30 



ARKANSAS. 



tion. On the appointed day, the prisoners 

 and witnesses, and about sixty other persons, 

 appeared at the court-house, fully armed, and 

 expressing a determination to resist the au- 

 thority of the court. Under these circum- 

 stances, the examination was deferred, and the 

 Governor issued a proclamation, on the 30th 

 of July, in the preamble of which he made the 

 following declarations : 



I do not desire to place Pope County under mar- 

 tial law, or subject its citizens to the loss of prop- 

 erty consequent upon quartering militia in the 

 county, but the law must and shall be enforced, 

 respected, and obeyed, and, if necessary, the entire 

 forces of the State will be employed for that purpose. 

 Citizens must return to their homeSj lay down their 

 arms, and attend to the daily avocations of life. 



It has been represented to me that the citizens of 

 Pope County will not lay down their arms, nor re- 

 turn to their homes, so long as the sheriff and clerk 

 attempt to exercise the duties of their respective 

 offices. The authority of your civil officers must and 

 shall be respected. The mere fact that some of them 

 are charged with the killing of Tucker and Hale, 

 and that they are bound over to answer such 

 charges, does not establish their guilt, nor do these 

 facts, under the law, prevent them from exercising 

 the functions of their respective offices, before trial. 

 I have no power or authority to remove or suspend 

 either of them from office. A resistance to their 

 lawful authority is not only a crime, but an act which 

 the State government will not long tolerate. 



These men are officers. I cannot help it any more 

 than you can I can no more get rid of them than 

 you can. The time, however, is not far distant 

 when you can select others, if these do not suit you ; 

 but, so long as they remain officers, they must not 

 be disturbed by violence. 



Two sheriffs of Pope County and one clerk have 

 already been assassinated and murdered, and no at- 

 tempt has been made, so far as I am advised, to bring 

 the murderers to justice. I am satisfied that there 

 are enough good citizens in Pope County to prevent 

 the assassination of your present county officers, 

 and I look to you to prevent any thing of this kind, 

 unless you want the sins of others visited upon you. 

 Evil-disposed persons, backed by a venal and 

 corrupt press, will, in the future, as in the past, ad- 

 vise you that your grievances are of such a character 

 as to"Justify you in resisting the law, and in defying 



I say to you, such men are not your friends ; they 

 seek power through your blood, and expect to luxu- 

 riate over the desolation of your homes and your 

 firesides. The men who are now inciting you to 

 strife are not those who must suffer the loss of 

 life and property equally with yourselves ; they are 

 calmly and deliberately inciting you to a resistance 

 of the laws for the sole purpose of repeating the 

 desolation of your firesides and homes in other por- 

 tions of the State and nation, as a reason why they 

 should be placed in office ; they are counselling you 

 to your own ruin, to the end that they may gratify 

 an inordinate ambition for greed and gain. I do not 

 desire to use force in the enforcement of the laws 

 but the law must take its course, unaided bv armed 

 mobs. 



The body of the proclamation was in these 

 words : 



Now, therefore, I, Ozro A. Hadley, as Governor 

 of the State of Arkansas, by virtue of the power 

 vested in me by the constitution and laws of the 

 State of Arkansas, do command all persons to return 

 to their homes and their daily avocations immediate- 

 ly, and thereafter demean themselves as peaceable 

 and law-abiding citizens. 



A violation of this command will result, no mat- 



ter who advises you to the contrary, in placing Pope 

 County under martial law, where it will be kept 

 until such time as in my opinion peace and good 

 order will follow a withdrawal of the troops. 



General Bishop was appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor to go into Pope County to see whether 

 this proclamation was complied with. After 

 visiting Dover and consulting with many citi- 

 zens, he made a report, which concluded as 

 follows : 



In conclusion, and as I am to report also upon the 

 "purposes" of the citizens of Pope County, with 

 reference to your proclamation, I say that it seems 

 generally to be complied with. I have been told, 

 however, that this condition of things will not last ; 

 that I will not have been absent from the county a 

 week before armed men will be moving around as 

 formerly, in disregard of law, and especially threat- 

 ening the lives of Hickox, Dodson, and Williams. 



As a body, the citizens of Pope County are very 

 peaceably inclined at present. They realize the sit- 

 uation their county is in, and that, if any more blood 

 is spilled, a resort to martial law will tlren probably 

 be inevitable. Confidence in each other is most 

 needed now, and if the trials growing out of the at- 

 tempt to assassinate Captain Williams, on the one 

 hand, and the killing ot Tucker and Hale on the 

 other, are permitted to take their course ; if such 

 arrests as may be necessary can be made without re- 

 sistance, and if Captains Hickox, Dodson, and Wil- 

 liams will be permitted to discharge their official 

 duties, and be protected while doing so (which the 

 people tell me shall be the case), the troubles in Pope 

 County will cease. 



Under the assurances given by the Governor 

 and General Bishop, Mr. Hickox, Mr. Dodson, 

 and Mr. Williams, ventured to return to Dover. 

 They saw at once that they were objects of 

 hatred, and heard frequent threats of violence. 

 Fearing for their lives, they set out on the 1st 

 of September to leave the town again, and 

 were fired upon in the streets, Mr. Hickox, 

 the County Clerk, being instantly killed, and, 

 shortly afterward, John Williams, the deputy- 

 sheriff, was shot and badly wounded. 



A justice of the peace named Allen Brown, 

 who attempted to hold an inquest over the 

 body of Hickox, was also shot and killed, 

 while in the discharge of that duty. When 

 these facts were reported to the Governor, he 

 issued the following order : 



Order, No. 128^ 

 HEADQUARTERS STATE OF ARKANSAS, ) 

 ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, 



LITTLE ROCK, September 4, 1872. ) 



> I. Major-General D. P. Upham having been as- 

 signed, by special orders No. 78, dated November 

 12, 1870, to the command of all the State Guards 

 and enrolled militia of the State, and being advised 

 that the enforcement of the civil and criminal law is 

 obstructed to such an extent in Pope County, Ar- 

 kansas, as to render it dangerous, if not impossible, 

 for the sheriff to enforce the same with an ordinary 

 posse, is hereby directed to proceed forthwith to 

 said county of Pope with such aid as is or may be 

 necessary to execute the civil and criminal law of 

 the State. 



^ II. General Upham is hereby vested with discre- 

 tionary power in the use of forces, with power to 

 call all the State Guards and enrolled militia into 

 active service, if, in his opinion, the situation de- 

 mands the same, and to use them in compliance 

 with law under all emergencies that may arise. 



