USA > Arkansas > The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas > Part 12
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"A proclamation will soon be issued by the Execu- tive proclaiming as outlaws all murderers and despera- does who have yet eluded justice by fleeing from the State and directing all citizens or bodies of citizens to take them dead or alive, if they should attempt to return to the State. Some evils have resulted from the occupancy of counties by martial law to individuals in those coun- ties, but these evils have to a great extent grown out of the adoption of a necessary but very severe remedy which, while it has been of very great good to commu- nities and society at large, has fallen heavily upon some individuals. In some cases unauthorized bands of men, pretending to be militia forces, have committed depre- dations, robbing and plundering citizens indiscriminately, but this evil was checked and stopped altogether in the south and southwestern part of the State by an order . from General Catterson, commanding that district, di- recting the citizens to shoot all men found in such bands acting without authority of the State Government; and still later by an order from the Commander-in-chief to the Sheriffs, directing them to hold all bodies of men passing through their counties who were not subject to military order.
"In this connection it is urged by the Executive that your honorable body establish a Court of Claims to ad- judicate claims arising from the operations of the militia in counties under martial law, and for purchases and supplies in other counties. Said Court to sit for a suf-
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ficient period in each county where martial law has ex- isted and holding a final settlement at the seat of Gov- ernment, being empowered to examine and adjudicate in reference to all supplies taken by the quartermaster and subsistence department, so that those who are properly entitled may receive pay for supplies furnished."
DECISION OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT IN THE CASE OF TEXAS VS. WHITE
At the December term of the United States Supreme Court of 1868 that tribunal, in the case of Texas vs. White, rendered a decision declaring valid the Recon- struction Measures of Congress and the State Govern- ments established thereunder.22 This decision placed the Democratic Party of Arkansas in the indefensible po- sition of having waged a violent and bloody insurrection against the Government of an equal and co-ordinate State of the American Union.
How many lives would have been spared, how much untold suffering would have been avoided, and how much more rapidly the State would have prospered, had the Democratic leaders either awaited or sought the de- cision of the only tribunal that could settle the question, instead of resorting to the violent and insurrectionary proceedings I have described,-proceedings that were based solely upon the opinion of their Party National Convention that "we regard the Reconstruction acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations and uncon- stitutional, revolutionary, and void." 23
A CHARITABLE VIEW OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN IN ARKANSAS
There can be no justification for the original organ- ization of this anarchistic order, but as to the operations of its individual members in Arkansas I am moved by a
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spirit of fairness to say that we should give due con- sideration to the great difference that existed at the close of the Civil War between the conditions of the discharged Union soldiers and those of the Confederates. The for- mer, with good money in their pockets and free trans- portation to their homes, by reason of the diversified industries of the North found all avenues of employment open to them, while the Confederates, on their return home, found themselves subject to the following condi- tions :
They had no money that could be anywhere used for the purchase of the necessaries of life. The labor in the cotton fields was almost exclusively supplied by the freedmen, generally based upon a scale of compensation barely sufficient for the support of themselves and their families. The fact that a very large percentage was un- able to read and write excluded them from employment where such qualifications were absolutely essential. By reason of the non-existence in the South of the varied pursuits open to the Northern soldiers, many Confeder- ates found themselves in a state of enforced idleness, with starvation staring them and their families in the face.
With the return of the Confederate Army came an- other class by no means to be overlooked,-the male descendants of the slaveholders, so graphically described in the following article from the Gazette of January 15, 1867 :
"Misfortunes, it is said, are 'blessings in disguise.' Certainly the disguise is often so complete that we fail to detect the blessing. It is eminently proper, however, that we should endeavor to extract from their bitterness all the lessons of utility and consolation which tend to our improvement and lessen their sting.
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"For many years before the war it was the custom of our large slave-owners to send their sons to school and college, and when their education was completed they were put to some profession, or possibly into some mercantile house, as a mere form, but were never taught to labor. Indeed, it was almost impossible to confine them to any settled business, but with the restlessness pe- culiar to idleness they were found roving from one to another of our cities, stopping at 'crack' hotels, visiting the theatres, race courses, and other places of fashion- able amusement, always well dressed, and always, or nearly always, thoroughbred gentlemen.
"The 'Governor,' or the 'Old man' stayed at home, ran the plantation, 'bossed' the negroes, shipped the cot- ton, sold it, bought a few more 'hands,' and with the bal- ance paid master 'Tom's' or 'Charlie's' debts. In time the 'Old man' was gathered to his fathers, and the boys, having married, divided the negroes and plantation and settled down to live as their fathers before them had lived.
"They never learned to trade or follow any useful pursuit, and their professional studies were carelessly pursued with no intention of ever applying them to practice. But often a succession of bad crops and a few security debts would involve the pater familias, and the plantation and negroes would be swallowed up like a landslide in the Mississippi River, and my lord 'Tom' or 'Charlie' would be thrown upon his own resources for a living. Possessed of a good education, fine address, and handsome person, but with no knowledge of busi- ness or business habits, the poor fellow's prospects would be gloomy indeed.
"How often have we seen young men of the South in whose veins flowed the proudest and best blood of our land become perfect wrecks under such circumstances !"
To restore the political supremacy of the slave-hold- ing power was the purpose of the descendants of the old
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slave-holding aristocracy, and for the advancement of that purpose they employed the most violent and insur- rectionary methods.
A CORRECTION OF A GENERAL MISCONCEPTION OF THE TRUE CAUSE OF SECESSION
Before proceeding further I deem this an appropriate place to call the attention of my readers to what I con- sider a general misconception of the true cause that pro- duced secession and all that followed. Perhaps nine per- sons out of ten, especially in the North, would say it was the apprehensions of the slaveholders that they would lose their slave property and cause the social dis- turbances emancipation would entail. I have never asked a Northern man his opinion on this question that he did not express this view. Slavery unquestionably was a strong adjunct of almost predominating importance, and as handled by the Secessionists it served to consolidate the whole Southern people.
From the time of the compromise that led to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States down to the period of secession nearly a hundred years had elapsed, during which time the slaveholders had domi- nated absolutely the slaves under their control. Hence, it was perfectly natural that the spirit of domination should have grown with their growth and strengthened with their strength. They imbibed it, as it were, with their mothers' milk until they began to consider them- selves as constituting a semi-lordship, superior to other classes of American citizens.
During the period of which I have spoken they domi- nated the Government of the United States and, of course, in their own States they were absolutely supreme. So in- flated were they with the idea of their superiority that
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many of them actually believed that one Southern man could whip five "Yankees," and when their political power was about to be wrested from them they launched into secession for the purpose of establishing a Government which they could unquestionably control.
At the time of secession there was no considerable party in the United States that favored compulsory manu- mission of the slaves. Mr. Lincoln did not favor it, but favored an amendment to the Constitution providing for the gradual abolition of slavery, based upon the consent of the States where it existed, with full compensation for the aggregate value of the emancipated slaves. I refer the reader to his Annual Message to Congress, Decem- ber 1, 1862, published by authority of Congress in "Mes- sages and Papers of the Presidents," Vol. VI, p. 136, as follows :
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America, in Congress as- sembled (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), That the following articles be proposed to the legislatures (or conventions) of the several States as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said legis- latures (or conventions), to be valid as part or parts of the said Constitution, viz. :
"Art. -. Every State wherein slavery now exists which shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before the Ist day of January, A. D. 1900, shall re- ceive compensation from the United States as follows, to wit :
"The President of the United States shall deliver to every such State bonds of the United States bearing in- terest at the rate of - per cent per annum to an amount equal to the aggregate sum of for each slave shown to have been therein by the Eighth Census of the United States, said bonds to be delivered
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to such State by instalments or in one parcel at the com- pletion of the abolishment, accordingly as the same shall have been gradual or at one time within such State; and interest shall begin to run upon any such bonds only from the proper time of its delivery as aforesaid. Any State having received bonds as aforesaid and afterward reintroduced or tolerated slavery therein shall refund to the United States the bonds so received, or the value thereof, and all interest paid thereon.
"Art. --. All slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of the war at any time before the end of the rebellion shall be forever free; but all owners of such who shall not have been disloyal shall be com- pensated for them at the same rates as is provided for States adopting abolishment of slavery, but in such way that no slave shall be twice accounted for.
"Art. -. Congress may appropriate money and otherwise provide for colonizing free colored persons with their own consent at any place or places without the United States."
In this message, on page 137, he used the following language :
"It is no less true for having been often said that the people of the South are not more responsible for the original introduction of this property than are the people of the North; and when it is remembered how unhesi- tatingly we all use cotton and sugar and share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe to say that the South has been more responsible than the North for its continuance. If, then, for a common object this prop- erty is to be sacrificed, is it not just that it be done at a common charge ?"
The final emancipation of the slaves near the close of the war was a war measure, just as one would have liberated a large corral of Confederate horses so that
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they could not be used against you in an impending battle. It was not for the abolition of the slaves, but for the preservation of the Union, that the great mass of the Federal soldiers fought. So I believe we may conclude that the question of Southern political national suprem- acy, and not slavery, was the fundamental cause of se- cession.
The dangers that actually arose at the close of the war from the unemployed ex-Confederate soldiers were forecast with what proved to be almost prophetic vision by Gov. H. Flanigan in his letter to Judge J. J. Clen- denin, one of the three Commissioners he had sent to confer with Gen. J. J. Reynolds, then commanding the District of Arkansas, upon a proposition which might be called "Flanigan's Plan of Reconstruction." He pro- posed to have all the Federal county officers serving under the "Murphy Government" recognized by himself, and all the Confederate county officers serving in the terri- tory controlled by the Confederacy recognized by Rey- nolds. This combination of Federals and Confederates was, according to Flanigan's plan, to call a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of laying the foundation, by the adoption of the new constitution, for the reconstruc- tion of the State.
The ulterior purposes of Governor Flanigan and his friends were too transparent to escape the watchful eye of General Reynolds. The plan revealed an amazing lack of comprehension upon the part of its devisers of the well-established fact that the loser in the great game of war, after it has been played to a finish, must man- fully await the reckoning that is always sure to follow. It seems that Governor Flanigan supposed that with one hand he could lay aside the still smoking musket while with the other he could gather up the reins of govern- ment which he and his secession friends had snapped
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asunder and contemptuously cast aside some four years before.
From the letter referred to, dated May 19, 1865, I quote as follows : 24
"The greatest danger to the quiet and safety of the country (as I suppose) will be from guerilla bands who may be recruited and held together under the pretense that they are defending a valid State Government which did represent a large majority of the people. We shall have many men who will be unfitted for the peaceful avocations of life, and whose morals will not restrain them from violence. An excuse to enlist such will in all probability be used, and although they cannot be trouble- some to the United States, they can destroy the less set- tled parts of the country, unless prevented by all judicial means."
The situation of the returning Confederate soldiers, who were without money or the means of earning it, was indeed desperate, and doubtless drove many of them into the Ku Klux organization, where the disguises and the sworn obligations of the members to protect one an- other under any and all circumstances afforded them op- portunities to indulge safely in brigandage and pillage.
FOOTNOTES FOR CHAPTER VI
1 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 25-26.
2 Federal War Records, Series I, Vol. 48, p. 627.
3 War of Rebellion, 102, Series I, Vol. 48, p. 600.
4 Federal War Records, Series I, Vol. 48, p. 632, letter from Asst. Adjt .- Gen. John Levering to Bvt. Maj .- Gen. F. Salomon, commanding First Division, Seventh Army Corps, post of Little Rock, dated May 27, 1865.
5 General Catterson's statement before Arkansas House of Representatives, January 14, 1869 ; published by the Daily Repub- lican, January 15, 1869.
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6 Pp. 99-102.
7 Daily Republican, September 4, 1868.
8 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 226-227.
9 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, p. 408.
10 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 170-171.
11 Published in Arkansas Gazette, January 26, 1869.
12 Gen. R. G. Shaver, originator of the Ku Klux Klan in Ar- kansas, pp. 59-60.
13 Record of War Department, 20 L, 69.
14 Report of Col. C. H. Smith, November 3, 1868, War Dept., Doc. No. 7-1467, S. A. G. O., 1869.
15 Published in Daily Republican, February 4, 1869.
16 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 173-174.
17 Published in Daily Republican, September 2, 1868.
18 All published in Daily Republican, December 30, 1868. 19 Pp. 150-151.
20 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 226-227.
21 Arkansas House Journal, 1868-69, pp. 732-3-4-5.
22 McPherson's "History of Reconstruction," p. 452.
23 Eighth plank of Democratic National Convention, New York, 1868; McPherson's "History of Reconstruction," pp. 367- 368.
24 Official War Records, Series I, Vol. 48, p. 629.
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CHAPTER VII
MARTIAL LAW IN THE COUNTIES OF CRITTENDEN AND CONWAY NOT PERMANENTLY EFFECTIVE
Of the thirteen counties in which martial law had been proclaimed subsequent events proved that eleven were permanently restored to lawful and peaceful con- ditions. Two were not -- Crittenden and Conway. I deem it expedient to state in detail some of the events upon which I base this assertion, commencing with the county of Crittenden.
MURDER OF CAPT. A. J. HAYNES
On July 16, 1869, C. N. Wilson, Justice of the Peace, wrote me as follows :1
"To HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. POWELL CLAYTON,
"SIR: I have the honor to submit the following re- port of perhaps the most brutal, cowardly, and atrocious murder 'of one more of the men whose only fault was a sincere desire to do his duty and obey the laws of the land' that has ever taken place within the limits of this State.
"Capt. A. J. Haynes was at 6:30 on yesterday shot in the back with buckshot by one Clarence Collier: there were two loads from a double-barrelled gun shot into him. The assassin then, with the fiendishness worthy of a demon, deliberately walked up to where the body of Haynes was lying and fired five more shots into it with an army revolver.
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"This was done in broad daylight and in the presence of three or four persons who made no attempt to stop the shooting, but looked on calmly and dispassionately.
"This murder was premeditated; the murderer had his horse ready, had his well-filled saddle bags slung over the saddle, and when through with his deed of blood he walked to his horse and got on. One of the men in front of the store where the shooting took place handed him his coat.
"I feel deeply this murder. I have been associated with Captain Haynes for years, both in and out of the army, and know him to be as honorable, straightforward a gentleman as it ever has been my good fortune to be- come acquainted with.
"There are to-day desperate characters scattered all through the county, and they mean mischief. Lives of other men have been threatened, and unless there is a vigorous enforcement of justice it is of no use for Union men to live in this county."
In this same connection I quote from a letter from Colonel E. M. Main, under date of February 5, 1910, which reads as follows :
"On the departure of Colonel Watson with the Hel- ena detachment of State troops, the Command of the Sub-military District, with the two Crittenden County companies, was turned over to me. From this time until civil law was restored and the troops disbanded, noth- ing of special interest transpired; our efforts being di- rected to the restoration of peace, harmonizing the dis- cordant factions, and restoring confidence, with, how- ever, but partial success. The unbridled passions in the absence of law had inflicted wounds that only time could heal. The seeds of discord and strife had been sown and a bitter harvest must inevitably follow-and Captain Haynes paid the price with his life. He was shot from behind in the back. I had previously left the county."
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The day thereafter the Memphis Post published the following account of the assassination :2
"DASTARDLY ASSASSINATION
"Another of those most dastardly assassinations of ex-United States officers by rebel desperadoes which have blackened the history of the South so many times since the War occurred last evening at about half past six o'clock, at the little town of Marion, the capital of Crit- tenden County, Ark., which lies across the Mississippi from Memphis. Capt. A. J. Haynes, formerly a gal- lant officer of the Third Colored Cavalry, was shot in the back and instantly killed, without a word of warn- ing, by Clarence Collier. It appears that Captain Haynes had just returned from a trip to Memphis, had stepped out of the hack which runs from Mound City to Marion, dropped into Justice Wilson's office for a moment, and started to walk to his place, a mile or a mile and a half distant. On the best terms with all the citizens of the county, he had no apprehensions of danger. He had, however, barely turned the corner of Mrs. McAllister's when Collier, who had apparently been lying in wait for him, came out from a grocery on the opposite corner of the street. Haynes was leaving, and without a word of warning Collier drew a bead upon him with a double-bar- relled shotgun and fired. The charge took effect in Cap- tain Haynes' left side. The assassin instantly discharged the contents of the second barrel into his back. The Captain fell upon his face a corpse. But the vengeance of the brutal fiend was not satisfied. He advanced toward his prostrate victim and emptied his revolver into his dead body, riddling it with balls. Two lodged in his head. The assassin coolly returned to the grocery whence he issued to do his bloody work, received his coat, it is said, from the hands of Gilbert Dowell, mounted a horse, evidently prepared for the occasion, and rode out of town undisturbed. It is reported that besides Dowell,
2
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John McClung and Captain Chick were in or about the grocery referred to during the assassination. These men are also reported as having left the town as soon as the excitement began to spread. The citizens rushed out on hearing the reports of the shotgun and pistol, but had not recovered from their consternation ere the assassin was beyond their reach. The colored people who were warmly attached to Captain Haynes, some of whom had served with him in the army, frenzied with rage, seized any arms at hand, mounted themselves as best they could and followed the trail of the murderer. They were out all night and are still hunting him in the cane-brake in the southern part of the county. The sheriff gathered a posse, armed them, mounted them, and started for the river, expecting that Collier would attempt to effect a crossing to this side of the Mississippi. The county is on the alert and apparently sincere in its determina- tion that the cold-blooded murderer shall not go unpun- ished. Parties from Jones' Landing, a small place about twenty-five miles below Memphis, on the Arkansas shore, report Collier as passing there on a jaded horse about ten o'clock last night.
"Clarence Collier, the assassin, is a young man about twenty-one years of age, slim build, weighing about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, with black hair, dark eyebrows, and a small dark mustache. As young as he is, it is said that he has killed no less than five men. It will be remembered that young Bethel, a son of our well- known citizen, R. C. Bethel, was killed by him a vear or so ago. We are informed that Haynes and Collier had never had any hard words. Collier, having been connected with the Ku Klux, as alleged, fled from the county; when the militia left he returned and assured Haynes that he had returned to live peaceably with all men. The relations between them are understood to have been of an entirely friendly character. Indeed. we are assured that Captain Haynes was living on apparently the most friendly terms with all the citizens of the county.
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He interfered with no one, and since the advent of the militia was molested or threatened by no one."
To show the vindictive spirit and mendacity of the anti-reconstruction newspapers of Memphis, Tenn., I quote as follows from the Memphis Appeal, of July 17, 1869:3
"About half past five o'clock Thursday evening a rencontre occurred on Front Street, Marion, Ark., be- tween Captain Haynes, the late infamous commander of Clayton's militia, and Clarence Collier, which resulted in the death of Haynes. The affair is thus described by an eye witness :
"Collier was in McClung's grocery, where he had previously left his double-barrelled gun. He had been fishing in the morning and had not caught any fish, and expressed a determination to go squirrel hunting. Tak- ing his gun, which had been loaded with buckshot for some time, he started out of the grocery and walked toward his horse, which was hitched a short distance off, remarking as he did so, that if he 'could not catch any fish he intended to have some squirrels.' He had hardly said that when he encountered Haynes, who was walking down the street. As soon as Haynes saw him he stopped and put his hand behind him as if to draw a pistol, a habit of his, by the way, whenever he met any young men, several of whom (and Clarence among the num- ber) he had recently threatened to shoot at sight. As soon as he observed this motion of Haynes', Clarence dropped his gun to a level and fired, pouring a load of buckshot into his left side. Haynes did not fall, although terribly wounded, but turned and faced Collier .- still at- tempting to draw his pistol. As he did so Collier poured the other load of buckshot into his breast and body, and he fell to the earth calling for help. Collier, on this, took his gun, which was now empty, in his left hand, and drew his pistol, being five or six paces from Haynes, and
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