USA > Arkansas > The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas > Part 2
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
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
If this definition be correct, then the body we are considering did not possess a single one of these quali- fications. I know that it was asserted at one period with vehement insistence that President Lincoln legalized this movement. He did support the creation of a Provisional government, subservient and auxiliary to the then exist- ing military authority, but never a government of a sovereign and coordinate State of the Union. The fact is that contemporaneously with this movement-at least up to the time of the assembling of the Convention-he was devising a plan for the formation of a provisional government for Arkansas, unaware of the movement then in progress there.
In a letter to Major-General Steele, dated Jan. 5, 1864, he wrote:3 "I wish to afford the people of Arkansas an opportunity of taking the oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, 1863, preparatory to reorganizing a State government there." When this letter was written the Arkansas Convention was in session.
On January 27 he wrote to Major-General Steele : "I have addressed a letter to you and put it in the hands of Mr. Gantt and other Arkansas gentlemen, contain- ing a program of an clection in that State. This letter will be handed you by some of these gentlemen. Since writing it, I see that a Convention in Arkansas, having
25
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
the same general object, has taken some action, which I am afraid may clash somewhat with my program. therefore can do no better than ask you to see Mr. Gantt immediately on his return and with him do what you and he may deem necessary to harmonize the two plans into one, and then put it through with all possible vigor."
February 6 he telegraphed Governor Murphy: "My order to Major-General Steele about an election was made in ignorance of the action your Convention had taken or would take. A subsequent letter directs Gen- eral Steele to aid you in your plans and not to thwart or hinder you. Show this to him."
On February 15, in a telegram to Gen. J. M. Thayer, he used this language :4 "I, having acted in ignorance that the Convention would act, yield to the Convention, and have so notified General Steele, who is master, and is to cut any knots which cannot be untied."
On February 17 he wrote to William M. Fishback: "I have sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four dispatches to you and others, saying that he, Gen- eral Steele, must be master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help the Convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything, and General Steele, com- manding the military and being on the ground, is the best man to be that master. Even now the citizens are tele- graphing me to postpone the election to a later day than either that fixed by the Convention or by me. This dis- cord must be silenced."
On January 29 he wrote to Major-General Steele : "I understand that Congress declines to admit to seats the persons sent as senators and representatives from Arkansas. These persons apprehend that, in conse- quence, you may not support the new State government
26
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
there as you otherwise would. My wish is that you give that Government and the people there the same support that you would if the members had been admitted, be- cause, in no event nor in any view of the case, can this do any harm, while it may be the best you can do toward suppressing the rebellion."
I regret the limited scope of my work does not per- mit a reproduction of all President Lincoln's orders to General Steele and his letters to others relative to the formation of the Murphy government. The foregoing quotations contain his most pertinent expressions concern- ing the questions we are considering, and, I think, clearly show that all he did in the premises was in his military capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the national forces.
Certainly the formation of a government of a sover- eign and coordinate State of the Union, from its incep- tion to completion, is the work of civil authority. In that work the military can take no independent part. In it the military exercise of "mastership," with "power to cut knots which cannot be untied," would certainly be a gross usurpation, but not so under the then existing conditions in the formation of a provisional government, subservient and auxiliary to the military, to aid in the "suppression of the rebellion."
In this connection I present some extracts from the speech of Senator Charles Sumner, delivered in the United States Senate on June 13, 1864, "On the Recog- nition of Arkansas." Among other things he said: "The present organization in Arkansas, seeking representation on this floor, is without that legality of origin required by the American system of Government." "A nete Civil Government, to be recognized as a State of this Union, cannot be born of military power."
Continuing, he said: "True it is that the President put forward a plan for reorganizing a loyal State Gov-
27
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
ernment in the Rebel territory, and he proffered a guar- antee to these communities against domestic violence and rebel invasion, but he neither proposed nor promised any representation in Congress or in the Electoral Col- lege." In the further course of his remarks he said: "It is plain, therefore, that the reorganization contemplated by the President was in its nature provisional."
And again he said: "A handful of persons keeping their loyalty might justly look to the military power for support against a hostile majority. Such a handful might be allowed to set up a local Government for the manage- ment of local affairs, and to assist the National Govern- ment in the work of restoration."
Further on he said: "Besides, the power of the President to institute this Government is only as Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army. It is therefore military in character. But what proceeds out of this is, from the nature of the case, provisional or temporary until it has received the sanction of Congress."
Early in the war the President, in his military ca- pacity, had appointed a military governor for Arkansas and conferred upon him civil duties. Later he abrogated that action, and as late as February 5, 1864, announced to an Arkansas (loyal) delegation, "that he had deter- mined not to appoint a separate Military Governor, but to entrust General Steele, the newly appointed commander of the Department of Arkansas, with both military and civil adminstration of the State."
Having described the origin, composition and char- acter of the Convention, we now come to its work.
Misconceiving its powers, it adopted ordinances as follows: Prohibiting the bringing into the State of free or indentured negroes, annulling all laws that prohibited the education of any class, making it a felony to belong to a company of guerillas, jayhawkers, or bushwhackers;
28
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
authorizing a loan of $150,000, and providing for the organization, by the Governor, of state militia.
On January 20 it ordained a provisional State gov- ernment, consisting of the Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, and Secretary of State, and at the same session these offices were filled by the appointment of Isaac Murphy, C. C. Bliss, and Robert J. T. White.
On January 22 the Convention adopted by an unani- mous vote the State constitution previously in force. with the following most important amendments: the annul- ment of the act of secession, the immediate abolition of slavery, and the complete repudiation of the Confeder- ate debt.
It adopted a schedule providing for an election to be held March 14, 15, and 16, for the adoption or re- jection of the constitution and for the election of State and county officers, a State Legislature and "members of Congress in Districts No. 1 and 2, according to the act approved January 19, 1861." No election was ordered for District No. 3. The Convention recognized the election of Col. James M. Johnson as the represent- ative from that district.
Notwithstanding the failure of the mass meeting method of selecting delegates, the Convention for the forthcoming election based its machinery on the same invalid and impracticable plan.
At the risk of wearying my reader at the outset, I have, with perhaps too much particularity, described the formative processes which led to the installation of the so-called Murphy Government, but I believe it expedient that a complete history be given, as I shall soon describe the fierce and often bloody contentions over the question of the legitimacy of said Government and the power of Congress to provide for its displacement by that of an- other.
29
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
Of its war-time history there is but little of interest to record. Upon its installation it relieved General Steele of the civil functions he had up to that time performed and thus enabled him to concentrate his strictly military efforts toward the "suppression of the rebellion."
Its legislature undertook to fill the two vacant scats in the United States Senate by the election of Elisha Baxter and William M. Fishback, both of whom, it is scarcely necessary to say, were refused admittance by that body. At last the long-drawn-out hostilities between the loyal and disloyal States came to an end, and with it the complete dissolution of the governments of the States that had constituted the Confederacy.
The governing powers at Washington were now con- fronted by the alternatives of the continuance, for the time being, of the Murphy government, or its dissolu- tion and the return of the powers conferred upon it by the military authority to the source from whence they had sprung. It seems to have been the policy of the General Government to give this provisional government a full and fair opportunity to demonstrate its loyalty and good faith.
I shall now pass rapidly on toward the period of actual reconstruction in Arkansas, which commenced with the enactment of the Congressional Reconstruction Measures.
THE CAPTURE OF THE MURPHY GOVERNMENT BY DEMOCRATS
One June day in 1866 my old friend, Col. Willoughby Williams, and I were by accident fellow-passengers on a Mississippi River steamboat,-he on his way to his summer home in Nashville, Tenn., and I on a business trip to Memphis. The Colonel was a citizen of Ten-
30
· THE AFTERMATH OF THE
nessee, but nearly all his business and family interests were in Arkansas, where he passed the greater part of his time. His politics were strictly of the ante-bellum Democratic school.
The day being sultry, we sought the shade of an awning on the hurricane deck, and whiled away the time in the discussion of subjects of mutual concern, as we were both planters on a large scale and, under the new conditions produced by the emancipation of the slaves, "in the same boat." By and by our conversation turned to the Congressional breach between President Johnson and Congress, which as it widened day by day raised correspondingly the hopes and the expecta- tions of the political school to which the Colonel be- longed.
I must acknowledge that in this quarrel at first I was inclined to adopt the views of the President. This the Colonel knew. Hence, reinforced by confidence-produc- ing juleps, he then and there unfolded to me the whole scheme for the restoration of the old slave-holding régime in the State, of which the first and most important step was to secure Democratic representation in Congress from Arkansas. With such representation, "the good people," as he termed his political associates, "would then be able to manage their own affairs to suit themselves."
This end was to be attained through three successive stages : first, through the temporary acceptance of the once hated and despised Murphy Government; second, through Democratic success at the biennial election to be held in August of that year; third, pending the acquire- ment of representation in Congress, the wielding of the powers of the State with such tact and discre- tion as would tend to quiet the suspicions of the Northern people. This, under their scheme, required the adoption of a "make-believe" policy in the putting
---------
31
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
forward of men for United States Senators and Repre- sentatives in Congress who had not been too prominent in the secession movement.
Colonel Williams enlarged upon the advantages of the recognition of the "Murphy Government." It would appeal to the North as an evidence of the acceptance by the ex-Confederates of the situation; while at home Mur- phy would be but a figurehead whose veto could be over- come, if they were successful. The Colonel expressed the hope that by this plan they "would recover by the ballot what they had lost by the sword." This was his exact language ! I have never forgotten it.
I concluded to take no part in their movement but to continue my business activities on my plantation. Hence when a delegation of gentlemen from Pine Bluff waited upon me with a propostion to allow the use of my name as a Democratic candidate for Congress I respectfully declined. Afterwards, when circumstances forced me into the whirlpool of politics and I became Governor of Arkansas, the information imparted to me by Colonel Williams was of the greatest value. It was the lifting of the veil that enabled me to see clearly at all stages the true character of Democratic inwardness.
In due course the biennial election was held, and in accordance with the Colonel's expectations the returns showed that the ex-Confederates had elected, by an over- whelming majority, members of both houses of the Legis- lature and, with a few unimportant exceptions, all the other elective officers.
This election with its official machinery was based upon the re-enactment by the "Murphy Government" of the ante-bellum constitution. For the Republicans to have accepted this usurpation of power would have been to concede the whole contention. Hence, as a general thing, they remained away from the polls. On the other
32
, THE AFTERMATH OF THE
hand, the ballot boxes were thrown wide open, and all the class afterward excluded by the Reconstruction Acts was permitted to vote.
On the 20th day of December, 1866, the Legislature just referred to sent a commission to Washington, D. C., for the alleged purpose of a conference with the Govern- ment of the United States as to the political condition of the country." The real purpose was to gain over, by deceptive representations as to conditions in Arkansas, a sufficient number of wavering Republican Senators and Representatives to secure the admission to both Houses of Congress of their Senatorial and Congressional rep- resentatives. Upon the return of the Commission from Washington, it made a report to the Joint Assembly,6 from which I quote as follows :
"We cannot, however, close this report without en- deavoring to impress upon our fellow-citizens the im- portance, the absolute necessity, of remaining quiet, of preserving good order, and a quiet submission to and a rigid enforcement of the law everywhere within the limits of the State.
"Outrages upon freedmen, violations of law that are permitted to pass unpunished, are reported by 'argus- eyed' letter writers, whose whole stock in trade consists in this morbid desire to foment sectional strife.
"Upon the importance of remaining quiet, orderly, and patient, under the state of things now surrounding us, we have met the following in one of the newspapers published in the city of Memphis, which embodies the views of the committee so fully and expresses them so clearly that we present it as the conclusion of this report:
" 'If there ever was a time in the history of the people when they had everything to gain by being per- fectly quiet and impassive, under the bluster and threats of a certain class of politicians, that time is at hand in the South. There is no provocation which should induce
33
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
them to lose their self-possession and make imprudent or passionate remarks. They should allow the Butlers, the Stevenses, and the Sumners to do all the bullying. They should listen to the violent harangues of these men with perfect equanimity. They should exhibit no antag- onism to these chiefs of crimination against their sec- tion. These men feed upon the responses which their malevolence evokes; not to notice them is to destroy them. They have grown skillful in so shaping their assaults as to bring out the greatest amount of resistance from the South. But when the South ceases to resist, their voca- tion is gone.'
"We wish we could impress this serious truth upon our countrymen. To let them alone is the surest method to break the force of their attacks. Opposition is the life of their policy, and hostility, open and active, builds them up. On the contrary, when they are no longer resisted, they lose all their force and influence. A Mem- phis or New Orleans riot would vitalize their party and prolong its existence. A few inflammatory articles from our newspapers, or speeches from leading men in our midst, would give them a new lease upon political life.
"We must be prudent and cautious if we wish to defeat these practical and cunning antagonists. We must furnish no food for their libels, no pretexts for their assaults; if we do this, they will naturally fall to pieces and divide. There is no cohesion among them but the common desire of remaining in office. This they have obtained by hostility to the South. If we demon- strate by our conduct, our prudence, and our silence that we are pursuing our private interests without detriment to anyone, and that we are determined not to regard the calumnies of our enemies, the great mass of the people of the North will see that these mischief-makers have deceived them, and will change their tone with refer- ence to our people.
"Already we see signs which unmistakably indicate that the radical party is beginning to disintegrate, and
34
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
if the whole people, everywhere in the State, will pre- serve law and order, they will arm themselves with a power which no adversary can resist."
The enactment of the Reconstruction Measures about three months later precipitated a change from their pre- tended policy of peace, quiet, and submission to the ex- treme of insurrection and anarchy that was, alas, too realistic. The part the Ku Klux Klan played in the execution of this last policy I shall fully describe later on.
The Democratic Provisional Legislature was about to reconvene after the passage of the Reconstruction Acts when Byt. Maj .- Gen. E. O. C. Ord, commanding the 4th Military District of Arkansas, directed Governor Murphy to notify the members of the "provisional Legislature" that their reconvening was incompatible with the recent Act of Congress. Against this order the Democratic members of the Legislature protested in the following language :7
"Now, while we, the members of such Legislature, will obey the order of General Ord, and will not attempt to meet again as such Legislature, yet we respectfully but earnestly protest against any legal right or power in General Ord to prevent the meeting of such Legis- lature, and that his order to that effect we claim to be unconstitutional and illegal, as also do we claim the order of Isaac Murphy, based on the request or direction of General Ord as aforesaid. We claim and insist that such Legislature was and is in no sense 'provisional,' but the Legislature of the State of Arkansas, created and elected according to the forms of law and the Con- stitution, and as such has a right to meet at the time to which it adjourned, in July next
This response by the Legislature to General Ord's order clearly showed that it was the policy of the Demo-
35
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
cratic party in Arkansas to adhere to the attitude of the National Democratic Convention, that "we regard the Reconstruction Acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void." 8
The General Government, when it forbade the re- assembling of the Provisional Legislature, could have saved the State from violent conditions leading to blood- shed had it disbanded, forcibly if necessary, the entire Provisional Government and appointed another in its place.
Instead, it slept upon its rights and permitted the "Provisional Government" to organize an insurrection against a sovereign and coordinate State of the American Union, and defiantly to adhere to the exercise of powers that never did belong to it. The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Texas vs. White 9 left the Democratic party without a leg to stand on, but with a record sullied beyond repair.
1620681
ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN ARKANSAS
During all of these occurrences I had taken no part in politics but had devoted my time entirely to my plan- tation. However, my Union sentiments were well known and my Confederate neighbors began to show their an- tagonism to me by the wanton destruction of my prop- erty.
It will be remembered that, from the disclosures of Colonel Willoughby Williams, I was fully aware of their schemes to retain the Government of Arkansas, and I realized that unless some method was found to check their malevolence, a Union man could not live in the State in peace. Hence, I obtained the cooperation of the leading Union men there and a convention was called
36
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
for the purpose of organizing a party in harmony with the General Government.
On April 2, 1867, the Union Convention assembled at Little Rock and nominated a State ticket. During the canvass of the State an amusing incident occurred at Bentonville, Benton County. I was awakened about day- light by a fusillade of fire-arms. Upon inquiring I was told that the citizens were firing off their pistols prepara- tory to cleaning them for the day. Upon this occasion Judge Yonley and myself were the speakers. According to the program he was to make the first speech.
The meeting was held in a large, empty warehouse, with a goods box at one end, from which we were to speak. When Judge Yonley, who was as true as steel but not aggressive, mounted the box he saw in front of him about five or six feet distant a man standing as straight as an Indian. His coat was of a grayish color and was buttoned up to his chin. Strapped around his waist, in full view, were two navy revolvers. In this position he rigidly stood during the whole of Judge Yonley's speech and watched him closely.
The suspicious appearance of the man so disconcerted Yonley that he made a great failure in his speech, from which he endeavored to eliminate everything that might give offense to the other side. I could see the great drops of perspiration rolling down his face as he proceeded. His speech was short and was received in silence by the audience.
When he had finished I mounted the box and deliv- ered my usual speech, but I kept this man in the corner of my eye for I, too. regarded him with suspicion. When I got down from the stand he came up to me and shook hands cordially and remarked: "These damned Rebels said you should not speak here to-day, but, by G-d. I intended that you should !"
---
37
CIVIL WAR, IN ARKANSAS
It was not until the next day that Judge Yonley knew the facts, when I told the story with some harmless em- bellishments, much to the amusement of our audience.
I was very active during the entire canvass and when the State election was held, under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, I was elected Governor of the State.
FOOTNOTES FOR CHAPTER II
1 Pp. 355 and 357.
2 Journal of the Convention, Arkansas, 1864.
3 Complete works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX, pp. 277, 296, 304.
4 Complete works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X, pp. 8, 11, 139.
5 Arkansas Senate Journal, 1866-67, p. 300.
6 Arkansas House Journal, 1866-67, pp. 392-397.
" Arkansas Daily Gazette, extract from editorial, May 18, 1867.
8 Eighth plank of Democratic National Convention, New York, July, 1868, pp. 367-368, McPherson's "History of Recon- struction."
9 P. 166.
38
THE AFTERMATH OF THE
CHAPTER III
MY FIRST MESSAGE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY DELIVERED JULY 3, 1868
A description of conditions then existing and an out- line of my administrative policies were expressed in my first message to the Legislature, which read as follows :1
"FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES : Seven years have elapsed since the last State Legislature convened in these halls,-seven short years compared with the lifetime of a State, yet how long when measured by the amount of human misery that has been condensed within that period! When that body met, peace and plenty reigned everywhere, the granaries of the State were literally overflowing, and that part of the community that controlled its destinies was the favored recipient of wealth and prosperity. Protected and fostered by that government that gave the State existence, defended in every constitutional right. with no disposition to interfere with the institutions of the State, though some of them were manifestly unjust and antagonistic to the spirit of our government, it was surely a strange frenzy that drove the people to cut loose from the safe moorings of the Union and launch out amid the rocks and breakers of rebellion. But how different have the results been from those anticipated! The great blot of human slavery that so long defaced our national escutcheon,-a blot that the statesmen of the past have labored in vain to remove,-has by an overruling Providence been forever wiped out through
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.