ARKANSAS. 



23 



Affaire remained quiet; the friends of the 

 Union were hopeful ; those who sympathized 

 with the seceded States were sanguine that 

 Arkansas would be one of them. The capture 

 of Fort fainter, and the subsequent events, 

 roused Arkansas to take a stand either with the 

 North or with the South. Together with the 

 of the fall of the fort, there came also the 

 President's Proclamation, and the requisition of 

 the Secretary of War for a quota of troops from 

 Arkansas. The reply of the Governor to this 

 requisition, was dated the 22d of April. It 

 proved him to be decided in his friendship to 

 the secession movement. He wrote to the Sec- 

 retary of "\Var thus: " In answer to your requi- 

 sition for troops from Arkansas, to subjugate 

 the Southern States, I have to say that none 

 will be furnished. The demand is only adding in- 

 sult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth 

 are freemen, not slaves, and will defend to the 

 hist extremity, their honor, lives, and property, 

 against Northern mendacity and usurpation." 



The President of the State Convention, enter- 

 taining similar views, immediately issued a call 

 requiring it to reassemble on the 6th of May. 

 The call was dated on the 20th of April. 



On the 6th of May the State Convention 

 met, and immediately took the necessary steps 

 to prepare an ordinance to sever the relations 

 existing between the State and the other States 

 united with her under the Constitution, of the 

 United States. The ordinance was prepared 

 and reported to the Convention at three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and was passed immediately, 

 with only one dissenting vote. There were 

 sixty-nine votes in the affirmative, and one 

 in the negative. An eye-witness describes the 

 passage of the ordinance as " a solemn scene." 

 Every member seemed impressed with the im- 

 portance of the vote he was giving. The hall 

 of the House of Representatives was crowded 

 almost to suffocation. The lobby, the gallery, 

 and the floor of the chamber were full, and the 

 vast crowd seemed excited to the highest pitch. 

 A profound stillness prevailed all the time as 

 vote after vote was taken and recorded, except 

 occasionally, when some well-known Union 

 member would rise and preface his vote with 

 expressions of stirring patriotic Southern senti- 

 ments, the crowd would give token of its ap- 

 probation ; but the announcement of the adop- 

 tion of the ordinance ^as the signal for one 

 general acclamation that shook the building. 



A weight seemed suddenly to have been 

 lifted off the hearts of all present, and manifes- 

 tations of the most intense satisfaction prevailed 

 on all sides. Immediate steps were taken by 

 the Convention to unite with the Confederate 

 States. The ordinance was as follows : 



Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of 

 complaint set forth by this Convention, in resolutions 

 adopted on the llth March, A. D. 1861, against the sec- 

 tional party now in power at Washington City, headed 

 by Abraham Lincoln, be has, in the face of resolutions 

 passed by this Convention, pledging the State of Ar- 

 kansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on 

 the part of such power to coerce any State that seceded 



from the old Union, proclaimed to the world that war 

 should be waged against such States until they should 

 be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces 

 to accomplish this have by this same power been called 

 put, and are now being marshalled to carry out this 

 inhuman design, and to longer submit to such rule or 

 remain in the old Union of the United States would 

 be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas ; 



Therefore, we, the people of the State of Arkansas, 

 in Convention assembled, do hereby declare and or- 

 dain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the 

 "ordinance and acceptance of compact," passed and 

 approved by the General Assembly of the State of Ar- 

 kansas, on the 15th day of October, A. D. 1836, where- 

 by it was by said General Assembly ordained that, by 

 virtue of the authority vested in said General Assem- 

 bly, by the provisions of the ordinance adopted by the 

 convention of delegates assembled at Little Rock, for 

 the purpose of forming a constitution and system of 

 government for said fctate, the propositions "set forth 

 in " an act supplementary to an act entitled an act for 

 the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, 

 and to provide for the due execution of the laws of the 

 United States within the same, and for other purposes, 

 were freely accepted, ratified and irrevocably con- 

 firmed articles of compact and union between the 

 State of Arkansas and the United States," and all 

 other laws and every other law and ordinance, where- 

 by the State of Arkansas became a member of the Fed- 

 eral Union be, and the same are hereby in all respects 

 and for every purpose herewith consistent repealed, 

 abrogated, and fully set aside ; and the union now 

 subsisting between the State of Arkansas and the other 

 States, under the name of the United States of Amer- 

 ica, is hereby forever dissolved. 



And we do further hereby declare and ordain, that 

 the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself all 

 rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States of America that her citi- 

 zens are absolved from all allegiance to said Govern- 

 ment of the United States, and that she is in full 

 possession and exercise of all the rights and sov- 

 ereignty which appertain to a free and independent 

 State. 



We do further ordain and declare, that all rights 

 acquired and vested under the Constitution of the 

 United States of America, or of any act or acts of Con- 

 gress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and 

 not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in 

 full force and effect, in nowise altered or impaired, 

 and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not 

 been passed. 



The Convention also passed a resolution au- 

 thorizing the Governor to call out 60,000 men, 

 if necessary. The State was divided into two 

 grand divisions, eastern and western, and one 

 brigadier-general from each appointed. Gen. 

 Bradley was elected to the command of the 

 eastern, and Gen. Pearce, late of the U. S. 

 Army, to the western. 



Among the other acts passed by the Conven- 

 tion, was an ordinance confiscating debts du 

 persons residing in the non-slaveholding States 

 of the United States, and also all the personal 

 property belonging to such persons in Arkan- 

 sas, on the 6th of May, 1861. All moneys col- 

 lected for persons residing in any one of the non- 

 slaveholding States of the United States were 

 likewise confiscated to the State. By the provi- 

 sions of this ordinance, it was made the duty of 

 persons owing such debts to report them under 

 oath to the Auditor of Public Accounts -within 

 sixty days from the passage of the ordinance. 

 Failing to do this, or making a false report, they 

 were subject to a heavy pecuniary fine and 



