ARKANSAS. 



33 



COT, | 

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General Orders, No. 3. 

 HEADQUARTERS FOUETH MILITARY DISTRICT, 



MISSISSIPPI AND ARKANSAS, 

 HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss., January 9, 1868. , 



1. General order No. 9, series of 1867, from these 

 headquarters, is hereby so modified and amended as 

 to restore to the civil tribunals, properly having cog- 

 nizance under the respective statute laws of the States 

 of Mississippi and Arkansas,^ entire jurisdiction in all 

 ordinary cases of horse-stealing, heretofore made tri- 

 able under the provisions of that order before military 

 commission. In case, however, any person charged 

 with the crime of horse-stealing, and indicted there- 

 for, shall make oath before a judicial officer that, by 

 reason of service in the army of the United States, or 

 of political sentiments entertained by him, or of his 

 race or color, he cannot have an impartial trial at the 

 hands of the civil authorities then all action in the 

 case shall be suspended, and the case reported at 

 once to the nearest military post commander, who 

 will cause an immediate investigation to be made by 

 an officer of all the facts thereof. Should there be no 

 military post within, say, fifty miles of the point, the 

 case will be reported to the sub-district commander, 

 who will order the investigation. 



If, in the opinion of the officer making the investi- 

 gation, the accused can have an impartial trial before 

 the civil tribunal having cognizance, he will officially 

 notify the proper civil officer ; the suspension of the 

 proceedings will cease from that tune, and the case 

 will proceed in due course. 



But if, in the opinion of the investigating officer, 

 an impartial trial cannot be had in the case before the 

 civil authorities, a full and explicit report of all the 

 facts of his reasons for his belief will be forwarded at 

 once to these headquarters, for the consideration and 

 further orders of the district commander. 



2. The cases of all citizen prisoners, now in con- 

 finement under military guard, awaiting trial on the 

 charge of horse-stealing, will be at once investigated 

 by the respective commanding officers of the posts at 

 which they are confined, and special report made to 

 the sub-district commander of all cases which, in 

 their judgment, will receive impartial justice at the 

 hands of the civil authorities having cognizance. 



The sub-district commanders are hereby authorized 

 to give the necessary orders and instructions, to cause 

 all such cases to be returned to civil jurisdiction with 

 the least possible delay and expense. A report of 

 the action taken in each case will be forwarded by 

 the sub-district commander for file at these head- 

 quarters. 



By order of Brevet Maj.-Gen. ALVAN C. GILLEM. 

 0. D. GREENE, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



By a subsequent order, issued in the same 

 month, General Gillem allowed the State 

 courts to have cognizance and proceed undis- 

 turbed in other matters also, which his prede- 

 cessor had taken away from them, as follows : 



General Orders, No. 6. 



HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT, ) 



MISSISSIPPI AND ARKANSAS, > 



VIOKSBUR&, Miss., January 27, 1868. J 



Circulars Nos. 19, 22, and 24, series of 1867, from 

 these headquarters, are hereby revoked without 

 prejudice, however, to any action which may have 

 been already taken in accordance with said circulars. 

 Hereafter, all questions arising from settlements of 

 crops, and generally the relations of debtors and 

 creditors of civil suitors, will be left to the proper 

 civil courts except such cases affecting the rights of 

 freedmen, or others, as by acts of Congress are spe- 

 cially committed to the care of the Bureau of Refugees, 

 Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. 

 By order of Brevet Maj.-Gen. ALVAN C. GILLEM. 



JOHN TYLER, A. A. A. G. 



The great event of the year 1868, in Arkan- 



VOL. VIH. 3 A 



sas, however, was the preparation of a new 

 State constitution, intended to correspond 

 with the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, 

 mentioned above, as it vitally affected the po- 

 litical and social condition of her inhabitants. 

 The matter heing naturally of the highest im- 

 portance to them, and they being divided con- 

 cerning it into quite opposite parties, though 

 not in equal numbers, every man in Arkansas 

 took eager part in the struggle for carrying or 

 defeating the measure ; which contention, and 

 the reciprocal efforts against each other to ob- 

 tain victory, so engrossed, if not wholly ab- 

 sorbed, the people, that the ordinary affairs of 

 the State were now little cared for, and al- 

 lowed to remain in comparative neglect, ex- 

 cept in so far as they could be used as means 

 to serve in the present contest. 



For the purpose of assembling the conven- 

 tion to frame a new State constitution, to be 

 submitted to the people for ratification or re- 

 jection, an order was issued hy General Ord, 

 on December 5, 1867", in which, after stating 

 that, in the election just closed, the people of 

 Arkansas had decided hy a majority of votes 

 in favor of holding a convention, he fixed the 

 7th day of January, 1868, for the delegates to 

 assemble at Little Rock. They met according- 

 ly, and began their work. As they belonged, 

 however, to opposite parties, called Democrats, 

 Conservatives, and Republicans, the latter 

 being in a large majority, the dehate during 

 the session, which lasted about six weeks, was 

 warm throughout ; the subjects of dispute 

 among the members were, whether the new 

 constitution should be framed and submitted 

 to the people in general for their ratification or 

 rejection, and also every provision offered to 

 be inserted in it. Most prominent among the 

 latter were the measures relating to the ne- 

 groes, as, the extending to them the elective 

 franchise; the necessity of the whites' and 

 negroes' children attending one common school 

 together ; and the clause forbidding intermar- 

 riage between the two races. 



It seems not out of place to notice here the 

 sentiments entertained by the negroes of Ar- 

 kansas (and the same apparently prevail among 

 those of the other Southern States) concerning 

 the Government of the United States, their 

 own right to vote as citizens, their ability to 

 use such right properly, their native intelli- 

 gence and capacity, as well as that of the white 

 men in general, and other things regarding the 

 relations between the two races under one 

 common government. Mr. Cypert, a delegate 

 from White County, styled in the reports as 

 Conservative, and of note in the convention, 

 having offered, in its fifth sitting, an ordinance 

 "to adopt and submit to the people for their 

 ratification, as the constitution of the State of 

 Arkansas, the same as now in force, being that 

 adopted on the 18th day of March, 1864," and 

 having, in the course of debate thereupon, said 

 that "he was a friend to the negroes, had 

 served in the Freedmen's Bureau, was glad they 



