the year 1856 as viewed by an arkansas whig

The Year 1856 as Viewed by an Arkansas WhigAuthor(s): Horace AdamsSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jun., 1942), pp. 124-133Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40027442 .

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THE YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG

By Horace Adams, Professor of History,

Arkansas A. and M. College, Monticello.

124 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The sensational events of 1856 afford the historian

ample material with which to write a brilliant account of the period. A two-months battle in Congress over the speak- ership, the Brooks-Summer assault, the sack of Lawrence, the massacre on the Pottawatomie, and finally the election of Buchanan provided scenes for a spectacular panorama. Demoniac diatribes, pyrotechnical oratory, marching men, and guerilla warfare produce an exciting scene. Mere con- templation of such harrowing happenings tends to heighten blood pressure. Compression of the tumultuous occurences into a few pages of any general history creates an impression upon the reader that Americans led a hectic existence during the year 1856.

However, many citizens, probably the vast majority, were largely unmoved by these historic events. At least one American, John William Brown of Camden, Arkansas, left a daily account of his life in 1856 which was almost entirely devoid of excitement. Entries dealt with local items such as the weather, family ailments, and financial difficulties. The only event of national significance which merited Brown's attention, aside from two very brief references to "Bleeding Kansas", was the presidential election.

The diarist's failure to comment on the exciting oc- currences during the first six months of 1856 cannot be ascribed to inarticulateness on the part of Brown. The Ark- ansan was, as a matter of fact, peculiarly qualified to survey



YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG 12$

the passing scene with a critical eye. He enjoyed a fair de- gree of financial security, was better educated, and was more widely traveled than the average citizen.

Brown's financial activities were varied, necessitating alertness and familiarity with current developments in several lines of work. He practiced law, acted as secretary for an insurance company, and speculated in land. Addition- al income was derived from his plantation in Dallas County, which he rented rather than worry with the irksome task of supervising an overseer. This made it possible to hire out his Negroes by the year or day, an arrangement that yielded a sizable sum in itself.

It is impossible to state the exact extent of the diarist's education. He must have availed himself of the oppor- tunities afforded him, because as a young man he taught school for one year at least. Dissatisfied with this, he studied law intensively for several months in Louisville, Kentucky, under the direction of one of the best practition- ers of that state. He read Blackstone and Hume assiduously. Thompson's Seasons supplied him with lighter reading.

While not a bookworm, Brown enjoyed reading and throughout his life possessed sufficient intellectual curios- ity to spend a portion of his leisure with books. Works by Scott and Irving were among the more famous authors listed by the diarist. Grimshaw's (?) History of the United States, Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cicero's orations, and some of Benton's speeches were included in the non- fiction. Purchase of a new Webster's dictionary indicated a desire for self-improvement. Then there were De Bow's magazine and several other periodicals to supply current information.

In addition to being better educated than his fellow citizens, Brown traveled more extensively. Residence in Louisville and Memphis in his youth, and annual journeys to New Orleans in mature life acquainted him with three of the valley's leading cities. After settling in Camden he made frequent journeys over the state, and in 1855 he




accompanied his son to Frankfort, Kentucky, where the boy was placed in Colonel Morgan's Academy. Brown's previous training and experience made him a good representative of the articulate Arkansan of the period; therefore his comments and observations acquire special significance.

If the sensational events of 1856, which bulk so large in some histories, failed to acquire sufficient importance to be noted in Brown's diary, then it is reasonable to assume they made even less impression on the consciousness of the average Arkansan.

The year opened in the midst of an extended fight in the House of Representatives to select a speaker. The con- test was so heated that one famous historian stated it "fixed the attention of the country and excited intense interest."1 Throughout the struggle, however, Brown was "snowed under" in Arkansas. The state experienced "the most extraordinary spell of weather" from Christmas to the middle of February that Brown had ever known. Camden was whitened by the "deepest covering of snow" on record for that part of the country.

February 2 was a historic day in Congressional annals. Banks was elected speaker of the House. Yet as far as Brown was concerned the day was memorable for quite a different reason than the termination of the bitter con- troversy and consequent discomfiture of Slavocracy. On the very day the crumbling edifice of slavery slipped danger- ously, one of Brown' two chimneys fell down. This disaster occurred just before the severest freeze of the winter, ren- dering the Brown domicile "unsuitable for such weather. Courageously the family passed the ensuing days as pleasantly as the cold weather would permit." Eventually a south wind brought a rise in temperature, and the balls of snow, rolled up three weeks previously, began melting. Unfortunately milder weather heralded a siege of colds among the Browns. The diarist explained that so long "as the constant freeze continued the system seemed to be

ijames Ford Rhodes, History of the United States, (New York, 1920), II, 68.



YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG \2J

braced up, but as the natural elements relaxed the human frame seemed to take in cold and disease as it was sud- denly let down and most generally settled on the lungs," producing a racking cough.

While the family huddled around the remaining fire- place, Brown struggled with the business of making a living. It was customary for masters possessing surplus Negroes to lease the slaves for whatever sums were ob- tainable. The lessee, of course, was obligated to furnish the slaves with food, clothing, and medicine for minor ailments. Top price for any of Brown's slaves was $190, which he obtained for his best worker. The other men brought only $60 and $100 respectively. Five women were hired for $100 each, although a sixth female brought only $60. In this manner he realized $910 from his Negroes, and at the same time was relieved of the crushing burden of supporting them in idleness.

Economic problems involving whites could not be settled so definitively. Although business conditions in Camden were good and Brown felt encouraged over the success of the local insurance company, he experienced a great deal of difficulty "in getting harmonious and prompt action among some of the stockholders. " The directors placed personal interests before those of the company, and insisted on pursuing their own methods regardless of the usual rules followed in more settled commercial centers. Indeed few of the Camden merchants were "at all acquainted with the legitimate course of such business" or under- stood the company's rights. Yet the stockholders posed as financial tycoons who scorned advice from any source. Under these conditions the future did not appear very propitious as the frontier financiers fought to have everything their own way or threatened to fly off" and leave the other stockholders. Unfortunately the secretary was in no position to "fly off" from the other stockholders. His original salary of five hundred dollars had been in- creased to eight hundred, and constituted a major item in the Brown economy. Largely as a result of his dogged per-




severance the company remained intact and reaped a net profit of something over four thousand dollars during the six months ending on May 15.

Such were the problems that kept the Arkansan oc- cupied while the struggle over slavery reached a climax in Congress and Kansas. During the race for Kansas, South- erners sent forth the following appeal: "Let your young men come forth to Missouri and Kansas!" According to one historian this resulted in "well-attended public meetings" being held "all over the cotton states, at which gentlemen of property and standing presided."2 Apparently Camden failed to heed the clarion call, because no such meetings were mentioned by Brown. Undoubtedly if men had been enlisted or money raised in that area, the diarist would have been cognizant of it. Camden was evidently an excep- tion to the generalization that " the communities were roused by violent speeches in which danger to the Southern institution was effectively portrayed."3 Hysteria was more rampant in radical journals than along the Ouachita.

Whereas citizens east of the Mississippi found it necessary to content themselves with vicarious thrills obtained from newspaper accounts of the war in Kansas, residents of Camden were given a taste of real fighitng when two citizens staged a pistol duel in one of the main streets. For some time prior to the fracas, moral conditions had been growing decidedly worse because of lax law enforcement. The Sons of Temperance found it impossible to muster a quorum, since the billiard room and grocery were the most popular "places of restort." Brown declared the disgraceful conditions were due "mainly to the want of Independence in that part of the community" possessing "character and influence." "Many will fall victims," he continued, "but it cannot be helped. It must be so until the evil becomes so intolerable that the community will revolt against it."

^Rhodes, History of the United States, II, 106. *Ibid. '



YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG I29

One Saturday evening shortly after this dire forecast, two citizens staged a "regular shooting match.'' "Editorial sharpshooting" caused the affray in which a Mr. Elliot killed an individual named Carrington. "Some 5 shots were made/' Brown chronicled, "and it is surprising that more had not been killed. So much for pride and evil passions. Elliot was tried and discharged by the examining Court."

The fatal Saturday night brawl spurred the decent citizens into activity. A spiritual barrage was laid down by the clergy, who designated May 30 as a day of fasting. On that day union services were conducted by the town's ministers. Nearly all business came to a standstill as the friends of law and order moved in phalanx formation against the ne'r-do-wells. An initial salvo was sounded by the dean of Camden preachers, Dr. Hartwell, the Baptist minister. He was followed by each of the remaining pastors who hastened to the attack.

"I was pleased," observed Brown, "at the exercises and entered in the spirit of it with some pious and thank- ful feeling; - It came nearer to my idea of Religion than the common denominational preaching. The Union of the pastors of the four different churches in the public manifestation and the earnest devotion to the cause of religious improvement in our city which seemed to be their common object, met my views of Religious propriety more fully than any occasion I have witnessed for some time - one circumstance, however, marred the happy results. The Methodist Elder, not contented with the successful and happy effect produced, could not restrain his peculiar, denominational characteristic habit, of raising public col- lection for some purpose, and he settled upon that of educating the poor children about town, this movement, altho the object was a commendable one, still not now called for by any present emergency, and being ill timed and unexpected, cast a damper on the closing of the otherwise solemn and interesting services and chilled the warm feel- ings excited by the occasion, by giving it the appearance of a plot to collect money, rather than to humble ourselves



I3O SOME EARLY ARKANSAS FERRIES

before our God." In this pious manner the population of Camden passed a quiet day unaware of the historic sack of Lawrence, the raid along the Pottawatomie, and the Brooks- Summer assault, all of which occurred during the previous ten days.

Although one writer states that the repercussions of the Brooks-Summer assault reverberated throughout Dixie, and "the South rallied to Brooks as the champion of their cause," national events left Camden unperturbed throughout June. Even the Fourth-of-July orations failed to dis- turb the populace. The Declaration of Independence was read as usual, after which patriotic speeches were delivered by local celebrities, Hawthorne and Leak. "The occasion," Brown observed, "was remarkable for the solemnity and good order which prevailed, the dinner was comfortable and all went agreeable and pleasantly. I was honored with a call to announce the orders and etc. for the day, and to occupy the stand as president of the occasion, which I fulfilled without any discredit at least - My anticipated pleasure was greatly diminished by the absence of Clara and Margaret."4

It was not until the approach of election day, when the politicians began their rabble-rousing trumpeting, that the Ouachita diarist commented on the political situation. A member of the Whig party from its inception, the Ark- ansan nourished an ingrained hatred of the Democrats. Ever since the Jacksonian era, Brown felt that "progressive modern Democracy" would eventually lead to the destruc- tion of the Republic. Only the efforts of Clay, Webster, and a "few patriotic Democrats" had saved the government from disruption in 1850. But the more radical Democrats were dissatisfied with the Compromise, and vSOOiv they were busy with "new wild schemes for party strength." Pressure was exerted to obtain their realization "even at the expense of the Republic and liberty."

In 1852 Brown had anticipated that Cuba would be

*Clara and Margaret were Brawn's wife and daughter.



YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG I3I

the "next wild adventure for democratic progress to rally upon." He declared that "national faith or solemn treaties'' were of "little avail" where "the spoils of office and the temptations of power" were "paramount to the permanence of our happy institutions."

Prospects in 1856 appeared brighter to the Arkansas Whig, and he pointed out that there were some who enter- tained hopes of defeating the Democrats "and saving the country." By the middle of July, Brown was sufficiently interested to ride ten miles to hear the Dallas County candidates. "Had sufficient evidence," he noted, of the continued and increasing wrecklessness and tyrannical spirits of the so called Democratic party, if I had nothing before."

As the campaign progressed, the Camden Whigs rallied and organized a Fillmore Club. Brown presided at the meeting. Speeches were made and future meetings scheduled. Presumably the club was active throughout the campaign, even though the diarist was silent about politics until election day, August 4. "A good deal of interest and excitement," he observed, "but all peacable and I think it worthy of notice how, that although an intense interest is manifested for persons and parties, and great exertion made, the election passed over without any outrage or violation, comparatively quiet. I voted the American ticket - and when there was no American candidate for an office, I did not vote at all."

Camden supported the American ticket, but the Demo- crats rolled up enough votes in the county to win the election. Brown deemed this "a bad omen for the maintenance of our institutions," because Colonel Absalom Fowler, candidate for Congress and a "firm consistent conservative union loving man" was defeated by Colonel Edward A. Warren, who possessed "neither patriotism nor talents to do anything as a statesman - a mere party Hack and a blustering pot house politician."

Downcast and depressed by the defeat of his candidate, Brown penned the following pessimistic prognostication: "Disappointed in the slight hdfteS I had that the election




might go somewhat favorable to an improvement in our public affairs, but the soverign Cry of Democrat seems to be sweeping everything before and I see but little hope for the country - I have declined buying any more property till I see some further developments - I am satisfied that if some providential change does not take place, our Union cannot stand five years longer - and whenever the Union is dissolved, there is an end to all safety in the rights of property, or security for its peaceful professions. -

"

Following this clairvoyace - namely, the accidental setting of the date for the outbreak of war - there appeared only two references to politics until November. On August 22 Brown mentioned Kansas. "All quiet and happy," he noted, "except agitation and anxiety arising from the election news - and the out-break in Kansas and elsewhere, both of which goes to show that our Government has seen its best days, and that we can stand but little longer/' A second and final reference to Kansas appeared in the entry for September 9,

" - read newspapers, and feel gloomy at the prospects ahead for the fate of our Government civil war is raging Kansas and Democratic misrule prevailing everywhere."

The duty of voting in the general election again re- minded Brown of the precarious position of the government. "This is the day to signalized by many important results by what it may bring forth. The choice of a chief magistrate of this great & at present excited nation. There was last night a parade by the American party."

As president of the Camden Fillmore Club, Brown received the election news sorrowfully. On November 8 he wrote : "Fillmore has been left far behind. We suppose Buchanan will prevail. It goes to convince me still further that the Government won't stand long. As I long ago predicted the Democratic party will be the power and the slavery question the pretext, of which the traitors of the Ultra Section South as well as the "higher law men of the north will make use to consummate their traitorous motto of Rule or Ruin - "



YEAR 1856 AS VIEWED BY AN ARKANSAS WHIG I33

Discouraged, Brown entered his final political ob- servation for the year on November 15. "The clouds hover- ing over this fair land are rendered still more dark by the overwhelming vote of the country for Buchanan - Corrup- tion every year more and more deeply rooted in the body politics and every election pervading more extensively the people - We must soon go the way of all Republics-'1

Once the election was settled, the magnetism of local problems pulled Brown's thoughts back into their accustom- ed orbit. In fact the unexpected augmentation of his family compelled concentration upon domestic matters.

"Bought of Scott, Cabinet Shop, a crib for $6.00. It is a second handed one - I thought it would be sufficient for the time we need it. Indeed I did not expect to have any more use for such an article but it seems we are young yet and no telling what may be the product of a healthy green old age."



the year 1856 as viewed by an arkansas whig

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