board of managers was appointed, who appeared at the bar of the Senate on the 2d of March, and gave the following notice:

MR. PRESIDENT: In obedience to the order of the House of Representatives, we appear before you, and, in the name of all the people of the State of Arkansas, we do impeach Powell Clayton, Governor of the State of Arkansas, of high crimes and misdemeanors in office; and we further inform the Senate that the House of Representatives will, in due time, exhibit particular articles of impeachment against him, and make good the same; and in their name we demand that the Senate take order for the appearance of the said Powell Clayton to answer said impeachment.

A resolution was immediately adopted to the effect that the Senate would "take proper order thereon, of which due notice shall be given to the House of Representatives." Meantime the case of Lieutenant-Governor Johnson before the Supreme Court had been decided in favor of the legal right of that official to the position which he held. The result of this decision would be, that, if Governor Clayton accepted the position of United States Senator, Mr. Johnson would become Governor, a result which the former seemed determined to prevent. Although elected to the Senate on the 10th of January, the Governor had not yet signified whether he would accept or not, and, when asked by a vote of the House to do so, had declined, saying in his reply:

When the time arrives when I can qualify as United States Senator, I shall be governed in my action by what I deem to be the right, and for the best interests of the State. One thing your body can implicitly rely upon is, that I shall not decline the position to which I have been elected unless I shall be convinced that the interests of the whole people would be best subserved by a retention of the executive

chair.

On the 4th of March, after the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Johnson, he sent the following message to both Houses of the Legislature, declining the seat in the Federal Senate, and giving his reasons for so doing:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF ARKANSAS, LITTLE ROCK, March 4, 1871. On the 10th of January, 1871, it was ascertained that I was elected, by the General Assembly, United States Senator by a vote of ninety-four to nine, on joint ballot. I not only received the united support of my own party, but many of the opposition members voted for me. This large and almost unanimous vote, to myself and the outside world, could not be construed otherwise than as an indorsement of my official action, and I may here state that I felt highly complimented by it.

At the time of my election by the General Assembly, the Republican members of the Legislature seemed to be thoroughly united, and I had reason to hope that the Lieutenant-Governor would pursue such a course as would commend himself to the confidence of the Republican members. By subsequent events, I have been forced to the unwilling conviction that many of the members who then supported me were actuated more by a desire to place a person in the Executive chair who would carry out a policy adverse to the wishes of a large majority of the Republican party, than to have me represent the State in the United States Senate. In other words, many of the members who supported me deemed the control of

the State government of more importance to the consummation of their wishes than representation in the

Senate of the United States.

At the time referred to, both branches of the General Assembly were under the control of the Republican party; but since that time a coalition seems to have been formed of a few Republicans, under the leadership of the Lieutenant-Governor, and the entire conservative element of both Houses. I can but regard this coalition as being anti-Republican, and having for its object the overthrow of the present State government on the one part, and the gratification of private malice and revenge on the other. With this conviction, I cannot, by any act of mine, be instrumental in placing in the Executive chair the leader of this coalition. Were I to consult the promptings of a selfish ambition, rather than the perpetuation of the principles of the party which has honored me with its confidence and that saved the State to the Union, I should accept the position to which I was elected by your votes. trayal of the confidence reposed in me, but a deserFeeling that such a course would not only be a betion of principles, a sense of duty impels me to decline the position tendered. When I remember that to establish these great principles the best blood of the nation has been shed, and hundreds of thousands of patriots have laid down their lives upon the altar of their country, I can well afford to lay aside my personal aspirations to aid in the perpetuation of the principles in the support of which so many lives have been sacrificed and such vast treasures expended.

In pursuing this course, I may give offence to some whose personal ambition may have been thwarted, but I am more than recompensed in this respect by the belief that the men who stood by the flag in the aided in bringing order out of the chaos in which hour of its greatest peril and those who have since the State was found at the close of the war, and who desire the restoration of peace and security for life and property, will heartily approve and indorse my action. It must now be apparent to the most casual observer, that the object for which the coalition was formed cannot be accomplished, and it is, therefore, hoped that the communication of my declination will allay the public mind and permit the attention of the General Assembly to be turned toward the objects of legislation recommended in my message at the beginning of the session, and which are much needed by the people.

I cannot let the present opportunity pass without thanking those friends who voted for me for the expression of confidence, and the high compliment paid me by their votes, and I can assure them that I highly appreciate their action, and shall ever remember it with pride and pleasure.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
POWELL CLAYTON.

The tone of the message was resented by certain members of the Senate, and several voted against its publication. One of these gave the following reasons for his vote:

1. Because the communication just received from the Chief Executive casts unjust and slanderous imputations upon the conduct and character of the Lieutenant-Governor of this State.

2. Because it casts base, unjust, and slanderous imputations upon the motives that have actuated and controlled a majority of the members of the General Assembly of this State in their actions.

3. Because it contains a base, foul, and infamous slander upon the people of the State of Arkansas.

4. Because I believe it should be beneath the dignity and sense of honor of this body to receive and consider such a slanderous communication.

In sending to this body his declination, I think he should have couched it in appropriate language; therefore, I am opposed to its publication.

State:

SECTION 1. The following class of persons shall not be permitted to register, vote, or hold office, in this Persons who may have been convicted before any court of this State, or of the United States, or of any other State, of any crime punishable by law with death, or confinement in the penitentiary: Provided, That any person disfranchised under this section, who may be pardoned, or his sentence commuted, such pardon or commutation of sentence shall remove all disabilities imposed by this section.

Paupers, idiots, and insane persons. SEC. 2. Every male person who has attained the age of twenty-one years, and who is a citizen of the United States, or who has legally declared his intention to become a citizen thereof, who shall have resided in this State six months, and in the county in which he offered his vote ten days next preceding the election, shall be deemed a qualified elector, and entitled to vote, if registered, unless disqualified by some one of the clauses of section one of this article. SEC. 8. In all elections by the people, the electors shall vote by ballot. The secrecy of the ballot shall be preserved inviolate, and the General Assembly shall provide suitable laws for that purpose.

On the day of an election held by the people, no elector shall be subject to arrest on any civil process. The General Assembly shall pass adequate laws to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors on the day on which any election by the people may be held.

A new registration act was also adopted, after much discussion and a good deal of amending. It provides that all elections for State or Federal officers shall occur on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of the evennumbered years. The county courts in each year in which an election occurs are required to revise the formation of election districts, and designate a place in each where the balloting shall take place. The county assessor, in the month of August of these years, is to attend one day in each election district, "for the purpose of adding to the registration list the names of such persons as he may find to be qualified voters, whose names do not already appear" on the said list, five days' notice being given of the time and place of registration. The Governor may set aside the registration and order a new one in any county if he has satisfactory evidence that the first was "falsely or fraudulently made.' The assessor has authority to examine every person under oath who applies for registration, regarding his qualification, and may refuse to enter his name if he finds him disqualified to vote.

Any person so refused, if he feels aggrieved, can apply to a judge of the Circuit Court for a mandamus, directing his registration. The assessor has power to furnish a certificate to any person whose name has been registered, showing that the person therein named is entitled to vote at subsequent elections. On the third Tuesday before the election, and for five subsequent days, the assessor is required to attend at the court-house of the county to revise and complete the lists. Two copies of the registry are to be made, one for the judge of election for State officers and one for the judge of election for Presidential electors and members of Congress. These judges, with alternates and the clerks of election, are to be apVOL. XI.-3 A

pointed by the assessor. In case neither the judge nor his alternate appears at the pollingplace, the electors may choose a judge of election. The further powers of the assessors are defined in the following sections:

SECTION 17. Each assessor, while discharging the duties imposed by this act, shall have and exercise the power of the Circuit Court, for the preservation of order at and around the place of registration, and may summon and compel the attendance of witnesses for the purpose of ascertaining the qualifications of persons applying for registration, and may issue subpoenas, attachments, and commitments to the sheriff, or any constable, whose duty it shall be to serve such process as if issued by such court, and by law for similar services. shall receive the same fees therefor as may be allowed

SEC. 18. Any person offering or threatening violence to the assessor while engaged in the duty of registering, or disturbing or resisting him in any way from the performance of his duty, or who shall, by intimidation, bribery, imposition, deceit, or fraud, or by any other improper or illegal influence, prevent or hinder persons from going to the place of registration, or from registering, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than two years nor more than five years, at the discretion of the court.

Any registered voter, removing from one county to another, may be registered in the latter, on presenting his registration certificate to the assessor. Provision is made for the punishment of false swearing with regard to one's qualifications to vote. The judges and clerks of election are required to take an oath that they are not disfranchised, that they will honestly and faithfully support the Constitution and laws of the United States, and of the State of Arkansas, and will perform their duties to the best of their knowledge and ability, studiously endeavoring to "prevent fraud and deceit in conducting the election." Separate registration lists and ballot-boxes, provided by the county court, are to be used for State and Federal officers. The judges of election have power to preserve order, and punish disorderly persons by fine or imprisonment. The following provision is made regarding the sale of intoxicating liquors:

SECTION 28. During the holding of any election, under the provisions of this act, all public bar-rooms, saloons, or other places where intoxicating or malt liquors are sold by retail, shall be closed from five o'clock A. M. of the day of the election until ten o'clock P. M. of the day of the election; and, if any person shall sell or give away any intoxicating or malt liquor, between the hours above mentioned on the day on which an election is held, such person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than three hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than sixty days.

The following are the provisions regarding the conduct of the election:

SECTION 31. It shall be the duty of the judge of election, immediately before the proclamation is made of the opening of the polls, to open the ballot-box in the presence of the people then assembled, and turn it upside down, so as to empty it of any thing it may contain, and then lock it; and it shall not again be opened until the polls are closed.

SEC. 32. Any person who shall furnish an elector with a ticket or ballot, who cannot read, informing him that it contains a name or names different from those which are written or printed thereon, or who shall fraudulently change the ballot of any elector, by which such elector shall be prevented from voting for such candidate or candidates as he intended, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in any sum not less than two hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars.

SEC. 33. Any person who shall cause, by menace, threats, or violence, or other means, any elector to cast his vote against his will or inclination, or shall, by threats, violence, menace, or otherwise, prevent any legal voter from voting at any election authorized by the constitution and laws of this State, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than three years, nor less than one year. SEC. 34. All persons, who present a certificate of registration, and whose names appear on the list of voters furnished the judge of election, shall be entitled to vote at any and all elections authorized by the constitution and laws of this State, and no challenge shall be allowed to debar such person from voting. The clerks of elections shall enter the names of electors on the poll-books in the order in which they present their ballots. The judge of the election, after the elector has voted, shail write the word "voted" on the registration certificate, date the same, and sign his name thereto.

SEC. 35. The clerks of election, after the ballots shall have been counted, shall make out an abstract and attach the same to the poll-book, showing the whole number of votes cast for each person voted for, and the office for which the vote was cast. The abstract shall be certified by the judge and attested by the clerks, and, before dispersing, one of the pollbooks shall be put under cover, and it shall be delivered to the county clerk by the judge of election, within three days after the closing of the polls. The other poll-book shall remain in the hands of the judge of election.

Five days after the election, the county clerks are to open and compare the several returns, and make an abstract of them, which shall be forwarded within two days to the Secretary of State. An abstract of votes given for Governor is also to be forwarded to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and an abstract of those given for presidential electors to be forwarded to the Governor. The Secretary of State is to open all the returns of votes for members of Congress on the last Monday in December, in the presence of the Governor, and cast up and arrange the votes from the several counties, and the Governor is to make proclamation of the result, and furnish the successful candidates with certificates of election. The Secretary of State is to make a roll of the members of each House of the Legislature as elected, and the returns of the vote for Governor are to be opened in presence of both Houses of the General Assembly, at the beginning of the session, and the result is then and there to be published. The following is an additional provision regarding persons whom the assessors have refused to register:

SECTION 45. In all cases where a person has applied for registration, and has been refused, and no determination has been made of the application for mandamus, to compel the assessor to place the name of such person on the registration list, and such ag

grieved person desires to vote at any election under the provisions of the "enforcement act" of Congress, such person shall be entitled to vote at all elections protected by said enforcement act, by presenting to the judge of election a written or printed affidavit, taken before some officer authorized by law to administer oaths, containing the elector's oath as prescribed in section five of Article VIII. of the constitution of the State of Arkansas. The judge of election shall retain said affidavit, and the clerks of election shall note the word "affidavit" after the name of every person voting under the provisions of this section.

There was a vigorous opposition to the bill in the House of Representatives. One speaker characterized it as an outrage. "If there is a law on the statute-books more damnable tration law, and the one you propose to pass is than another," he said, "it is the present registenfold worse than that. The Governor, under this law, can control every election he sees proper."

The act, however, passed the House by a vote of 37 to 24.

Several acts were passed relating to the finances of the State. Among these was a new law for regulating the assessment and collection of taxes, and an act authorizing the issue of 300 bonds of $1,000 each, bearing seven per cent. interest, to provide for the payment of interest on the State debt. An act was also passed authorizing the Treasurer, when Auditor's warrants are presented, and there is no money to pay them, to issue certificates on bank-note paper in sums of one, two, five, and ten dollars, bearing eight per cent. interest, the same to be receivable for all taxes, except interest on the public debt. There was some vigorous opposition to this act, one of the members giving the following reasons for voting against it:

1. Because the chief object of the bill is to create a medium of exchange within the State, which will operate as, and have the effect of, a currency. 2. Because there is no substantial basis upon which currency may be safely issued.

8. Because the issuing of such certificates will have the effect of inflating the currency within the State, in proportion as the same are issued, and will have the further effect of depreciating the credit of the State in like proportion.

4. Because it is unreasonable to require the people to pay interest on a debt which has been created in a great measure by the mismanagement of their servants, when these servants are the parties to be most directly benefited by the issuance of such certifi

cates.

caused the State to carry out the provisions of said 5. Because additional expense will be necessarily bill, without attaining a corresponding benefit.

Other acts of some importance were passed, as follows: placing the penitentiary under the management of a State superintendent; exempting from taxation for five years all capital employed in manufactures and mining; providing for the incorporation of institutions of learning; for the location, organization, and maintenance of the Arkansas Industrial University, with a normal department; authorizing the appointment of a State geologist; providing for a digest of the statutes; a code of

practice in civil cases; providing for the building and repairing of public levees by the issue of seven per cent., fifty-year bonds, to an amount not exceeding $3,000,000; and an act providing for the election, by the General Assembly, of one State director in each railroad company for every $200,000 of its stock owned in the State. Three new counties were also created, as follows: Nevada, out of portions of Hemp stead, Ouachita, and Columbia, with a temporary county-seat at Mount Moriah; Sarber, out of portions of Yell, Johnson, Franklin, and Scott, with a temporary county-seat at Reveille; and Lincoln, out of portions of Drew, Desha, Arkansas, Bradley, and Jefferson, with a temporary county-seat at CaneCreek Church. The Legislature adjourned on the 25th of March, having been in session two months and twenty-three days, cost the State $140,000, and passed seventy-three acts.

The charges of fraud and corruption in the conduct of the election in November, 1870, were taken up by the United States District Court, at its session in April, and a large number of indictments were found by the grandjury, including one against ex-Governor Clayton, for issuing a certificate of election, as member of Congress from the Third District, to General Edwards, when, as was alleged, he did not receive a majority of the legal votes. The charges that were made against registrars, judges of election, and other officers, included registration of persons not entitled to vote, and even of persons who had no existence, receiving votes on the names thus fraudulently registered, exclusion of persons from registration who had a right to vote, false counting of the ballots, false returns of the results, etc. These charges were never substantiated, but, as the circumstances of their dismissal were rather peculiar, it may be worth while to note some of the facts regarding the election of 1870. In the first place, the entire vote numbered 53,800, or over 13,000 less than the registered vote of 1867, when large numbers were disfranchised by the reconstruction acts. In Benton County, which has a population of 13,831, mostly white, there were but 854 persons registered; while in Hempstead County, which has 13,768 inhabitants, about one-half colored, there were 2,604 voters on the lists. In Boone County, whose population of 7,032 is mostly white, there were but 312 names registered; while in Chicot County, which has 7,214 inhabitants, composed largely of colored people, the vote was 2,561, or one for every three persons in the county. Similar incongruities were noted in other quarters, and specific accusations of fraud were produced before the grand-jury. Soon after the indictments already mentioned had been found, the United States marshal, General Catterson, and the District Attorney, Mr. Whipple, who had been instrumental in instituting legal proceedings against those charged with frauds in the election, were removed by the President, on the

application of Senator Clayton, and officials friendly to the latter were put in their places. The trials were then very generally abandoned, and that of Clayton himself, which came off in October, resulted in his acquittal.

The general condition of society in the State during the year was as peaceable as could reasonably be expected. There were many local disorders which were often attributed to the so-called Ku-klux Klan; but, although Senator Clayton declared at Washington that there were 20,000 Ku-klux in the State, fully armed and organized, investigation generally resulted in a refutation of the stories. For instance: there were reports of Ku-klux outrages in Sebastian County, and the people at once held a mass-meeting, and chose a committee to investigate the matter. A large number of witnesses were examined, and the result showed that the disturbances had been greatly exaggerated, and were local and personal in their nature, having no reference whatever to the pretended Ku-klux order. In Woodruff County, from which the wildest reports proceeded, the judge of the Circuit Court directed the grand-jury to "go for, dig up, and root out" all the Kuklux in the county. After investigation, the jury reported as follows:

The grand-jury in and for said county having been specially instructed by the court to "go for, dig up, and root out" the Ku-klux and other secret organispectfully report that, in pursuance of said instruczations banded together for unlawful purposes, retions, they have labored diligently to that end through the entire term. They have examined witnesses from every township in the county, being careful to select reliable, truthful men, of different shades of political opinion, black as well as white, in order that they may not be misled in the investigation by the testimony of interested or prejudiced witnesses; and the jurors report that they have failed to elicit from any single witness any information of the existence in might lead to such information, and are fully satisthe county of such organization, or any thing that filed, upon patient and thorough investigation, that none such exists in the county. The jury are further convinced, from information received in the exist in the county any spirit of lawlessness or oppocourse of the above investigation, that there does not sition to the law, further than is occasionally manifested in every community by individual offences against law originating in personal or private grievances. They have especially directed their attention to this point, and no case that has come before them could be traced to any other cause; and the jury, having performed the duty with which they were charged by the court, respectfully ask that this, their report, be spread upon the records.

About the 18th of December, a quarrel between a white man and a degro, at Lake Village, in Chicot County, resulted in the killing of the latter. Three white men concerned in the affair were arrested and shut up in jail, from which they were taken by a mob of negroes and hanged. The matter caused a great deal of excitement for a time, and there were reports that the whites in Chicot County were obliged to flee for their lives, the infuriated negroes creating almost a reign of terror, but before the end of the year quiet and security seemed to be restored.