30 



ARKANSAS. 



they are being gradually rehabilitated. At 

 present, the government of Arkansas, in all its 

 departments, civil as well as political, is in the 

 hands of Republicans. A contrariety of sen- 

 timent, however, which had been growing for 

 some time within their own ranks, broke out 

 at last into an open rupture, as appears from 

 the preamble and resolutions unanimously 

 adopted at a meeting held in Little Rock on 

 the 8th of April, 1869, and attended > by 

 eighteen Republican members of the legisla- 

 tive body, both Senators and Representatives, 

 utterly condemning and repudiating the acts 

 as well as the policy of the present State ad- 

 ministration and Legislature, on principle, and 

 inviting their fellow-Republicans to cooperate 

 with them as follows : 



Whereat, In the bad management _ of our State 

 government under the unwise administration of 

 Governor Powell Clayton, and in the rash, reckless, 

 and improvident legislation of the General Assem- 

 bly, under the control of the Governor and his par- 

 tisans, the Kepublican party of Arkansas has re- 

 ceived wounds, from the effects of which, the most 

 energetic and untiring efforts of its true friends and 

 defenders can alone rescue it, and save it from 

 threatened defeat and overthrow : therefore, 



Resolved. That, renewing our allegiance to the 

 National Union Kepublican party, and our fidelity 

 and devotion to the true principles and doctrines of 

 that party, as set forth and declared in the platform 

 of the Chicago Convention, we do most solemnly pro- 

 test, in the name of the Republican party and of the 

 people of Arkansas, against all those great errors, 

 abuses and corruptions of the administration, which. 

 have caused so much dissatisfaction and discontent 

 in the party, and brought so much trouble and dis- 

 tress upon the country. 



Resolved, That while it is needless to specify, in 

 detail, all the numerous acts and measures, so uni- 

 versally known and reprobated, that characterize 

 and make up the policy and administration of the 

 government; yet we deem it proper to enumerate 

 the following among the more prominent causes of 

 complaint : 



1. The criminal abuse of power and dereliction of 

 duty on the part of the Governor as commander-in- 

 chief of the militia forces of the State, under the late 

 reign of martial law, whereby that which was in- 

 tended by its friends and advisers as a wise and 

 wholesome measure of safety to the government and 

 safety to the private citizen, has been turned into a 

 means of wrong, crime, and oppression. 



2. The criminal and corrupt mismanagement of 

 our great and important railroad interests, whereby 

 a large portion of the State has been entirely ignored 

 and overlooked in the dispensation of " State aid," 

 and nearly all the leading authorized routes of the 

 State been seized upon by an organized " ring" of 

 penniless adventurers under the convenient arrange- 

 ments of a General Incorporation Act passed for that 

 purpose, who, in connection with the board of rail- 

 road commissioners under the control of the chief 

 Executive, have been made the recipients and bene- 

 ficiaries of all the benefits of the " loan bill," by 

 which some thirteen millions of dollars have been 

 awarded. 



3. The improvident, not to say corrupt, manage- 

 ment of the funding bill, by which a debt of several 

 millions of dollars, being a portion of the Holford 



'laim, which the State neither legally nor morally 

 owes, has been assumed and funded without the 

 authority or consent of the people, and contrary to 

 the constitution of the State. 



4. The general spirit of reckless expenditure and 

 extravagant appropriation, which has characterized 



ARMY, UNITED STATES. 



the administration of the government in all its de- 

 partments, whereby the annual expenses of the State 

 government, which the representatives of the party 

 promised the people, in their speeches and through 

 their press during the late presidential canvass, 

 should not exceed two or three hundred thousand dol- 

 lars, have run up to the enormous and almost incredi- 

 ble sum of a million and a half dollars per annum. 



Resolved, That with such a record of improvidence, 

 folly, and crime, to father, it will be utterly impossi- 

 ble for the Kepublican party to maintain itself, or 

 hope for future success : therefore, that as the only 

 means of safety and protection that is left us, we 

 hereby, in the name of the Kepublican party, repu- 

 diate said record and its authors, aiders, and abet- 

 tors ; and, planting ourselves upon the true princi- 

 ples of the platform of the party, we earnestly call 

 upon every true Republican in the State, colored as 

 well as white, to unite and cooperate with us in our fu- 

 ture efforts to save the organization of the party, and 

 preserve the purity and integrity of its principles. 



On the evening of October 15, 1869, Gov- 

 ernor Clayton made a speech from the steps 

 of the capitol, solemnly declaring the policy 

 which he intended to pursue namely, "favor- 

 ing the earliest possible enfranchisement of the 

 people, and retrenchment and reform in public 

 expenditures." These declarations, received 

 with satisfaction by the people, and applauded 

 by the press generally, produced the effect of 

 blunting the edge of that opposition which 

 had previously existed. 



The proposed amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, known as Article 

 Fifteenth, was ratified by the Legislature of 

 Arkansas in their last session almost unani- 

 mously ; though several members refused their 

 assent to the second section of the said article, 

 which provides that " the Congress shall have 



Eower to enforce this article by appropriate 

 jgislation," as infringing upon the rights of 

 the individual States. 



ARMY, UNITED STATES. At the com- 

 mencement of the year the Department of War 

 was under the charge of Major-General J. M. 

 Schofield, and General U. S. Grant was in 

 command of the Army. The latter, on March 

 4th, became President, and was succeeded in 

 command by Lieutenant-General W. T. Sher- 

 man, who was promoted to the rank of Gen- 

 eral. On March 12th, General John A. Raw- 

 lins became Secretary of War, which post he 

 filled until his death, on September 6th. The 

 President then appointed General Sherman 

 Secretary pro tern., and on November 1st, Gen- 

 eral W. W. Belknap succeeded to the office. 

 For the purpose of military government, the 

 United States are divided into twelve depart- 

 ments and three districts, each of which is 

 under the command of an experienced general 

 officer, who, by law, is invested with all the " 

 powers of the commanding general of an army 

 in the field, and is held responsible for the dis- 

 cipline and maintenance of the troops, the 

 preservation of good order, so far as the mili- 

 tary authority extends, and for the care of all 

 the public property that belongs to the army. 

 These departments, with the commanding offi- 

 cers, are as follows : 



