ARKANSAS. 



Harris received at the same time a notice of 

 warning to leave the county. Through fear, 

 the sheriff and magistrates refrained from in- 

 stituting proceedings against the suspected 

 murderers, appealing to the Governor to re- 

 store order. Two detachments of militia wore 

 sent into the disturbed district to protect the 

 civil officers in the discharge of their duty. 

 The arrest and commitment of the prisoners 

 took place under military guard. A guard of 

 State soldiery was posted in the town for 

 several weeks to preserve order. Similar law- 

 less developments occurred in Polk County, 

 though of a less serious character. Writs of 

 the court were defied, and the sheriff threat- 

 ened. Exhibitions of mob-law have not grown 

 less frequent in Arkansas. Various cases of the 

 infiictiou of vengeance on supposed criminals 

 by bands of lynchers occurred in 1881, as in 

 former years. Instances of the violent seizure 

 of prisoners in legal custody, and the wreaking 

 of popular rage upon their persons, continue to 

 take place. These manifestations of lawless- 

 ness accompany, as usual, a high rate of crime, 

 especially of the crimes against the person 

 which spring from anger or revenge, or reck- 

 less bravado. The customary difficulty of pro- 

 curing salutary convictions for serious assaults 

 of this character still obtains. There are many 

 signs, however, of a rapid reformation of the 

 manners of the people in this respect. This 

 tendency is clearly reflected in the expressions 

 of the press, and in the attitude of the influ- 

 ential classes of citizens. The strict and judi- 

 ciously framed law against the unwarranted 

 carrying of deadly weapons, passed at the last 

 session of the Legislature, indicates the vigor 

 of the movement. The recent temperance leg- 

 islation had for its principal motive the desire 

 to prevent violence and crime. An active agi- 

 tation, which wins a remarkable moral and 

 numerical support, is now being carried on in 

 favor of stringent restrictive or prohibitory 

 enactments to suppress the liquor-traffic. This 

 movement takes rank with the debt contro- 

 versy as a leading political question. It has its 

 root in the determination to redeem Arkansas 

 from its reputation for savagery and anarchy ; 

 although the majority may condemn a prohibi- 

 tory law, as unnecessary or impracticable. 



The question of the repudiation of a part of 

 the bonded debt of the State has rendered immi- 

 nent a disruption of the Democratic party. The 

 plan of resettlement embodied in the Fishhack 

 amendment, so called, which was rejected in 

 the general election of 1880, is earnestly ap- 

 proved by a large section of the party, while 

 the other branch includes its most decided op- 

 ponents. Neither faction can sacrifice their 

 liberty to speak and vote according to their 

 principles in this question, while both are 

 equally anxious to preserve the party organiza- 

 tion in order to prevent the administration 

 from falling into the hands of the Republicans. 

 It was proposed, therefore, that at the Demo- 

 cratic Convention of 1882, a State ticket should 



be nominated which should be supported by 

 both divisions of the party unitedly, and that a 

 resolution should be adopted, calling for a con- 

 stitutional convention for the settlement of the 

 debt question. Every member of the party 

 should be guided by his own convictions on the 

 debt question in the canvass for the Assembly 

 elections, and in his action with reference to 

 the Constitutional Convention. The Democrat- 

 ic State Central Committee, in a meeting in May, 

 concluded to bring forward in the State Con- 

 vention a proposition for an amendment which 

 would not invalidate the objectionable bonds, 

 but would yet prevent their funding or pay- 

 ment without the express acquiescence of the 

 people. The purport of the proposed amend- 

 ment, by which it is sought to stave off the 

 question and avoid a final committal of the 

 party, is expressed in the following first draft 

 to be submitted to the party convention in the 

 beginning of 1882 : 



1. Hereafter the General Assembly of this State shall 

 be prohibited from making any settlement or adjust- 

 ment of the bonded debt of this State, based on what 

 is known as railroad-aid bonds, levee bonds, or Hoi- 

 ford bonds, which shall be binding upon the State, 

 until such adjustment shall have been submitted to 

 and voted upon by the qualified electors of this State 

 by the next succeeding general election after such act 

 of adjustment has been passed, and the same shall 

 have been ratified by a majority of the qualified elect- 

 ors voting at such election. 



2. That no act of the General Assembly of this State, 

 which may hereafter be passed, making an appropria- 

 tion to pay off any part of the principal or interest of 

 any of the bonded indebtedness of this State, based 

 upon what is known as railroad-aid bonds, levee 

 bonds, or Holford bonds, shall be binding on the State 

 or paid from the Treasury until such act shall have 

 been submitted at the next succeeding general election 

 after such act of appropriation has been passed to the 

 people, and the same shall have been ratified by a 

 majority of all the qualified electors voting at such 

 election ; and they further recommend that no action 

 on said indebtedness be taken by the General Assembly 

 until such amendment shall have been submitted to 

 a vote of the people. 



The financial troubles of Arkansas date from 

 its first erection into a State in 1836. A State 

 Bank was organized, and authorized to issue 

 $2,000,000 of bonds, and further credit was 

 obtained by means of a real-estate bank, whose 

 $1,500,000 of bonds were guaranteed by the 

 State, and secured by the public lands. Both 

 institutions suspended payments in the second 

 year. This was the commencement of the 

 State debt, the unskillful management of which 

 has ever since impeded the progress of the 

 State. The State debt matured in 18G2. Since 

 the restoration of self-government in 1869 the 

 weight of public sentiment has favored the 

 evasion of the vast liabilities which it would 

 still tax all the resources of the State to dis- 

 charge in full. The debt contracted in waging 

 war against the Federal Government was de- 

 clared void. Its repudiation was followed by 

 a series of defaults on other obligations. The 

 levee bonds were decided to be unconstitu- 

 tional by the Supreme Court in 1878, and all 

 the railroad-aid bonds have since been declared 



