ARKANSAS. 



29 



the original petition of the land-owners and 

 such others as may be added to such list by 

 the county court.' 1 



To promote internal improvements, the Gen- 

 eral Assembly made provisions for the regula- 

 tion of trade, and transportation companies, by 

 land or water, and adopted several joint reso- 

 lutions, requesting the Post-Office Department 

 at Washington "to increase the mail service 

 on certain routes of the State," by establishing 

 it on new routes where it had never existed, 

 and reestablishing it on old ones where it had 

 been discontinued. 



The people of Arkansas, however, seem fully 

 to appreciate the importance of railroads, and 

 are desirous to extend their lines into a general 

 system, this being the quickest mode of bring- 

 ing the distant portions of the State into close 

 communication with one another and with the 

 neighboring States. For this purpose, two acts 

 were passed by the Legislature in the preceding 

 session, approved on July 21 and 23, 1868, re- 

 spectively, and both ratified by the people's 

 suffrage at the general election in November, 

 that year. The first one of these acts, under 

 the title, " An act to aid in the construction 

 of railroads," authorized the loaning the State 

 credit to assist railway companies in construct- 

 ing their lines ; the other, entitled, " An act to 

 provide for a general system of railroad incor- 

 porations," fixes at 850 the aggregate number 

 of miles of road to which the State aid is to be 

 granted, and, for the carrying out its provis- 

 ions, appoints a board of commissioners, who 

 were " empowered to receive applications, and 

 required to designate the lines to which the 

 State aid is to be granted." In the session of 

 1869, however, this subject was taken up again, 

 a remarkable bill having been introduced in 

 the Senate, discussed and voted for by a ma- 

 jority of its members, whereby, professing to 

 carry out the wish of the people, expressed by 

 their ratifying the act "to aid in the construc- 

 tion of railroads," the Legislature repeals those 

 sections of the other act, equally ratified by 

 the people, which appoints a board of commis- 

 sioners to designate the roads for the award of 

 the State aid, and assumes the exercise of this 

 function itself, by actually designating five dif- 

 ferent lines of road, and granting the State aid, 

 under certain conditions and restrictions, for 

 850 miles in the aggregate, at the rate of ten 

 and fifteen thousand dollars per mile respec- 

 tively. This bill, involving some ten millions 

 of the State or people's money, was warmly 

 opposed, as being unconstitutional, and there- 

 fore null, because of the already existing law 

 ratified by the people, whose enactments could 

 not be repealed by the Legislature, nor, in this 

 case, by the people themselves, since third par- 

 ties had entered into contract under its pro- 

 visions, and been vested with rights which 

 could not be taken away from them by any 

 legal power. The opponents added the less 

 weighty reason that the provisions of the pro- 

 posed bill were partial and inexpedient, as it 



loaned the State credit to unimportant, per- 

 haps only imaginary roads, and omitted most 

 important ones, as the Memphis and Little 

 Rock, considered of paramount advantage to 

 the State. The bill passed the Senate on March 

 11, 1869, by a vote of fourteen to seven; but 

 in the House of Representatives it was not 

 finally acted upon. 



The banking interest in the State appears 

 to be quite large, considering the number of 

 its population, which is estimated at about 

 600,000, and in a favorable condition. 



Taxation in Arkansas is a subject of much 

 complaint by the people, and presses generally 

 heavily, on account both of the high rate of val- 

 uation at which property is assessed, and of the 

 amount levied on it for State, county, and mu- 

 nicipal purposes, though some cities and coun- 

 ties are taxed more than others. An apparently 

 correct idea of this whole subject may be formed 

 from the subjoined statement relative to Pu- 

 laski County : " The people of Pulaski County, 

 and of Little Rock, have been more oppressed 

 by taxation than any county and city in the 

 State. Our property is all assessed fifty per 

 cent, above its cash value ; and, on that valua- 

 tion, in 1868, a tax of more than three per 

 cent, was levied. The present year, the same 

 assessment is continued, and our people are 

 taxed, for State, county, and city purposes, six 

 per cent., the United States taxes increasing it 

 to not less than eight per cent. Last year, the 

 taxes amounted, in Pulaski County, almost to 

 $270,000; this year they will be $500,000, 

 which, to a population of 10,000 souls, white 

 and black, is unprecedented to use no harsher 

 term." 



The sum of the public expenditures of the 

 State is said by many to be swelling up much 

 faster, and to a greater extent, than her growth 

 can bear or justify. A general appropriation 

 bill was passed by both Houses of the Legisla- 

 ture in the last session, the act fixing both the 

 items of this expenditure, and the amounts per 

 annum to be paid for each during the period 

 of two years. 



The political excitement in Arkansas last 

 year, as previously? ran high higher, per- 

 haps, and with more violent movements, than 

 in other States of the Union. It is not im- 

 probable that the public disturbances, which 

 provoked the proclamation of martial law in 

 many of its counties in November, 1868, were 

 prompted chiefly by party spirit, and that the 

 manner in which that law was enforced, by 

 those intrusted with its execution, proceeded 

 from the same cause. Between the white and 

 negro residents of the State, however, a recip- 

 rocal good feeling toward each other seems to 

 be cherished. "Within and outside the halls of 

 the Legislature the Republican party is the 

 larger in number and influence, especially be- 

 cause a large proportion of citizens who would 

 probably belong to the Democratic party are 

 disqualified and ineligible according to the 

 provisions of the reconstruction acts ; though 



