USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 50
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
others as the republican State committee, in which they say : "By the decision to which reference has been made (Brooks v. Baxter) it is distinctly held that the determination of the question whether a person exercising the office of governor has been duly elected or not, is vested exclusively in the general assembly of the State, and that neither the supreme or any other court has jurisdiction to try a suit in relation to such contest." And the committee further say :
"And now we at last can congratulate the people of the State upon the undoubted termination of this gubernatorial warfare. The legislature has acted in the premises ; its decision is final, and Governor Baxter's tenure of the office he holds is fixed and irrevocable. The action of the supreme court and the legislature settles all vexed questions calculated to disturb the peace of the State, and Governor Baxter, reflecting the policy of the republican party, to secure peace, quiet and order, seized upon this, the first opportunity presented since the organiza- tion of the State government, to muster out the entire militia force of the State. No well disposed citizen, whatever his po- litical faith may be, can fail to indorse and commend this ac- tion of the governor. It attests the good faith and high pur- poses of the republican party on all questions affecting the in- terests of the people, and is an earnest of the efforts Governor Baxter and the republican party are making to bring the State of Arkansas to as high a condition of peace, law and order as is enjoyed by the most favored State in the Union.
POWELL CLAYTON, Chairman. S. W. DORSEY," (And nine others).
If Baxter was wrongly counted in and installed in the office of governor, Clayton and his henchmen did it and are respon- sible for it. Baxter refused to issue any more railroad aid bonds, and did not consult Powell Clayton and S. W. Dorsey nor John McClure and company as to whom he appointed to office. Baxter was governor of Arkansas, and as such assumed the independence and responsibility attaching to the office.
This led the leaders to commit treason, without qualification or justification, and the levying of war against the lawfully con-
no Tsoreit
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
stituted authorities of the State, which in any other than the troubled condition the country was then in would have invoked the penalties consequent on that crime against society. On the 3d of June, 1873, Dorsey writes Governor Baxter from New York as follows :
GOVERNOR ELISHA BAXTER :
You have the unqualified support of myself and friends : The revolutionary proceedings instituted will not be sustained by the people. S. W. DORSEY.
On the same day and from the same place Powell Clayton writes him as follows :
HIS EXCELLENCY ELISHA BAXTER :
The quo warranto proceedings against you have been inaugu- rated without my knowledge or approval, and are in my opinion unwise and highly detrimental to the interest of the State. My judgment did approve your late action, because I did not believe such a move was seriously contemplated ; and even if contem- plated, I regarded the calling out of the militia as premature. Nor would [ now advise any show of force, unless a forcible attempt should be made to oust you. I believe you are the legitimate governor of Arkansas, and as much as I regret to see our State disgraced abroad by distractions at home, I hope you will stand firm, regardless of results.
POWELL CLAYTON.
Again I quote from those great and fearless men, whose names and fame is the heritage of Arkansas, General Albert . Pike and Hon. Robert W. Johnson : "Certainly it must require an ample supply of impudence, and great absence of the sense of shame, in any of the men who signed the foregoing address to go before the president of the United States and ask him to help them to get Baxter out of the office in which the republi- can legislature placed him, and the supreme court maintained him. Certainly no gentleman would think General Grant wanting in courtesy, if he would order them shown to the door, and to say to them, 'it is evidence of a singular obtuseness of perception in you, and of very slight respect for me, to come to prove to me, by the judgment of an inferior court, given in
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
the dark, and in defiance of not only the express decisions of the supreme court, but of the well-known law everywhere, that Governor Baxter was not legally elected, and the decisions of the legislature and supreme court were not final, after you have published, not seven months ago, that he was governor, and that the question was finally settled and concluded. Am I a nose of wax, to be molded by you into any shape you please, or do you think that I will violate law, and infringe upon individual rights, to give effect to your wishes, and sub- serve either your private or your political interests ? I am not a dog, that I should do this thing. Begone!'"
On the 15th day of May, 1874, George H. Williams, at- torney general of the United States, in an able opinion, re- viewed all the decisions herein referred to, and says: " All five of the judges of the supreme court of Arkansas concurred in the opinion that the courts have no jurisdiction in contested elec- tion cases involving the title to State offices mentioned in article 19, section 4 of the constitution of Arkansas - that the decision of the Pulaski circuit court is absolutely void." In reference to the partisan decision of the supreme court he says: " To show the value of this decision, it is proper that I should make the following statement : On the 20th of April, Brooks made a formal application to the president for aid to suppress domestic violence, which was accompanied by a paper signed by Chief Justice McClure and Justices Searle and Stephenson, in which they stated that they recognized Brooks as governor, and to this paper also is appended the name of Page, the respondent in the proceeding for mandamus. Page, there- fore, did not refuse to pay the warrant of the auditor because he did not recognize Brooks as governor, but the object of his refusal evidently was to create such facts as were necessary to make a case for the supreme court. Accordingly the plead- ings were made up by the parties, both of whom were on the same side in the controversy, and the issue so made was sub- mitted to judges virtually pledged to give the decision wanted, and then, within the military encampment of Brooks, they hurriedly, but with delicacy, as they say (italics the author's), decided that he is governor, a decision in plain contravention of the constitution and laws of the State, and in direct conflict
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with two other recent decisions of the same court deliberately made. I refrain from comment. More than once the supreme court of the United States has refused to hear argument on a case made up in this way."
I now quote from Governor Baxter's last or farewell mes- sage to the legislature of Arkansas, convened on the 10th of November, 1874, under the new constitution of that year. It shows, from an honest republican standpoint, the untold evils Arkansas suffered in the reconstruction period. Of the con- stitution of 1868 and the evils growing out of it, he says, in language that ought to live in characters of light as long as the history of Arkansas is known : "That constitution, the product of all the exciting passions aroused by civil war, was armed with despotie power. It effectually divided the people into two classes by lines of demarkation - not intended to be easily effaced - the governing and the governed. To the former were given a very large appointing power and a system of reg- istration which made the popular elections variable only at the will of returning officers, who were entirely subject to the con- trol of the chief executive. For the latter it provided a con- stantly-decreasing prosperity, the inevitable accompaniments of bad laws and heavy taxation, corrupt courts and irrespon- sible officers, while they were made the subjects of such abuse as was deemed most likely to palliate and withdraw attention from such an anomaly of government. Extraordinary circum- stances had placed a few men in power to whom its exercise was unfamiliar ; they adopted extraordinary means for keeping it. Owing no favors to the people, they repudiated the ties . by which, in republican governments, society is bound together, and conceded them no rights. The skillful arts of the dema- gogue, by which he flatters a too willing populace by false at- tribution of wisdom and virtue, have long supplied a theme for patriots and moralists.
For the past few years those claiming a right to hold office perpetually in this State have for the most part made them- selves conspicuous by vituperation of those who they pretend had elevated them to power. Extravagance is the natural con- comitant of despotism when vested in the hands of adventu- rers, whose precarious tenure, acquired by the violent combina-
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
tions of revolution, is derived from no paternal source, and necessarily dies with the possessor. Accordingly the country has been wasted by a system of extravagance, which is as little in accordance with the taste of the people as with the maxims of good government. Assessors sworn only not to assess prop- erty for too little, and paid for their services in proportion to the amount of their assessments, scrupled not to oppress the own- ers by affixing fictitious and sometimes fabulous values. Not infrequently it was proclaimed that the object was to reduce all to a uniform level of property - a system of agrarianism, however, which did not include the inventors of the simple system of promoting the public prosperity, from whose over- reaching and all-pervading avarice there was no escape save by joining the general pillage.
Officers were multiplied and diffused throughout the country being mostly of such men as had never held office before, and yet seemed to be incapable of any other pursuit. For their support enormous taxes were levied, and were enforced by the most stringent and unrelenting proceedings. Taxes from three to six per cent on every species of property soon bore le- gitimate fruit. From 1868 to 1874 it is estimated that fully one-half of the lands belonging to private owners passed under the tax gatherer's hammer. At the close of the rebellion the fine cotton and grain lands attracted attention, and sustained prices not inferior to those borne at any time before ; but these prices were soon affected by taxation until it was a bur- den to own them. The pioneer looked aghast at the prospects of a country which seemed to be only susceptible of conversion . into public spoil. The resources of the State were inadequate to meet these demands. High taxes failed to keep pace with exorbitant expenditures. Office-holders, beginning with no estates of their own, and disclaiming any enduring connection with the soil, intoxicated with opportunities for making money suddenly opened to them, indulging the most excessive vis- ions of wealth, aggregated themselves into railroad compan- ies representing lines marked in haste on the surface of a map, the endowment of which became the chief occupation of government. So great was their precipitation in open- ing up this new El Dorado, that a law, hastily drawn, was
69
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submitted to the people at what purported to be a popular elec- tion, at a time when the law had not gone into effect for the purpose of the submission.
Bonds were issued, pledging the State credit, with a prod- igality not unworthy the airy schemes they intended to pro- mote. They formed a basis for the beginning of operations on several roads, which led in their turn to still wider prodigality, until the projects succumbed beneath the weight of unbounded dishonesty and peculation ; but not until the original recipients of these bonds had "placed " them wherever, in the civilized world, a dupe could be found. While the State was being thus despoiled, the annual revenues were continually falling farther and farther behind the annual expenditures, and the county and municipal governments, to which every facility were afforded for issuing bonds and getting in debt, were following rapidly in the same downward road. Salaries and perquisites were increased, until a short term of office implied for the possessor retiring with a fortune, or the enjoyment for a season of great and super- fluous resources. Bonds and scrips - State county, and mu- nicipal - supplied the place of money, and the first success in realizing something near par value on these opened new pros- pects of inexhaustible wealth ; but when prices presently de- clined, enormous taxation only brought back enormous quanti- ties of paper, until the government seemed destined to perish of want in the midst of this false abundance. Those who held office were desirous of keeping up such a state of affairs at home, and such impressions abroad as would enable them in case of any failure of their plans for perpetuating their power by pretended elections, in which the electors might be proscribed without re- sponsibility, or counties or townships thrown out and not counted as occasion might require, to make an appeal to the Federal gov- ernment for retention of some kind of protectorate over the peo- ple of the State, on the assumed ground that they were not fit for self government, hoping to be favored in a result which they had successfully produced, by still being continued in offices, both State and Federal, which they monopolized. Therefore, they kept up a system of detraction of the people of the State, masking their work of public plunder, by pretensions that there was a hostility between the people and the Federal government,
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
and by the people to the northern immigrant, and toward the lately liberated slaves - unfounded libels which have damaged the State millions of dollars, by keeping from the State the honest, industrious classes of the north. The parties who made these representations a few months ago attempted to boldly usurp the government of the State, and boldly pledged the Fed- eral government in advance to the support of these desperate schemes, and then appealed to public sympathy abroad by pro- claiming that their lives would not be safe unless they were upheld in their raid on the property and liberties of the people. For the first time, perhaps, in the history of mankind an at- tempt is made to organize defamation into a regular system, as if it were for the purpose of carrying on some regular corpo- rate or associated business ; bureaus are established, and every disappointed office-holder, any person who has a real or fancied grievance against society, is invited to furnish his quota of misrepresentation.
The organization of a school system in this State on a new plan was long indicated as a measure of public progress which should compensate for high taxes and excessive prodigality, . but the school system partook of all the other essential features of the government, nearly $100,000 being appropriated an- nually for salaries and expenses of a corps of officers, called superintendents of different grades, who had little or noth- ing to do with the cause of education. The entire school system fell a victim to the general law of destruction, which nothing escaped. The whole of the State school fund was carried over to the general fund for the payment of sala- .ries. Thus the whole school system perished for want of sup- port, in order to meet the continued demand for salaries and perquisites."
This is the true history of radical ascendency in Arkansas, given by a republican governor whose determination to clean out the Augean stable brought on the rebellion, headed by Clayton, Dorsey, Brooks, McClure and company - moguls in the camp of spoliation and plunder.
Now, sir, I have made good my assertion from records and documents from the camp of republicanism.
All that can be truly said to the disparagement of the judi-
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
ciary in Arkansas is strictly limited to the era so graphically described by Governor Baxter. All the judicial filth that ever afflicted Arkansas was spawned in the camp of radicalism, and your ledger balance must be carried to this account. I am, very truly, JOHN HALLUM.
END OF VOL. I.
INDEX.
HISTORICAL DIVISION.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
Discovery of America and ascendancy of Spain in the sixteenth century
1,2
Sketch of Fernando De Soto.
2,3
De Soto, the first European to visit Arkansas.
3
Indian tribes inhabiting Arkansas.
3, 4
The Jesuit explorers, Marquette, Joliett, La Salle and Tonti.
4
The celebrated John Law
4, 5, 6
The companies of the West, of the Indies, and Law's company ... 5,6 Judge White, translator and compiler of the laws of the Indies .. 5, 6
The Marquis De Sanville, first governor of Louisiana 7,8
First permanent colonization of Arkansas.
6,7
The secret treaty of St. Ildefonso (1801)
7,8
The treaty of Fontainebleau (1762).
8
Arkansas follows the political pendulum.
8
CHAPTER II.
Acquisition of Louisiana by the United States 8
Why the treaty of St. Ildefonso a national secret. 8
Livingston and Monroe negotiate the treaty of Paris. 9
Bonaparte's prophetic declaration when he ceded the vast territory. Population of Louisiana in 1804.
9
Arkansas under the governments of France and Spain.
10
Complication of land titles resulting from the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso.
10, 11
The systems of the common and Roman law compared 11, 12
Commissioners appointed in 1804 to pass on land titles in upper and lower Louisiana
12
Complications growing out of American ignorance of the laws and customs of Spain 12
Translation of these laws by Judge White of Florida, and the
12
unacknowledged aid extended him by his accomplished wife ... First designation of Arkansas as a territorial unit. 13
CHAPTER III.
Customs and habits of the old French and Spanish inhabitants of Louisiana Territory 13
French and Spanish land measure. 13
10
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INDEX.
PAGE.
Town commons.
14
Segregation of the crown lands. 14
Surrender of Louisiana in 1804 to the United States.
Protest of the king of Spain. 15
15
Excitement of the French and Spanish inhabitants. 15
Policy of President Jefferson toward the old inhabitants 15
Labors of the land commission. 16
Land conveyed verbally under the French and Spanish system 16
Settlement of estates under this system
'16
CHAPTER IV.
Indian occupation and extinguishment of their title to the soil. . .. 16
Various treaties with the Indians occupying Arkansas. 17
Boundaries of the Quawpaw lands. 17
Crittenden's treaty at Harrington's.
17
Governor Clark's treaty with the Osages 18
Western boundary line of Arkansas 18
CHAPTER V.
Forms and methods by which land titles were acquired from Spain and France
18
District of Kaskaskia and the Royal India Company. 18
Translation from the Recopilacion 19
Petition to the Baron de Carondelet.
19
Julien Dubuque's settlement on the upper Mississippi 19,20
Baron de Bastrop's settlement on the Ouachita river. 21
Concession of the Ouachita country by the governor-general of
Louisiana to the Baron de Bastrop on the Bayous, Bayou de Lair and Bayou Bartholomew 21, 22
The Marquis de Maison-Rouge's contract with the officers of Spain to colonize the Washita country 23
Approval of the contract by the king. 25
The treasurers of the army and royal chests certify that the con- tract was faithfully executed by Maison-Rouge 25,26
The governor-general defines the boundaries of this grant of thirty leagues to the Marquis. 26
The old French town of Ecore Fabre (now Camden) in this grant. 26,27
Six hundred and forty thousand acres granted to the Baron de Bas- trop in the Washita country 27
Religious toleration conceded 27
Confusion of boundary lines between Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, 28
George and Travis G. Wright. 28
CHAPTER VI.
Synoptical history of Arkansas from 1804 to 1836. 29
The territorial governments of Orleans and Missouri created. 29
The old Spanish parish of Arkansas 29
The territorial government of Missouri cuts off the old Spanish parish and creates several counties 29
INDEX.
551
PAGE.
Territorial government of Arkansas created
29
Provisions for organizing the new government.
30
First officers of the new government.
30
Arkansas Post the capital.
30
Robert Crittenden and Judges Jouett, Scott and Letcher organize the territorial government 30,31
Laws promulgated by the provisional government. 31, 32
Authentication of the first territorial laws.
32
First territorial legislature.
33
William E. Woodruff appointed public printer ..
33
Petition to move the seat of government.
33, 34
Seat of government removed to " The Little Rock "
34 34
The code duello
34 34
Attempt to abolish circuit or district courts
The second territorial legislature
35
The legislature attempts to invade congressional authority 35
35
Third territorial legislature. . .
36
Fourth session
:36
The accession of Adams to the presidency in 1825 ended Governor Miller's official career in Arkansas. 36, 37
Formation of political parties 37
Penalties against duelling repealed 37
Origin of our exemption laws.
37
New counties
37
Judge Bates appointed judge
38
Indian war in south-west Arkansas.
38
John Pope appointed governor of the territory.
38
His administration wise and popular
38,39
First law restraining gambling.
39
County and probate courts established
39
Organic act of the territory amended.
39
Crittenden and Fulton secretaries
39
.The seventh territorial legislature.
39, 40
New apportionment
40
Eighth session of the legislature (1833) .
40
Vote of money to Crittenden for extra services
40
Ninth session convenes in October, 1835, and provides for a consti- tutional convention in January, 1836. . 40,41
Election of first senators in congress, Sevier and Fulton 41
First judges of the supreme court 41
The old Real Estate Bank created
41
CHAPTER VII.
Showing the connection by consanguinity and affinity between the families of the reigning dynasty of Arkansas from 1820 to 1800.
-
New counties created.
Legislative divorces.
552
INDEX.
Statement showing the term of service and the various offices held
PAGE. by this powerful family connection 43, 44
CHAPTER VIII.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE CELEBRATED CONWAY FAMILY:
The history dates back to the reign of Edward I of England in the thirteenth century. 45
Nellie Conway, the mother of President Madison 46
Moncure D. Conway, brother-in-law to General Washington .. - 45
General Henry Conway, an officer in the revolution 45
The Conways and Seviers, pioneers in the settlement of Ten- nessee 46
They intermarry 46
Ann Rector married Tom Conway and became the mother of more distinguished sons than any other matron; her portrait facing page .. . 45
Tom Conway, president of the senate, during the existence of the pseudo State of Franklin. 45
Friendship between General Jackson and the Conways 46
Portrait of Henry W. Conway, facing page 47
Portrait of ex-Gov. James S. Conway, facing page 46
Portrait of Wm. Conway, B., facing page.
49
Portrait of ex-Gov. Elias N. Conway, facing page.
48
Rank of major-general conferred on George Conway. 48
George Conway succeeded by General Jackson 48
HENRY W. CONWAY:
Sketch of his life 47
Inscription on his tomb 47
A soldier under Jackson in the war of 1812 4S
A man of fine abilities - many offices held by him.
48, 49
The duel between Henry W. Conway and Robert Crittenden . 49,50
Death of Conway 50
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GOV. JAS. S. CONWAY:
Elected governor. 51
His administration an unfortunate one .. 52
The line of succession reaches his brother Elias N., who administers it with firmer hand 52
FREDERICK RECTOR CONWAY 52,53
JOHN RECTOR CONWAY.
53
JUDGE WM. CONWAY, B.
53
Ex-Gov. ELIAS N. CONWAY:
Leaving home 54
Arrival in Little Rock 55
The idea of the homestead laws originated with him, and was appropriated by Andrew Johnson. 55,56
Elected governor 56
Successful contest with the bank party 56, 57
553
INDEX.
With him originated our chancery court
57
Judge Fairchild and " Fent. Noland " connected with the ad- ministration 58,59
Railroad system of the State, origin of 58
Historic gallery of paintings 59
JUDGE ANDREW SCOTT:
Family tradition 59
Ancestors' farewell to Scotland. 60
They die, and the children are left orphans on the wave 60
Landed at Castle Garden and apprenticed. 60
Family history - removal to Missouri. 60
Distinguished family connections. 60,61
His duel with and death of Judge Selden 62
Judge Scott kills General Hogan 62,63
SKETCHES CONTRIBUTED BY GENERAL ALBERT PIKE - PREFACE BY HIM. 63, 64
RECOLLECTIONS OF ROBERT CRITTENDEN BY GENERAL PIKE:
General Pike sitting on a jury 66
Estimate of Crittenden's character and ability 66
Death of Crittenden. 66
Letter from Crittenden's widow to the author 66,67
SAMUEL S. HALL, BY GENERAL PIKE:
The quaint, little, old, amusing man. 67
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