Brooks–Baxter War

Brooks-Baxter War
File:Brooks-Baxter Woodcut.jpg Woodcut representation from the 50th Anniversary edition of the Arkansas Gazette.
Date April 15, 1874 – May 15, 1874 Location Little Rock, Arkansas Result Northern Republican victory
Belligerents
Republican Party nicknamed "The Minstrels" mostly Northerners at first loyal to Powell Clayton, later Democrats	Liberal Republican Party nicknamed "The Brindle Tails" initially supported by state militia, later mostly African American volunteers
Commanders and leaders
Elisha Baxter Robert C. Newton	Joseph Brooks Robert F. Catterson (Arkansas state militia)
Strength
more than 2,000	approximately 1,000, not including state militia
Casualties and losses
claims range from 40 to about 200

The Brooks–Baxter War was an 1874 armed conflict in Little Rock, Arkansas between factions of the Republican Party over the disputed 1872 election for governor. It came at the end of a long and often violent struggle between natives and nonnatives to the state over power in the state government following the Civil War.

The struggle began with the ratification of the 1868 Arkansas constitution, which was rewritten to accommodate demands by the Radical Republican Congress who had disenfranchised the southern states. The Democrats refused to participate in the writing of the constitution which disenfranchised ex-confederates (who were mostly Democrats) from participating in state government. This allowed the Republicans to usurp complete control, through a thin alliance between natives (scalawags) and non-native (carpetbaggers) within Republican ranks.

Eventually, extravagant government spending and wide spread corruption caused the Republicans to split into two factions referred to as The Minstrels, who were mostly non-natives, and the Brindle Tails, who were mostly native. This led to the impeachment of the carpetbagger Republican Governor, Powell Clayton, and his election by the general assembly as a Senator to sequester him from state affairs. Violence finally erupted between the factions over the 1872 Gubernatorial election between factions led by the Brindle Tails' Joseph Brooks and legally elected Governor Elisha Baxter of the Minstrels on the streets of the state capital, each side supported by their own militias of several hundred men. The conflict lasted three months until President Ulysses S. Grant reluctantly intervened and supported Governor Baxter, thus ending the conflict.

The incident, followed by the new Arkansas Constitution of 1874, marked an early end to Reconstruction in Arkansas, two years before the rest of the country.

Background

1868 Constitution

After the Civil War, many Northern Republicans, whom southerners called carpetbaggers, came to the defeated southern states to work in the rebuilding process. Some hoped to make their fortunes and leave, with little regard for the states themselves. The Radical Republicans in Congress were disturbed by what they saw in the south: the old elite was being reelected into government and things were returning to the way they were before the Civil War. They passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, dissolving state governments and turning the south into military districts. The southern states could only be readmitted to the union after they wrote and ratified new constitutions that embodied the new Radical Republican platform.

The constitutional convention for Arkansas was held in Little Rock in January 1868, and was dominated by carpetbagger Republicans, most of whom had been military officers in the Union army and had stayed in Arkansas when the war was over. The most prominent were Joseph Brooks, John McClure, and Powell Clayton. The new constitution required the state to grant freedmen suffrage; it reapportioned the legislature to reflect the new status of freedmen as citizens and counting them as full members of the population. It conferred broad powers upon the state government, establishing universal public education for the first time, as well as welfare institutions, which had been lacking under the previous government and were needed in the aftermath of war. The governor was given wide-ranging appointment powers, including the power to appoint top state officials including judges with no legislative approval. The Governor was also the president of virtually all state organizations including the board of trustees of the State Technical University, the board for public printing, and even the railroad commission. It also disenfranchised the former confederates, which made up the majority of Democratic party and the state natives, requiring them to pay taxes but taking away their vote.

The Democratic party in 1868 were in disarray in Arkansas, as they were all over the country. They lacked the clarity of purpose that the Republicans had, and were unable to unite under basic principles. Many of the leaders had tried to profess their loyalty to the union to gain power for the party, but had seen little success. Many other leaders opposed the reconstruction in favor of continued military rule. The more conservative wings of the party simply had no interest in the new constitution. This group still remained loyal to the ideas the Confederacy had embodied. While the constitutional convention was being held the Democrats had a party convention. They chose to simply boycott the elections on the grounds that the new constitution was illegal. They also alienated the new largest block of voters in the state, the new freed slaves, by adopting resolutions against them. Their first resolution of the convention was "Resolved, that we are in favor of a White Man's Government in a White Man's country". Only about half of the registered voters cast ballots in the elections, two thirds of that being in favor of the constitution.

Clayton Administration

Powell Clayton

Powell Clayton, a 35-year-old former Brigadier General in the Union Army and former Democrat, would become head of the Arkansas Republicans during reconstruction. He was elected governor in April 1868, along with the ratification of the new state constitution. The election was troubled with irregularities. Pulaski County exceeded the number of registered voters and registrars admitted that they had permitted persons from other counties to vote once they presented a registration certificate. The same thing occurred in Jefferson County. Armed parties were allegedly stationed along roads to keep voters away from the polls. General Gillem, who was in charge of the military district that included Arkansas, sent a letter to General Grant stating that it would take months to sort out which side had committed the greater election fraud. He did not recognize the new Republican government nor did he take a stance on the outcome of the election pending official word from Washington.

In the summer of 1868, Arkansas was allowed to rejoin the union and Clayton was inaugurated Governor. The Radical Republicans finalized their grip on the state. The general assembly had been meeting since April, but were unable to do anything other than prepare legislation for when the state was readmitted, which did not happen until July. Clayton was able during this time to draw a paycheck as governor even though he was still a private citizen. Isaac Murphy, who had been appointed governor by President Lincoln before the Reconstruction Act, was still acting as executive of the state and operating under the old constitution, and also drawing a paycheck. Clayton appointed most of the key carpetbagger players to positions within the new state government; however, he failed to find a place for Joseph Brooks.

At this time, there was already a rivalry between Brooks and Clayton. Clayton saw Brooks as his strongest competitor for preference and distinction and did not want him to become too entrenched with the party leadership. Brooks felt that his service and ability to the party were not being recognized or appreciated, and he grew bitter and resentful of Clayton and the other carpetbaggers.

The Democrats in the state, who were now calling themselves "The Conservatives" to differentiate themselves from the Radical Republicans, were deeply disturbed by the irregularities in the election and the proposed political course of the Republicans now in power. The state was now controlled by former Union soldiers who had recently conquered them in a bloody war, and the natives of the state were mostly disenfranchised from the machinations of the state government. They felt like their votes had been stolen from them and given to the new freed slaves who they saw as inherently inferior, while the new proposed infrastructure changes would be paid for by them without their consent. Violence was inevitable and it soon broke out throughout the state. Newly elected Congressmen James Hinds accompanied by Rev. Brooks was ambushed by gun men while riding horse back near the White River. Brooks was severely wounded and Hinds was killed. The killing created national horror. Clayton blamed the Ku Klux Klan for the assassination, but no one was ever punished. As more violence spread throughout the state, Clayton declared martial law in 14 counties. At this time, the Ku Klux Klan were still a very secret organization, and many Democratic newspapers denied their existence; however, now it is known they were responsible for most of the violence. A state militia was organized to put down the violence, although they were poorly equipped with no uniforms and forced to use whatever weaponry and mounts were available to them. They were mistaken for wandering bands of plunderers by many citizens, sparking a brief but long remember "Militia War" and causing terror throughout the state.

Clayton canceled elections in the fall for numerous counties where political violence had broken out because he could not guarantee the integrity of voting places. He thus reduced voting that might have opposed the Radical Republicans, and the state ended up supporting the election of President Grant, the Republican candidate, despite the population being mostly Democrats.

Paying for the New Infrastructure

Clayton used various tactics to pay for the for the needed infrastructure changes in the state under his administration. Most of the south was in desperate need of infrastructure and was way behind the rest of the country. He raised taxes, tried to fix the state's bad credit by repaying and issuing bonds, and flooded the state with paper script. All of these tactics failed and drove up the state debt.

More taxes proved to be hugely unpopular among Democrats and Republicans, and the people of the state simply did not have that much money to give. Bond issues generated much controversy and were the source of many scandals in the administration. All of the old railroad and infrastructure bonds of the past, including the controversial Holford bonds which had already been declared illegal once before by the Arkansas Supreme Court, were gathered into a funding act and passed by the legislature. Many bonds were issued for roads and railroads that were never built, or were constructed and then torn up and rebuilt in another direction. Some projects even received the same amount of funding from different bonds, such as embankments built for railroads where roads were funded to be built by a different bond. One of the most controversial bonds involved the purchase of slate for state penitentiary roof which was used instead for the construction of a mansion of a Republican official J.L. Hodges, who eventually served jail time for the incident. Promissory notes, or scrip, were issued to raise money. The money was used for construction projects, and invested in public infrastructure. Article VI, Sec 10 of the new constitution stated that the credit of the state could not loaned without the consent of the voters, so these promissory notes were not legal. It also caused actual currency to go out of circulation.

The Radical Republicans did create some improvement within the state. Levees were constructed and railroads were built. Also, Arkansas' first public school system was created. The administration and its supporters formed the Arkansas Industrial University, the basis for the future University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville, what would become the Arkansas School for the Deaf, and the Arkansas School for the Blind which relocated from Arkadelphia to Little Rock. However, state debt increased dramatically. The state had a budget surplus when Clayton came to office, but by the end of his term, the state debt had increased to $5 million.

The Mistrels and The Brindle Tails

File:BrooksJoseph f.jpg

Joseph Brooks

The "scalawag" native conservative Republicans and the "carpetbagger" migrant radical Republicans had managed to form a coalition to seize complete control of the state. However, once they had power, the extravagant spending proved to be a wedge issue between the two groups, and their unanimity began to break down into factions within the party. There was especially strong opposition to the questionable financial maneuvers of the Clayton administration. Despite conciliatory tactics in 1869, the Arkansas Republican Party publicly split in two as scalawags began denouncing the reckless spending.

The scalawags met in convention and adopted the name the "Liberal Republicans" and a populist platform for universal amnesty, universal suffrage, economic reforms, and an end to the Clayton dictatorship. A small group of Claytonites, disgruntled with the extravagance of the party, also defected to this group. Among them was Joseph Brooks, who claimed to be the originator of Radicalism in Arkansas, who became their natural leader. Brooks was a northern Methodist preacher and a chaplain for the Union Army. He was known for giving fiery speeches that often invoked religion and destiny. He had been the chairman of the 1868 Republican state convention and was currently the State Senator from White County and Pulaski County. He had been involved with the carpetbaggers since the beginning but had not been rewarded with a government position because Clayton had regarded him as too much of a threat. This was probably a misstep on Clayton's part because Brooks now turned on his own party.

The Claytonist called the new faction "The Brindle Tails". This name can be traced back to Claytonist Jack Agery, former slave, contractor, and orator in the state. In a speech he gave in Eagle Township in Pulaski County, he said that Brooks reminded him of a "brindle tailed bull" he had known as a child that scared all the other cattle. So the Claytonists mockingly referred to the faction as "The Brindle Tails" and the name apparently stuck, as they were uniformly referred to as that from then on. The Brindle Tails platform included a proposal for a new constitution that would re-enfranchise ex-confederates. The Brindle Tails appealed to Democrats and pre-war Whigs. They began gaining support among the disfranchised and Liberal Republicans.

The Brindle Tails mockingly referred to the Carpetbaggers and Claytonist Republicans as "The Minstrels", and that name stuck as well. This was because of the reputation of John G. Price, the editor of the Little Rock Republican and staunch Clayton supporter. He was known to be a good musician and comedian and had once filled in, complete with blackface, for a sick performer in a minstrel show that was in town, and was supposedly very good.

The Brindle Tails desperately wanted Clayton out of the Governor's office. Conveniently, Lieutenant Governor James M. Johnson was a Brindle Tail, so the natural course of action was to try and get rid of Clayton and let Johnson succeed him. Clayton was well aware of their plans, and when he left the state briefly for New York on business concerning the Holford Bonds, he informed no one. When Johnson, who was at home some distance from the capital, found out he tried to head to the capital, to take control and have Clayton arrested and impeached, but it was too late and he was unable to beat Clayton back to the capital. Johnson made a speech demanding changes in the administration, and then The Minstrels began making life very difficult for Johnson. On January 30, 1871 the Minstrels introduced articles of impeachment in the General Assembly against Johnson. The chief charge was that Johnson, acting as the President of the Senate, had administered the oath of office to Joseph Brooks, who had recently been elected as state senator, and then recognizing him on the floor. This was all legitimately within his powers as the Lieutenant Governor to do, and the proceedings were a complete farce. Nevertheless, he narrowly escaped impeachment by only two votes. The scrutiny of the proceedings seriously damaged his his reputation, even though he had done nothing wrong, and he never recovered.

In 1871, Clayton was accused of deliberately tampering with the results for US representative from the third congressional district in the state. The race was between Thomas Boles and John Edwards. The way the law worked in Arkansas, the results were supposed to be certified and given to the Secretary of State, who was Robert J.T. White. Then the Governor and Secretary of State would take up and arrange the results and the Governor would issue a proclamation declaring the winner and deliver the Seal of the State to the winner. Clayton was accused of adding around a hundred votes to the final count for Edwards, and declaring him the winner. Boles successfully contested the election and Clayton was indicted by the US Circuit Court. Although it was found that Clayton did in fact falsify his proclamation and delivered the seal to Edwards knowing full well that he had not won, this was in fact not illegal. His part in the election was in no way binding on the congress and the governor of a state under federal law was not considered an election official. Boles became a congressman, but Clayton was not charged with anything.

To try and sequester Clayton from the affairs in the state, the Brindles and the Democrats decided the only thing they could do was elect him to the US Senate. However, even though he won unanimously, he refused to go and let Johnson become governor. In 1871, the Arkansas State House of Representatives drafted articles of impeachment against Clayton charging him with a wide variety of things including trying to deprive Johnson and several other state officials of offices they had been fairly elected to, removing state officials and judges for offices they had been fairly elected to, aided in fraudulent elections, and taking bribes for state railroad bonds, and various other high crimes and misdemeanors. The members of the House then tried to suspend Clayton from his duties as Governor by force. They even apparently tried locking him in his office and nailing the door shut. However, Clayton responded that they had no right by the constitution to deprive him off his office. At the same time, the House also brought impeachment charges against Chief Justice John McClure for his part in trying to deny Johnson of his office of Lieutenant-Governor.

Two successive inquiries failed to find evidence against Clayton. The legislature refused to continue and all charges were dropped and Clayton was exonerated. In fact he was never found guilty of any wrong doing while govenor. Finally a deal was reached. Johnson, now politically badly damaged by his impeachment ordeal and willing to take any position he could get, resigned as Lieutenant Governor and was appointed Secretary of State and was given a bribe of several thousand dollars for his loss of power and prestige since he would not become governor. A staunch Clayton supporter, O.A. Hadley was then appointed Lieutenant Governor. Three days later Clayton left the state for Washington to join the US Senate, and Hadley succeeded him as Governor.

The Democrats paper, the Arkansas Daily Gazette crowed:

It will be a source of infinite joy and satisfaction, to the oppressed and long suffering people of Arkansas, to learn that, on yesterday, the tyrant, despot and usurper, late of Kansas, but more recently, governor of Arkansas, took his departure from the city and his hateful presence out of our state, it is to be hoped, forever and ever.

Although no longer a state official, Clayton remained the leader of the state Republicans and was now not only controlling appointments within the state but also the flow of federal money and positions as well. He began purging Brindles from federal office, including Joseph Brooks who was at this point an Internal Revenue Assessor.

Election of 1872

Brooks and Baxter

File:Baxter-elisha.GIF

Elisha Baxter

In the gubernatorial election of 1872, The Minstrels faction nominated Elisha Baxter as their candidate. Baxter was a lawyer and merchant from Batesville, Arkansas. During the Civil War, he had shifted his support to the Union when General Samuel Curtis occupied Batesville. When Curtis left the town, Baxter was forced to flee to Missouri. He was captured, brought back to Little Rock, and charged with treason, only to escape later with the help of friends. After the War he was chosen by the new Carpetbagger legislature as a US Senator along with Rev. Andrew Hunter, but they were not seated in the senate due to the disenfranchisement of the southern states. He had been riding the circuit as a Judge in the state ever since. Baxter was virtually unknown and privately clean of scandals, unlike most of the Minstrels. They believed he could attract votes from Unionists and northerners, their core base, as well as natives to the state.

Joseph Brooks ran for governor representing the Brindle Tails. Brooks was a very vocal supporter of civil rights for former slaves but also a supporter of re-enfranchisement for ex-confederates, which was the sentiment nationally of Liberal Republicans. When the Democrats met they agreed to not only not run a candidate but to support Joseph Brooks, as long as the election was fair and legal, since elections in the state had been wrought with fraud for half a decade. So, the issue of re-enfranchisement of Confederates was central to the election.

The Outcome

The election of 1872 has been described as a "masterpiece of confusion" by Arkansas Historian Michael B. Dougan. "That carpetbagger Brooks ran with Democratic support against a scalawag nominated by a party composed almost exclusively of carpetbaggers was enough to bewilder most voters as well as the modern student."

In the days before the election and the days afterward, predictions and reports of fraud were printed daily in The Gazette. Because of the relatively slow communications, messages from other counties were often delayed up to a week. There were numerous reports of anomalies in state polling centers, including names being inexplicably stricken from the voter registration lists and persons voting without proof of registration. The Gazette wrote:

It would be as great a farce of yesterday's election to designate it otherwise than a fraud. It was one of the worst ever yet perpetrated in the state. The city judges paid no attention to any registration either old or new, but permitted everybody to vote, and in many instances without question. Men were marched from one ward to another and voted early and often.

On November 6, 1872, the day after the general election, The Gazette reported: "The election was one of the most quiet in Little Rock we ever witnessed.<ref"Gazette #291">The Daily Arkansas Gazette. #291. November 7 1872</ref> The returns on that day were too small to report with any certainty who had won, and the newspaper reported fraud. Rumors flew about claims that registration had been cut short or extended in many counties to suit the needs of whoever controlled the polling places. The following Monday, The Gazette published incomplete tallies from the various counties showing a small majority for Baxter. They also reported more forms of attempted fraud. Some unofficial polling places had apparently been set up, but only those votes cast at the regular polls had been certified.

By November 15, The Gazette was claiming victory for Brooks. By the next day, because of the irregularities and votes that would be thrown out, the projected winner was now Baxter by only 3,000 votes. The General Assembly met on January 6 for a special joint session to declare Baxter, who by their count had received the most votes, the legal winner of the election. After a short address he was sworn in by Chief Justice John Mcclure. He then began to take up the duties of Governor of the State of Arkansas.

There was an immediate reaction from Brooks supporters that the election had been dishonest. The Democrats, the Brindle Tails, and all non-Republican newspapers openly and vocally denounced the election as fraudulent, and that Brooks had in fact received the most votes. The general citizenry of both parties, however, accepted the results. The Brooks supporters were in the minority in believing that the election had been fraudulent.

Brooks' Legal Battle

The first to file suit over the election was actually not Brooks but Judge Wm. M. Harrison, who had been on the Brooks ticket. He filed a Bill of Equity with the US Circuit Court in Little Rock, claiming he had a right to a seat on the Supreme Court due to the fraudulent election. The Brooks Campaign likewise filed suit in the Circuit Court shortly thereafter on January 7, 1863. Judge H.C. Caldwell heard the Harrison case, and rendered an opinion stating that the Federal Court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and dismissed the case. The Harrison decision also resulted in the dismissal of the Brooks case as well.

Brooks then took a petition to the General Assembly asking for a recount of votes. The assembly took up the matter on April 20, 1873 and voted 63 to 9 not to allow Brooks to contest the election. This did not deter Brooks, and he applied to the Arkansas supreme court for a writ of quo warranto, and was again denied. They also ruled that state courts had no jurisdiction in the matter, and dismissed the case. They gave a lengthy explanation as to why the General Assembly should decide contested gubernatorial elections in Joint Session, since they are the directly elected representatives of the people.

It appeared that Brooks had exhausted all legal avenues at this point, yet again on June 16, 1873, he filed another lawsuit against Baxter; this time with the Pulaski County district court. Under Arkansas Civil Code sec. 525, a person who usurps an office or franchise to which he is not entitled, an action at law may be instituted against him either by the State or by the party rightly entitled to the office. On October 8, 1873 Baxter filed a plea of non-jurisdiction, but believed that the court might decided against him. He issued a telegram to President Grant informing him of the basic situation in Arkansas and asked for federal troops to help him maintain the peace. Grant denied his request.

Baxter and Brooks switch positions

The Republican Party of Arkansas, still controlled by The Minstrel faction, issued a statement denouncing Brooks' attempt to contest the election, which was published in the Little Rock Republican on October 8, 1873 and signed by all the major members of the party including now US Senator Powell Clayton. However, The Minstrels would soon turn on Baxter for not following the party line.

Baxter had now been governor for a year and was following an independent course. He began dismantling the systems put in place by The Minstrels. He appointed honest Democrats and Republicans to the Election Commission, reorganized the militia by placing it under the control of the State rather than the Governor, and pushed for an amendment to the state constitution to re-enfranchise ex-Confederates.

On March 3, 1873, the state passed re-enfranchisement of ex-Confederates, to the delight of much of the state population and the concern of the Minstrels. The legislature called a special election in November to replace 33 members, mostly Minstrels, who had left for patronage jobs in the Baxter government. Baxter refused to allow the Minstrels manipulate the election, declaring that free, honest elections would be held during his term. With the help of the newly re-enfranchised voters, conservative Democrats swept the election and gained a small majority in the legislature. Baxter was about to erode his Republican base out from under him.

In March 1874, Baxter vetoed the "Railroad Steal Bill", the centerpiece of the Radical Republican Reconstruction plan. The bill would have released the railroad companies from their debts to the state and created a tax to pay the interest on the bonds. This was clearly not legal and the veto called into question whether the 1868 railroad bonds, which created a public bonded debt, were also not legal. It is likely the Minstrels struck a deal with Brooks to support the railroad bonds, and within a month the political backers of Brooks and Baxter began to switch. Senator Clayton issued a statement saying that "Brooks was fairly elected in 1872; and kept out of office by fraud." Governor Baxter was now being supported by the Brindle Tails, re-enfranchisers, and the Democrats; whereas Brooks was finding support among the Claytonists, northerners, Unionists, the Minstrel Republicans, and they began taking up his cause.

Brooks was assigned three prominent Minstrel attorneys, and after a year of sitting on the docket, at about 11AM on April 15, 1874, Baxter's demurrer to Brook's complaint was suddenly called up. Both of Baxter's lawyers were not present in the court room, and the demurrer was submitted without their knowledge. Without giving Baxter any time to testify, Judge Whytock overruled the demurrer and awarded Brooks $2,000 in damages and the office of Governor of Arkansas. Neither Brooks nor the court notified the legislature or Governor Baxter. Judge Wytock then swore in Joseph Brooks as the new governor of Arkansas, despite having no authority to do so.

Brooks Seizes Power

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An artist's conception of the Brooks' military buildup in front of the state capitol. It is based on a photograph taken in 1863. The split rail fence had been replaced with a formal one by 1874.

With the aid of General Robert F. Catterson and state militia, "Governor" Brooks, accompanied by about 20 armed men, marched to the Arkansas Capitol building (now known as "The Old Statehouse"), located at Markham and Center streets in downtown Little Rock. They ordered Baxter to abdicate his office, but Baxter refused to do so unless physically forced. The mob obliged and dragged Baxter out of the Capitol building and onto the street.

By the end of the afternoon, nearly 300 armed men had converged on the lawn of the State Capitol. Brooks' men seized the state arsenal and began turning the Statehouse into an armed camp. Telegrams covered in signatures were sent to President Ulysses S. Grant supporting Brooks as the legal governor. Three out of the five Supreme Court justices also telegrammed the President in support of Brooks. Brooks telegrammed the President himself asking for access to weapons housed at the federal arsenal. He also issued a statement to the press proclaiming himself governor. The senators from the state, Clayton and Steven Dorsey, met with President Grant, and they sent a message to Brooks giving their support.

Unusual for someone physically removed from power, Baxter was allowed to remain free in Pulaski County. He first retired to the Anthony House, three blocks away from the State Capitol. Ads placed in The Gazette indicate that the Anthony House continued to function as an upscale hotel during the entirety of the crisis. Fighting occurred outside the hotel, and at least one man, Dave Shall, a prominent real estate dealer, was shot dead while standing in a window of the building.

Baxter then moved his headquarters to St. Johns College, a Masonic institution on the south eastern edge of the state. Baxter issued two proclamations to the press from his temporary office there, asserting his rights to the governorship by vote of the people and the decision of the legislature; both were printed in The Gazette. He received support from many prominent Democrats in the city, all of whom had initially voted for Brooks. He then issued a dispatch to President Grant explaining the situation, calling Brooks and his band "revolutionaries," and stating that he would do everything up to and including armed conflict to regain control of the state organs. He asked for the support of the Federal Government.

Brooks issued a proclamation to the people of Arkansas asking them for their support. Baxter answered with proclamation to the people of Arkansas declaring martial law in Pulaski County. A company was then issued from the young men of Little Rock. On the evening of April 16, the assembled army, now being referred to as the "Hallie Riflers", escorted Baxter back to the Anthony House where he set up his headquarters, and from there he began trying to do the state's business once more.

There were now two armies marching and singing through Little Rock. Each makeshift army gathered arms and sent detachments to other cities and states seeking more. The Hallie Riflers occupied the downstairs billiards area of the Anthony House, and patrolled the cross streets outside. The Brooks men patrolled the front of the state house. The Brooks men retrieved a cannon that had been spiked and abandoned by the Union Army and left sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River.

The Baxter men found an old cannon lying half-embedded in the ground at the foot of Byrd street. The cannon had been brought to Little Rock in 1861 by the steamboat "Ponchatrain" and placed on the bank of the Arkansas River to ward off any ships coming up stream. It sat there for two years until Little Rock was occupied by federal troops, who spiked the cannon. The Baxter men pulled the cannon out of the soil, repaired it, rechristened it "The Lady Baxter", and made it ready to fire. It was placed in the rear of the Metropolitan Hotel on the corner of Main and Markham streets to hit any boats bringing supplies for Brooks up the river. The gun was only fired once - when Baxter finally returned to the governors seat. It now sits on the lawn of the Old State House on permanent display.

Overtones of the Civil War and racial conflict were evident. Brooks' men numbered 600 by this time, and were all freedmen who supported Republicans as their emancipators. Baxter’s forces were all white Democrats. The Baxter forces continued to grow steadily during the conflict until they reached nearly 2,000. Several bloody skirmishes occurred on the streets of Little Rock, one in front of the Anthony House. Known as the Battle of Palarm, a small naval battle erupted on the Arkansas River near Natural Steps, Arkansas where Brooks' men attacked a flatboat known as the "Hallie", thought to be bringing supplies. The shooting lasted around ten to fifteen minutes before the pilot ran up a white flag signaling a surrender. One stray bullet pierced the vessel's supply pipe between the boiler and engine, thus cutting off its power, and the boat drifted downriver, out of gun range, and lodged on the southern (western) shore. Sources vary as to the actual casualties of the incident. The boat's captain, a pilot, and one rifleman were killed; the other pilot and three or four riflemen were wounded. One source stated that the Brooks regiment suffered one man killed and three wounded; another report was that five men were killed and "quite a number" wounded.

Casualty reports vary widely depending on the source; The New York Times of May 30, 1874 gave the following for casualties and fatalities:

Army	Killed	Wounded
Baxter militia	8	13
Brooks militia	"about 30"	"upwards of 40"

Brooks loses favor

To prevent the State Supreme Court from ruling on behalf of Brooks, Baxter supporters hijacked a train coming in from Memphis, Tennessee and kidnapped Judges John E. Bennett and E.J. Earle. The Judges were taken to Benton, Arkansas. Partisans there tried to hand over the judges to the U.S. Military, but the exchanged failed when Judge Bennett mistook the soldiers for hostile forces and ran into the woods. Judge Searle, however, was turned over, while Bennett made his way to Little Rock.

In Washington, Brooks was supported politically, but Baxter also had support because of the devious way he was removed from office. President Grant had already dealt with the outcome of the Louisiana gubernatorial race for which federal troops had to be sent. As the two continued to scramble for support in Washington, D.C., Grant pushed for the dispute to be settled in Arkansas. Baxter was calling for the General Assembly to be called into session. He knew he had their support, but so did Brooks, and he and his men were not allowing anyone to enter the capitol building. Governor Brooks, on the other hand, had the support of the district court. He enlisted Little Rock's premiere lawyer, U.M. Rose, head of the still-prominent Rose Law Firm. However, Grant's decision would soon set in motions Brooks' demise.

It was becoming clear that intervention of the Federal Government was going to be needed to settle the dispute, despite the general policy of the Grant administration to stay out of the affairs of Southern states. The President often expressed annoyance with Southern governors who requested help from federal troops to combat regular waves of election year violence, with little compassion for the issues they faced. Grant and the United States Attorney General, Hamilton Fish, issued a joint communique supporting Baxter and ordering Brooks to vacate the capitol. They also referred it back to the State Legislature.

On May 13, the General Assembly was finally called into session and two days later, Generals Netwon and Fagan negotiated an armistice. At the same time, the Arkansas Supreme Court had finally decided to hear the Brooks case, and voted 3-1 in favor of Baxter's election, further solidifying the Grant proclamation and Baxter as Governor. The bar of the Pulaski County Circuit court also met and issued a resolution that stated that Judge Wytock had acted independently, and his decision did not represent the court. The trial had been deliberately unfair for the defendant Baxter, and furthermore the Supreme Court had already ruled that, under the state constitution, the court had no jurisdiction. They rendered Judge Wytock's decision null and void.

Aftermath

After the conflict subsided, a general election was called in which the entire electorate, including the disenfranchised confederates and the freed former slaves, were allowed to vote for the first time. Conservative Democrats and allied paramilitary groups suppressed black voting to regain power, using a combination of intimidation, outright assassinations, and blocking blacks from the polls.

In June 1874 Clayton announced that he could no longer control matters in Arkansas and that he and his friends would be willing to enter into any arrangement whereby they could at least be safe from persecution and prosecution. However, the Democrats retaliated by impeaching many Minstrels including Supreme Court Justice John Mcclure. Clayton finished his Senate term but was not reelected.

Governor Baxter called for a constitutional convention to remove the remaining symbols of radicalism. Then the Democrats passed laws and constitutional amendments establishing voter registration and election requirements that effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites for decades. In the next election, Baxter lost his reelection bid to August Garland, the first Democrat elected governor of Arkansas in a decade.

A reporter from The New York Times wrote about the scene in Little Rock while describing the conservative Democratic victory in Arkansas in 1876. He made it clear that the extrajudicial killings and terrorism in Arkansas after the Brooks-Baxter "War" exceeded that during the internal Republican conflict:

"...it will be remembered that all the black men were in favor of Brooks; many of them supported him with arms, and scores of them sacrificed their lives in defense of his cause. They fell in what was called a fair fight, however; and although that "fair fight" often amounted to little better than a cold-blooded massacre, as in the case of the battle of New Gascony, I will make no comment on it. The negro leaders went into the "war" knowing what they had to expect, and they were perhaps as much to blame for the bloodshed referred to as were the wild young white men who fought Baxter's battle. For the violence which followed the defeat of Brooks, however, the Bourbons [conservatives] are alone responsible. They found the Negroes cowed and trembling--they saw their opportunity and took advantage of it. All over the State, prominent Negroes were warned to leave Arkansas and find other homes. If they refused to do so, they were quietly taken out of their cabins and "lost" in the woods and swamps. In plain English, they were either killed outright or left in some wilderness to die."

Note that despite this reporter's claims, not "all" African Americans supported Brooks, there were even numbers of African Americans on both sides..

The Democrats remained in control of Arkansas for the next 90 years. The following 35 governors of Arkansas were all Democrats until Republican Winthrop Rockefeller became governor in 1966. Many observers viewed his election as a sign of the realignment of political parties and their supporters following the passage of national civil rights legislation and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when southern African Americans became associated with the Democrats.

External links

• Brooks Baxter War Website
• Entry at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
• The Brooks and Baxter war: a history of the reconstruction period in Arkansas (1893) (Full Text)