CIVIL WAR IN ARKANSAS.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 76, 28 August 1874, Page 4

CIVIL WAR IN ARKANSAS.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.)

For a couple of months past the telegraphic intelligence from the United States has contained every other day a mysterious line or two under the heading " The Civil War in Arkansas." It appeared that in Little Rock, the capital of that State, two rival politicians, each claiming to be the legitimate and duly elected Governor of Arkansas, contended for the mastery of the executive power with bands of armed men who were dignified with the name of militia. At the head of the one party was a Mr Baxter, at the head of the other a Mr Brooks : but who Brooks was and who Baxter was, and what the principles, or even the factions, they represented were, hardly any one on this side of the Atlantic, and not many in the Eastern States of the Union, professed to understand. What was certain was that two gangs of political intriguers had put themselves at the head of all the rowdyism, black and white, that could be gathered together by therumor of disturbances in Little Bock; that one of the factions had got posscssessiou of the "State House" or local Capitol, while the other massed its forces in a large hotel not more than a musket-shot away ; and that ttie authority of the Federal Government at Washington, after hesitating for a long time to intervene, had at length only gone so far as to use the national army to prevent the followers of Brooks and those of Baxter from hying at each other's throats and giving up the city and the State to bloodshed and pillage. Obscure negotiations were for a long time pending between the Government at Washington and the legal representatives of the rival Governors, and the President appeared to be no less perplexed than the public ; but at length the voice of general indignation, fatigued and disgusted with the intolerable prolongation of a dreary and discreditable farce, compelled the Executive to move. We learn that Mr Brooks, bowing to a second decision of the State Legislature and to the more cogent arguments of a body of Federal troops ready to take action upon that decision, evacuated the State House and disbanded his militia on the 20th of May, thus bringing to an end the " Civil War " in Arkansas.

So far as can be made out in Europe, there was little ground for choice between Mr Brooks and Mr Baxter. Even the distinctions of party and the bitter feuds which the war of the Sece*sion left behind fail to mark off the rivals clearly one from the other. It is true that their rivalry began in the last Presidential contest. Mr Baxter was the socalled Republican candidate for the governorship, and had the support of the " Carpetbug" Legislature, purged of its rebellious elements, and of the negro vote. Mr Brooks started as a Liberal Republican, and he had with him all who disliked General Grant, the whole body of the old Democratic party, and the traditional hatred which the Southern whites bore to their conquerors and their liberated slaves. At the election of 1872. both parties claimed the victory ; there seems to be little doubt that Brooks had an actual majority of the votes east, but Uixl.er bad what was more important, the co*>-ml of the Legislature and the allegiance of the officials. He was "counted in," and Brooks's appeal to the Legislature for redress was summarily rejected. Nor did it appear at lirsl that he vva- ■ eiy to obtain any greater relief from the , i; a's. It was nob till Baxter';; policy o< m lo

alienate his old supporters, till lie ha I dis appointed the lobbyers and log-i oilers, whose "man" he was, till he had shown thai, his sympathies were with the Southern white party, that Brooks's chances began to look brighter. There was a large secession of the politicians from Baxter, which strengthened Brooks's forces; but, on the other hand, the Southern whites began to see that Baxter after all was their best friend. Armed with information which the deserters from the opposite camp brought him, Brooks appealed against Baxter's return as Governor to the Courts of the State. It is alleged that the same sort of means were used in this legal campaign against Baxter as the latter had employed in his legislative campaign against Brooks. At any rate, an injunction was obtained, against Baxter; a militia, largely consisting of negroes, \\ as levied for Brooks; the State House was seized, and Brooks was installed

(here as Governor. Baxter of course lost us little tiran as possible iu gatheriug his own forces, leavened with a dangerous element of the Southern military spirit. The two armies occupied the town side by side, living at free quarters, and carefully avoiding any collision that might put an end to the pleasant laziness of their life. The citizens of Little Hock had some cause to complain ; but if they did so their voice could not be heard. Nothing, indeel, could be heard except the clamour of Baxter's party denouncing the corruption by which the injunction of the court was obtained by Brooks ; and the clamour of Brooks's party similarly repudiating the validity of the decision of the Legislature on which Baxter founded his claim.