ARKANSAS. 



19 



Negro Kxodus. About the middle of March 

 300 or UK 'iv 1 1 eg rues, incited by stories of the 

 fesouives of Oklahoma, emigrated in a body 

 frtirii .lellVr.M.n County to that Territory, going 

 I iv \essol up Arkansas river. Late in the same 

 month a company of 115 negroes set out over- 

 land from Cnttenden County for the same Ter- 

 riti-ry: and from various other parts of the 

 State there was a considerable exodus of negroes 

 during the spring of this year, in the same di- 

 rection. 



Political. On April 7 a State convention of 

 Republicans met at Little Rock and selected 

 delegates to the National Republican Conven- 

 tion, who were instructed to vote for the re- 

 nomination of President Harrison. The resolu- 

 tions adopted included the following : 



\\Y view with alarm the increased prevalence of 

 lynch law and mob rule in this State. 



The present Democratic State administration seems 

 to be Inefficient and powerless in this regard. Mobs 

 mieeessfully defy the officers of the law. Citizens 

 charged with crime and awaiting trial are wrested 

 from .sheriffs and other alleged peart- officers and 

 dragged to a speedy death, .sometimes by shooting, 

 sometimes by hanging, and in one recent instance by 

 burning ut tfie stoke. No rewards have been offered 

 or other adequate steps taken to secure the arrest and 

 punishment of the perpetrators of these murders. 



We appeal to the people to give us a State adminis- 

 tration that will enforce the laws. 



It remains a conceded fact.by foe as well as friend, 

 that the Hon. Henry Pape, Republican State Treas- 

 urer, 18l)8-'74, was the only State Treasurer since the 

 war and prior to the present administration who re- 

 tired from office without charge of embezzlement or 

 suspicion of peculation. 



We condemn the election law passed by the last 

 Legislature as an infamous measure, intended to de- 

 prive the citizens of the free and unrestricted exercise 

 of the right of suffrage as guaranteed by the Consti- 

 tution of the State. 



The concentration of the power to appoint com- 

 missioners of election for the respective counties in a 

 board of State officials at Little Rock is a tyrannical 

 destruction of the right of home rule, so dear to the 

 bean of every freeman. 



We are opposed to the proposed amendment to the 

 Constitution which tends to restrict free manhood 

 suffrage by making the payment of a tax a condition 

 precedent to the exercise of that right which the 

 founders of our Government have declared to be the 

 inalienable right of every citizen. 



The convention then adjourned, to meet on 

 July 6 for the purpose of nominating a State 

 ticket. 



On May 4 the Prohibitionist State Convention 

 was held at Little Rock. Delegates to the Na- 

 tional Convention of the party were chosen, and 

 a candidate for Governor was found in the per- 

 son of William J. Nelson. The question of 

 nominating other candidates was left to a com- 

 mittee. The platform adopted contains the 

 usual declarations against the liquor traffic, de- 

 nounces trusts, favors arbitration in labor dis- 

 putes and Government control of railroad and 

 telegraph lines, approves woman suffrage, and 

 demands that 



The land should be controlled and possessed for 

 the benefit of the producer, and limited in quantity to 

 each possessor to such a degree as to insure the people 

 atrainst monopoly and speculation and for the posses- 

 sion of absolute settlement of American citizens. 



The Democratic State Convention met at Lit- 

 tle Rock on June 14, and on the first ballot 



nominated William M. Pishback for Governor. 

 State Treasurer Morrow, Superintendent of 

 Public Iiistnii-lion Shinn, Land Commissioner 

 Myers, and Associate-Justice Hemingway were 

 renominated. For Secretary of State the nomi- 

 nee was II. B. Armistead ; for Auditor, C. B. 

 Mills ; for Attorney-General, James P. Clarke ; 

 for Commissioner of Mines, Manufactures, and 

 Agriculture, John D. Adams. Delegates to the 

 National Democratic Convention and candidates 

 for presidential electors were also chosen. The 

 platform contains a long arraignment of the Re- 

 publican party, and concludes with the following 

 declarations : 



"We favor a safe and sufficient currency, composed 

 of gold and silver and legal-tender paper, convertible 

 into coin on demand, and maintained at par with each 

 other. 



We declare it to be the duty of the Democratic 

 p_arty to preserve the parity in value of gold and 

 silver, and to provide the means by the equal and' 

 fair treatment of both metals. 



We denounce the Sherman Silver bill as an ob- 

 struction to the fair treatment of silver, and as a sham 

 and a pretense, intended to postpone honest legisla- 

 tion and to appease the silver producers while giving 

 no relief to the people. 



We declare it to be the sense of this convention 

 that the Penitentiary lease system should be abol- 

 ished and a system adopted for the treatment of con- 

 victs more consistent with the better instincts and 

 more improved methods of the age, and that the next 

 General Assembly should not adjourn without appro- 

 priate legislation on this important subject. 



We declare for free and fair elections, removed 

 from intimidation and corruption of all kinds, and to 

 that end we will give the modified Australian ballot 

 law, enacted by the last Democratic Legislature, a 

 fair and full trial in the interest of good government 



We indignantly hurl back upon the Republican 

 party the oft-repeated false accusation that elections 

 in Arkansas are controlled by intimidation and fruud. 



On June 21 the following ticket was nomi- 

 nated by the People's party in State Convention 

 at Little Rock : For Governor, Jacob P. Carna- 

 han ; for Secretary of State, Paul T. Davidson ; 

 for Auditor, Abner A. Steele: for Treasurer, 

 Warren H. Wight ; for Attorney-General. Will- 

 iam P. Parks; for State Land Commissioner, 

 James M. L. Thomasson; for Commissioner of 

 Mines, etc., William Manning ; for Superintend- 

 ent of Public Instruction, George W. Crosby ; 

 for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Wil- 

 bur F. Hill. Delegates to the national conven- 

 tion of the party and candidates for presidential 

 electors were also chosen. The platform de- 

 mands free and unlimited coinage of silver at 

 the present ratio, an increase of the circulating 

 medium to $50 per capita, a graduated income 

 tax, the establishment of postal savings banks. 

 and Government control of railroads, telegraphs, 

 and telephones. Upon State issues the following 

 declarations were made : 



We condemn the Democratic administration in Ar- 

 kansas for it.s high crimes against justice and law. 

 Its disregard of justice and law in the furtherance of 

 party ends has engendered a spirit of mob law, which 

 is undermining the courts of .ju>tioe, disgracing our 

 State, and endangering life ana liberty. 



We condemn amendment No. 2 as a partisan effort 

 to strengthen a corrupt party in their hold on power 

 by limiting the right of suffrage, and as not being an 

 honest measure for the purpose of raising revenue. 



We believe that the svstem of pay ing public officers 

 by fees is injurious to the public service. 



