob Barkman settled in Arkadelphia in 1811. He was a man of foresight and enterprise, and soon established a trade along the river to New Orleans. He commenced navigating the river in canoes and pirogues, and finally owned and ran in the trade the first steamboat plying from that point to New Orleans. He pushed trade at the point of settlement. at the same time advancing navigation, and opened a large cotton farm.
In Arkansas County, among the early promi- nent men who were active in the county's affairs were Eli I. Lewis, Henry Scull, O. H. Thomas, T. Farrelly, Hewes Scull, A. B. K. Thetford and Lewis Bogy. The latter afterward removed to Missouri, and has permanently associated his name with the history of that State. In a subsequent list of names should be mentioned those of Will- iam Fultony, James Maxwell and James H. Lucas, the latter being another of the notable citizens of Missouri.
Carroll County: Judges George Campbell and William King, and John Bush, T. H. Clark, Abra- ham Shelly, William Nooner, Judge Hiram Davis, W. C. Mitchell, Charles Sneed, A. M. Wilson, Elijah Tabor, William Beller, M. L. Hawkins, John McMillan, M. Perryman, J. A. Hicks, N. Rudd, Thomas Callen, W. E. Armstrong.
Chicot County : John Clark, William B. Patton, Richard Latting, George W. Ferribee, Francis Rycroft, Thomas Knox, W. B. Duncan, J. W. Boone, H. S. Smith, James Blaine, Abner John- son, William Hunt, J. W. Neal, James Murray, B. Magruder, W. P. Reyburn, J. T. White, John Fulton, Judge W. H. Sutton, J. Chapman, Hiram Morrell, Reuben Smith, A. W. Webb.
In Clark County, in the earliest times, were W. P. L. Blair, Colbert Baker, Moses Graham, Mathew Logan, James Miles, Thomas Drew, Daniel Ringo, A. Stroud, David Fisk and Isaac Ward.
Clay County: John J. Griffin, Abraham Rob- erts, William Davis, William H. Mack, James
Watson, J. G. Dudley, James Campbell, Single- ton Copeland, C. H. Mobley.
Conway County: Judge Saffold, David Bar- ber, James Kellam, Reuben Blunt, James Barber, James Ward, Thomas Mathers, John Houston, E. W. Owen, Judge B. B. Ball, J. I. Simmons, T. S. Haynes, B. F. Howard, William Ellis, N. H. Buckley, James Ward, Judge Robert McCall, W. H. Robertson, L. C. Griffin, Judge W. T. Gamble, D. D. Mason, George Fletcher and D. Harrison.
Craighead County: Rufus Snoddy, Daniel O'Quinn, Yancey Broadway, Henry Powell, D. R. Tyler, Elias Mackey, William Q. Lane, John Ham- ilton, Asa Puckett, Eli Quarles, William Puryear.
In Crawford County were Henry Bradford, Jack Mills, G. C. Pickett, Mark Beane, J. C. Sum- ner, James Billingsley.
Crittenden County: J. Livingston, W. D. Fer- guson, W. Goshen, William Cherry, Judge D. H. Harrig, O. W. Wallace, S. A. Cherry, Judge Charles Blackmore, S. R. Cherry, John Tory, F. B. Read, Judge A. B. Hubbins, H. O. Oders, J. H. Wathen, H. Bacon.
Fulton County: G. W. Archer, William Wells, Daniel Hubble, Moses Brannon, John Nichols, Moses Steward, Enos C. Hunter, Milton Yarberry, Dr. A. C. Cantrell.
Greene County: Judge L. Brookfield, L. Thompson, James Brown, J. Sutfin, G. Hall, Charles Robertson, Judge W. Hane, Judge George Daniel, G. L. Martin, J. Stotts, James Ratchford, Judge L. Thompson, H. L. Holt, J. L. Atkinson, J. Clark, H. N. Reynolds, John Anderson, Ben- jamin Crowley, William Pevehouse, John Mitch- ell, Aaron Bagwell, A. J. Smith, Wiley Clarkson, William Hatch.
In Hempstead County: J. M. Steward, A. S. Walker, Benjamin Clark, A. M. Oakley, Thomas Dooley, D. T. Witter, Edward Cross, William McDonald, D. Wilburn and James Moss.
Hot Springs County: L. N. West, G. B. Hughes, Judge W. Durham, G. W. Rogers, T. W. Johnson, J. T. Grant, J. H. Robinson, H. A. Whittington, John Callaway, J. T. Grant, Judge G. Whittington, L. Runyan, R. Huson, J. Bank- son, Ira Robinson, Judge A. N. Sabin, C. A. Sa-
31
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
bin, W. W. McDaniel, W. Dunham, A. B. McDon- ald. Joseph Lorance.
Independence County : R. Searcy, Robert Bean, Charles Kelly, John Reed, T. Curran, Jobn Bean, I. Curran, J. L. Daniels, J. Redmon, John Rud- dell. C. H. Pelham, Samuel Miller, James Micham, James Trimble, Henry Engles, Hartwell Boswell, John H. Ringgold.
Izard County: J. P. Houston, John Adams, Judge Mathew Adams, H. C. Roberts, Jesse Adams, John Hargrove, J. Blyeth, William Clement, Judge J. Jeffrey, Daniel Jeffrey, A. Adams, J. A. Harris, W. B. Carr, Judge B. Hawkins, B. H. Johnson, D. K. Loyd, W. H. Carr, A. Creswell, H. W. Bandy. Moses Bishop, Daniel Hively, John Gray, William Powell Thomas Richardson, William Seymour.
Jackson County: Judge Hiram Glass, J. C. Saylors, Isaac Gray, N. Copeland, Judge E. Bartley, John Robinson, A. M. Carpenter, Judge D. C. Waters, P. O. Flynn, Hall Roddy, Judge R. Ridley, G. W. Cromwell, Sam Mathews, Sam Allen, Martin Bridgeman, John Wideman, New- ton Arnold, Joseph Haggerton, Holloway Stokes.
Jefferson County: Judge W. P. Hackett, J. T. Pullen, Judge Creed Taylor, Peter German, N. Holland, Judge Sam C. Roane, William Kinkead, Thomas O'Neal, E. H. Roane, S. Dardenne, Sam Taylor, Judge H. Bradford, H. Edgington, Judge W. H. Lindsey, J. H. Caldwell.
Johnson County: Judge George Jameson, Thomas Jenette, S. F. Mason, Judge J. P. Kessie, A. Sinclair, William Fritz, W. J. Parks, R. S. McMicken, Augustus Ward, Judge J. L. Cravens, A. M. Ward, M. Rose, A. L. Black, W. A. Ander- son, Judge J. B. Brown, A. Sinclair, William Adams, W. M. H. Newton.
Lafayette County : Judge Jacob Buzzard, Jesse Douglass, Joshua Morrison, I. W. Ward, J. T. Conway, W. E. Hodges, J. Morrison, George Doo- ley, J. M. Dorr, J. P. Jett, W. B. Conway, W. H. Conway, T. V. Jackson, G. H. Pickering, Judge E. M. Lowe, R. F. Sullivan, James Ab- rams.
Lawrence County: Joseph Hardin, Robert Blane, H. Sandford, John Reed, R. Richardson,
J. M. Kuykendall, H. R. Hynson, James Camp- bell, D. W. Lowe, Thomas Black, John Rodney, John Spotts, William J. Hudson, William Stuart, Isaac Morris, William B. Marshall, John S. Fick- lin.
Madison County: Judge John Bowen, H. B. Brown, P. M. Johnson, H. C. Daugherty, M. Perryman, T. McCuiston.
In Miller County: John Clark, J. Ewing, J. H. Fowler, B. English, C. Wright, G. F. Lawson, Thomas Polk, George Wetmore, David Clark, J. G. Pierson, John Morton, N. Y. Crittenden, Charles Burkem, George Collum, G. C. Wetmore, D. C. Steele, G. F. Lawton and Judge G. M. Martin.
Mississippi County: Judge Edwin Jones, J. W. Whitworth, E. F. Loyd, S. McLung, G. C. Barfield, Judge Nathan Ross, Judge John Troy, J. W. Dewitt, J. C. Bowen, Judge Fred Miller, Uriah Russell, T. L. Daniel, J. G. Davis, Judge Nathan Ross, J. P. Edrington, Thomas Sears, A. G. Blackmore, William Kellums, Thomas J. Mills, James Williams, Elijah Buford, Peter G. Reeves.
Monroe County: Judge William Ingram, J. C. Montgomery, James Eagan, John Maddox, Lafay- ette Jones, Judge James Carlton, M. Mitchell, J. R. Dye, J. Jacobs, R. S. Bell.
Phillips County: W. B. R. Horner, Daniel Mooney, S. Phillips, S. M. Rutherford, George Seaborn, H. L. Biscoe, G. W. Fereby, J. H. Mckenzie, Austin Hendricks, W. H. Calvert, N. Righton, B. Burress, F. Hanks, J. H. McKeal, J. K. Sandford, S. S. Smith, C. P. Smith, J. H. Mckenzie, S. C. Mooney, I. C. P. Tolleson, Emer Askew, P. Pinkston, Charles Pearcy, J. B. Ford, W. Bettiss, J. Skinner, H. Turner and M. Irvin.
Pike County: Judge W. Sorrels, D. S. Dickin- son, John Hughes, J. W. Dickinson, Judge W. Kelly, Isaac White, J. H. Kirkhan, E. K. Will- iams, Henry Brewer.
Poinsett County: Judges Richard Hall and William Harris, Drs. Theophilus Griffin and John P. Hardis, Harrison Ainsworth, Robert H. Stone, Benjamin Harris.
Pope County: Judge Andrew Scott, Twitty
L
32
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
Pace, H. Stinnett, W. Garrott, W. Mitchell, Judge S. K. Blythe, A. E. Pace, J. J. Morse, F. Heron, Judge Thomas Murray, Jr., S. M. Hayes, S. S. Hayes, R. S. Witt, Judge Isaac Brown, R. T. Williamson, W. W. Rankin, Judge J. J. Morse, J. B. Logan, W. C. Webb.
Pulaski County: R. C. Oden, L. R. Curran, Jacob Peyatte, A. H. Renick, G. Greathouse, M. Cunningham, Samuel Anderson, H Armstrong, T. W. Newton, D. E. Mckinney, S. M. Rutherford, A. McHenry, Allen Martin, J. H. Caldwell, Judge S. S. Hall, J. Henderson, William Atchinson, R. N. Rowland, Judge David Rorer, J. K. Taylor, R. H. Callaway, A. L. Langham, Judge J. H. Cocke, W. Badgett, G. N. Peay, J. C. Anthony, L. R. Lincoln, A. Martin, A. S. Walker, Judge R. Graves, J. P. and John Fields, J. K. Taylor, W. C. Howell, J. Gould, Roswell Beebe, William Russell, John C. Peay.
Randolph County: Judge P. R. Pittman, B. J. Wiley, William Black, R. Bradford, J. M. Cooper, B. J. Wiley, B. M. Simpson, John Janes, James Campbell, Samuel McElroy, Edward Mattix, Thomas S. Drew, R. S. Bettis, James Russell.
St. Francis County: Andrew Roane, William Strong, S. Crouch, Judge John Johnson, T. J. Curl, G. B. Lincecum, William Lewis, Judge William Strong, Isaac Mitchell, David Davis, Isaac Forbes, Judge William Enos, N. O. Little, W. G. Bozeman, H. M. Carothers, Judge R. H. Hargrove, H. H. Curl, Cyrus Little.
Saline County: Judge T. S. Hutchinson, Samuel Caldwell, V. Brazil, C. Lindsey, A. Carrick, Judge H. Prudden, G. "B. Hughes, Samuel Collins, J. J. Joiner, J. R. Conway, R. Brazil, E. M. Owen, George McDaniel, C. P. Lyle.
Scott County: Judge Elijah Baker, S. B. Walker, James Riley, J. R. Choate, Judge James Logan, G. Marshall, Charles Humphrey, W. Cau- thorn, G. C. Walker, T. J. Garner, Judge Gilbert Marshall, W. Kenner.
Searcy County: Judge William Wood, William Kavanaugh, E. M. Hale, Judge Joseph Rea, Will- iam Ruttes, Joe Brown, V. Robertson, T. S. Hale, Judge J. Campbell.
Sevier County: Judge John Clark, R. Hart-
field, G. Clark, J. T. Little, Judge David Foran, P. Little, William White, Charles Moore, A. Hartfield, Judge J. F. Little, Henry Morris, Judge Henry Brown, George Halbrook, Judge R. H. Scott, S. S. Smith.
Sharp County: John King, Robert Lott, Nich- olas Norris, William Morgan, William J. Gray, William Williford, Solomon Hudspeth, Stephen English, John Walker, L. D. Dale, John C. Gar- ner, R. P. Smithee, Josiah Richardson, Judge A. H. Nunn, William G. Matheny.
Union County: John T. Cabeen, John Black, Jr., Judge John Black, Sr., Benjamin Gooch, Alexander Beard, Thomas O'Neal, Judge G. B. Hughes, John Cornish, John Hogg, Judge Hiram Smith, J. R. Moore, John Henry, John Stokeley, Judge Charles H. Seay, W. L. Bradley, Judge Thomas Owens.
Van Buren County: Judge J. L. Laferty, P. O. Powell, N. Daugherty, Philip Wail, L. Will- iams, Judge J. B. Craig, Judge J. M. Baird, J. McAllister, Judge William Dougherty, A. Mor- rison, George Counts, A. Caruthers, W. W. Trim- ble, R. Bain, J. O. Young, George Hardin, A. W. McRaines, Judge J. C. Ganier.
Washington County: L. Newton, Lewis Evans, John Skelton, Judge Robert McAmy, B. H. Smithson, Judge John Wilson, James Marrs, V. Caruthers, James Coulter, J. T. Edmonson, Judge J. M. Hoge, James Crawford, John McClellan, Judge W. B. Woody, W. W. Hester, Judge John Cureton, L. C. Pleasants, Isaac Murphy, D. Calla- ghan, Judge Thomas Wilson, W. L. Wallace and L. W. Wallace.
White County: Judge Samuel Guthrie, P. W. Roberts, P. Crease, Michael Owens, M. H. Blue, S. Arnold, J. W. Bond, William Cook, J. Arnold, Milton Saunders, James Bird, Samuel Beeler, James Walker, Martin Jones, Philip Hilger, James King, L. Pate, John Akin, Reuben Stephens, Sam- uel Guthrie.
Woodruff County: Rolla Gray, Durant H. Bell, John Dennis, Dudley Glass, Michael Hag- gerdon, Samuel Taylor, James Barnes, George Hatch, John Teague, Thomas Arnold and Thomas Hough.
33
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
The above were all prominent men in their lo- calities during the Territorial times of Arkansas. Many of them have left names and memories inti- mately associated with the history of the State. They were a part of those pioneers "who hewed the dark, old woods away," and left a rich inheri- tance, and a substantial civilization, having wealth, refinement and luxuries, that were never a part of their dreams. They were home makers as well as State and Nation builders. They cut out the roads, opened their farms, bridged the streams, built houses, made settlements, towns and cities, render- ing all things possible to their descendants; a race of heroes and martyrs pre-eminent in all time for the blessings they transmitted to posterity; they repelled the painted savage, and exterminated the ferocious wild beasts; they worked, struggled and endured that others might enjoy the fruits of their heroic sacrifices. Their lives were void of evil to mankind; possessing little ambition, their touch was the bloom and never the blight. Granted, cynic, they builded wiser than they knew, yet they built, and built well, and their every success was the triumphant march of peace. Let the record of their humble but great lives be immortal!
The New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12, com- mencing in the last of December, and the subterra- nean forces ceasing after three months' duration, was of itself a noted era, but to the awful display of nature's forces was added a far more important and lasting event, the result of the silent but mighty powers of the human mind. Simulta- neously with the hour of the most violent convul- sions of nature, the third day of the earthquake, there rode out at the mouth of the Ohio, into the lashed and foaming waters of the Mississippi, the first steamboat that ever ploughed the western waters-the steamer "Orleans," Capt. Roosevelt. So awful was the display of nature's energies, that the granitic earth, with a mighty sound, heaved and writhed like a storm-tossed ocean. The great river turned back in its flow, the waves of the ground burst, shooting high in the air, spouting sand and water; great forest-covered hills disap- peared at the bottom of deep lakes into which they had sunk; and the "sunk lands" are to
this day marked on the maps of Southeast Mis- souri and Northeast Arkansas. The sparse popu- lation along the river (New Madrid was a flourish- ing young town) fled the country in terror, leav- ing mostly their effects and domestic animals.
The wild riot of nature met in this wilderness the triumph of man's genius. Where else on the globe so appropriately could have been this meet- ing of the opposing forces as at the mouth of the Ohio and on the convulsed bosom of the Father of Waters? How feeble, apparently, in this contest, were the powers of man; how grand and awful the play of nature's forces! The mote struggling against the "wreck of worlds and crush of mat- ter." But, "peace be still," was spoken to the vexed earth, while the invention of Fulton will go on forever. The revolving paddle-wheels were the incipient drive-wheels, on which now ride in tri- umph the glories of this great age.
The movement of immigrants to Arkansas in the decade following the earthquake was retarded somewhat, whereas, barring this, it should and would have been stimulated into activity by the advent of steamboats upon the western rivers. The south half of the State was in the possession of the Quapaw Indians. The Spanish attempts at colonizing were practical failures. His Catholic majesty was moving in the old ruts of the feudal ages, in the deep-seated faith of the "divinity of kings," and the paternal powers and duties of rulers. The Bastrop settlement of "thirty fam- ilies," by a seigniorial grant in 1797, had brought years of suffering, disappointment and failure. This was an attempt to found a colony on the Ouachita River, granting an entire river and a strip of land on each side thereof to Bastrop, the government to pay the passage of the people across the ocean and to feed and clothe them one year. To care for its vassals, and to provide human breeding grounds; swell the multitudes for the use of church and State; to "glorify God" by repressing the growing instincts of liberty and the freedom of thought, and add subjects to the possession and powers of these gilded toads, were the essence of the oriental schemes for peopling the new world. Happily for mankind they failed,
34
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
and the wild beasts returned to care for their young in safety and await the coming of the real pioneers, they who came bringing little or nothing, save
a manly spirit of self-reliance and independence. These were the successful founders and builders of empire in the wilderness.
CHAPTER IV.
ORGANIZATION .- THE VICEROYS AND GOVERNORS-THE ATTITUDE OF THE ROYAL OWNERS OF LOUISIANA- THE DISTRICT DIVIDED-THE TERRITORY OF ARKANSAS FORMED FROM THIE TERRITORY OF MISSOURI -THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT-THE FIRST LEGISLATURE-THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT -OTHER LEGISLATIVE BODIES-THE DEULLO-ARKANSAS ADMITTED TO STATEHOOD -THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS-THE MEMORABLE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD-LEGISLATIVE ATTITUDE ON THE QUESTION OF SECESSION -THE WAR OF THE GOVERNORS, ETC., ETC.
N the preceding chapter are briefly traced the changes in the government of the Territory of Louisiana from its discovery to the year 1803, when it became a part of the territory of the United States. Discovered by the Spanish, possessed by the French, divided and re-divided between the French, Spanish and English; set- tled by the Holy Mother Church, in the warp and woof of nations it was the flying shuttle-cock of the great weaver in its religion as well as allegiance for 261 years. This foundling, this waif of nations, was but an outcast, or a trophy chained to the triumphal car of the victors among the warring European powers, until in the providence of God it reached its haven and abiding home in the bosom of the union of States.
As a French province, the civil government of Louisiana was organized, and the Marquis de San- ville appointed viceroy or governor in 1689.
UNDER FRENCH RULE.
Robert Cavelier de La Salle (April 9,
formal). 1682-1688
Marquis de Sanville. 1689-1700
Bienville. .1701-1712
Lamothe Cadillar 1713-1715
De L'Epinay .1716-1717
Bienville. 1718-1723
Boisbriant (ad interim). 1724
Bienville .. 1732-1741
Baron de Kelerec. 1753-1762
D'Abbadie 1763-1766*
UNDER SPANISH RULE.
Antonio de Ulloa. 1767-1768
Alexander O'Reilly 1768-1769
Louis de Unzaga. 1770-1776
Bernando de Galvez. 1777-1784
Estevar Miro. 1785-1787
Francisco Luis Hortu, Baron of Caron-
delet. 1789-1792
Gayoso de Lemos. 1793-1798
Sebastian de Cosa Calvo y O'Farrell. .1798-1799
Juan Manual de Salcedo. .1800-1803
From the dates already given it will be seen that the official acts of Salcedo during his entire
* Louisiana west of the Mississippi, although ceded to Spain in 1762, remained under French jurisdiction until 1766.
35
1217074
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
term of office, under the secret treaty of Ildefonso, were tainted with irregularity. Thousands of land grants had been given by him after he had in fact ceased to be the viceroy of Spain. The contract- ing powers had affixed to the treaty the usual ob- ligations of the fulfillment of all undertakings, but the American courts and lawyers, in that ancient spirit of legal hypercritical technicalities, had given heed to the vicious doctrine that acts in good faith of a de facto governor may be treated as of questionable validity. This was never good law, because it was never good sense or justice.
The acts and official doings of these vice-royal- ties in the wilderness present little or nothing of interest to the student of history, because they were local and individual in their bearing. It was the action of the powers across the waters, in reference to Canada and Louisiana, that in their wide and sweeping effects have been nearly omnip- otent in shaping civilization.
Referring to the acquisition of Canada and the Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, Bancroft says that England exulted in its conquest ;* enjoying the glory of extended dominion in the confident expectation of a boundless increase of wealth. But its success was due to its having taken the lead in the good old struggle for liberty, and it was destined to bring fruits, not so much to itself as to the cause of freedom and mankind.
France, of all the States on the continent of Europe the most powerful, by territorial unity, wealth, numbers, industry and culture, seemed also by its place marked out for maritime ascend- ency. Set between many seas it rested upon the Mediterranean, possessed harbors on the German Ocean, and embraced between its wide shores and jutting headlands the bays and open waters of the Atlantic; its people, infolding at one extreme the offspring of colonists from Greece, and at the other the hardy children of the Northmen, being called, as it were, to the inheritance of life upon the sea. The nation, too, readily conceived or ap- propriated great ideas and delighted in bold re- solves. Its travelers had penetrated farthest into
*Bancroft, vol. iv .- 457; Gayarre's Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. ii .- 121.
the fearful interior of unknown lands; its mission - aries won most familiarly the confidence of the aboriginal hordes; its writers described with keener and wiser observation the forms of nature in her wildness, and the habits and languages of savage man; its soldiers, and every lay Frenchman in America owed military service, uniting beyond all others celerity with courage, knew best how to endure the hardships of forest life and to triumplı in forest warfare. Its ocean chivalry had given a name and a colony to Carolina, and its merchants a people to Acadia. The French discovered the basin of the St. Lawrence; were the first to ex- plore and possess the banks of the Mississippi, and planned an American empire that should unite the widest valleys and most copious inland waters in the world. But over all this splendid empire in the old and the new world was a government that was medieval-mured in its glittering palaces, taxing its subjects, it would allow nothing to come to the Louisiana Territory but what was old and worn out. French America was closed against even a gleam of intellectual independence; nor did all Louisiana contain so much as one dissenter from the Roman Church.
" We have caught them at last," exultingly ex- claimed Choiseul, when he gave up the Canadas to England and the Louisiana to Spain. "Eng- land will ere long repent of having removed the
only check that could keep her colonies in awe.
*
* She will call on them to support the bur- dens they have helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all dependence," said Vergennes.
These keen-witted Frenchmen, with a pene- tration far beyond the ablest statesmen of Eng- land, saw, as they believed, and time has con- firmed, that in the humiliation and dismember- ment of the territory of France, especially the transfer to England of Canada, they had la'd the mine which some day would destroy the British colonial system, and probably eventuate in the independence of the American colonies. The in- tellect of France was keeping step with the spirit of the age; it had been excluded of course from the nation's councils, but saw what its feeble
36
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
government neither could see nor prevent, that the distant wilderness possessed a far greater impor- tance on the world's new map than was given it by the gold and gems it was supposed to contain; and that the change of allegiance of the colonies was the great step in the human mind, as it was slowly emerging from the gloom and darkness of the middle ages. Thus it was that the mere Terri- tory of Louisiana, before it was peopled by civilized man, was playing its important part in the world's greatest of all dramas.
The first official act of our government, after the purchase of Louisiana, was an act of Congress, March 26, 1804, dividing Louisiana into two dis- tricts, and attaching the whole to Indiana Terri- tory, under the government of William Henry Harrison. The division in Louisiana was by a line on the thirty-third parallel; the south was named the District of Orleans; that north of it was named the District of Louisiana. This is now the south line of the State of Arkansas.
In 1805 the District of Louisiana was erected in- to the Territory of Louisiana. It was however a terri- tory of the second class and remained under the gov- ernment and control of Indiana Territory until 1812.
By act of June 4, 1812, the name of Louisiana Territory was changed and became the Missouri Territory, being made a territory of the first class, and given a territorial government. Capt. William Clark, of the famous Lewis and Clark, explorers of the northwest, was appointed governor, remaining as such until 1819, when Arkansas Territory was cut off from Missouri.
The act of 1812, changing the District of Louisiana to Missouri Territory, provided for a Territorial legislature consisting of nine members, and empowered the governor to lay off that part where the Indian title had been extinguished into thirteen counties. The county of New Madrid, as then formed, extended into the Arkan- sas territorial limits, "down to the Mississippi to a point directly east of the mouth of Little Red River; thence to the mouth of Red River: thence up the Red River to the Osage purchase," etc. In other words it did not embrace the whole of what is now Arkansas.
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