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seventy-five members, forty of whom were regarded as
Unionists.
These were so decided and firm, that no ordinance of secession could be passed.
The conspirators were disheartened, and, for a while, despaired of success.
At length they accomplished by a trick, what they could not gain by fair means.
A self-constituted Committee, composed of “Secessionists” and “Co-operationists,” reported an ordinance providing for an election, to be held on the 17th of August following, at which the legal voters of the
State should decide by ballot for “Secession” or “Co-operation.”
If a majority of the votes then cast should be for “Secession,” that fact was to be considered in the light of instruction to the
Convention to pass an ordinance to that effect; if for “Co-operation,” then measures were to be used, in conjunction with the Border Slave-labor States “yet in the
Union,” for the settlement of existing difficulties.
To this fair proposition the Unionists in the
Convention agreed, and the vote on the question was unanimous.
Taking advantage of the excitement caused by the attack on
Fort Sumter, the
President's call for troops, and the events at
Baltimore,
Governor Rector
(whose election had been gained by the influence of the “Knights of the Golden Circle” 1) and his disloyal associates adopted measures immediately for arraying Arkansas on the side of the conspirators without consulting the people.
We have already observed the insulting response of the Governor to the President's call.2 This was followed by a high-handed measure on the part of the President of the Convention, who professed to be a loyal man. In violation of the pledge of that body, that the whole matter should be submitted to the people in August, he issued a call for the Convention to reassemble on the 6th of May.
It met on that day. The number of delegates present was seventy.
An Ordinance of Secession, previously prepared,
