Secession.

Arkansas, like Tennessee, under the name of the United States of America, is Arkansas Secedes.

hastened to recant her late hereby forever dissolved. The Ordinance. conservative action (see

“And we do further hereby declare and ordain, page 31). The call of Mr. Lincoln for troops that the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself

all rights and powers lieretofore delegated to the was succeeded by a rapid regathering of the State Convention. Without much delay her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said

Government of the United States of America-that the Ordinance of Secession was passed by a

Government of the United States, and that she is in vote of sixty-nine to one, viz.

full possession and exercise of all the rights and “An Ordinance to Dissolve the Union noro existing between sovereignty which appertain to a free and independ

the State of Arkansas and the other States United with ent State.
her under the compact entitled • The Constitution of the “ We do further ordain and declare, that all rights
United States of America.'

acquired and vested under the Constitution of the “ Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of United States of America, or of any act or acts of complaint set forth by this Convention in resolutions Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, adopted on the eleventh March, A. D. 1861, against and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall rethe sectional party now in power at Washington main in full force and effect, and in no wise altered City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in the

or impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordiface of resolutions passed by this Convention, pledg. nance had not been passed. ing the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extre

[Here follow the names of the delegates.] mity any attempt on the part of such power to co

"Adopted and passed in open Convention on the erce any State that seceded from the old Union, sixth day of May, A. D. 1861. proclaimed to the world that war should be waged

Attest, ELIAS C. BOUDINOT, against such States, until they should be compelled

“Secretary of the Arkansas State Convention." to submit to their rule, and large forces to accom- The injustice and absurd

Special Point against plish this have by this same power been called out, ity of the “State Rights" and are now being marshaled to carry out this inhu- doctrine is forcibly illusman design, and longer to submit to such rule or trated in this act of Arkansas, as it also was remain in the old Union of the United States would in the acts of Texas, Florida and Louisiana. he disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas: (See pages 206–299, &c., Vol. I.) Arkansas

“Therefore, we, the people of the State of Arkan- was purchased of France by our General Gov. sas, in Cunvention assembled, do hereby declare ernment, to secure the possession and uninand ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, terrupted navigation of the Mississippi river that the ordinance and acceptance of compact,' and its afluents. It was, from the date of its passed and approved by the General Assembly of

first territorial organization up to the year the State of Arkansas on the eighteenth day of October, A. D. 1836, whereby it was, by said General 1861, a source of heavy expense to the GeneAssembly, ordained that, by virtue of the authority ral Government. In the item of mails alone, vested in said General Assembly by the provisions of

the cost of supporting the postal system in the Ordinance adopted by the Convention of dele. that State, for the fiscal year ending June, gates assembled at Little Rock, for the purpose of 1860, was two hundred and ninety thousand forming a Constitution and system of government for dollars over and above the receipts. The said State, the propositions set forth in ‘an act sup- cost of keeping the army on her borders to plementary to an act entitled an act for the admission protect her settlements has reached, it is said, of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to pro- a sum twenty times greater than the sum revide for the due execution of the laws of the United alized by the sales of her public lands. Thus the States with in the same, and for other purposes, were

State not only owed its soil and its settlement freely accepted, ratified and irrevocably confirmed

to the General Government, but it owed, also, articies of compact and union between the State of Arhansas and the United States,' and all other laws,

an enormous debt for the sustenance given by and every other law and ordinance, whereby the State the same benignant power to keep it from of Arkansas became a member of the Federal Union, want. What a monstrous assumption, therebe, and the same are hereby in all respects and for fore, is that which claims the right of a peoevery purpose here with consistent, repealed, abroga- ple to dissolve, at will, their relations and ted and fully set aside; and the union now subsisting obligations to the parent Government! By between the State of Arkansas and the other States all rights of common law, guaranteeing the

ACT OF CONFISCATION AND REPUDIATION.

165

Act of Confiscation

66

Address of Arkansas

" Conservatives."

purchaser in his possessions; by the law of commission. Among others was this ordiequity, securing correlative ,rights; by the nance, which we place on record as one of force of special legislation conceding supre- those landmarks of Southern feeling and macy, and acknowledging obedience, to the course of procedure. It may suggest to fuConstitution of the United States; by the ture lawgivers what course is best likely to rights of fraternity and highway obtained by avail with those who are the surrounding States—the principle of se- base enough to make bed

and Repudiation. cession must be pronounced wanting in law, fellows with treason : equity or good faith, The right of revolu- “An Ordinance in regard to Foreign Indebtedness in the tion to redress wrongs too grievous to bear, State of Arkansas, and with regard to other objects : may be conceded—the right of peaceful seces

“SECTION 1. Be it ordained by the people of Ark

ansas, in Convention assembled, that all the debts sion, never.

of whatever kind due or to become due hereafter, The “conservative” men

whether the same be evidenced by record, bond, of the State-those who,

note, bill of exchange, or by other proof; and whein the late Convention, had ther such indebtedness is dischargeable or to be. opposed immediate secession and had pro- come dischargeable by money, property, or other cured the submission of the whole matter to choses in action, where the duty of payment is due a vote of the people, issued a belligerent or is to become due upon resident citizens of the manifesto or “address,” from which we may State of Arkansas, and is due or is to become due quote: “ The employment by the Federal to a resident or citizen of the State of Maine, the Government of its military power and mate- State of Rhode Island, the State of Massachusetts, rial resources, which have been supplied alike the State of Vermont, the State of New Hampshire, by all the States of the Union, to compel any the State of Connecticut, the State of New York, of them to submit to its jurisdiction, is utterly the State of New Jersey, the State of Pennsylvania,

the State of Ohio, the State of Indiana, the State of opposed to the spirit and theory of our insti

Illinois, the State of Michigan, the State of Iowa, tutions, and in a little while would reduce the State of Wisconsin, the State of Minnesota, the the States which constitute the weaker sec

State of California, the State of Oregon, or the State tion, to the condition of mere appanages or of Kansas, or to a resident or citizen of the Terri. provinces to the dominant and stronger sectory of Utah, Washington, Dacotah, Nevada, or tion, to which anarchy itself would be pre- Colorado, be and the same is hereby distrained and ferable.

appropriated to and for the use and benefit of the “ The South is our country'—and while we State of Arkansas, and payments thereof are here. are satisfied that, up to the moment when after to be made to the State of Arkansas, in such the Government at Washington committed manner as shall be provided by ordinance of this the folly and wickedness of making war upon Convention, or by enactment of the Legislature of

the State, and all other payments are hereby prothe Seceded States, the conservative party in

hibited, and declared null and void, and the party Arkansas was largely in the ascendant, we making the same shall be responsible to the State cannot believe that her soil is polluted by a

for the full value of such payment of money, or of being base and cowardly enough to stop to delivery of property or chose in action. consider, in casting his lot in the unequal “ SEO. 2. Be it further ordained, That all money, struggle in which she is engaged, whether property and choses in action that are now in posshe is right or wrong.'”

session, or that may hereafter come to the posses. That was the proper course for Albert Rust sion of any attorney, marshal, sheriff or agent, or to pursue if he would still be in the van.

other person in this State, for the use or benefit of He took his seat in the Confederate Congress any citizen or resident in any of the aforesaid States May 17th, as one of the five delegates from and Territories, be and the same is hereby distrainnew sister.” The act of admission to of the State of Arkansas, and that all payments or

ed and appropriated to and for the use and benefit the Confederacy was passed on that date.

delivery thereof, otherwise than such as may be Before adjournment, the Convention pass-hereafter provided by ordinance of the Arkansas ed, as other States had done before it, vari. State Convention, or enactment of the Legislature, ous acts looking to the “punishment” of the shall be null and void, and the party making such Free States for their sins of omission and payment, or delivering such property or chose in

the 6

action, contrary to the true intent thereof, shall be “2. All persons claiming to interpose in public in liable to the full value thereof.

the name and by the authority of the United States “Sec. 3. Be it further ordained, That all land or on this frontier, will be arrested and placed in the real estate of whatever kind, the title or ownership guard-house for examination. whereof is in a citizen or citizens, resident or resi- “ 3. Captain Perkins will take possession of the dents of any of the aforesaid States or Territories, be records and other property of the United States forfeited and revert to the State of Arkansas for the Court at Van Buren, Arkansas, and place the keyg use and benefit of said State, and that the title to in custody of the Circuit Court Clerk of Crawford such lands shall be disposed of as the Convention county, Arkansas. or Legislature may hereafter direct.

" 4. Stationery, and twenty minutes time, will be “ Sec. 4. Be il further ordained, That all sales of allowed the attaches of said Court, should they de property under legal process for collection of such sire, to write their resignations. debts as are described in the first section of this “5. All persons in possession of public property, ordinance, the use and benefit whereof is going to taken without proper authority, are required to recitizens or residents of any of the States or Terri- port the same immediately to the Assistant Adjutant. tories aforementioned, be and the same is hereby | General at head-quarters of this command, and all prohibited, until otherwise ordered by the Conven. arms or other property belonging to the United tion or enactment of the Legislature."

States, will be seized. By order of
Prior to the act of seces-

"General N. B. BURROW, Commanding. Acts of Seizure and sion the patriots, eager to

“W. F. RECTOR, Assistant Adjutant-General." Violence.

Various other steps were taken to extermiserve “the cause," hastened to appropriate Government property, moneys,

nate every vestige of United States authority. &c., &c. The United States arsenal at Napo- the facts are brought to light, will show that,

Scenes of violence followed which, when leon was seized April 23d. It contained about

in real malignity, Arkansas, as a State, was twelve thousand Springfield muskets, and stores and munitions designed for the “upper

second to none other in the Confederacy--not

Like Texas she seemed country.” Fort Smith was seized April 24th,

excepting Texas.

vicious in proportion to her indebtedness to by a large body of Arkansas cut-throats,* headed by Solon Borland. The fort was a

the Union. If any question this, let them

converse with an Arkansas Secessionist, and very valuable property, having long been an Indian agency and point of deposit for

they will perceive what degree of malice the

arms, munitions, goods, &c., destined for the “up

men of that State harbored toward the loyal

sentiment of the country. per country.” May 4th, two days before the

North Carolina though Ordinance of Secession was promulgated, the

North Carolina's

still in the Union was, also, following characteristic order was issued:

Course.

in the Southern Confedera“ HEAD-QUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE,First Division, FORT Smith, May 4th, 1861.

tion. The answer of Governor Ellis, and the “1. The authority of the United States has ceased

immediate steps he took to place the State in apon this frontier.

an attitude of defense, demonstrated that the *We use this somewhat vulgar term, here and Union and conservative sentiment, strong up elsewhere, as particularly applicable to that class to that moment, was dashed to the earth. of persons which the Southern States of America only As in Tennessee, Virginia and Arkansas, the knew — those who generally carried a huge bowie. spirit of disunion and war flamed up so sudknife on their person—to whom tobacco and whisky denly and irresistibly as to bear all before it. were leading necessaries — who lived by boating, The defeat, at the election held in January, gambling, horse-swapping, negro-hunting, &c., &c. of the “ Conventionists,” had not, as already This class up to 1861, was large — especially in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, and be

stated, prevented the gathering, at Raleigh,

of a Convention immediately after the vote came one of the earliest sources for filling the ranks of the Confederate army. No country in the civil

was announced--so treacherous and bent upon ized world could produce a more hardy, desperate revolution was the Secessionists. This revoand ignorant set of men. Up to the breaking out of lutionary, and really illegal, body assumed hostilities they were both feared and hated by the the form and functions of other “Conventions,'' better portion of the Southern people.

though it failed to legislate the State out of

}cy at the date of Mr. Lincoln's first Proclama

NORTH

CAROLINA'S COURSE.

157

Ordinance of Seces

the Union. Mr. Clingman, late of the United the honor, dignity and welfare of the people of States Senate—where he had, against the sen

North Carolina imperatively demand that they timents of his constituents, consorted with the should resist, at all hazards, such usurpafion; and enemies of the Government-represented the whereas, there is an actual state of revolution existGeneral Assembly of the State to the Mont-ing in North Carolina, and our sister State of Virgi.

nia, making common cause with us, is threatened gomery Congress. May 14th he introduced with invasion by the said Administration ; now, to that body the following:

therefore, “ Resolution, authorizing the Governor lo use all the

“ Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, he powers of the State, civil and military, consistent with authorized to tender to Virginia, or to the Governthe Constitution, to protect the persons and property of ment of the Confederate States, such portion of our our citizens, and to maintuin and defend the honor of volunteer forces now, or that may hereafter be, unNorth Carolina.

der his command, and that may not be necessary “Whereas, The Constitution Clingman again.

for the immediate defense of North Carolina." of the United States has been entirely subverted, and its Government has The Legislature adopted an act calling a been converted into a military despotism by the State Convention, empowering it with almost usurpations of the Administration of Abraham Lin absolute powers. The election was ordered coln ; and whereas, the said Abraham Lincoln has for May 13th—the Convention to assemble promulgated a proclamation declaring the ports of May 20th. On the very first day of the ConNorth Carolina in a state of blockade, and directing vention the Ordinance of Secession was passour ships engaged in lawful commerce to be seized; ed. It read as follows: and whereas, such measures are, by the laws of civil

“We, the people of the State ized nations, only to be resorted to against a foreign

of North Carolina, in ConvenState, and one against which war has been declared;

sion.

tion assembled, do declare and and whereas, North Carolina bas no alternative con

ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that sistent with her safety and honor, but to accept the

the Ordinance adopted by the State of North Caroliposition thus assigned to her, as being that of an

na, in the Convention of 1789, whereby the Constituindependent and foreign State :

tion of the United States was ratified and adopted, and “ Therefore, be it resolved, That the Governor is bereby authorized to use all the powers of the State, ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Con

also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly civil and military, consistent with the Constitution, to protect the persons and broperty of our citizens, stitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abroand to maintain and defend the honor of North

gated.

“ We do further declare and ordain, that the Union Carolina.

now existing between the State of North Carolina " A true copy from the Minutes of the House of

and the other States, under the title of the United Commons of North Carolina.

States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the “ EDWARD CANTWELL, C. H. C." All of which was entered on the journals

. exercise of all her rights of sovereignty which be

State of North Carolina is in the full possession and As the Ordinance of Secession was not passed long and appertain to a free and independent State. until May 20th, this action of the Confederate

“Done at Raleigh, 20th day of May, in the year Congress to "authorize” the Governor of the

of our Lord 1861." State to use all the powers of the State, would

At the same time an ordinance was passed seem strange were its entire proceedings not characterized by the same extraordinary as

ratifying the Constitution of the Confederate

States. sumptions of power and authority.

This formality sealed the fortunes These resolves embodied the substance of of the State by linking them to the “ dynasty

of Davis" -as it has now come to be called. resolutions adopted by the Legislature a few

Thenceforward North Carolina was to live in days prior to the date above named. They

a travail that brought forth a monster, of read:

which the wretched mother was only relieved " Whereas, By an unwarranted and unprecedent

when returning reason restored her to her ed usurpation of power by the Administration at Washington City, the Government of the United old allegiance. For many a season will sho States of America has been subverted; and whereas, wear the wounds of that horrible birth.

CHAPTER XIL

THE CRISIS IN MISSOURI. HER ACTION AND POSITION TOWARD

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UP TO THE FINAL DEFECTION OF GOVERNOR JACKSON, JUNE THIRTEENTI.

*

Interior,

con

Incipient arrange

GOVERNOR Jackson's an- event of the uprising of the “Minute Men," ments for swer to the requisition for ten thousand Union volunteers would quickly « Precipitation.”

troops: “The requisition is respond to the call to arms. illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhu- A dispatch from St. Louis,

Feeling in the man, diabolical, and cannot be complied April 22d, said: “Quite a with,” was not unexpected by those who were nurober of editorials from familiar with that person's secessionist pro- prominent papers in the interior of the State, clivities. His pressure on the Legislature express much indignation at the action of the (then adjourned) had resulted in placing Federal Government in calling so large a milmeans at his disposal for confronting the itary force into the field, and especially for Union sentiment of St. Louis and Northern calling for volunteers from the Border Slave Missouri with force. A Metropolitan Police States; but, not much ill temper is manifestAct was passed, placing St. Louis under the ed, and there is less disposition to run the control of Police Commissioners to be ap- | State into rash, indefensible measures than in pointed by the Governor. Three of those some other States. There is a good deal of named were leaders of " Minute Men," organ- secession feeling in some sections, but the ized bodies of Secessionists, who, armed and prevailing sentiment is unanimous for peace drilled, were ready for any revolutionary ser- and conciliation." This stated the surface vice. A fourth Commissioner was also a Se- view of matters. Beneath all that apparent cessionist. The fifth was the Mayor, a desire for peace and conciliation was the revditional Union" man, This placed the me- olutionary element which only needed to be tropolis of the West at the mercy of the revo- subtly controlled by the Governor and his lutionists—a fact which it is well to bear in co-conspirators, to become at once inimical mind in order properly to appreciate the ser

* In a communication to an Eastern journal, May vices performed by the Unionists.

21, Mr. Blair stated: “No State in the Union has Anticipating trouble, regular troops had responded more promptly to the call of the Admin. been centralized at that point to the number istration, for her quota of volunteers, than Missouri; of one thousand-three hundred occupying and this, too, at a time when the State Government the arsenal and seven hundred at Jefferson and the Government of the city of St. Louis are both barracks. Captain Nathaniel Lyon was in in the hands of the enemy, and every difficulty command at the arsenal-a brave and accom

thrown in the way of our patriotic citizens. Notplished officer, in whom the Unionists trusted withstanding their embarrassments, in one week the implicitly. At the arsenal were nearly thirty four regiments called for from Missouri were musthousand muskets and rifles, with large quan

tered into service, armed and equipped, and are

now on duty at the arsenal and Jefferson barracks, tities of side arms, ammunition, accoutrements,

and ready to do duty whenever they may be wanted. &c. In the city, Union organizations were

“Another regiment and three battalions have rapidly formed to meet the impending crisis.

since been forwarded, and St. Louis alone will, in But a few days after Mr. Lincoln's call, two two weeks, furnish from 8,000 to 10,000 men for the thousand men were ready for arms and equip- maintenance of the Union and the suppression of this ments. It was confidentiy stated that, in infamous rebellion.”