General Orders, No. 8.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT, MISSISSIPPI AND ARKANSAS, HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss., January 9, 1868. 1. General order No. 9, series of 1867, from these headquarters, is hereby so modified and amended as to restore to the civil tribunals, properly having cognizance under the respective statute laws of the States of Mississippi and Arkansas, entire jurisdiction in all ordinary cases of horse-stealing, heretofore made triable under the provisions of that order before military commission. In case, however, any person charged with the crime of horse-stealing, and indicted therefor, shall make oath before a judicial officer that, by reason of service in the army of the United States, or of political sentiments entertained by him, or of his race or color, he cannot have an impartial trial at the hands of the civil authorities-then all action in the case shall be suspended, and the case reported at once to the nearest military post commander, who will cause an immediate investigation to be made by

an officer of all the facts thereof. Should there be no military post within, say, fifty miles of the point, the case will be reported to the sub-district commander, who will order the investigation.

If, in the opinion of the officer making the investigation, the accused can have an impartial trial before the civil tribunal having cognizance, he will officially notify the proper civil officer; the suspension of the proceedings will cease from that time, and the case will proceed in due course.

But if, in the opinion of the investigating officer, an impartial trial cannot be had in the case before the civil authorities, a full and explicit report of all the facts of his reasons for his belief will be forwarded at once to these headquarters, for the consideration and further orders of the district commander.

2. The cases of all citizen prisoners, now in confinement under military guard, awaiting trial on the charge of horse-stealing, will be at once investigated by the respective commanding officers of the posts at which they are confined, and special report made to the sub-district commander of all cases which, in their judgment, will receive impartial justice at the hands of the civil authorities having cognizance. The sub-district commanders are hereby authorized to give the necessary orders and instructions, to cause all such cases to be returned to civil jurisdiction with the least possible delay and expense. A report of the action taken in each case will be forwarded by the sub-district commander for file at these headquarters.

By order of Brevet Maj.-Gen. ALVAN C. GILLEM. 9. D. GREENE, Assistant Adjutant-General. By a subsequent order, issued in the same month, General Gillem' allowed the State courts to have cognizance and proceed undisturbed in other matters also, which his predecessor had taken away from them, as follows:

General Orders, No. 6.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT,

MISSISSIPPI AND ARKANSAS, VICKSBURG, MISs., January 27, 1868. Circulars Nos. 19, 22, and 24, series of 1867, from these headquarters, are hereby revoked-without prejudice, however, to any action which may have been already taken in accordance with said circulars. Hereafter, all questions arising from settlements of crops, and generally the relations of debtors and Creditors of civil suitors, will be left to the proper civil courts-except such cases affecting the rights of freedmen, or others, as by acts of Congress are speially committed to the care of the Bureau of Refugees, By order of Brevet Maj.-Gen. ALVAN C. GILLEM. JOHN TYLER, A. A. A. G.

Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

The great event of the year 1868, in Arkan

VOL. VIII.-3

sas, however, was the preparation of a new State constitution, intended to correspond with the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, mentioned above, as it vitally affected the political and social condition of her inhabitants. The matter being naturally of the highest importance to them, and they being divided concerning it into quite opposite parties, though not in equal numbers, every man in Arkansas took eager part in the struggle for carrying or defeating the measure; which contention, and the reciprocal efforts against each other to obtain victory, so engrossed, if not wholly absorbed, the people, that the ordinary affairs of the State were now little cared for, and allowed to remain in comparative neglect, except in so far as they could be used as means to serve in the present contest.

For the purpose of assembling the convention to frame a new State constitution, to be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection, an order was issued by General Ord, on December 5, 1867, in which, after stating that, in the election just closed, the people of Arkansas had decided by a majority of votes in favor of holding a convention, he fixed the 7th day of January, 1868, for the delegates to assemble at Little Rock. They met accordingly, and began their work. As they belonged, however, to opposite parties, called Democrats, Conservatives, and Republicans, the latter being in a large majority, the debate during the session, which lasted about six weeks, was warm throughout; the subjects of dispute among the members were, whether the new constitution should be framed and submitted to the people in general for their ratification or rejection, and also every provision offered to be inserted in it. Most prominent among the latter were the measures relating to the negroes, as, the extending to them the elective franchise; the necessity of the whites' and negroes' children attending one common school together; and the clause forbidding intermarriage between the two races.

It seems not out of place to notice here the sentiments entertained by the negroes of Arkansas (and the same apparently prevail among those of the other Southern States) concerning the Government of the United States, their own right to vote as citizens, their ability to use such right properly, their native intelligence and capacity, as well as that of the white men in general, and other things regarding the relations between the two races under one common government. Mr. Cypert, a delegate from White County, styled in the reports as Conservative, and of note in the convention, having offered, in its fifth sitting, an ordinance "to adopt and submit to the people for their ratification, as the constitution of the State of Arkansas, the same as now in force, being that adopted on the 18th day of March, 1864," and having, in the course of debate thereupon, said that he was a friend to the negroes, had served in the Freedmen's Bureau, was glad they

were free, would have them protected in their just rights, as they were by law, but would never consent to see them enfranchised and made the rulers of white men "-not without referring also to the negroes' natural want of intelligence, their incapability of culture and development, and the consequent impossibility of their properly using the right of suffrage, on which points he and others had frequently spoken at length-William H. Gray, a negro, and delegate to the convention from Phillips County, rose and spoke as follows:

"It appears to me, the gentleman has read the history of his country to little purpose. When the Constitution was framed, in every State but South Carolina free negroes were allowed to vote. Under British rule this class was free, and he interpreted that 'we the people' in the preamble of the Constitution, meant all the people of every color. The mistake of that period was that these free negroes were not represented in propria persona in that constitutional convention, but by the Anglo-Saxon. Congress is now correcting that mistake. The right of franchise is due the negroes bought by the blood of forty thousand of their race shed in three wars. The troubles now on the country are the result of the bad exercise of the elective franchise by unintelligent whites, the 'poor whites' of the South. I could duplicate every negro who cannot read and write, whose name is on the list of registered voters, with a white man equally ignorant. The gentleman can claim to be a friend of the negro, but I do not desire to be looked upon in the light of a client. The Government has made a solemn covenant with the negro to vest him with the right of franchise if he would throw his weight in the balance in favor of the Union and bare his breast to the storm of bullets; and I am convinced that it would not go back on itself. There are thirty-two million whites to four million blacks in the country, and there need be no fear of negro domination. The State laws do not protect the negro in his rights, as they forbade their entrance into the State. [Action of loyal convention of '64.] I am not willing to trust the rights of my people with the white men, as they have not preserved those of their own race, in neglecting to provide them with the means of education. The Declaration of Independence declared all men born free and equal, and I demand the enforcement of that guarantee made to my forefathers, to every one of each race, who had fought for it. The constitution which this ordinance would reenact is not satisfactory, as it is blurred all over with the word 'white.' Under it one hundred and eleven thousand beings who live in the State have no rights which white men are bound to respect. My people might be ignorant, but I believe, with Jefferson, that ignorance is no measure of a man's rights. Slavery has been abolished, but it left my people in a condition of peonage or caste worse than slavery, which had its humane masters.

White people should look to their own ancestry; they should recollect that women were disposed of on James River, in the early settlement of the country, as wives, at the price of two hundred pounds of tobacco. When we have had eight hundred years as the whites to enlighten ourselves, it will be time enough to pronounce them incapable of civilization and enlightenment. The last election showed that they were intelligent enough to vote in a solid mass with the party that would give them their rights, and that too in face of the influence of the intelligence and wealth of the State, and in face of threats to take the bread from their very mouths. I have no antipathy toward the whites; I would drop the curtain of oblivion on the sod which contains the bones of my oppressed and wronged ancestors for two hundred and fifty years. Give us the franchise, and if we do not exercise it properly you have the numbers to take it away from us. It would be impossible for the negro to get justice in a State whereof he was not a full citizen. The prejudices of the entire court would be against him. I do not expect the negro to take possession of the government; I want the franchise given him as an incentive to work to educate his children. I do not desire to discuss the question of the inferiority of races. Unpleasant truths must then be told; history tells us of your white ancestors who lived on the acorns which dropped from the oaks of Didona, and then worshipped the tree as a God. I call upon all men who would see justice done, to meet this question fairly, and fear not to record their votes."

In the session of January 29th, he said: "Negroes vote in Ohio and Massachusetts, and in the latter State are elected to high office by rich white men. He had found more prejudice against his race among the Yankees; and if they did him a kind act, they did not seem to do it with the generous spirit of Southern men. He could get nearer the latter: he had been raised with them. He was the sorrier on this account that they had refused him the rights which would make him a man, as the former were willing to do. He wanted this a white man's government, and wanted them to do the legislating as they had the intelligence and wealth; but he wanted the power to protect himself against unfriendly legislation. Justice should be like the Egyptian statue, blind and recognizing no color."

Concerning intermarriage between whites and negroes, Mr. Bradley, a delegate to the convention, having offered to insert in the constitution a clause "forbidding matrimony between a white person and a person of African descent," on which point nearly all of the members spoke pro and con. in that and the following days, Mr. Gray said: "It was seldom such outrages were committed at the North, where there are no constitutional provisions of the kind proposed. He saw no necessity of inserting any in the present constitution. As

for his people, their condition now would not permit any such marriages. If it was proposed to insert a provision of the kind, he would move to amend by making it an offence punishable with death for a white man to cohabit with a negro woman." At another time he observed on the same subject, that "there was no danger of intermarriage, as the greatest minds had pronounced it abhorrent to nature. The provision would not cover the case, as the laws must subsequently define who is a negro; and he referred to the law of North Carolina, declaring persons negroes who have only onesixteenth of negro blood. White men had created the difficulty, and it would now be impossible to draw the line which the gentleman desired established."

The new State constitution, as framed by the committee previously appointed for that purpose, having finally been put to the vote, was adopted by 46 yeas against 20 nays. Its chief provisions, which had also been the most hotlycontested points of debate in the convention, are the bill of rights, the article on elective franchise, which is extended to the negroes who are recognized politically and socially equal to the whites in the State, and the article on education, which is made common to the children and youth of both races. The following are extracts:

BILL OF RIGHTS.-Section 1. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people, and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public may require it. But the paramount allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its constitutional powers as the same may have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair, subvert, or resist the supreme authority of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full powers on the Federal Government to maintain and perpetuate its existence, and whensoever any portion of the States, or the people thereof, attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its authority.

Sec. 3. The equality of all persons before the law is recognized and shall ever remain inviolate; nor shall any ever be deprived of any right, privilege, or immunity, nor exempted from any burden or duty on account of race, color, or previous condition. FRANCHISE.-Sec. 1. In all elections by the people the electors shall vote by ballot.

Sec. 2. Every male person born in the United States, and every male person who has been naturalized or has legally declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, who is twenty-one years old or upward, and who shall have resided in the State six months next preceding the election, and who at the time is an actual resident of the county in which he offers to vote, except as hereinafter provided, shall be deemed an elector: Provided, No soldier or sailor marine in the military or naval service of the United States shall acquire a residence by reason of being stationed on duty in this State.

3. The following classes shall not be permitted to register or hold office, namely: First, those who during the rebellion took the oath of allegiance

or gave bonds for loyalty and good behavior to the United States Government, and afterward gave aid, comfort, or countenance to those engaged in armed hostility to the Government of the United States, either by becoming a soldier in the rebel army, or by entering the lines of said army, or adhering in any way to the cause of rebellion, or by accompanying any armed force belonging to the rebel army, or Second. Those who are disqualified as electors or by furnishing supplies of any kind to the same. from holding office in the State or States from which they came. Third. Those persons who during the Fourth. Those who may be disqualified by the prolate rebellion violated the rules of civilized warfare. posed amendment to the Constitution of the United States known as article fourteen, and those who have been disqualified from registering to vote for delegates to the convention to frame a constitution for the State of Arkansas, under the act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, and the acts supplemental thereto. Fifth. Those who shall have been convicted of treason, embezzlement of public funds, malfeasance in office, crimes punishable by law with imprisonment in the peniinsane: Provided, That all persons included in the tentiary, or bribery. Sixth. Those who are idiots or first, second, third, and fourth subdivisions of this section, who have openly advocated or who have voted for the reconstruction proposed by Congress, shall be deemed qualified electors under this constiand accept the equality of all men before the law, tution.

Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall have the power, by a two-thirds vote of each House, approved by the Governor, to remove the disabilities included in the first, second, third, and fourth subdivisions of section three of this article, when it appears that such person applying for relief from such disabilities has in good faith returned to his allegiance to the Government of the United States: Provided, The General Assembly shall have no power to remove the disabilities of any person embraced in the aforesaid subdivisions who, after the adoption of this constitution by the convention, persists in opposing the acts of Congress and reconstruction thereunder.

Sec. 5. All persons before registering or voting must take and subscribe the following oath: "I,

do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of the State of Arkansas; that I am not excluded from registering or voting by any of the clauses in the first, second, third, or fourth subdivisions of Article VIII. of the constitution of the State of Arkansas; that I will never countenance or aid in the secession of this State from the United States; that I accept the civil and political equality of all men, and agree not to attempt to deprive any person or persons, on account of race, color, or previous condition, of any political or civil right, privilege, or immunity enjoyed by any other class of men; and furthermore, that I will not in any way injure, or countenance in others any attempt to injure, any person or persons on account of past or present support of the Government of the United States, the laws of the United States, or the principle of the political and civil equality of all men, or for affiliation with any political party.

EDUCATION.-Sec. 1. A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence among all classes being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the General Assembly shall establish and maintain a system of free schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this State between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and the funds appropriated for the support of common schools shall be distributed to the several counties in proportion to the number of children and youths therein between the ages of five and twenty-one years, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, but no religious or

other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds of this State. Sec. 6. No township or school district shall receive any portion of the public school fund unless a free school shall have been kept therein for not less than three months during the year, for which distribution thereof is made. The General Assembly shall re

quire by law that every child of sufficient mental and physical ability shall attend the public schools during the period between the ages of five and eighteen years for a term equivalent to three years, unless educated by other means.

An act, annexed to the new constitution, provided for its ratification by the people by ordering a general election to begin for that purpose on March 13, 1868, prescribing also that the voters should at the same time choose the State officers, the members of both branches of the Legislature, and the Representatives of Arkansas in the Federal Congress. To superintend and control this election it appointed by name two delegates of the convention and its president, as a Board of Commissioners, vested with ample power.

The framers of the constitution, anticipating the fact of its being both adopted by the delegates in convention, and then ratified by the people, made further provision that the members of the General Assembly, twenty-six Senators and eighty-two Representatives, should be elected every fourth and second year respectively, and should meet and commence their sessions on the first of April, 1868. And for the purpose of holding the first-mentioned and other elections, they grouped together and apportioned into twenty-two districts the fiftyeight counties of Arkansas somewhat differently than they had been before.

It seems worthy of notice that at the final voting in the convention for the adoption or rejection of this constitution, every member of that body accompanied his vote with remarks, objecting to one or more specified parts of it; the remarks also were recorded with the vote upon the journal: so that there is scarcely a point to be found in that instrument which is not condemned in express terms by one or many of the delegates-even those who voted for its adoption-seven of whom were negroes. On February 11th, when the voting had taken place, the president communicated to the convention the answer of the military commander to whom he had previously applied for money wherewith to pay the delegates and defray the other expenses of the convention, in which he stated as follows:

accounts to the amount of fifty thousand dollars in the manner therein provided, from funds to be obtained by the sale of United States bonds, now deposited to the credit of the State of Arkansas in the U. S. Treasury at Washington, D. C.

On the same day, in compliance with a provision purposely inserted in the constitution, the president informed the people of the election to be held for its ratification.

Agreeably to a measure previously carried in the convention, the president, on February 12th, appointed two boards, each consisting of three delegates, "for the purpose of digesting and arranging laws, and to arrange a code of practice for the State."

On the 14th of February, which was the thirty-first day of the session, the present work of the convention being at an end, the president, in accordance with resolutions adopted before, announced "the convention adjourned, subject to the call of the president, or, in case of his inability, of one of the six vice-presidents."

On the day of adjournment, but before the adjournment was announced, fifteen delegates, who had declined subscribing their names to the new constitution, caused a common protest, signed by themselves, to be read aloud by one of their number before the convention, of the following tenor: "We, the undersigned, delegates to the Constitutional Convention, do hereby protest against the above and foregoing constitution, and decline to indorse or sign it, as the same, in our opinion, is anti-republican, proscriptive, and destructive to the liberties, rights, and privileges of the people of this State." They requested also that the protest with their names should be attached to the constitution. This the convention refused to permit, but allowed the document "to be spread upon the journal."

On February 14, 1868, the military commander ordered the holding of the election for the ratification or rejection of the new constitution, and made dispositions to secure quiet and regularity in the voting.

The fifteen delegates, who, upon the adjournment of the convention, had entered a protest against the new constitution, published in the papers, of February 18, 1868, a common address to the people, "announcing their objections to the said constitution, and some of the reasons which should induce the people to vote against its ratification." Nor did their party, before and after that time, cease from exerting themselves to prevent the new order of things being introduced in Arkansas. Even before the end of 1867, the State Central Committee had called upon the Democratic State Convention to assemble at Little Rock, on January 27, 1868, "for the purpose of perfecting a more thorough organization," in order to put themselves in connection and act in unison with the Democrats and Conservatives of the North. On the appointed day they actually met, passed resolutions, and elected their officers, who, in this capacity, signed and pub

lished a lengthy address to the people, explaining the importance of the political questions implied in the measures proposed for their State, and the manner in which they should meet and decide them.

Outside of these matters, immediately connected with the State Convention and its work, some occurrences of interest took place. The military commander appointed for Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, another mayor and other aldermen in the place of those who were actually in charge of the said offices confided to them by the people. The following correspondence took place February 12, 1868, between the heads of the old and new boards:

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, February 12, 1868. To the Honorable John W. Hopkins, Mayor of the City of Little Rock:

S: The undersigned would respectfully communicate to your honor, and through you to the board of aldermen over which you preside, the information that they have been appointed by the commanding general to relieve you and your associates from any further duties as mayor and aldermen of this city. Our commissions, and authority for making this

communication and request to you and your board,

are subject to your inspection.

Be good enough to inform us at what time it will best suit your convenience, and that of the board, to transfer and deliver to us, your successors in office, the books, seals, records, city bonds, money, or other property that may belong to the corporation of said eity. Very respectfully JOHN WASSELL, Mayor. John Donohue, R. A. Edgerton, Albert Adams, H. T. Gibb, Rufus S. Sayward, J., G. Botsford, George R. Weeks, R. L. Dodge, Aldermen. MAYOR'S

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, Fuary 12, 1868, }, Messrs. John Wassell, Sayward, Botsford, Weeks, Dodge, Donohue, Edgerton, Adams, and Gibbs: GENTLEMEN: I am in receipt of yours, dated February 12th, in which you are pleased to communicate to me, and through me to the board of aldermen of the city of Little Rock, the information that you have been appointed by the commanding general to relieve us and our associates of any further duties, as the mayor and aldermen of said city. To which I beg leave, on behalf of myself and the board of aldermen, to reply that we are in no manner engaged in the military service, and were elected to our several positions in accordance with the charter of the city, to hold during our term of service, and until our successors should be elected and qualified. That we are not aware that your fitness for the several places into which you would seek a forcible intrusion has ever been submitted to the people, whose affairs you propose to administer, in the formal manner required by the charter of the city. That upon our qualifying for our several offices, we were required to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and the State of Arkansas, a conspicuous feature in which is, that the military authorities shall always be kept in strict subordination to the civil, a remembrance of which makes it as difficult to us to approve the steps which you suggest, as it might be found embarrassing to you, under the circumstances, to take a similar oath on your proposed inauguration. We are pleased, however, to recognize the only semblance of right which you pretend to claim, and whose virtoes are included in mere physical force, which suffces to excuse us from the further performance of daties which we are no longer able to discharge. Upon satisfactory evidence being presented, therefore, that you have been commissioned to subvert the rights of the city and her people, freely given,

exercised, we believe, with equity and firmness for many years, and resisting the destructive influences of that of the law, and the sense of justice and proviolent times, not from any force of its own, but from priety which usually pervades the minds of men, and that your authority emanates from a military source, which implies absolute force; the property of the city will be transferred to you by such titles as you have been commanded to assume, or may choose to adopt. Very respectfully, your obd't serv't, J. W. HOPKINS,

Mayor of the City of Little Rock. On the day next preceding his expulsion from office, Mayor Hopkins issued an ordinance, forbidding, under penalty of ten to twentyfive dollars, the practice of ringing bells and beating drums through the streets of Little Rock, "to attract custom; as this could not be but of great disturbance, perhaps, actual injury to quiet people, and, especially, the sick. He limited to auctioneers the liberty of making such noise, and this only "for five minutes, before the door of the place of auction."

By an order dated March 31, 1868, the military commander of the Sub-District of Arkanduring the impending election for the ratificasas, the better to insure tranquillity and safety, tion or rejection of the new State constitution, provided for the disposition of troops, throughout the State, as follows:

General Orders, No. 5.

HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS,

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, March 8, 1868. During the period of the approaching election, commencing the 18th instant, post-commanders will distribute their troops, by small detachments, at such places within their respective jurisdictions as their services may be most needed for the purpose of assisting the commissioners of election and deputy sheriff's in preserving order, also for the purpose of protecting every voter in the exercise of his right to go to and return from the polls without restraint or molestation. Parties guilty of unlawful interference with the rights of voters at the polls, or elsewhere, will be promptly arrested and reported.

Post-commanders will notify the boards of registrars of their several counties, at once, for their information, what disposition of troops they propose to make, and immediately after the election will forward a full report of action, taken under this order, to these headquarters. The mounted troops will be sent to remote stations, while dismounted detachments will be sent to places of less distance. A commissioned officer will accompany each detachment when practicable.

By command of Brevet Brigadier-General C. H. SMITH, U. S. A., SAMUEL M. MILLS, A. A. A. G.

The polls at this election were kept open unusually long, from the 13th day of March till the beginning of April; and when they had been finally closed, loud complaints were made by the Democrats against the Republicans of illegal and fraudulent voting, practised in several counties, but especially in two, to the extent of above 2,000 ballots.

A petition, signed on April 13th, by several prominent persons, was addressed to the military commander, requesting him to inquire into these frauds, of which the petitioners gave him some specimens and promised to furnish others, if time were allowed. General Gillem