[1] Cp. Rev. xi. 19, and W.R. Smith, _Old Test. in Jew. Church,
Index_. For later traditional material, see Buxtorf, _De Arca
Foederis_ (Basel, 1659).
[2] But see Budde, _Expos. Times_ (1898), pp. 398 sqq.; _Theolog.
Stud. u. Krit._ (1906), pp. 489-507. The possibility must be conceded
that there were several arks in the course of Hebrew history and that
separate tribes or groups of tribes had their own sacred object.
ARKANSAS, a river of the United States of America, rising in the
mountains of central Colorado, near Leadville, in lat. 39 deg. 20' N.,
long. 106 deg. 15' W., and emptying into the Mississippi, at Napoleon,
Arkansas, in lat. 33 deg. 40' N. Its total length is about 2000 m., and
its drainage basin (greater than that of the Upper Mississippi) about
185,000 sq. m. It is the greatest western affluent of the
Missouri-Mississippi system. It rises in a pocket of lofty peaks at an
altitude of 10,400 ft. on a sharply sloping plateau, down which it
courses as a mountain torrent, dropping 4625 ft. in 120 m. At Canyon
City it passes out of the Rockies through the Grand Canyon of the
Arkansas; then turning eastward, and soon a turbid, shallow stream,
depositing its mountain detritus, it flows with steadily lessening
gradient and velocity in a broad, meandering bed across the prairies and
lowlands of eastern Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, shifting
its direction sharply to the south-east in central Kansas. The Arkansas
ordinarily receives little water from its tributaries save in time of
floods. In topography and characteristics and in the difficulties of its
regulation the Arkansas is in many ways typical of the rivers in the
arid regions of the western states. The gradient below the mountains
averages 7.5 ft. per mile between Canyon City and Wichita, Kansas (543
m.), about 1.5 ft. between Wichita and Little Rock (659 m.), and 0.65 of
a foot from Little Rock to the mouth (173 m.). The shores are sand, clay
or loam throughout some 1300 m., with very rare rock ridges or rapids,
and the banks rise low above ordinary water. The waters are constantly
rising and falling, and almost never is the discharge at any point
uniform. Every year there are, normally, two distinct periods of high
water; one an early freshet due mainly to the heavy winter rainfall on
the lower river, when the upper river is still frozen hard; the other in
the late spring, due to the setting in of rains along the upper courses
also, and to the melting of the snow in the mountains. The lowest waters
are from August to December. In the summer there are sometimes violent
floods due to cloud-bursts. Everywhere along the river there is a
never-ending variation of velocity and discharge, and an equally
ceaseless transformation of the river's bed and contour. These changes
become revolutionary in times of flood. All these characteristics are
accentuated below Little Rock. The depth of water at this point has been
known to vary from 27 ft. to only half-a-foot, and the discharge to fall
to 1170 cub. ft. per second. There is often no more than 1.5 ft. of
water, and far below Little Rock a depth of 3 ft. on crossings is not
infrequent. In many places there are different channels for high and low
water, the latter being partly filled by each freshet, and recut after
each subsidence; and the river meanders tortuously through the alluvial
bottom in scores of great bends, loops and cut-offs. It is estimated
that the eating and caving of the shore below Little Rock averages 7.64
acres per mile every year (as against 1.99 acres above Little Rock). By
way of the White river cut-off the Arkansas finds an additional outlet
through the valley of that river in times of high water, and the White,
when the current in its natural channel is deadened by the backwaters of
the Mississippi, finds an outlet by the same cut-off through the valley
of the Arkansas. This backwater, where it meets and checks the current
of the Arkansas, occasions the precipitation of enormous alluvial
deposits, and vast quantities of snags. The banks are disintegrated
along this part of the river and built up again on the opposite side to
their original height in the extraordinarily short time of two or three
years, the channel remaining all the while narrow. At the mouth of the
White, the Arkansas and the Mississippi the level of recurrent floods is
6 or 8 ft. above the timber-bearing soil along the banks, and all along
the lower river the country is liable to overflow; and as the land
backward from the stream slopes downward from the banks heaped up by
successive flood-deposits, each overflow creates along the river a
fringe of swamps. These features, although exaggerated in the portion of
the river now in question, are qualitatively characteristic of its
entire course below the mountains.
Up to the 30th of June 1907 the government of the United States expended
$2,384,557 on improvements along the Arkansas. Almost half of this sum
was required for snagging operations alone. There is a considerable
traffic on the river within the borders of Arkansas in miscellaneous
freights, and a slight passenger movement. The river is rarely navigable
above Fort Smith, and during a considerable part of the year not above
Pine Bluff. Steamer service is maintained the year round between this
point and Memphis. Ordinarily there are some 400 m. of channel open to
steamers part of the year, and in time of high flood considerably more.
To the mouth of the Grand river (460 m.) the river is open about four
months in a year for vessels of 4 ft. draft and about eight months for
vessels of 2 ft. draft.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--General descriptions of different portions of the river
are indicated in the Index to the _Reports of the Chief of Engineers,
U.S. Army_ (many volumes, 1879-1900). See also H. Gannett, _Profiles
of Rivers in the U.S._ (U.S. Geolog. Survey, 1901); Greenleaf,
"Western Floods," in _Engin. Mag._ xii. 945-958; U.S. Geolog. Survey,
_Bull._ 140; I.C. Russell, _Rivers of North America_ (1898); T.J.
Vivian, _Transportation, Rivers of the Miss. Valley_ (U.S. Census,
1890, special Rp.).
ARKANSAS, one of the South Central states of the United States of
America, situated between 89 deg. 40' N. and 94 deg. 42' W., bounded N.
by Missouri, E. by the Mississippi river, separating it from Tennessee
and Mississippi, and W. by Texas and Oklahoma. Its area is 53,335 sq.
m., of which 810 are water surface.
Arkansas lies in the drainage basin of the lower Mississippi, and has a
remarkable river system. The Arkansas bisects the state from W. to E.;
along its valley lie the oldest and largest settlements of the state.
Nine other considerable streams drain the state; of these, the Red, the
Ouachita, the White and the St Francis are the most important. There are
a number of swamps and bayous in the eastern part.
_Physical Features._--The surface of Arkansas is the most diversified of
that of any state in the central Mississippi valley. It rises, sloping
upward toward the N.W., from an average elevation of less than 300 ft.
in the south-east to heights of 2000 ft. and more in the north-western
quarter. There are four physiographic regions: two of highlands; one of
river valley plain separating the two highland areas; while the fourth
is a region of hills, lowlands and scanty prairie. The last covers the
E. half of the state, and is part of the Gulf or coastal plain province
of the United States. If a line be drawn from the point where the Red
river cuts the western boundary to where the Black cuts the northern, E.
of it is the Gulf plain and W. of it are the highlands (over 500 ft.)
and the mineral regions of the state. They are divided by the valley of
the Arkansas river into two regions, which are also structurally
different. South of the river are the Ouachita Mountains, and north of
it are the Boston Mountains. The Ouachita Mountains are characterized by
close folding and faulting. Their southern edge is covered with
cretaceous deposits, and their eastern edge is covered as well with the
tertiary deposits of the Gulf plains. The Arkansas valley is marked by
wide and open folding. The Boston Mountains are substantially a
continuation of the Ozark dome of Missouri. Their northern border is
marked by an escarpment of 500 to 700 ft. in height. The trend is from
E. to W. between Batesville and Wagoner, Oklahoma. In structure they are
monoclinical, their rocks--sandstones and shales--being laid southward
and blending on that side with the Arkansas valley region. The entire
region is very much dissected by streams, and the topography is
characteristically of a terrace and escarpment type. In the highlands N.
of the Arkansas the country is very irregularly broken; S. of the river
the hills lie less capriciously in short, high ranges, with low, fertile
valleys between them. The Ouachitas extend 200 m., from within Oklahoma
(near Atoka) to central Arkansas, near Little Rock. They are
characterized by long, low ridges bearing generally W.-E., with wide,
flat valleys. Near the western boundary of the state they attain a
maximum altitude of 2900 ft. above the sea, and 2000 ft. above the
valleys of the Arkansas and Red river; falling in elevation eastward (as
westward) to 500-700 ft. at their eastern end. Five peaks rise above
2000 ft. Magazine Mountain, 2833 ft. above the sea-level and 2350 ft.
above the surrounding country, is the highest point between the
Alleghanies and the Rockies. Altitudes of 2250 ft. are attained in the
Boston Mountains, which are the highest portion of the Ozark uplift, and
the most picturesque. The streams are vigorous, and in their lower
courses flow in deep-cut gorges, 500 to 1000 ft. deep, almost deserving
the name of canyons. The main streams are tortuous, and their dendritic
tributaries have cut the region into ridges. The mountains do not fill
the N.W. quarter of the state, and are separated from a lower, greatly
eroded highland region on their N. by a bold escarpment 500 to 1000 ft.
in height. Along the upper course of the White river in the Bostons and
in the country about Hot Springs in the Ouachitas is found the most
beautiful scenery of the highlands; few regions are more beautiful. The
valley region embraces the bottom-lands along the Mississippi, and up
the Arkansas as far as Pine Bluff, and the cypress swamp country of the
St Francis.
_Climate._--The climate of the state is "southern," owing to the
influence of the Gulf of Mexico. The mean temperatures for the different
seasons are normally about 41.6 deg., 61.1 deg., 78.8 deg. and 61.9 deg.
F. for winter, spring, summer and autumn respectively. The normal mean
precipitations are about 11.7, 14.5, 10.5 and 10.2 in. for the same
seasons. The extreme range of the monthly isotherms crossing the state
is from about 35 deg. in winter to 81 deg. F. in summer, and the range
of annual isotherms from about 54 deg. to 60 deg. F. That is, the
variation of mean annual temperatures for different parts of the state
is only 6 deg. F. The variation of the mean annual temperature for the
entire state is only 4 deg. (from 59 deg. to 63 deg. F.). The variation
of precipitation is as great as 30 in. (from 34 to 64 in.) according to
locality. There is little snow, no severe winter cold, and no summer
drought. Sheltered valleys in the interior produce spring crops three or
four weeks earlier than is usual in Kansas. The climate is generally
healthy.
_Flora._--Arkansas lies in the humid, or Austroriparian, area of the
Lower Austral life-zone, except the highlands of the Ozark uplift and
Ouachita Mountains, which belong to the humid, or Carolinian, area of
the Upper Austral. The state possesses a rich fauna and flora. From an
economic standpoint its forests deserve special mention. The forest
lands of the state include four-fifths of its area, and three-fourths
are actually covered by standing timber. Valuable trees are of great
variety: cottonwood, poplar, catalpa, red cedar, sweet-gum, birch-eye,
sassafras, persimmon, ash, elm, sycamore, maple, a variety of pines,
pecan, locust, dogwood, hickory, various oaks, beech, walnut and cypress
are all abundant. There are one hundred and twenty-nine native species
of trees. The yellow pine, the white oak and the cypress are the most
valuable growths. The northern woods are mainly hard; the yellow pine is
most characteristic of the heavy woods of the south central counties;
and magnificent cypress abounds in the north-east. Hard woods grow even
on the alluvial lands. "The hard-wood forests of the state are hardly
surpassed in variety and richness, and contain inestimable bodies of the
finest oak, walnut, hickory and ash timber" (U.S. Census, 1870 and
1900). The growth on the alluvial bottoms and the lower uplands in the
E. is extraordinarily vigorous. The leading species of the Appalachian
woodland maintain their full vigour of growth nearer to the margin of
forest growth in this part of the Mississippi valley than in any other
part of the United States; and some species, such as the holly, the
osage orange and the pecan, attain their fullest growth in Arkansas
(Shaler). There are two Federal forest reserves (4968 sq. m.).
_Soil._--The soils of Arkansas are of peculiar variety. That of the
highlands is mostly but a thin covering, and their larger portion is
relatively poorly fitted for agriculture. The uplands are generally
fertile. Their poor soils are distinctively sandy, those of the lowlands
clayey; but these elements are usually found combined in rich loams
characterized by the predominance of one or the other constituent.
Finally the alluvial bottoms are of wonderful richness.
_Agriculture._--This variety of soils, a considerable range of moderate
altitudes and favourable factors of heat and moisture promote a rich
diversity in agriculture. Arkansas is predominantly an agricultural
state. The farm area of 1860 was only 28.2% of the whole area of the
state, that of 1900 (16,636,719 acres) was 49%; and while only a fifth
of this farm area was actually improved in 1860, two-fifths were
improved in 1900; thus, the part of the state's area actually cultivated
approximately quadrupled in four decades. The value of products in 1900
($79.6 millions) was 44% of the total farm values ($181.4 millions). The
rise in average value of farm lands since 1870 has not been a fifth of
the increase of the aggregate value of all farm property.
The Civil War wrought a havoc from which a full recovery was hardly
reached before 1890. The economic evolution of the state since
Reconstruction has been in the main that common to all the old slave
states developing from the plantation system of ante-bellum days,
somewhat diversified and complicated by the special features of a young
and border community. The farms of Arkansas increased in number 357.8%,
in area 73.7% and in total true (as distinguished from tax) valuation
about 53.8% between 1860 and 1900; the decade of most extraordinary
growth being that of 1870-1880. Thus Arkansas has shared that fall in
the average size of farms common to all sections of the Union (save the
north central) since 1850, but especially marked since the Civil War in
the "Cotton States," owing to the subdivision of large holdings with the
introduction of the tenant system. The rapidity of the movement has not
been exceptional in Arkansas, but the size of its average farm, less in
1850 than that of the other cotton states, was in 1900, 93.1 acres
(108.8 for white farmers alone, 49.0 for blacks alone), which was even
less than that of the North Atlantic states (96.5 acres, the smallest
sectional unit of the Union). The percentage of farms worked by owners
fell from 69.1% in 1880 to 54.6% in 1900; the difference of the balances
or 14.5% indicates the increase of tenant holdings, two-thirds of these
being for shares.
It is interesting to compare in this matter the whites and the negroes.
In actual numbers the white farmers heavily predominate, whether as
owners, tenants for cash or tenants on shares; but if we look at the
numbers within each race holding by these respective tenures (65.0, 8.7
and 26.3% respectively for whites; 25.6, 33.7 and 40.7% for negroes, in
1900), we see the lesser independence of the negro farmer. The cotton
counties, which are the counties of densest coloured habitancy,
exemplify this fact with great clearness. The few negroes in the white
counties of the uplands are much better off than those in the cotton
lowlands; more than three times as large a part of them owners; the
poorer element is segregated in the cotton region. In Arkansas, as
elsewhere in the south, negro tenants, like white tenants, are more
efficient than owners working their own lands. The black farmer is in
bondage to cotton; for him still "Cotton is King." He gives it
four-fifths of his land; while his white rival allows it only a quarter
of his, less by half than the area he gives to live-stock, dairying, hay
and grains. At Sunnyside, on the west bank of the Mississippi, negro
tenant farmers have been practically forced out of business by Italians,
who produced in 1899-1904 more than twice as much lint cotton per
working hand, and 70% more per acre. The general place of the negro in
agriculture is shown also by the fact that more than four-fifths of the
farm acreage and farm values of the state are in the hands of the
whites. The white farmer gives an outlay in labour and fertilizers on
his farm greater by 61.4% than the black, gathers a produce greater by
22.5%, and possesses a farm of a value 53.5% greater (Census, 1900).
Cotton is the leading product. It absorbs about a third of the area
under crops, and its returns ($28,000,000 in 1899) are about a half of
the value of all crops. A part of the cotton lands of Arkansas are among
the richest in the south. Other distinctively southern products
(tobacco, &c.) are of no importance in Arkansas. Cereals are given more
than twice as much acreage as cotton, but yield only a third as great
aggregate returns, Indian corn being much the most remunerative; about
three-fourths of the cereal acreage are given to its cultivation, and it
ranks after cotton in value of harvest.[1] For all the other staple
agricultural products of the central states the showing of Arkansas is
uniformly good, but not noteworthy. But its rank as a fruitgrowing
country is exceptional. Plums, prunes, peaches, pears and grapes are
cultivated very generally over the western half of the state (grapes in
the east also), but with greatest success in the south-west; apples
prosper best in the north-west. Small berries are a very important
product. All fruits are of the finest quality. For apples the state
makes probably a finer showing than that of any other state except
Oregon. About ninety varieties are habitually entered in national
competitions. The fruit industry generally has developed with extreme
rapidity.
_Manufactures._--Although Arkansas is rich in minerals and in forests,
in 1900 only 2% of its population were engaged in manufacturing. But the
development has been rapid; the value of products multiplied seven
times, the wages paid nine, and the capital invested twelve, in the
years 1880-1900; and the increase in the same categories from 1900-1905
was 35, 42.8 and 82.4% respectively.[2] It must be noted as
characteristic of the state that of the total manufactures in 1905,
80.3% were produced in rural districts (83.7 in 1900). About two-thirds
of the increase between 1890 and 1900 was in the lumber industry which
was of slight importance before the former year; it represented more
than half the total value of the manufactures of the state in 1905
(output, 1905, $28,065,171 and of mill products $3,786,772 additional);
in the value of lumber and timber products the state ranked sixth among
the states of the United States in 1900, and seventh in 1905. After the
lumber and timber industry ranked in 1905 the manufacture of cotton-seed
oil and cake ($4,939,919) and flour and grist milling. Cotton ginning
increased 739% from 1890 to 1900.
[Illustration: Map of Arkanas.]
_Minerals._--The progress of coal-mining has been a striking feature of
the state's economy since 1880. The field extends from Oklahoma eastward
to central Arkansas, along both sides of the Arkansas river. A
production of 5000 tons (short) in 1882 became 542,000 tons in 1891 and
2,229,172 tons in 1903--a maximum for the state up to 1905; in 1907 the
yield was 2,670,438 tons, valued at $4,473,693; the value of the product
increased more than eight-fold in 1886-1900. The United States
Geological Survey estimates that three-fourths of the coal area (over
1700 sq. m.) can made commercially productive. Apart from coal the great
and varied mineral wealth of the state has been only slightly utilized.
The great zinc and lead area along the northern border in the plateau
portion of the Ozark region has proved a disappointment in development;
the iron areas have hardly been touched, and the product of the
exceptionally promising deposits of manganese lost ground after 1890
before the output of Virginia and Georgia. Among the products of the
rich stone quarries of the state, only that of abrasive stones is
important in the markets of the Union; the novaculites of Arkansas are
among the finest whetstones in the world. Deposits of true chalk are
utilized in the manufacture of Portland cement for local markets. The
chalk region lies in the S. E. part of the state, S. of the Ouachita
Mountains. Bauxite was discovered in the state in 1887, and the product
increased from 5045 long tons in 1899 to 50,267 long tons in 1906, the
production for the whole country in 1899 being 35,280 long tons and in
1906 75,332 long tons. The only other states in which bauxite was
produced during the period were Alabama and Georgia, which in this
respect have greatly declined in importance relatively to Arkansas.
Extremely valuable and varied marls, kaolins and clays, fuller's earth,
asphaltum and mineral waters show special promise in the state's
industry. In 1906 diamonds were found in a peridotite dike in Pike
county 2-1/2 m. S. E. of Murfreesboro; this is the first place in North
America where diamonds have been found _in situ_, and not in glacial
deposit or in river gravel.
_Communications._--The rivers afford for light craft (of not over 3 ft.
draft) about 3000 m. of navigable waters, a river system unequalled in
extent by that of any other state. The labours of the United States
government have much extended and very greatly improved this navigation,
materially lessening also the frequency and havoc of floods along the
rich bottom-lands through which the rivers plough a tortuous way in the
eastern and southern portions of the state. As a result of these
improvements land and timber values have markedly risen, and great
impetus has been given to traffic on the rivers, which carry a large
part of the cotton, lumber, coal, stone, hay and miscellaneous freights
of the state. The greatest of these internal improvements is the St
Francis levee, from New Madrid, Missouri, to the mouth of the St
Francis, 212 m. along the Mississippi; an area of 3500 sq. m., of
exceptional fertility, is here reclaimed at a cost of about $1500 per
sq. m. (as compared with $10,000 per sq. m. for the 2500 sq. m.
reclaimed by the Nile works at Assuan and Assiut). Whether with regard
to area or population, Arkansas is also relatively well supplied with
railways (4,472.8 m. at the end of 1907). A state railway commission
controls transportation rates, which are also somewhat checked by the
competition of river freights. There is also a considerable passenger
traffic on the Arkansas.
_Population._--The population in 1910 was 1,574,449. The growth in
1880-1900 is shown by the following table:--
+------+-----------+-------+-------+----------+---------------------+
| | | | | |% Increase by decades|
|Census| Total |% White|% Negro| Average +------+------+-------+
| Year.| Pop. | Pop. | Pop. |per sq. m.|Total |White | Negro |
+------+-----------+-------+-------+----------+------+------+-------+
| 1880 | 802,525 | 73.7 | 26.3 | 15.1 | 65.6 | 63.3 | 72.4 |
| 1890 | 1,128,211 | 72.6 | 27.4 | 21.5 | 40.6 | 38.4 | 46.6 |
| 1900 | 1,311,561 | 72.0 | 28.0 | 25.0 | 16.3 | 15.4 | 18.7 |
+------+-----------+-------+-------+----------+------+------+-------+
In 1900 the rank of the state in total population was twenty-fifth, and
in negro population tenth. The proportion of the coloured element
steadily rose from 11% in 1820 to 28% in 1900, at which time there were
more than a dozen counties along the border of the Mississippi and lower
Arkansas in which the negroes numbered 50 to 89% of the total. They have
never been a large element in the highland counties; it was these
counties which were most strongly Unionist at the time of the Civil War,
and which to-day are the region of diversified industry. About a ninth
of the state's population is gathered into towns of more than 2000
inhabitants. Fort Smith (pop. 11,587 in 1900), Little Rock, the state
capital (38,307), and Pine Bluff (11,496) lie in the valley of the
Arkansas. In 1900 a dozen other towns had a population exceeding 2500,
the most important being Hot Springs (9973), Helena (5550), Texarkana
(4914), Jonesboro (4508), Fayetteville (4061), Eureka Springs (3572),
Mena (3423) and Paragould (3324). Foreign blood has only very slightly
permeated the state; negroes and native whites of native parents make up
more than 95% of its population. Immigration is almost entirely from
other southern states. The strongest religious sects are the Methodists
and Baptists.
_Government._--The present constitution of the state dates from 1874
(with amendments). Few features mark it off from the usual type of such
documents. The governor holds office for two years; he has the pardoning
and veto power, but his veto may be overridden by a simple majority in
each house of the whole number elected to that house (a provision
unusual among the state constitutions of the Union). There is no
lieutenant-governor. The legislature is bicameral, senators holding
office for four years, representatives (about thrice as numerous) for
two. The length of the regular biennial legislative sessions is limited
to sixty days, but by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to
each house the length of any session may be extended. Special sessions
may be called by the governor. A majority of the members elected to each
of the two houses suffices to propose a constitutional amendment, which
the people may then accept by a mere majority of all votes cast at an
election for the legislature (an unusually democratic provision); no
more than three amendments, however, can be proposed or submitted at the
same time. The supreme court has five members, elected by the people for
eight years; they are re-eligible. The population of the state entitles
it to seven representatives in the national House of Representatives,
and to nine votes in the Electoral College (census of 1900). Elections
of members of the state legislature and of Congress are not held at the
same time--a very unusual provision. Elections are by Australian ballot;
the constitution prescribes that no law shall "be enacted whereby the
right to vote at any election shall be made to depend upon any previous
registration of the elector's name" (extremely unusual). The
qualifications for suffrage include one year's residence in the state,
six months in the county, and one month in the voting district, next
before election; idiots, insane persons, convicts, Indians not taxed,
minors and women are disqualified; aliens who have declared their
intention to become citizens of the United States vote on the same terms
as actual citizens. An amendment of 1893 requires the exhibition of a
poll-tax receipt by every voter (except those "who make satisfactory
proof that they have attained the age of twenty-one years since the time
of assessing taxes next preceding" the election). There is nothing in
the constitution or laws of Arkansas with any apparent tendency to
disfranchise the negroes; there are statutory provisions (1866-1867)
against intermarriage of the races and constitutional and statutory
(1886-1887) provisions for separate schools, a "Jim Crow" law (1891)
requires railways to provide separate cars for negroes, and a law (1893)
provides for separate railway waiting-rooms for negroes. Giving or
accepting a challenge to a duel bars from office, but this survival of
the ante-bellum social life is to-day only reminiscent. Declared
atheists are similarly disqualified. There is no constitutional
provision for a census. Marriage is pronounced a civil contract. A law
for compulsory education was passed in 1909.
_Finance._--The constitution makes 1% on the assessed valuation of
property a maximum limit of state taxation for ordinary expenses, but by
an amendment of 1906 the legislature may levy three mills on the dollar
per annum for common schools; and may "authorize school districts to
levy by a vote of the qualified electors of such district a tax not to
exceed seven mills on the dollar in any year for school purposes." The
state debt in 1874 was $12,108,247, of which about $9,370,000 was
incurred after the Civil War for internal improvement schemes. This new
debt was practically repudiated in 1875 by a decision of the supreme
court, and completely set aside in 1884 by constitutional amendment.
Until 1900, when an adjustment of the matter was reached, there was also
another disputed debt to the national government, owing to the collapse
in 1839 of a so-called Real Estate Bank of Arkansas, in which the state
had invested more than $500,000 paid to it by the United States in
exchange for Arkansas bonds to be held as an investment for the
Smithsonian Institution, on which bonds the state defaulted after 1839.
If the unacknowledged debt be included (as it often is; and hence the
necessity of reference to it), very few states--and those all western or
southern--have a heavier burden per capita. But the acknowledged debt
was in 1907 only $1,250,500, and this is not a true debt, being a
permanent school fund that is not to be paid off; of this total in 3%
bonds, $1,134,500 is held by the common schools and $116,000 by the
state university. In net combined state and local debt, Arkansas ranks
very low among the states of the Union. The hired labourer suffers from
the "truck" system, taking his pay in board and living, in goods, in
trade on his employer's credit at the village store; the independent
farmer suffers in his turn from unlimited credit at the same store,
where he secures everything on the credit of his future crops; and if he
is reduced to borrow money, he secures it by vesting the title to his
property temporarily in his creditor. His legal protections under such
"title bonds" are much slighter than under mortgages. Homesteads
belonging to the head of a family and containing 80 to 160 acres
(according to value) if in the country, or a lot of 1/4 to one acre
(according to value), if in town, village or city, are exempt from
liability for debts, excepting liens for purchase money, improvements or
taxes. A married man may not sell or mortgage a homestead without his
wife's consent.
_Education._--The legal beginnings of a public school system date from
1843; in 1867 the first tax was imposed for its support. Only white
children were regarded by the laws before Reconstruction days. There are
now separate race schools, with terms of equal length, and offering like
facilities; the number of white and coloured teachers employed is
approximately in the same proportion to the number of attending children
of the respective races; in negro districts two out of three school
directors are usually negroes. "The coloured race as a whole go to the
schools as regularly and as numerously in proportion as do the whites"
(Shinn). Of the current expenses of the common schools about
three-fourths is borne by the localities; the state distributes its
contribution annually among the counties. There is also a permanent
school fund derived wholly from land grants from the national
government. The total expenditure for the schools is creditable to the
state; but before 1909 hardly half the school population attended; and
in general the rural conditions of the state, the shortness of the
school terms and the dependence of the schools primarily upon local
funds and local supervision, make the schools of inadequate and quite
varying excellence. The average expenditure in 1906 for tuition per
child enrolled was $4.93, and the average length of the school term was
only eighty-one days. In June 1906 there were 1102 school houses in the
state valued at $100 or less. In 1905-1906 the Peabody Board gave $2000
to aid rural schools, and in general it has done much for the
improvement of country public schools throughout the state. In 1906 an
amendment to the state constitution, greatly increasing the tax
resources available for educational work, was passed by a large popular
vote. The University of Arkansas was opened at Fayetteville in 1872. The
law and medical faculties are at Little Rock. A branch normal school,
established 1873-1875 at Pine Bluff, provides for coloured students, who
enjoy the same opportunities for work, and are accorded the same
degrees, as the students at Fayetteville; they are about a fourth as
numerous. In 1905-1906 there were 497 students in the college of liberal
arts, sciences and engineering, 548 in the preparatory school and 26 in
the conservatory of music and arts, all in Fayetteville; 171 in the
medical school and 46 in the law school in Little Rock; and 240 in the
branch normal college at Pine Bluff. The university and the normal
school are supported by the Morrill Fund and by state appropriations.
The state still suffered in 1906 from the lack of a separate and special
training school for teachers; but in 1907 the legislature voted to
establish a state normal school. Of the Morrill Fund (see MORRILL,
JUSTIN SMITH), three-elevenths goes to the normal school. The
agricultural experiment station of the university dates from 1887. The
financial support of the university has been light, about three-fifths
coming from the United States government. Besides the university there
are about a score of denominational colleges or academies, of which
half-a-dozen are for coloured students. Among the large denominational
colleges are Philander Smith College, Little Rock (Methodist Episcopal,
1877); Ouachita College, Arkadelphia (Baptist, 1886); Hendrix College,
Conway (Methodist Episcopal, South, 1884); and Arkansas College,
Batesville (Presbyterian, 1872). There are few libraries in Arkansas. In
this matter her showing has long been among the very poorest in the
Union relatively to her population. Daily papers are few in number. The
state charitable institutions--insane asylum, deaf-mute and blind
institutes--and the penitentiary, are at Little Rock.
Local government is of the ordinary southern county type, without
noteworthy variations. Municipal corporations rest upon a general state
law, not upon individual charters. The liquor question is left by the
state to county (i.e. including "local," or town) option, and
prohibition is the most common county law, the alternative being
high-licence.
_History._--The first settlement by Europeans in Arkansas was made in
1686 by the French at Arkansas Post (later the residence of the French
and Spanish governors, important as a trading post in the earlier days
of the American occupation, and the first territorial capital,
1819-1820). In 1720 a grant on the Arkansas was made to John Law. In
1762 the territory passed to Spain, in 1780 back to France, and in 1803
to the United States as a part of the "Louisiana Purchase." Save in the
beginnings of western frontier trade, and in a great mass of litigation
left to the courts of later years by the curious and uncertain methods
of land delimitation that prevailed among the French and Spanish
colonists, the pre-American period of occupation has slight connexions
with the later period, and scant historical importance.
From 1804 to 1812 what is now Arkansas was part of the district (and
then the territory) of Louisiana, and from 1812 to 1819 of the territory
of Missouri. Its earliest county organizations date from this time. It
was erected successively into a territory of the first and second class
by acts of Congress of the 2nd of March 1819 and the 21st of April 1820.
By act of the 15th of June 1836 it was admitted into the Union as a
slave state.
There is little of general interest in the history of ante-bellum days.
Economic life centred in the slave plantation, and there was remarkable
development up to the Civil War. The decade 1819-1829 saw the first
newspaper (1819), the beginning of steamboating on Arkansas rivers, and
the first weekly mail from the east. Trade was largely confined to the
rivers and freighting for Sante Fe and Salt Lake before the war, but the
first railway entered the state in 1853. Social life was sluggish in
some ways and wild in others. An unhappy propensity to duelling, the
origin in Arkansas of the bowie-knife,--from an alleged use of which
Arkansas received the nickname, which it has always retained, of the
"toothpick state,"--and other backwoods associations gave the state a
reputation which to some extent has survived in spite of many years of
sober history. The questions of the conduct of territorial affairs do
not seem to have been contested systematically on national party lines
until about 1825. The government of Arkansas before the Civil War was
always in the hands of a few families closely intermarried. From the
beginning the state has been unswervingly Democratic, save in the
Reconstruction years, though often with heavy Whig or Republican
minorities.
In February 1861 the people of Arkansas voted to hold a convention to
consider the state of public affairs. The convention assembled on the
4th of March. Secession resolutions were defeated, and it was voted to
submit to the people the question whether there should be "co-operation"
through the Lincoln government, or "secession." The plan was endorsed of
holding a convention of all the states to settle the slavery question,
and delegates were chosen to the proposed Border State Convention that
was to meet at Frankfort, Kentucky, on the 27th of May. Then came the
fall of Fort Sumter and the proclamation of President Lincoln calling
for troops to put down rebellion. The governor of Arkansas curtly
refused its quota. A quick surge of ill-feeling, all the bitterer on
account of the divided sentiments of the people, chilled loyalty to the
Union. The convention reassembled on call of the governor, and on the
6th of May, with a single dissentient voice, passed an ordinance of
secession. It then repealed its former vote submitting the question of
secession to the people. On the 16th of May Arkansas became one of the
Confederate States of America.
In the years of war that followed, a very large proportion of the
able-bodied men of the state served in the armies of the Confederacy;
several regiments, some of coloured troops, served the Union. Union
sentiment was strongest in the north. In 1862-1863 various victories
threw more than half the state, mainly the north and east, under the
Federal arms. Accordingly, under a proclamation of the president,
citizens within the conquered districts were authorized to renew
allegiance to the Union, and a special election was ordered for March
1864, to reorganize the state government. But meanwhile, a convention of
delegates chosen mainly at polls opened at the army posts, assembled in
January 1864, abolished slavery, repudiated secession and the secession
war debt, and revised in minor details the constitution of 1836,
restricting the suffrage to whites. This new fundamental law was
promptly adopted by the people, i.e. by its friends, who alone voted.
But the representatives of Arkansas under this constitution were never
admitted to Congress.
The Federal and Confederate forces controlled at this time different
parts of the state; there was some ebb and flow of military fortune in
1864, and for a short time two rival governments. Chaotic conditions
followed the war. The fifteenth legislature (April 1864 to April 1865)
ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and passed laws against
"bush-whacking," a term used in the Civil War for guerilla warfare,
especially as carried on by pretended neutrals. Local militia,
protecting none who refused to join in the common defence, and all
serving "not as soldiers but as farmers mutually pledged to protect each
other from the depredations of outlaws who infest the state," strove to
secure such public order as was necessary to the gathering of crops, so
as "to prevent the starvation of the citizens" (governor's circular,
1865). Struggling in these difficulties, the government of the state was
upset by the first Reconstruction Act. The governor in these years
(1865-1868) was a Republican, the caster of the single Union vote in the
convention of 1861; but the sixteenth legislature (1866-1867) was
largely Democratic. It undertook to determine the rights of persons of
African descent, and regrettable conflicts followed. The first
Reconstruction Act having declared that "no legal state government or
adequate protection for life or property" existed in the "rebel states,"
Arkansas was included in one of the military districts established by
Congress. A registration of voters, predominantly whites, was at once
carried through, and delegates were chosen for another constitutional
convention, which met at Little Rock in January 1868. The secessionist
element was voluntarily or perforce excluded. This convention ratified
the Fourteenth Amendment, and framed the third constitution of the
state, which was adopted by a small majority at a popular election,
marred by various irregularities, in March 1868. By its provisions
negroes secured full political rights, and all whites who had been
excluded from registration for the election of delegates to the
convention were now practically stripped of political privileges. The
organization of Arkansas being now acceptable to Congress, a bill
admitting it to the Union was passed over President Johnson's veto, and
on the 22nd of June 1868 the admission was consummated.
Arkansas now became for several years Republican, and suffered
considerably from the rule of the "carpet-baggers." The debt of the
state was increased about $9,375,000 from 1868 to 1874, largely for
railroad and levee schemes; much of the money was misappropriated, and
in a case involving the payment of railway aid bonds the action of the
legislature in pledging the credit of the state was held nugatory by the
state supreme court in 1875 on the ground that, contrary to the
constitution, the bond issue had never been referred to popular vote. An
amendment to the constitution approved by a popular vote in 1884
provided that the General Assembly should "have no power to levy any
tax, or make any appropriation, to pay" any of the bonds issued by
legislative action in 1868, 1869 and 1871. The current expenses of the
state in the years of Reconstruction were also enormously increased. The
climax of the Reconstruction period was the so-called Baxter-Brooks war.
Elisha Baxter (1827-1899) was the regular Republican candidate for
governor in 1872. He was opposed by a disaffected Republican faction
known as "brindletails," or as they called themselves, "reformers," led
by Joseph Brooks (1821-1877), and supported by the Democrats. Baxter was
irregularly elected. The election was contested, and his choice was
confirmed by the legislature, the court of last resort in such cases. He
soon showed a willingness to rule as a non-partisan, and favoured the
re-enfranchisement of white citizens. This would have put the Democrats
again in power, and they rallied to Baxter, while the Brooks party now
assumed the name of "regulars," and received the support of the
"carpet-bag" and negro elements. After Baxter had been a year in office
Brooks received a judgment of _ouster_ against him from a state circuit
judge, and got possession of the public buildings (April 1874). The
state flew to arms. The legislature called for Federal intervention (May
1874), and Federal troops maintained neutrality while investigations
were conducted by a committee sent out by Congress. As a result,
President Grant pronounced for Baxter, and the Brooks forces disbanded.
The chief result was another convention. In 1873 the article of the
constitution which had disfranchised the whites was repealed, and the
Democrats thus regained power. By an overwhelming majority the people
now voted for another convention, which (July to October 1874) framed
the present constitution. It removed all disfranchisement, and embraced
equitable amnesty and exemption features. It also took away all
patronage from the governor, reduced his term to two years, forbade him
to proclaim martial law or suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_, and
abolished all registration laws: all these provisions being reflections
of Reconstruction struggles. The people ratified the new constitution on
the 13th of October 1874. After Reconstruction the state again became
Democratic, and the main interest of its history has been the progress
of economic development.
The following is a list of the territorial and state governors of
Arkansas:--
_Territorial._
James Miller[3] 1819-1825
George Izard 1825-1828
John Pope[4] 1829-1835
William S. Fulton 1835-1836
_State._
James S. Conway 1836-1840 Democrat
Archibald Yell[5] 1840-1844 "
Thomas S. Drew[6] 1844-1849 "
John S. Roane 1849-1852 "
Elias N. Conway 1852-1860 "
Henry M. Rector[7] 1860-1862 "
Harris Flannigan[8] 1862-1865 "
Isaac Murphy[9] 1864-1868 Republican
C.H. Smith[10] 1867-1868 "
Powell Clayton 1868-1871 "
Ozra A. Hadley[11] 1871-1873 "
Elisha Baxter 1873-1874 "
August H. Garland 1874-1877 Democrat
William R. Miller 1877-1881 "
Thomas J. Churchill 1881-1883 "
James H. Berry 1883-1885 "
Simon P. Hughes 1885-1889 "
James P. Eagle 1889-1893 "
William M. Fishback 1893-1895 "
James P. Clarke 1895-1897 "
Daniel W. Jones 1897-1901 "
Jefferson Davis 1901-1907 "
John S. Little 1907-1908 "
X.O. Pindall, Acting Gov. 1908 "
George W. Donaghey 1909 "
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Information regarding the resources, climate,
population and industries of Arkansas should be sought in the volumes
of the United States Census, United States Department of Agriculture
and the United States Geological Survey (for the last two there are
various bibliographical guides); consult also the publications of the
Arkansas (Agricultural) Experiment Station (at Fayetteville), the
reports of the state horticulturist, the biennial reports of the state
treasurer, of the auditor, and of the Bureau of Mines, Manufactures
and Agriculture (all published at Little Rock).
The constitutional documents may best be consulted in the latest
compiled _Statutes_ of the state. See also J.H. Shinn, _Education in
Arkansas_ (U.S. Bur. of Education, 1900); W.F. Pope, _Early Days in
Arkansas_ (Little Rock, 1895); and F. Hempstead, _Pictorial History of
Arkansas_ (St Louis, 1890). Similar to the last in popular character,
vast in bulk and loose in method, are a series of _Biographical and
Pictorial Histories_, covering the different sections of the state (1
vol. by J. Hallum, Albany, 1887; four others compiled anonymously,
Chicago, 1889-1891). For the Reconstruction period see especially the
Poland Report in House Rp. No. 2, 43 Cong. 2 Sess., vol. i. (1874),
and John M. Harrell's _The Brooks and Baxter War: A History of the
Reconstruction Period in Arkansas_ (St Louis, Missouri, 1893), which
is frankly in favour of Baxter; also a paper by B.S. Johnson in vol.
ii. (1908) of the _Publications of the Arkansas Historical
Association_.