I, W. C. Thompson...

Part II -- Secession

By Larry Jameson

Of course you know that at that time, the United States government began classifying states as slave states or non-slave states. This was a political thing for the purpose of balancing power; at least that’s what was said. Anyhow, in order to qualify to become a state, a territory was required to have 60,000 citizens.

A lot of folks were moving around, finding cheaper land and the population was shifting into the territories. Long about 1818, the United States had 20 states: 10 slave and 10 non-slave. Missouri had some 66,000 citizens and applied for statehood. Of those 66,000 some 10,000 were slaves.

Rankled feathers could be seen everywhere. James Tallmadge, Representative from New York, proposed to allow Missouri into the Union only if no slaves were allowed in the territory. Well, this wasn’t going to happen. You see, Connecticut and New Jersey were non-slave states but they still had slaves. Why couldn’t Missouri be treated like those northern states?

Well, this situation wrangled around Congress until the fall of 1819 when Maine split off from Massachusetts and applied for statehood. Maine became a state March 15, 1820 but Missouri was put off until August 10, 1821. It was during that “put off” period that Congress passed the Missouri Compromise.

Essentially, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 stated Missouri could become a state with slaves but no other states from the Louisiana Purchase territory above the 36-30 line could have slaves.

Then there was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that told states to abide by Article IV of the U. S. Constitution. But the more radical abolitionist-controlled states didn’t pay any more attention to the Slave Act than they did the Constitution.

Tensions continued to grow about states’ rights and slavery. South Carolina got fed up and held a convention April 26, 1852 in which they voted to secede from the United States Government. However, neighboring southern states talked them into staying in the Union.

The next political hot potato was the development of the Kansas-Nebraska territory. You see, this bit of territory was won from Mexico and wasn’t covered by the Missouri Compromise that applied to Louisiana Territory. Representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvania proposed that all slavery and involuntary servitude be prohibited in the Mexican territory.

It was here that the President and the Supreme Court sided with the Southerners who said the protections provided to the Louisiana territory should be extended to the Mexican territory. Stephen Douglas offered a third approach. Let the states formed in the territory choose what they want to do.

Even though Douglas’s bill appeared to be a compromise, it didn’t. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 made everyone mad. In the North, lots of folks started getting together in groups known as Anti-Nebraska Parties and at a mass meeting in July of 1854 adopted the name Republican Party. The Southerners strongly favored the right of states to choose. The Abolitionists demanded slavery not be allowed in any additional territory, regardless of what the states wanted.

If anything, tensions got worse and worse. You know, that sometimes happens when politicians get together and start passing laws that take things away from people. There was talk everywhere about how the United States government was treating the southern states the same way England had treated the colonies.

Senator John Crittenden from Kentucky offered legislation in 1860 to head off what he feared most: secession of the southern states. His proposal would have extended the 36-30 line from coast to coast. No slavery would be permitted above the line and states below the line could choose to have slaves if they wanted.

Abraham Lincoln opposed the compromise, and it eventually died in committee. But two days after the compromise had been offered, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. That was December 20, 1860. Four days later they published their own version of a declaration of independence.

Did hotheaded extremists prevail in South Carolina? Probably. But hothead extremists had been gaining prominence up North as well.

Other Southern States followed suit. Ordinances of secession were adopted by Mississippi on January 9, Florida on January 10, Alabama on January 11, Georgia on January 19, Louisiana on January 26, Texas on February 1. Representatives from those seven states met in Montgomery, Alabama and adopted a Constitution of the Confederate States of America on March 11, 1861: just one week after Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office.

Lincoln made it clear in his inaugural address that the Union would not recognize the legality of states seceding. He mentioned the constitutionality of slavery below the 36-30 line. He mentioned the right of slave owners to expect runaway slaves to be returned to them from wherever they were found because it was guaranteed by the Constitution. But he would not tolerate states trying to disrupt the Union by secession.

On April 10, Confederate General Beauregard went to Fort Sumter, South Carolina and told the Union commander, Major Robert Anderson, to leave. The Union army had no right to be in the Confederate States. Anderson refused, and Beauregard assaulted the fort. Two days later, Anderson surrendered, and the stage was set for the Southern War of Independence.

[Note of Interest: Private Abraham Lincoln served in the Illinois Militia from June 16 – July 10, 1832 under Lieutenant Robert Anderson. Yes, same Robert Anderson.]

The question of secession was not a popular one in Arkansas. Most of the people loved the union. So the people of Arkansas, by a large majority, refused to secede. We did not want to go to war. But, after General Beauregard took possession of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 troops to bolster the Union Army. There had been a lot of talk about a Border States Convention, and the hope was that it would calm both the fanaticism of the abolitionists and the fanaticism of the secessionists.

Mr. Lincoln expected Arkansas to furnish troops for a possible war against our friends and families in neighboring states; that seemed to be the finger that pulled the trigger for secession. Just about everybody I knew in Ouachita County had come from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Just the Martin clan alone had come in two wagon trains from Georgia: one in 1855 and one in 1859, yet they had left numerous brothers and sisters still there.

Blood is thicker than most things, government being one of them. If Mr. Lincoln was going to prepare for war against our families, we Arkansans would certainly rethink our stand on secession.

Governor Rector sent a message to Mr. Lincoln: "In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury. The people of this commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend, to the last extremity, their honor, lives, and property against Northern mendacity and usurpation.”

On April 17, Virginia passed an ordinance of secession. Then on May 6, my state of Arkansas seceded with only one vote against. Five had voted against leaving the Union but the chair asked those five to change their votes for the sake of unanimity, and four did. Isaac Murphy, a member of the House of Representatives stated his refusal this way, “I told my constituents that I would suffer my right arm severed before I would ever sign an ordinance of secession and I will not! But I am a southern man and will go as far as the most determined secessionist in the south.”

He proposed the ordinance to set up an army of troops to protect Arkansas but, other than that, remained true to his Unionist views.

Tom Dockery, from Columbia County, was in Ouachita County recruiting soldiers to serve the state and the confederacy. I signed up with him, and we left for Little Rock where we became the 5th Regiment of the Arkansas State Troops. Our group had 650 men.

Governor Rector has already sent five companies of troops to Fort Smith to take the fort from Union control. I read in the paper that the Union commander loaded his plunder and sneaked out of town in the dead of night before our forces arrived. Our troops decided not to chase after them since the Yankees were on horse and our men were walking.

Brigadier General Ben McCulloch is in command of the Arkansas Troops. Now, I know that he was said to be a great Indian fighter and that he had fought with Sam Houston in the Mexican War. Before he was recruited to help the South he had been a U. S. marshal down in Texas. I don’t know if the move from being a marshal to a Brigadier General had anything to do with it or not, but he seemed to be a little too high on himself.

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