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 29
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In January, 1832, congress donated 1,000 acres of public land, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the erection of a jail and courthouse for l'ulaski county. This land was sold, for the territory, by Governor Pope, for twenty thousand dollars. This fund, except a small sum, which with an appropriation by the county court was used to erect a jail, became a part of the state- house fund. In that year also, congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars to be expended under direction of the governor to construct a road from Little Rock to Memphis. In December it created the office of territorial surveyor-general, and James S. Conway was appointed surveyor of public lands, and in January, 1833, opened his office at Little Rock. In 1832 partisan zeal and political animosity led to an abortive attempt to impeach Judge Benjamin Johnson, then in his twelfth year on the superior court bench, who was continued in his high office nearly eighteen years thereafter. About this time, on different dates, Little Rock was visited by Gen. Sam Houston and by Washington Irving and . l'rof. James Audubon. In May, 1833, a semi-weekly mail was established over the Little Rock and Memphis road. This was rendered possible by a congressional appropriation for the improvement of that part of the road between the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers. During that month rain fell copiously and almost constantly. The rivers rose twenty to thirty feet, in places submerging fifteen feet of the trunks of trees in the bottoms. Many lives were lost, stock was drowned, houses and ontbuild- ings were carried away, crops were ruined and plantations were devastated. In July the publication of the Helena Herald, the third newspaper in the territory was begun by Messrs. Steele, Smith and Lindsay, Col. John W. Steele was its editor. That year Mr. Crittenden and Colonel Sevier engaged in the most exciting congressional campaign in the history of the territory. At the election, in Angust, Colonel Sevier received 4,476 votes, Mr. Crittenden 2,520. Colonel Sevier was then about thirty-two years old, Mr. Crittenden about thirty-five.
The eighth territorial legislature was held October 7 to Novem- ber 16, 1833, in a one-story frame building at Main and Third streets, Little Rock. This structure was about twenty by eighty feet in area and contained two twenty by twenty-foot rooms and one twenty by forty-foot room, the latter made by the removal of a partition. The assembly met in the large room, the council in one of the smaller ones. Rooms in a shed leanto were used by committees. Comeil: President-John Williamson ; secretary -- Wm. F. Yeoman; Arkansas county, T. Farrelly; Chicot, Thos.
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Anderson; Clark, Asa Thompson; Conway, A. Kuykendall; Crawford, Robert Sinclair; Crittenden, W. W. Elliott; Hemp- stead, J. W. Judkins; Hot Spring, J. L. T. Calloway ; Independ- ence, James Boswell; Izard, Jacob Wolf; Jackson, R. Tidwell; Jefferson, J. II. Caldwell ; Lafayette, G. G. Duty ; Lawrence, T. II. Ficklin ; Miller, James Clark; Monroe, L. Jones ; Phillips, W. T. Moore; Pope, John Williamson; Pulaski, Allen Martin; Sevier, J. W. M. Hare; St. Francis, C. H. Alexander; Union, Hiram Smith; Washington, Mark Bean. House of representatives : Speaker-John Wilson; clerk-James B. Keatts; Arkansas county, Il. Stillwell; Chicot and Union, T. J. Thurmond ; Clark, John Wilson; Conway, J. C. Roberts; Crawford, William Whit- son and B. H. Martin ; Crittenden, ( record incomplete ) ; Hemp- stead, Wm. Shaw and H. Burt; Hot Spring and Sevier, John Clark; Independence, Peyton Tucker and Morgan Magness; Izard, Hugh Tinnin ; Jefferson, I. Bogy; Lafayette and Miller, Jacob Buzzard; Lawrence, G. S. Hudspeth and J. B. Hammond; Phillips, M. Hanks; Pope, W. Garrett; Pulaski, S. M. Ruther- ford and R. C. Bird; St. Francis, Jackson and Monroe, J. C. Saylor and John Hill; Washington, J. B. Dixon, J. Reagan, J. Alexander and J. Byrnsides. This legislature created Pike, Carroll and Mississippi counties November 1, 1833, and Scott and Green counties November 5. At Little Rock in December, 1833, appeared the Political Intelligencer, a Democratic paper supporting the terri- torial administration. Its editor was Col. John W. Steele, who had recently edited the new paper at Helena; its publisher was Andrew J. Hunt. Before this time, the public printing had been transferred from the Gazette to the Advocate. In 1834, settle- ment was advancing rapidly and river navigation and road con- structon had grown into paramount importance. Colonel Sevier, who had already secured a government appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars for river improvement, secured forty thousand dollars for the improvement of the Arkansas river and fifty thou- sand dollars for the improvement of the Red river, besides one hundred sixty thousand dollars for the Little Rock-Memphis road, to improve that portion between the St. Francis river and Memphis, twenty thousand dollars for a road from Jackson to the Red river and ten thousand dollars for a road from Little Rock to Columbia. In August, 1834, Capt. H. M. Shreve, the inventor of a boat fitted up with appliances for the removal of snags from rivers, brought a fleet of his "snag-boats" up the Arkansas and accomplished so much for the improvement of that river that he was banqueted at Little Rock by many of the prominent men of
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the territory. An overflow of the Red river in February, 1834, caused a considerable loss of life and the destruction of most of the improvements in that valley. The river rose fifteen feet in a day ; men, women and children saved their lives only by climb- ing trees, from which they were taken by passing steamers. Congress appropriated three thousand dollars to pay the expense of compiling and printing a digest of the territorial laws, and Governor Pope brought upon himself much censure by letting the contract for the compilation and manufacture of the book to John W. Steele, a lawyer and the editor of the Political Intelli- gencer, who, for the privilege of publishing and selling the digest, engaged to deliver 600 complete copies to the territory without charge, which he did early in 1835. The basis of the book was a digest compiled by James McCampbell, of Jackson county, an old lawyer, who had been trying two years to issue it by subscrip- tion. Ex-Sec'y Robert Crittenden died in Mississippi Decem- ber 18, 1834, aged about thirty-seven. The son of a revolutionary soldier, at the age of sixteen he entered the United States army as an ensign and served under Capt. Ben Desha until the close of the war of 1812. He read law with his brother, Jolin J. Crit- tenden of Kentucky, and, though chiefly self educated, was a man of wide information and great talent for public affairs. As an orator he was probably the peer of any Arkansan either before or since his time.
On March 9, 1835, President Jackson appointed William S. Fulton fourth governor of Arkansas territory. Lewis Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's grandson, succeeded Mr. Fulton as secretary of the territory and entered upon the duties of the office May 12. William Savin Fulton was born in Cecil county, Md., June 2, 1795, and was about forty years old when he succeeded Governor Pope whom for six years he had assisted in an administration which was honest and patriotic and in most respects wise, and whose place he had filled, as acting governor, during Governor Pope's temporary absence in Kentucky in 1832. In the Creek war and in the war of 1812-14, he had been an aide on General Jack- son's staff. He was admitted to the bar and, while yet a young man, went to Florence, Ala., where he edited the Florence Gasette, which brought Jackson into prominence as a presidential candidate in 1824. He was living at Florence when he was appointed secretary of Arkansas territory. He was governor until Arkansas was admitted into the Union; afterward he was United States senator until his death, August 15, 1844. In 1835 the population of the territory was 51,809, an increase of 21,421
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since 1830. The colored population was 9,838. In August Colonel Sevier was for the fifth time elected to congress. The Texan revolution was now in progress, and two parties of young men went from Little Rock to fight for the patriot cause; David Crockett, en route for the seat of hostilities, was dined at Jeffries' hotel; Benjamin R. Milam, from Lost Prairie, was slain in the assault on San Antonio; Arkansans were killed at San Jacinto. A three days' barbecue on the plantation of John Bowie below Helena, in encouragement of the Texan republic, was a memora- ble Arkansas gathering of territorial days. It resulted in the recruiting of several companies to aid the Texans. Governor Fulton, fearful that Mexicans and Indians would unite in an attack on the Arkansas frontier, sent six companies of volunteers to protect it.
The ninth and last territorial legislature was held in the old Henderliter or Thorn house, a two-story, weather-boarded log building at Cumberland and Third streets, Little Rock, October 5 to November 16, 1835. Council: President-Chas. Caldwell; secretary-Simon T. Sanders; Arkansas county, James Smith; Chicot, John Clark ; Conway, Amos Kuykendall; Crawford, Rich- ard C. S. Brown ; Clark, Abner E. Thornton ; Carroll, Thomas 11. Clark; Crittenden, Wright W. Elliott; Greene, George B. Croft ; Hempstead, James W. Judkins ; Hot Spring, Hiram A. Whitting- ton; Izard, Jacob Wolf; Independence, John Ringgold; Jackson, Rowland Tidwell; Jefferson, Richard HI. Young; Johnson, John W. Patrick : Lafayette, Jacob Buzzard ; Miller, James I,at- termore: Mississippi, Thomas J. Mills; Monroe, Isaac Taylor; Phillips, William F. Moore; Pike, Elijah Kelly ; Pope, John Will- iamson ; Pulaski, Charles Caldwell; Sevier, Joseph W: Kean ; St. Francis, Mark W. Izard; Union, Ilugh Bradley ; Washington, Mark Bean ; Van Buren, John L. Lafferty. House of representa- tives : Speaker-John Wilson ; clerk-L. B. Tully; Arkansas and Union counties, Bushrod W. Lee and Charles H. Seay ; Carroll, John E. Stallings; Chicot, Hedgeman Triplett ; Clark and Hot Spring, John Wilson ; Conway and Van Buren, Thomas Mathers ; Crawford, James Logan and Andrew Morton; Crittenden and Mississippi, John Troy; Hempstead, William Shaw and James 11. Walker; Independence, William Moore and Morgan Magness ; Izard, Brown C. Roberts; Jackson, St. Francis and Monroe, John Ilill and F. D. W. Scruggs; Jefferson, M. R. T. Outlaw ; John- son, John Ward; Lawrence and Greene, Joseph Porter, William Janett and A. Henderson; Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson Peel; Miller, N. Dandridge Ellis; Phillips, John J. Bowie; Popc,
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Lahan C. Howell; Pulaski, William Cummins and Absalom Fowler ; Sevier and Pike, James Holman; Washington, Abraham Whinnery, David Walker, Francis Dunn, Thomas II. Tennant, Onesinus Evans. The names of the members of this legislature do not appear in any territorial record, but were rescued from oblivion by Hempstead, who searched them out in contemporary issues of the Arkansas Gasette. This body created White county, October 23, 1835; Randolph county, October 29, 1835; Saline county, November 2, 1835, and Marion county, November 3, 1835.
Since 1831 the question of the admission of Arkansas to state- hood had been under discussion. For a time there had been a lack of population and of revenue for the maintenance of a state gov. ernment. Colonel Sevier, Mr. Crittenden, Governor Pope and others, while anxious for the change, felt that the time for it had not arrived. In 1833 Colonel Sevier had instituted congressional proceedings looking to an inquiry by the committee on territories as to the expediency of the admission of Arkansas. A bill reported from the committee and taken up by the house June, 1834, con- tained a provision for the admission of Michigan also, and dis- cussion came to nothing but the laying over of the bill in July. Congress had taken no further action, but Arkansas was advanc- ing in wealth and population and the people began to clamor for statehood. In 1835, public meetings were held in all sections of the territory, and an election, September 29, resulted in a vote of 1.942 for admission against a vote of 908 against admission. This legislature authorized a constitutional convention, to meet at Little Rock January 4, 1836, and a petition to congress for the admission of the territory into the Union of states.
The constitutional convention met in the Baptist church at Little Rock. President-John Wilson ; secretary-Chas. P. Bertrand; delegates-Arkansas county, Bushrod W. Lee; Arkansas and Jefferson, T. Farrelly ; Carroll, John F. King; Clark, John Wil- son ; Chicot, John Clark, Anthony H. Davies; Conway, Nimrod Menifee; Crawford, J. W. Bates, John Drennon, B. C. S. Brown; Crittenden, J. D. Calvert, W. W. Elliott, Wm. D. Ferguson ; Greene, G. L. Martin ; Hempstead, G. D. Royston, J. H. Walker ; Hot Spring, James S. Conway ; Independence, John Ringgold and Townsend Dickinson ; Izard. Charles R. Sanders ; Izard and Car- roll, John Adams; Jackson, John Robinson; Jefferson, Sam C. Roane; Johnson, Lorenzo N. Clark ; Johnson and Pope, Andrew Scott; Lafayette, Josiah N. Wilson; Lawrence, Robert Smith, Thos. S. Drew, D. W. Lowe, Hy. Slavens; Miller, Travis C. Wright ; Monroe, Thomas J. Lacy ; Phillips, H1. 1. Biscoe, C. W.
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Ferebee; Pike, Elijah Kelly ; Pope, Thomas Murray, Jr .; Pulaski, White and Saline, W. Cummins, A. Fowler, J. Mel,can; Scott, Gilbert Marshall; Sevier, Joseph McKean; St. Francis, Wm. Strong, C. S. Manly ; Union, Andrew J. May ; Van Buren, W. W. Trimble, Jolin L. Lafferty ; Washington, D. Walker, M. Bean, A. Whinnery, Wm. McK. Ball, James Boon, Robert McCamy. Wm. D. Ferguson contested the seat of W. W. Elliott and John L. Lafferty the seat of W. W. Trimble, and were seated in their stead. The session ended January 30. A constitution was adopted, which was believed to be adapted to the needs of the pco- ple, and C. F. M. Noland was appointed a messenger to take it to Washington, where, despite the carnest effort of Colonel Sevier and other's friendly to the measure, its adoption was delayed until June 15, when it was passed, receiving the president's signature the next day. The contest in the lower house was memorable. The senate passed the Arkansas admission bill and sent it to the house. A bill for the correction of the Ohio boundary line and a bill for the admission of Michigan were attached to it. Thus in the house were four factions-the Ohio, the Michigan, and the Arkansas factions and another, headed by John Quincy Adams, which opposed the admission of Arkansas with slavery. A second objection was that the adoption of a constitution without congres- sional authority had been irregular. The act admitting Missouri was accepted as a conclusive answer to the first objection, as Arkansas was south of the line established therein. As to the second objection, the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, attorney-general of the United States, held that the people had a right to assemble peaceably and petition, and that the convention was merely a peaceable assemblage of the people and the constitution a petition for admission into the Union as a state. The state was allowed one representative in congress until the next census was taken.
The new capitol was so far constructed as to admit of its occu- pancy by the first state legislature, September, 1836, but was not completed until four years later. The amounts expended on it to that time were as follows: From the sale of ten sections, thirty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars; from the sale of 1,000 acres for courthouse, sixteen thousand six hun- dred and fifty-seven dollars; from the sale of five sections, thirty- eight thousand dollars; from appropriation by the legislature of 1840 to finish, thirty-seven thousand dollars-total, one hundred twenty-tliree thousand three hundred and seventy-nine dollars. With funds in hand, amounting to twenty-four thousand five hun- dred and four dollars, and four hundred dollars subscribed by
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ARKANSAS, AS A TERRITORY.
Chester Ashley, Joseph Anderson, R. C. Byrd, William E. Wood- ruff and A. H. Sevier, Governor Pope bought blocks eighty and eighty-one of Little Rock. Chester Ashley, David G. Eller and William Russell donated a portion of the ground, and Governor Pope bought the remainder from Mr. Russell for eight hundred dollars, and conveyances from Messrs. Eller and Russell of date of January 4, 1833, were taken in the name of Governor Pope, in trust for the territory of Arkansas. Gideon Shrylock, architect, of Lexington, Ky., who had designed the capitol building of Ken- tucky, prepared plans and sent them by George Weigart, who was recommended to superintend their being carried out. Governor Pope and Mr. Weigart abridged these plans to bring them within the means at command. A contract for the brick and stone work was made with Thorn & Cook, and the work was begun. Mr. Weigart was architect, Col. Chester Ashley, superintendent.
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CHAPTER III
The State in Ante-Bellum Days
A RKANSAS was a state. It contained considerably more than 50,000 people. On this people and their descendants and successors must fall the burden of its future problems and destiny. In its constituent elements this people was complex, but it was a unit in its patriotism. The Spanish attempts at colonizing were practical failures. The French were the first per- manent settlers in Arkansas, and descendants of those people are still there. Many bearing the oldest French names have attained to position among the great men of the trans-Mississippi country. Some of their names have been so corrupted as to render them unrecognizable as belonging to men of the early illustrious stock. English-speaking people, pronouncing French names phonetically, soon changed some of them completely. French Canadians came, bringing little or nothing except the few simple clothes they wore and their old flint-lock gun with which to secure game. They colonized after the French mode, with villages and long strips of farms and a public common. As best they could, they propi- tiated neighboring Indians. They worked, worshiped and enjoyed themselves, living honestly and dealing justly with all about them. The mouth of the Arkansas river was the attractive point for immigrants on their way to the Arkansas country, and they ascended that stream to Arkansas Post. As soon as Louisiana became a part of the United States, a small but unceasing stream of English-speaking people turned their faces westward and crossed the Mississippi. Those bound for Arkansas established Montgomery Point, at the mouth of the White river, making that the transfer plice for all shipments inland, and for years it was the principal shipping and commercial point. By this route were
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transferred freights for Arkansas Post. The highway from Montgomery's Point to the post was a slim and indistinct bridle- path. The immigrants came down the Cumberland and Tennes- see rivers to the Ohio in keelboats and canoes. Many of the first English-speaking settlers were Tennesseans, Kentuckians and Alabamians: The earliest came down the Mississippi river, and then, penetrating Arkansas at the mouth of the streams from the west, ascended these in their search for future homes. The Caro- linas and Georgia also gave their small quotas to the pioneers of Arkansas. Northern states furnished a few. From the states south of Tennessee, the route was overland to the Mississippi river, or to some of its bayous, and then by water. A few pioneers from the Southern states brought considerable property and some of them negro slaves, but not many of them were able to do this. The general rule was to reach the new country alone and clear a small piece of ground, and as soon as possible after the family had been established to bny slaves and set them to work in the cotton fields. A few of the pioneers were survivors of the Revo- lutionary war, and a larger number of the War of 1812-14. A considerable number of Indians, most of them having only a slight mixture of Indian blood, remained in the state and became useful, some of them influential, citizens. Among them were prominent farmers, merchants and professional men. The Cherokees espe- cially have always held kindly intercourse with the people of Arkansas.
So much for the fibre out of which the population of Arkansas was formed. It is now important to consider the warp and woof of the political fabric of which these pioneers and their descend- ants and successors became a part. President Monroe had appointed the first territorial officers and the fact that Crittenden, a born Whig, was secretary is evidence that at the time politics was not running very high ; but soon the country was to feel the influence of the rivalry between Clay and Jackson, two of the most remarkable types of great political leaders that this country has produced-Henry Clay, the superb; "Old Hickory," the man of iron ; the one as polished a gem as ever glittered in the political heavens, the other the great diamond in the rough, who was of the people and who drew his followers with hands of steel. These opponents were destined to clash, and it is well for the country that they did. It would seem that in the early days in Arkansas the Whigs stood upon vantage ground in many import- ant respects. By the time Adams was inaugurated, the war political to the death between Clay and Jackson had begun. The
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question was whether Arkansas should be Whig or Democratic. Jackson induced some young men of promise, from his ranks in his own state, to come to the territory. President Adams turned ont Democratic officials and put in Whigs and Robert Crittenden long seemed to hold the territory in his hand. Jackson's superi- ority as a leader over Clay was manifested in the struggles between the two in Arkansas. Clay's followers here were men after his fashion as were Jackson's after his mold. As a great orator, Clay has never been excelled, and he lived in a day when the open sesame to the world's delights lay in a silver tongue; but Jackson was a hero, a great one, who inspired other born heroes to follow him even to the death. Taking Crittenden as the best type, he was little inferior to Clay himself in his magnetic oratory and in other qualities of leadership; while Jackson sent here Sevier, the Conways, the Rectors, men of the people and of matchless resolution and force of character. No two great commanders ever had more faithful or more able lieutenants than were .the respective champions of Old Hickory and Harry of the West in the formative days of the state of Arkansas. Crittenden met defeat and died before the era of statehood. As elsewhere in the Union, Jackson triumphed in hard strife, and Arkansas entered the Union, by virtue of a bill introduced by James Buchanan, as a Jackson state and has never wavered in its political integrity.
At the time of the admission of the state, party animus between Whigs and Democrats was apparent in every county. In the constitutional convention, the party leaders on both sides had appointed state central committees to call conventions, arrange representation and provide for other political work. This system of committees has been in vogue in the state since that day. Party candidates are chosen by a series of primaries beginning in the township and ending in the counties. Delegates from these primaries may or may not be instructed. The county delegates, in convention at some appointed place, select the party candidates. The latter, known as nominees of their respective parties, claim full party support. Final choice is made by the voters at the polls. The constitution of 1836 embraced the three-fifths rule making the whole number of both whites and blacks the basis of represen- tation in the legislature. The first Democratic state convention met at Little Rock, April 12, 1836, more than two months before the admission of the state, and nominated James S. Conway, sur- veyor general, for governor and Archibald Yell, judge of the superior court, for delegate to congress. The Whig convention met one week later and nominated Absalom Fowler, an old, able
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and respected citizen of Tennessee birth, for governor and Will- iam Cummins, a native of Kentucky, for twelve years a citizen of Arkansas and a leader at the bar of Little Rock, for delegate to congress. Mr. Fowler and Messrs. Yell and Cummins "took the stump" in support of their claims as nominees, but Mr. Conway who believed that he could not give his time to the canvass without neglecting his official duties, gave his views on all questions at issue in a printed letter, which was distributed in all the counties, thus leaving his cause in the hands of the people. This first state canvass was the more interesting because until now no candi- date for governor or for presidential elector had come before the people of Arkansas. Mr. Conway was elected first governor of the state of Arkansas by a majority of 1,102, the total vote cast having been 7,716. At the presidential election in November, Van Buren received 2,400 votes, Harrison 1,162; the total vote was 3,638. The central building of the statehouse had been erected. The old representative hall was the apartment later utilized as a senate chamber. There was as yet no plastering in . any part of the brick building and the assembly halls were fur- nished with pine board tables and old fashioned splint bottomed chairs, made in Little Rock. The first state legislature met in this structure, September 12, 1836, and next day Governor Conway was inaugurated and delivered his inaugural address. James Sevier Conway was born in Greene county, Tennessee, December 5, 1796, the second of seven sons of Thomas and Ann Conway, all of whom became distinguished, and was scarcely forty years old when he became governor. In 1816 he emigrated to St. Louis and in 1820 came thence to Arkansas on a surveying expedition. In 1823 he settled on a farm on Red river, in Lafay- ette county. In 1825 he surveyed the western boundary line of the territory and in 1831 the southern boundary. In 1832, on the creation of the office, he became surveyor-general of the territory. At the time of his gubernatorial nomination his home was in Hot Springs county. He served as governor one term of four years, 1836-40. Ile died at Walnut Hills, Lafayette county, March 3, 1855, aged fifty-eight years.
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