Arkansas Becomes

A State

Voting to Become a State

• An unofficial, territory-wide vote in August came out 1,942 in favor of statehood and 908 against.

• Arkansas had the minimum population for becoming a state.

Missouri Compromise

• In 1835 there were 24 states in the Union.

• Half were free and half were slave states.

• To keep it this way the Missouri Compromise of 1820 said new states must come into the Union in pairs, one free-one slave.

Map of the Missouri Compromise

Sister States.• Arkansas wanted to enter the Union as a

slave state. To do this it needed a free state to enter with it.

• At this same time Michigan territory applied for statehood.

• So Michigan and Arkansas became sisters.

Territory vs. State

• A territory had an appointed state government and national funding for almost all its needs.

• A state could elect its own officials, but would have to tax itself for many of its needs.

• As a whole, Arkansans were not wealthy and lacked the cash needed to pay taxes.

• But, a state can charter banks, which is a source for wealth.

• Delegates met in January of 1836 to write a proposed state constitution to send to Congress for approval.

• Southern counties in Arkansas had large cotton plantations and slave labor.

• Northern upland counties had small farms.

• The constitution they wrote said that slave counties would have more representation in the senate and free counties would have more in the house.

Constitution Goes to Congress

• Delegates picked Charles F.M. Noland of Batesville to take the new constitution to Congress.

• At the same time William Woodruff had sent a special edition of the Gazette by postal service.

• The newspaper beat Noland to Washington, and Congress approved Arkansas statehood based upon the version written in the newspaper.

Arkansas Becomes a State

• Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state of the Union of June 15, 1836.

• Michigan, delayed by a border dispute, entered as Arkansas’s sister state in January 1837.

• In the fall of 1836, Arkansas’s three electoral votes participated in the national election.

Arkansas Elections

• By Arkansas law, only white males over twenty-one who had lived in the state over six months could vote.

• On election day a voter would go to his county seat and vote by voice to the sheriff or clerk who would record it.

New Government Officials

• When voters chose their new state government in 1836, the Family and democrats won all of the offices.

• James Sevier Conway became governor.• Archibald Yell became the U.S. House

representative.• William Fulton and Ambrose Sevier were

appointed to the U.S. Senate.

A Booming Economy

• The new state’s economy was doing well in the boom years of the late 1830s.

• In 1837 the state government had a $50,000 surplus. This money was used to build a prison in Little Rock.

State Banks

• The legislature established two state banks.

• Banks began granting as many loans as possible.

• The two banks in Arkansas were the Real Estate Bank and the State Bank.

Banks

• Planters and large farmers primarily used the Real Estate Bank.

• Smaller farmers and merchants primarily used the State Bank.

Problems Begin• President Jackson destroyed the Bank of

the U.S., smaller state banks no longer had anyone controlling them.

• It wasn’t long before the bank ran out of money and had to start borrowing from banks in other states, like New York.

• Two years after the State Bank opened it had debts of two million dollars.

Specie

• State banks issued their own bank notes.

• These notes were supposed to be backed up with an equal value in gold and silver, called specie.

• Arkansas banks issued far more notes than they had specie.

• President Jackson issued the “Specie Circular” that said the federal government would only accept specie for public land

Panic of 1837• When the Specie Circular went into effect

if caused a nation-wide economic crisis called the Panic of 1837.

• By 1842 both banks were forced to close their doors because people couldn’t pay their loans.

• The banks left behind a huge debt that the state was required to pay.

Problems for the State

• As a result of the huge debt, the state outlawed the existence of banks.

• The state continued to default on loans and was short of capital.

• The state’s credit was ruined with all the big banks in the East.

Archibald Yell

• While all of this was going on Archibald Yell was elected governor.

• He called for public education, internal improvements, and financial reform.

• As a result the General Assembly passed the “Common School Law” in 1842.

• This set aside sections of land in each township to be sold to raise the revenue to open public schools.