36 



ARKANSAS. 



other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right 

 to or control of any part of the school funds of this 

 State. 



Sec. 6. No township or school district shall receive 

 any portion of the public school fund unless a free 

 school shall have been kept therein for not less than 

 three months during the year, for which distribution 

 thereof is made. The General Assembly shall re- 

 quire by law that every child of sufficient mental and 

 physical ability shall attend the public schools dur- 

 ing the period between the ages of five and eighteen 

 years for a term equivalent to three years, unless edu- 

 cated by other means. 



An act, annexed to the new constitution, 

 provided for its ratification by the people by 

 ordering a general election to begin for that 

 purpose on March 13, 1868, prescribing also 

 that the voters should at the same time choose 

 the State officers, the members of both branches 

 of the Legislature, and the Representatives of 

 Arkansas in the Federal Congress. To super- 

 intend and control this election it appointed 

 by name two delegates of the convention and 

 its president, as a Board of Commissioners, 

 vested with ample power. 



The framers of the constitution, anticipating 

 the fact of its being both adopted by the dele- 

 gates in convention, and then ratified by the 

 people, made further provision that the mem- 

 bers of the General Assembly, twenty-six Sen- 

 ators and eighty-two Representatives, should 

 be elected every fourth and second year re- 

 spectively, and should meet and commence their 

 sessions on the first of April, 1868. And for 

 the purpose of holding the first-mentioned 

 and other elections, they grouped together and 

 apportioned into twenty-two districts the fifty- 

 eight counties of Arkansas somewhat differ- 

 ently than they had been before. 



It seems worthy of notice that at the final 

 voting in the convention for the adoption or 

 rejection of this constitution, every member of 

 that body accompanied his vote with remarks, 

 objecting to one or more specified parts of it ; 

 the remarks also were recorded with the vote 

 upon the journal : so that there is scarcely a 

 point to be found in that instrument which is 

 not condemned in express terms by one or 

 many of the delegates even those who voted 

 for its adoption seven of whom were negroes. 



On February llth, when the voting had 

 taken place, the president communicated to 

 the convention the answer of the military 

 commander to whom he had previously applied 

 for money wherewith to pay the delegates and 

 defray the other expenses of the convention, 

 in which he stated as follows : 



That an ordinance to be entitled "an ordinance 

 raising revenue for the purpose of defraying the ex- 

 penses of the Constitutional Convention " and "an 

 ordinance providing for the per diem and mileage of 

 the members and the per diem of the officers of the 

 Constitutional Convention of the State of Arkansas" 

 are in his opinion in conformity with the " recon- 

 struction laws." 



Eeferring to the ordinance providing and making 

 appropriation for the per diem and mileage of the 

 members of the Constitutional Convention, the general 

 commanding directs me to inform you that the Honor- 

 able Treasurer of the State has been instructed to pay 



accounts to the amount of fifty thousand dollars 

 in the manner therein provided, from funds to 

 be obtained by the sale of United States bonds, 

 now deposited to the credit of the State of Arkansas 

 in the U. S. Treasury at Washington, D. C. 



On the same day, in compliance with a pro- 

 vision purposely inserted in the constitution, 

 the president informed the people of the elec- 

 tion to be held for its ratification. 



Agreeably to a measure previously carried 

 in the convention, the president, on February 

 12th, appointed two boards, each consisting of 

 three delegates, "for the purpose of digesting 

 and arranging laws, and to arrange a code of 

 practice for the State." 



On the 14th of February, which was the 

 thirty-first day of the session, the present work 

 of the convention being at an end, the president, 

 in accordance with resolutions adopted before, 

 announced "the convention adjourned, sub- 

 ject to the call of the president, or, in case of 

 his inability, of one of the six vice-presidents." 

 On the day of adjournment, but before the 

 adjournment was announced, fifteen delegates, 

 who had declined subscribing their names to 

 the new constitution, caused a common pro- 

 test, signed by themselves, to be read aloud by 

 one of their number before the convention, of 

 the following tenor : " We, the undersigned, 

 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, do 

 hereby protest against the above and foregoing 

 constitution, and decline to indorse or sign it, 

 as the same, in our opinion, is anti-republican, 

 proscriptive, and destructive to the liberties, 

 rights, and privileges of the people of this 

 State." They requested also that the protest 

 with their names should be attached to the 

 constitution. This the convention refused 

 to permit, but allowed the document " to be 

 spread upon the journal." 



On February 14, 1868, the military command- 

 er ordered the holding of the election for the 

 ratification or rejection of the new constitu- 

 tion, and made dispositions to secure quiet and 

 regularity in the voting. 



The fifteen delegates, who, upon the adjourn- 

 ment of the convention, had entered a protest 

 against the new constitution, published in the 

 papers, of February 18, 1868, a common ad- 

 dress to the people, " announcing their objec- 

 tions to the said constitution, and some of the 

 reasons which should induce the people to 

 vote against its ratification." Nor did their 

 party, before and after that time, cease from 

 exerting themselves to prevent the new order 

 of things being introduced in Arkansas. Ev3n 

 before the end of 1867, the State Central Com- 

 mittee had called upon the Democratic State 

 Convention to assemble at Little Rock, on Jan- 

 uary 27, 1868, "for the purpose of perfecting 

 a more thorough organization," in order to put 

 themselves in connection and act in unison 

 with the Democrats and Conservatives of the 

 North. On the appointed day they actually 

 met, passed resolutions, and elected their offi- 

 cers, who, in this capacity, signed and pub- 



