USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. III > Part 28
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was, wrote Judge Witter, "of princely presence, and of noble physique-a true type of the southern gentleman of the old school." Secretary Crittenden had sought the governorship and his claim to it because of his splendid record as acting governor had been urged unavailingly by Mr. Conway. Mr. Crittenden was reappointed territorial secretary and ably filled the office until 1829, ten years after his original appointment to it.
The fourth territorial legislature was held October 3 to Novem- ber 3, 1825. Council : President-Jacob Barkman ; secretary- Thomas W. Newton; Arkansas county, B. Harrington ; Clark, Jacob Barkman; Crawford, William Quarles; Hempstead, D. T. Witter ; Independence, J. Jeffrey ; Lawrence, J. M. M. Kuykendall; Phillips, J. W. Calvert; Pulaski, A. S. Walker. House of represen- tatives: Speaker-Robert Bean; clerk-David Barber, Arkansas county, Wm. Montgomery ; Clark, John Callaway; Crawford, john Nicks : Hempstead, John Wilson ; Independence, Robt. Bean; Lawrence, John Haynes ; Phillips, 11. L. Biscoe; Pulaski, A. H. Sevier.
Conway county was created October 20, 1825; Crittenden county, October 22, 1825; and Izard county, October 27, 1825, thus perpetuating in the nomenclature of Arkansas the names of three of its useful and eminent carly citizens. It is said that Gov- ernor Izard erased the final s from the name of the territory before signing any document on which the impertinent and stubborn letter was printed or written and that he signalized the early part of his administration by refusing to sign legislative enactments granting divorces and was influential in diverting such business from the legislature to the courts. Governor Izard and Secretary Crittenden did not get on well together, a coolness which began between them soon after the former was seated was intensified by an acrimonious newspaper controversy ; the public took sides and two parties arose, at the head of one of which was Mr. Crittenden, Henry W. Conway heading the other. Thus began the umfortu- nate opposition of these two men to each other, which grew more offensive when in 1827 Mr. Crittenden espoused the candidacy of Robert C. Oden for delegate to congress as against that of Mr. Conway, who was re-elected. October 29, that year, under the provisions of the dueling code then in vogue in the Southern states, Messrs. Crittenden and Conway met on the field of honor in Mississippi opposite the mouth of the White river, and Mr. Con- way fell mortally wounded. A few weeks before, at Point Remove (on Cherokee land) shots had been exchanged, without injury to either, between Ambrose II. Sevier who now soon became
ARKANSAS, AS A TERRITORY. 283
Mr. Conway's successor in congress, and Thomas W. Newton, In cause of complications growing out of a newspaper contribu- tion attacking Mr. Conway, that was written by Mr. Newton and was publicly condemned by Air. Sevier. Before the first anniver- sary of the birth of the territory, on Choctaw land near Arkansas Post, Colonel Oden had himself fought a pistol duel arising from a most trivial affair, with Col. William O. Allen, in which he had been slightly and his antagonist mortally wounded. Colonel Oden is said by Pope in "Early Days in Arkansas," to have been the second of Judge Joseph Selden in the latter's fatal encounter with Judge Andrew Scott, across the Mississippi from Montgom- ery's Point, in 1820. An abrupt and disputatious, but not inten- tionally insulting, remark made by Judge Selden to a lady who was Judge Scott's partner in a game of cards against Judge Sel- den and a second lady, at the home of one of the ladies at Arkan- sas Post, had mortified the lady to whom it had been addressed. Judge Scott had demanded that Judge Selden offer her an apol- ogy, and Judge Selden had done so through Judge Scott. There the matter might have ended had it not been for the officions inter- meddling of others. One exchange of shots resulted in the death of Judge Selden. Judge Andrew Scott, a Whig, was a candidate against Colonel Sevier, a Democrat, for election as delegate to congress to succeed Mr. Conway, and at the same time Gen. Edmund Hogan, a pioneer, a man of influence and a warm sup- porter of the candidacy of Colonel Sevier was a Democratic candidate for member of assembly. The Rev. James W. Moore, an early preacher at Little Rock, made this entry in his diary, May 31, 1828: "This afternoon, in this town, in the billiard room, General Hogan and Judge Scott (brother of the marshal) quarreled. Hogan knocked Scott down with his fist. Scott, as he arose, drew the dirk from his cane and stabbed Hogan in the breast. Hogan expired in a few minutes." General Hogan is said to have weighed 250 to 300 pounds and to have been dictatorial and belligerent. Judge Scott, who weighed only about 130, gave himself up to the marshal, was taken before a justice, plead self- defense and was released. In Arkansas, as elsewhere in the United States, men of all classes concur in the opinion that the abolition of "the code" was righteous. Dueling was the out- growth of social and political conditions that, happily, no longer exist. In Arkansas it never assumed phases or proportions more reprehensible than those that characterized it in some of her sister states. There was an ending of another tragedy-there was further canse for excitement-at Little Rock on that last day of May, 1828. One Strickland, a soldier from Fort Gibson, was
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hanged about a mile from the town for the brutal murder of a comrade named Ducon. That was the first judicial hanging in the territory.
March 2, 1827, congress granted twenty sections of land to the. territory with the provision that all proceeds from the tract should be used for the establishment in Arkansas of an educational semi- mary. The fifth territorial legislature was held October I to 31, 1877. Council : President-D. T. Witter ; secretary-Thomas W. Newton; Arkansas county, T. Farrelly ; Chicot, John Weir ; Clark, 1. Pennington ; Conway, A. Kuykendall; Crawford, John Dillard; Crittenden, G. C. Barfield; Hempstead, D. T. Witter ; Independ- ence, D. Litchfield; Izard, Jacob Wolf; Lawrence, William Humphreys ; Miller, J. H. Fowler; Phillips, E. T. Clark ; Pulaski, Edward Hogan. House of representatives: Speaker-A. II. Sevier ; clerk-Andrew Roane; Arkansas and Chicot counties, W. Montgomery ; Clark, Joseph Hardin ; Conway and Pulaski, A. H. Sevier; Crawford, Mark Bean; Crittenden and Phillips, John Johnson; Hempstead, John Wilson; Independence and Izard, J. Ringgold; Lawrence, G. S. Hudspeth; Miller, James Clark. This legislature created St. Francis and Lovely counties October 13, 1827, and Lafayette county October 15, 1827. A special session was held October 6 to 28, 1828. E. T. Clark was president of the council; John Clark, secretary. John Wilson was speaker of the house and Daniel Ringo clerk. Lovely county was abol- ished October 17, 1828, and on the same day Sevier and Washing- ton counties were created. The territory of Lovely county had been lost to Arkansas through the Cherokee treaty of that year. Nothing further of general interest was accomplished by the legis- lature at this session except the division of the territory into four judicial circuits, congress having provided for the appointment of a fourth judge of the superior court: First circuit-Clark, Miller, Sevier, Hempstead and Lafayette counties, William Trimble judge; second circuit-Conway, Crawford, Pulaski and Washing- ton counties, Benjamin Johnson judge ; third circuit-Izard, Law- rence and Independence counties, Thomas P. Eskridge judge; fourth circuit-Phillips, St. Francis, Arkansas and Crittenden counties, James Woodson Bates judge. These circuits were unchanged during the after existence of the territory.
On January 24, 1828, Captain Pennywit brought to Little Rock the Facility, the first steamboat to ascend the Arkansas river. As the year neared its end, Governor Izard died, and until Governor Pope succeeded him by appointment of President Jackson, guber- natorial responsibility again devolved upon Secretary Crittenden.
Traveling Protestant preachers appeared in Arkansas about
1
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1810. The Rev. John Carnahan, Cumberland Presbyterian, preached at Arkansas Post in 1811. Four years later Methodists organized Spring River circuit and in 1816 they built and wor- shiped in Henry's chapel at Mound Prairie. In four years more, the Pecan Point, Hot Springs, Arkansas and White River circuits had been organized and the number of white Methodists in the territory was 511, the number of colored Methodists 25. In 1820, the Rev. Cephas Washburn, Congregationalist, preached in a primitive building which had only one neighboring building, at Little Rock to a few men and no women. Under the auspices of the American Board of Foreign Missions, he was then en route to establish the Dwight mission. In 1825, the Baptists built a log meeting house on Third street between Main and Scott streets. That was the first church at Little Rock. Not long afterward the Presbyterians built a log church there which they permitted the Methodists to use. Later the Methodists worshiped in a ware- house till 1833, when they built a plain little brick church on Second street between Main and Louisiana streets. Soon after . 1830, the Christians were organizing societies in the territory. An influence was at work which was destined to produce incalculable results for good; but, beneficent as it was, it was not soon to be felt in the political life of the territory. In 1827 partisanship began to divide the people. "Up to 1825," says Hempstead, "there had been the utmost harmony in all directions. At that date little bick- erings began to arise which were augmented by concurring events until they obtained such full headway as to produce the utmost discord and distraction and which even resulted in bloodshed." Colonel Sevier was rising to political power. He was repeatedly re-elected to congress, serving until 1836; and then, and again in 1842, he was elected to the United States senate. He was laboring ably and successfully for the material development of the territory, was personally popular, was a logical and effective speaker and at the polls he was long invincible. As a leader, he had succeeded Mr. Conway, and pitted against him was Robert Crittenden, Mr. Con- way's and Governor Izard's old opponent. As party names, "Crittenden men" and "Sevier men" were in everybody's mouths. It is to be believed that both Mr. Crittenden and Colonel Sevier deplored this. In 1833, on becoming a candidate for congress, as a Whig, against Colonel Sevier, Democrat, Mr. Crittenden said : "When Governor Izard reached here in 1825 we had been six years a territory, yet up to that time no party spirit had distracted our country. We might then have challenged the Union to show a more united or harmonious people. We were then one, and recognized a common interest. No newspaper scribblers had then
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been found hardy enough to hint at discord, or those party feuds and conflicts which have since distracted us at home and sunk us in the estimation of the good and virtuous abroad." This bitter party feeling invaded the church and the home circle. It had not been induced by the acts or words of any one man.
John Pope, the third governor of Arkansas territory, was a Democrat of Democrats. Though John Quincy Adams was his brother-in-law, he voted for General Jackson in 1824 and in 1828 electioneered for Jackson in Kentucky and Virginia. As a man he was pure and honest. As a public official he put the interest of the state above all private concerns. He was the first governor of Arkansas who came with his family, his servants and his port- able belongings, to live in Arkansas. He was then about fifty-five years old. He established his home in a one-story four-room brick cottage at Louisiana and Second streets, Little Rock. He liked Arkansas and her people. "In justice to the people of this terri- tory," he said, "I declare in the face of the world, and on the responsibility of my public and private character, that among no people with whom I am acquainted are the ordinary offenses against the property and peace of society less frequent; stealing and robbery are rare; nowhere are the moral and social relations maintained with more fidelity and even the black population seem to acquire a laudable pride and elevation of character the moment they breathe the Arkansas atmosphere." Born in Westmoreland county, Va., in 1770, he began the practice of law in Lexing- ton, Ky., at twenty-four, and was soon influential politically, and in 1806 was elected to the United States senate. He was appointed governor of Arkansas in 1829 and again in 1832. In 1835 he went back to Kentucky and was unsuccessful in a race for congress against Ben Hardin. He was elected, however, in 1838, and in 1840. He died in 1844.
May 21, 1829, William S. Fulton, of Alabama, succeeded Mr. Crittenden as secretary of the territory and was acting governor until the arrival of Governor Pope, before the end of the month. The new governor entered most seriously into a study of such problems as confronted him. He early brought about the trans- portation of mails between Little Rock and Memphis by steam- ers, doing away with a primitive overland route. In Angust, 1820, an election for delegate to congress resulted in 2,061 votes for Ambrose II. Sevier and 1,756 for Richard Searcy. Colonel Sevier liad already filled the unexpired term of Henry W. Conway. The sixth territorial legislature was held October 5 to November 21, 1820. Council: President-Chas. Caldwell ; secretary --- John Cald- well; Arkansas county, T. Farrelly ; Chicot, John Weir: Clark,
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David Fish; Conway, A. Kuykendall; Crawford, Gilbert Mar- shall; Crittenden, G. C. Barfiekl; Hempstead, George Ilill; Independence, Aaron Gillett; Izard, Jacob Wolf; Lafayette, J. Douglass; Lawrence, C. Stubblefield; Miller, G. T. Lawton ; Phillips, F. Hanks; Pulaski, Charles Caldwell; Sevier, Benjamin Patton; St. Francis, John Johnson; Washington, James Billings- ley. House of representatives: Speaker-John Wilson; clerk- Daniel Ringo; Arkansas county, Wm. Montgomery ; Chicot, B. L. Miles; Clark, John Speer, Jos. Hardin; Crawford, Mark Bean, J. L. Cravens and R. C. S. Brown; Crittenden, W. D. Ferguson ; Hempstead, J. Wilson and E. King; Independence, C. M. Manley and C. McArthur; Izard, Robert Livingston; Lafayette, James Burnsides ; Lawrence, George Hudspeth and John Rodney; Miller and Sevier, James Clark; Phillips, E. T. Clark; Pulaski, A. S. Walker and W. Rector; St. Francis, W. W. Elliott; Washington, John Alexander. In accordance with a recommendation in a mes- sage to this body from Governor Pope, it enacted a law providing for the election of officers after December first, as required by the act of congress authorizing elections by the people. On Novem- ber 2, 1829, this legislature erected Pope, Hot Spring, Union, Monroe and Jefferson counties, and three days later it erected Jackson county. Settlement was rapid in 1830. The census of that year showed a population of 30,388, an increase of 16,104 in ten years, divided as follows between the twenty-three counties then in existence: Arkansas, 1,426; Chicot, 1,165; Clark, 1,369; Conway, 982; Crawford, 2,440; Crittenden, 1,272; Hempstead, 2,506; Hot Spring, 458; Independence, 2,032; Izard, 1,266; Jackson, 333; Jefferson, 772; Lafayette, 748; Lawrence, 2,806; Miller, 358; Monroe, 461; Phillips, 1,152; Pope, 1,483; Pulaski, 2,390; St. Francis, 1,805; Sevier, 634; Union, 640; Washington, 2,182. The colored population of the territory was 4,710. The survey of the boundary line between Arkansas and Louisiana, by William Pelham of Batesville and James S. Conway of Lafayette county, on the part of Arkansas, and R. A. Crane of Alexandria, La., on the part of Louisiana, was begun November 1, 1830, and ended January 30, 1831. This survey was made in compliance with the requirements of a congressional act passed May 19, 1828. March 31, 1830, Charles P. Bertrand issued, at Little Rock, the initial number of The Advocate, a news- paper claiming to be "Republican in politics" and which was rec- ognized as the organ of the territorial party in sympathy with the "national republicans." Arkansas having then no influence in presidential elections, the newspaper's political activity was restricted to local matters. The politics of the time was almost
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inconceivably partisan and bitter, the newspaper controversies over public men and affairs were fiercely personal. Until 1835, when Mr. Bertrand sold The Advocate to Albert Pike, the inky warfare between the Whig Advocate and the Democratic Gasette was picturesquely strenuous. Out of an article in The Advocate attacking Governor Pope and another reflecting on Maj. William Fontaine Pope, the governor's nephew, both written by C. F. M. Noland, a Virginian who had settled at Batesville, grew a duel between the two young men, at Lost Prairie, Miller county, Febru- ary 5, 1831, in which Major Pope was mortally wounded. Governor Pope tried vainly to prevent this meeting. Red river was first navigated above the raft June 29, 1831.
The seventh territorial legislature was held October 3 to November 7, 1831. Council : President-Charles Caldwell ; secre- tary-Absalom Fowler; Arkansas county, T. Farrelly; Chicot, WV. B. Patton ; Clark, M. Collins; Conway, R. J. Blount; Craw- ford, Robert Sinclair; Crittenden, E. 11. Bridges; Hempstead, D. T. Witter ; Hot Spring, John Wells; Independence, James Bos- well; Izard, Jacob Wolf; Jackson, R. Tidwell; Jefferson, W. P. Hackett ; Lafayette, Jesse Douglass; Lawrence, David Orr; Mon- roe, William Ingram; Phillips, J. H. Mckenzie; Pope, Isaac Hughes; Pulaski, Charles Caldwell; Sevier, B. G. H. Hartfield; St. Francis, G. B. Lincieum; Union, I. Pennington ; Washington, Robert McCamy. House of representatives: Speaker-William Trimble : clerk-G. W. Ferebee; Arkansas county, 11. Stillwell; Chicot, John Gibson; Clark, John Wilson; Conway and Hot Spring, N. Menifee; Crawford, C. Wolf and R. C. S. Brown; Crittenden, James Livingston ; Hempstead, W. Trimble and T. N. Scott; Jefferson, N. Holland; Independence and Jackson, Mlorgan Magness and C. S. Manley ; Izard, Fred Talbott ; Lawrence, G. S. Hudspeth and Robert Smith; Miller and Sevier, John Clark ; Phillips, T. Hanks; Pulaski, S. M. Rutherford and P. T. Crutch- field; Pope, Andrew Scott; St. Francis and Monroe, S. W. Cal- vert and S. Fillingin ; Washington, James Pope and A. Whinnery. "In politics, the Crittenden men were in the majority in this body," says Hempstead, "for, although on the congressional issue Sevier had been elected, yet dividing on local issues and personal popu- larity, a majority had been chosen who were the other way " On the last day of the session, Little Rock was incorporated, and it was the first town in Arkansas to be so distinguished. By an act of congress, March 2, 1831, ten sections of land (to be selected by the legislature) were given to the territory upon which to raise money to build a statehouse, and the expenses of the legislature were made a charge upon the national, instead of the territorial
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treasury. This legislature passed a bill authorizing the exchange of these ten unlocated sections of land for a brick residence and a small brick office on the same lot, on Seventh street between Scott and Cumberland streets -- the first brick buildings in Little Rock- which Robert Crittenden had built four years before. For reasons which he deemed good and sufficient, and in the public interest, Governor Pope vetoed this bill, and his action so incensed those who had secured its passage that they petitioned congress for his removal from office. That body delegated to the governor exclu- sive authority to select and sell the land and build a capitol. In 1833 the land sold for thirty-one thousand seven hundred twenty- two dollars, Mr. Crittenden's residence for six thousand seven hundred dollars. This difficulty really retarded the construction of much needed public buildings, and, when it was generally understood in all its hearings, the people approved the governor's action. The circuit court had never had any but temporary quar- ters and, as Hempstead states, "had frequently to sit in the depth of winter in miserable hovels destitute of every comfort." The office of the clerk of the courts had no place except in his house or boarding place. The territorial auditor and treasurer had no bet- ter ones. As long as he was secretary, Mr. Crittenden kept the governor's and secretary's records in his house and personal office. Mr. Fulton sheltered them first in a frame structure not larger than fifteen fect by fifteen, which was attached to his house on the east side of Scott street, between Third and Fourth streets, and was the office in common of the governor, the secretary and the clerk of the superior court. Pope says that for a time the execu- tive office was in a three-room brick building on Markham street, which belonged to Colonel Ashley and was near his residence. The front room was the postoffice, the two other rooms were the governor's. Early in the history of the territorial govern- ment at Little Rock, a cheap one-story frame building contain- ing two rooms, each about twenty feet by twenty and separated by a hall, was erected on the block now bounded by Main, Scott, Fifth and Sixth streets; and in that unfurnished makeshift for a territorial capitol the legislature held its biennial sessions. These accommodations are characterized by Hempstead as "insuf- ficient and altogether abominable." Ile adds that "when the legislature of 1829 assembled, the first day of the session was one of excessive rain, and as Hon. Edward Cross, judge of the superior court, stood in the legislature to administer the oath to members he was quite drenched with rain which fell upon his head and saturated not only his clothing but the credentials of the members as they were presented-so bad was the roof."
III-19
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In the fall of 1832 some 7,000 Choctaws and Chickasaws, accompanied by government officials and surgeons,passed through Little Rock on their way to Indian territory. Though the citi- zens had been put on their guard, these Indians stole many things in the town. The men wore only breechclouts, leggins and moccasins. The squaws rode ponies astride and some of them had papooses hanging on their backs in blankets. "These two tribes," says Pope, "were attended by their principal chiefs, Pittman Colbert, a French-Chickasaw halfbreed, and Greenwood Le Flore, a French-Choctaw halfbreed. These men were well educated and had considerable refinement. They were very wealthy and traveled in great style and comfort, having large, roomy carriages and numerous baggage wagons and large num- bers of negro slaves. Their state and authority resembled those of the patriarchs of old. They were looked up to as the fathers of their people, whose word was law." Soon afterward, about 13,000 Cherokee, Choctaws and Seminole Indians were driven across Arkansas by United States officers and soldiers, who had charge of their removal from old reservations east of the Mis- sissippi to new ones in Indian territory. In these days, droves of cattle are not treated as brutally and unfeelingly as were those tired, sick and homeless travelers. They contracted chol- era, and many of them died by the wayside. No time was per- mitted to the living to bury their dead. The bodies were covered only with leaves and twigs. These scarcely kept off the vultures, thousands of which followed the party, and were no barrier against wolves and other ravenous animals which soon scattered the bones of the dead in all directions. Money paid by the gov- ernment for the proper and humane removal of these Indians went to enrich contractors who literally starved some of them to death. Some of those who survived obtained food only by selling all they possessed to unscrupulous purchasers. In many instances good horses brought only two or three dollars, but to the ill and famished Indian it was not a question of profit but one of life or death. These Indians were not permitted to come to Little Rock, but crossed the river several miles below and reached the military road via Fourche. The cholera thus brought to Arkansas pre- vailed to some extent among its people, not a few of whom suc- cumbed to it. Many Creeks under chiefs Rolla and Chilley, passed westward in 1833; the Seminoles, with other Creeks 1834-39. Creeks from Alabama and Mississippi and Cherokees from Georgia and North Carolina were brought up the Arkansas. Warned by early experiences, the government employed boats in the removal of many Indians.
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