Chapter
Four
When
Duty Points the Way
The critical election year of
1856 opened much the same way that the year 1855 had closed for Patrick
Cleburne and Tom Hindman; while Cleburne
gradually turned his attention towards law and away from politics, Hindman’s
attention was directed towards one goal: the destruction of Know Nothingism in Arkansas. Towards this
goal, he, along with Cleburne
and William Weatherly, purchased the Democratic
Star for $1,000. Renamed the States
Rights Democrat, the newspaper became an important voice piece for Hindman,
whose “position”, he wrote in its first issue, “upon all questions shall be
bold and fearless”. “Endorsed as is by the Democracy of Eastern Arkansas, it
has nothing to fear from such a course; and any other in these times when treason stalks abroad in public places,
and direct attacks are made upon the life blood of the Constitution, would be
unworthy of our patrons as of ourselves, and false to that country which we
love.” Of that year, Dr. Nash recalled:
In 1856 the
political cauldron reached its boiling point, and it was then that our
political leader in the east stepped upon the political platform of the democratic party. Hindman must now face the cannon from a
thousand know nothing batteries. Their guns were all charged, and their gunners
skillful marksman. But the long rank and file of democrats, led by that brave,
fearless, logical and eloquent Hindman was too much for [them] to resist.
Hindman’s
motives were also personal, as he hoped to win the Democratic nomination for
the state’s first Congressional district that year. From January 24 to March 11,
Hindman toured through northern Arkansas,
debating Know Nothings with an excellent display of oratory, skill, and even
occasional humorous, if not cutting, anecdotes. In Van Buren, Hindman stated
that “Sam”, the government, “had been [completely] swallowed by the
abolitionists of the North, leaving nothing but the southern Know Nothings in
sight, as the tail that showed where the body had gone”. (1)
One afternoon in late April, Cleburne was piloting a
sailboat back to Helena from picking dewberries with the lawyer James Crary and
Norman the butcher on Island No. 60. Before reaching the landing, two
men and a mail boy hailed to them from the Mississippi side. After picking them up, the
five passengers and Cleburne
continued towards the wharf, fighting a strong headwind. Suddenly, a huge
steamboat, the Robert J. Ward, pulled
away from the wharf, blocking their path. Although it appeared at first that
the sailboat would be able to pass by without incident, the Ward crashed into the boat, capsizing it
and thrusting its passengers into the water. The man and Norman the butcher
were able to somehow catch hold of the paddlewheel and were saved. Meanwhile, Cleburne, Crary, and the
mail boy struggled against the surging waves and strong down-currents. Before
long, the boy and Crary disappeared beneath the water, never to rise again.
Nash, who was an eyewitness of the tragedy recalled:
Cleburne struggled manfully with the waves and strong down current until
assistance could reach him. This was done by several persons forming a line and
catching each other by the hand; the foremost, an expert swimmer and stout man,
carried a line in his mouth, while the others held it. Cleburne caught the line and was pulled to
shore, so exhausted that he could not stand.
Cleburne blamed
himself for the incident and never recalled it without the deepest emotion. It
was only after a month of searching for the bodies that they were at last recovered:
125 miles downstream. The Memphis Daily Appeal reported that the tragedy
had “cast a great gloom over the citizens of Helena”. (2)
The canvassing for the Congressional seat
officially ended on May 5, when the Democratic nominating convention opened
inside the Batesville Methodist church. Throughout his campaigning, Hindman had
collected quite a following who believed that what the party needed the most
was a young, ambitious leader like Hindman to beat the Know Nothing candidate
Hugh Thomason. However, they knew that the incumbent Alfred Greenwood had a
large following also, who questioned Hindman’s youth and believed the best
course for victory would be in their seasoned leader. Other candidates included
William Floyd and Judge Hanly, but these were withdrawn soon after balloting
began. For the majority of 276 votes, Greenwood
led by a marginal numerical superiority, but was unable to claim the necessary
two-thirds. Hindman eventually withdrew his name, in the interests of his
party, and asked his supporters to vote for Greenwood. Although he had lost, Hindman
campaigned vigorously for his opponent, towards the defeat of the Know
Nothings, and became all the more famous for it.
On May 24, 1856,
Hindman stopped by the law office and asked if Cleburne would arm himself to accompany him
to Fadley’s Hotel for lunch, for he feared that an enemy of his, Dorsey Rice,
was planning to ambush him along the way. Without hesitation, Cleburne grabbed his derringers and left with
Hindman.
The personal
vendetta between Hindman and the legislator Rice had originated in June of the
previous year, when the former accused the latter of being a Know Nothing. Although
Rice denied the accusations at a Phillips County Democratic Association
meeting, he resided over an American Party ratification meeting in Little Rock but three
months later. In an encounter at the courthouse, Hindman so skillfully debated
Rice that, to one observer, he had “stripped every vestage [sic] of political clothing from Rice”.
Using his newspaper, Hindman wrote scathing letters about Rice, which he posted
anonymously; to which Rice wrote equally scathing replies, also posted
anonymously. (3)
Side by side,
Hindman and Cleburne
solemnly walked down Porter Street,
intensely watching every doorway and ally. It was a few minutes past 1’oclock
when they turned left onto the business section of town, Front
Street. As they passed by William Moore’s dry goods store, a shot
was fired from within. The shot missed its intended target, Hindman. After
this, another shot was fired. This one came from across the street and grazed
Hindman in the right arm, finally settling in his chest. Cleburne had not yet pulled his derringers
out of his pockets, but instinctively turned around in the direction of the
shot. At that moment he was shot in the back, on the right side of the spine,
from inside the dry goods store. Though dazed, Hindman darted around to its
side door and blindly fired inside the store. The shot missed Dorsey Rice but
hit James Marriott, his brother-in-law, in the bowels. Cleburne stumbled over to where Hindman stood
on the curb. Here, they “denounced W.D. Rice and Marriott as cowards and defied
them to come out and fight like men.” At this, Dorsey’s brother F.H. Rice came
out with drawn guns, demanding that Hindman and Cleburne cease firing. Cleburne shouted that he had been wounded and
that “he would kill the scoundrel who had shot him”. Directly after this, James
Marriott appeared in the doorway with gun drawn. Cleburne calmly took aim and shot Marriott,
then collapsed to the ground. (4)
Still unhurt,
Dorsey Rice attempted to escape by running past Hindman, armed with pistol and
bowie knife. Although a ball was lodged in his chest, Hindman vigorously
pursued Rice for almost a hundred yards until he collapsed from loss of blood.
Hindman was picked up by friends and taken to a doctor where he lay awake,
smoking a cigar during the entire operation, while a crowd of Know Nothings
waited anxiously outside. When he was asked, after the operation, if he had
felt any pain, Hindman responded “Yes; but do you think that I would let those
d----d know nothings know”? While Hindman was quickly on the
amend, Cleburne
and Marriott’s wounds appeared to be fatal. As Doctor Nash recalled it, he had
not expected a fight but was eating dinner when he heard the news that Cleburne had been shot
and killed in a fight. Nash rushed from his table to a nearby drug store where
he had to push the spectators out of the way to get to the bed. There, he found
blood “streaming from his mouth, his eyes glassy [and] his breath nearly gone”.
Although relived to find him alive, Nash knew that something had to be done
quickly. With the assistance of several bystanders, Nash was able to locate the
wound and was about to attempt in extracting the ball when Cleburne asked him to stop. Seeing that he
was too weak to proceed, Nash sat by the bed, fearing the worst to be the
likeliest outcome, and “uttered a silent prayer, with all the earnestness of my
soul asking God to spare his life”. For ten days, Cleburne hung between life and death; all the
while, Grant and Nash attended to him with the best medical assistance they
could provide. The ball, the doctors discovered, had entered at a forty-five
degree angle near the spine and punctured the stomach in one or two places,
then continuing until it was just under the skin. They concluded that, since
the ball was not in a life-threatening position, it would be left alone until Cleburne could regain his
strength. (5)
Shortly after
the incident, the Memphis Daily Appeal had reported that both Cleburne, “a young lawyer of much promise”
and Marriott had died. A few days later, the newspaper corrected its error and
reported on Cleburne’s
recovery:
We are pleased to state that P.R. Cleburne, Esq., is also
convalescent, and his friends now entertain strong hopes of his recovery. His
wound, though both severe and dangerous, has assumed a favorable appearance,
and he, too, we hope, will in a very few weeks be able to receive the kind
congratulations of his numerous friends on his speedy recovery.
James Marriott, however, had not been as
fortunate. He died, shortly after the shootout, in terrible agony, from wounds
received from both Hindman and Cleburne.
At the hearing that followed, all members were acquitted of wrongdoing. Dorsey
Rice subsequently notified “the American Party of Phillips and Monroe Counties”
his intention of dropping out of the race, due to “feelings of deep regret”
from the death of his brother-in-law. (6)
Cleburne’s wounds were now healed but he was still very weak. For
convalescence, Hindman invited him to his parents’ home in the country. Here,
Hindman’s brother-in-law, a doctor, was able to take the ball out without much
pain and the wound healed in a day or so. Only a few were aware that he felt any
effects from the wounds. Dr. Nash noted that he “never felt any evil effects
from this [wound], except when he took violent exercise; then he could feel a
sensible drawing at that point”. In a letter to his brother Robert, Cleburne admitted that:
my lungs have
never been well since I was wounded. I catch cold on the smallest provocation
and an hour’s excited debate in the Court House will sometimes fill my mouth
with blood. When I first came here I thought nothing of wading all day through
ponds and bayous after ducks. Now a broken boot will give me a bad cold. (7)
Hindman
and Cleburne arrived back in Helena just as the last shots of the state
canvassing were fired. Both of them, however, spoke at least once more before
the August elections. In Batesville, Hindman closed his speeches for the year,
by delivering the “heaviest grape” to the Know Nothing Party. Cleburne, likewise, gave sound, practical
arguments in a “withering and blasting manner” which, as the biased States Rights Democrat described, would
convince any present Know Nothing to “repent upon the spot”. That August, the
Democrats swept the elections with their candidates winning the “governorship,
both Congressional seats, all races for judge and prosecuting attorney, twelve
out of thirteen state senate seats, sixty-two house seats, and three-fourths of
the various county races”. To top it off, James Buchanan and John C.
Breckinridge won in the November presidential elections. (8)
For Hindman
and other leading Democrats, it was mission accomplished: Know Nothingism had
been completely destroyed from Arkansas
and so, the States Rights Democrat
ceased publication for a time. Although he looked to be a congressional
candidate for 1858, the year ended on a personal note for Hindman with his
marriage to Mary Watkins Biscoe. Hindman had courted Miss. Biscoe earlier that
year when it had been terminated by her father. Henry Biscoe, a wealthy Helena planter, believed that his daughter was too young
to marry and sent her off to a convent in Memphis.
When Hindman heard of it, he went to Memphis
where he disguised himself as Mary’s uncle and was admitted by the nuns. When
the plot was discovered, Mr. Biscoe was furious. After some time, however, he
gave his consent to the marriage. After the marriage, the best man and maid of
honor (Cleburne and his sweetheart Maggie
Tollison) traveled part of the way to Little
Rock with Mr. and Mrs. Hindman. In Little Rock, the couple visited with Mary’s
relatives and met several leading politicians at the state capitol. When they
returned to Helena, they lived, for a time, with
Mary’s parents, until their two-story brick house overlooking the Mississippi River was completed.
About this
time, Cleburne assisted with his stepmother and
half siblings, Isabella, Robert, and Chris, immigration to America.
Initially settling in Cincinnati, where Anne and
her family lived, they moved several years later to Newport, Kentucky.
Although
afraid at first that his wounds would leave him an invalid, to which he wrote
that a “few more years bent over a law book” would not help him, his fears
proved to be unfounded. That next year he became more of a circuit lawyer than
he had been in the past; his various cases took him to eight counties for four
years and amounted to an account of $86 dollars at Hargraves & Kinsey’s
livery stable at the beginning of the war. Although this life would have been
nomadic enough for Cleburne, who had never been
much of a horseman, he accepted a land speculating job that Dr. Nash had
offered him, to inspect several large tracts of swampland in Eastern Arkansas
for a company in North Carolina.
In return, Cleburne
was given several thousand acres as compensation. In addition to this, Cleburne made at least
three more purchases of land before the beginning of the war. An 1860 census of
Phillips County displayed the rate at which he
purchased land: it placed his real estate value at $20,000 while only $2,000 on
his personal estate. In 1858, his health having declined, Dr. Nash retired as a
physician and moved his family to their plantation in Tunica
County, Mississippi, where Cleburne was a frequent
weekend visitor. (9)
The 1858
campaign season opened quietly for Hindman. His popularity had grown so much
since the ’56 elections that he was considered the main candidate for the
state’s first
Congressional district. His campaigning for the procuring of telegraphic
communication between “Helena
and the balance of the world” made him known to many people who were apathetic
towards politics. After a series of meetings, Hindman convinced the Memphis and Ohio Railroad to stretch their lines between
Helena and Panola, Mississippi, via an underwater cable.
Although the cost of this project amounted to $5,000, Hindman returned to Helena, confident that he
would be able to raise such a sum. But the majority of his popularity came from
his staunch stance on the abolition threat, over which he promised “fidelity to
State-rights democracy and unswerving loyalty to the south”. His speeches
electrified crowds, assuring them of his “ability, patriotism, and true
democracy”. He even received accolades from Richard H. Johnson, editor of the Little Rock True Democrat and member of the Family. (10)
The Family had dominated Arkansas politics since its territorial
days, originally having been involved in land dealing. Now, comprised of
families such as the Johnsons, Conways, and Seviers and their followers, the
group ultimately chose who should be the Democrat’s nominee for Congress or
governorship, by having control over the delegates who elected those nominees.
The fact that notices were given out only a few days before these meetings
which picked delegates, was usually contributed to slow communication; an
argument which lost some of its validity when Hindman procured telegraphic
communication for Helena.
Hindman’s rout of the Know Nothing Party in
1856 had unknowingly pulled the rug out from under one of the group’s main
arguments: to stay faithful to the system less another party should take over.
His campaigning that year had aroused the peoples’ discontent for the Family so
much that, at first, there were two candidates not appointed by the group,
which ran for a state senate seat. Although these eventually dropped out of the
running, the Pandora’s Box had been opened for a political revolution in Arkansas.
Rejoicing at this prospect, an editor in
Batesville, where Hindman had spoken so often, wrote that the “fetters of
partyism” had become “so much weakened that public men no longer fear to
disregard the intrigues and dicta of
bogus conventions and to show their independence by appealing for support in
their honest aspirations”. The Ouachita
Herald exclaimed that the “Ring Master of the great democratic party”,
Richard H. Johnson, had been challenged when an independent candidate, James
Jones, ran against the Family’s nominee, Albert Rust for the second district
Congressional seat. (11)
Although it seemed that Hindman would be
the oblivious man to overthrow the Family, he stressed unity for the upcoming
election. He even refused the backing of the Smithville Plaindealer because of its support of an independent candidate who
was challenging a Family-picked nominee. As an expected result, Hindman’s
actions were highly praised by Johnson. Yet, events, as told by Hindman, on the
night of November 7, 1858 would change his perspective of the Family forever.
Hindman learned that on that night, a
private caucus of supporters of William K. Sebastian was held in the hotel room
of a Johnson. Here, aware that although Sebastian had Family backing, he would
not be able to receive the necessary two-thirds majority to become the Democrat
candidate, the group assembled decided to present a resolution to the
Democratic legislative caucus, when it convened in two days. The resolution, which
was delivered by Dr. D. Griffin, called for waiving the normal requirement of a
candidate receiving a two-thirds majority in order to become nominated;
instead, he would be selected by the majority of members present. Hindman,
although furious with the caucus’ decision, went to Richard Johnson and
appealed that he would do something. When Johnson refused, Hindman became
convinced that this was a plot to allow the participation of former Whigs and
Know Nothings, who were loyal supporters of the Family, in the process of
nominating candidates, such as Sebastian. Referring to the thirteen former
Whigs and Know Nothings present at the convention, Hindman exclaimed that
though “The Democratic members were there, Satan came also among them”. (12)
In the ensuing verbal barrages between
Hindman and the Family, Johnson, seeing that he could not block Hindman’s
election to Congress that year, threatened to block his re-election in 1860.
Hindman passionately responded by stating:
I know not what
others may do, but for me, come weal or woe, I will adhere to the old
principles if State Rights and the ancient land-marks of Democracy—opposing
fusions and coalitions and insisting, not only on the exclusion of men who do
not approve our creed and abide by our usages, but on the rebuke of those who
had attempted to smuggle alien enemies into our ranks. This is the path of
honor and duty. (13)
Hindman’s war with the Family drew
immediate responses from both sides of the issue. The Democratic Party had been
“united and harmonious” until the “evil hour” when “it took on Mr. Hindman as a
leader” stated a Family-supported newspaper in Fayetteville. Hindman would “sink the party”
because of his selfishness, exclaimed another. Using his own newspaper, Richard
Johnson wrote that Hindman was a “needy, political adventurer” who had come to Arkansas, announcing
that he would do the people the “distinguished honor to represent them in
Congress” and only got elected by forcing the “supposed” Know
Nothing
threat upon the people. Furthermore, he wrote, Hindman was ungrateful of the
Family’s endorsements which helped him win the 1858 seat in Congress. However,
because of his popularity and a general dislike of the Family, Hindman always had
the people behind him. One person wrote in that, with Hindman at the helm, “the
veil between people and their rulers” had been “drawn aside” so that all could
“witness the foul corruption and wrongs inflicted upon them”. Indeed, as the
argument drug on, Hindman uncovered many abuses of power which the Family had
attempted to hide: secret caucuses, bribes, lying about mileage traveled on
‘official business’ and so on. (14)
When accused that Hindman was afraid to
denounce the Johnsons to their faces, Hindman explained that he tried to avoid
personal insults in an argument. But, so as to demonstrate that he was not
afraid of them, he announced his intention of debating them in Little Rock on November 24, 1859. A few days
before the meeting, a newspaper published a letter, written by Hindman,
explaining that it would be impossible to be in Little Rock on the 24, because of a carriage
accident in which his mother, sister, and three nieces were injured. When the
Johnson’s representative arrived for the debate, he acted as if he had not
heard of the crash. When a bystander informed him, Johnson publicly declared
that the incident had been made up by Hindman as an excuse, because he was
scared. Soon afterwards, the Old-Line
Democrat published a letter written by Hindman’s mother’s doctor,
explaining the extent of her injuries which included a broken collarbone, a
concussion, and bruises. The Family appeared more heartless to their critics
from this incident and Hindman continued to gain the upper hand.
Although it was inevitable, both from a
growing dissatisfaction of Family policies and the waning of their power, a division
in the Democratic party at such a critical time, on the doorstep of the
election of 1860, was the last thing that Arkansas or the South needed.
In 1859, Cleburne’s law partner,
Mark Alexander was elected as a circuit court judge. Cleburne practiced law independently for a
few months but then formed a partnership with Barry Scaife and L.H. Magnum.
Scaife, 23 years old, had moved to Philips
County from a farm in South Carolina. Magnum,
a year younger than Scaife, was from North Carolina
and had moved to Helena in 1857, having just
graduated from Princeton
University. The law firm
of Cleburne, Scaife, and Magnum had to contend
with the senior lawyers of the state, such as Hanly and Adams,
and therefore did not get many cases of renown. Most of their cases were over
land disputes.
On December 5,
when the Congress convened, neither the 101 Democrats nor the 109 Republicans
could hold a majority necessary to choose a Speaker of the House. To add
complexity to the situation, there were 26 American Party members and one
representative who still called himself a Whig. John Sherman of Ohio, the Republicans
candidate, was condemned by the Democrats for his support of a controversial
book, which incited the revolt of non-slave-holders and slaves in the South. Democrat
Shelton F. Leake of Virginia
said:
We on this side, are entitled to know who it is that we are to elect
speaker, whether we are to elect a man who, while I am here in the discharge of
my public duties, is stimulating my negroes at home to apply the torch to my
dwelling and the knife to the throats of my wife and helpless children.
On the 19 and 20 of January 1860, Hindman, who
was new to Congress, delivered a speech which not only questioned Sherman right
to be the Speaker, but also attacked the Republican Party; a “title
synonymous”, he said “with
sectionalism, with hostility to State rights, with disloyalty to the
Constitution, with treason to the Government, and with civil war, bloodshed,
murder and rapine”.
That it is a
sectional party, is shown by the fact that it has no representative here except
from the northern States, and that it sprang to life out of the festering
prejudices of northern anti-slavery malignity, and is kept alive by appeals to
those prejudices only. That it is hostile to State rights, and disloyal to the
Constitution, is shown by its openly avowed intention to keep the leading
property interest of the South out of the common Territories, by congressional prohibition
of slavery there, which the Supreme Court of the Union
has solemnly adjudged to be unconstitutional. That it is a treasonable party is
shown by its nullification of the fugitive slave law, in at least eight
northern States, and its persistent refusal to comply with the Federal compact
for the delivering up of fugitive slaves. Not only is this done in that number
of States, but constant efforts are made to add to the black list of recreant
and dishonored sovereignties.
Hindman
then read a compact which had been written by the worker of the Pemberton mills
in Massachusetts
in order to show the “degree of blindness with which fanatics habitually look
abroad in quest of imaginary evils - not seeing or caring to see real and
terrible wrongs at their own door”. In the compact, the workers called upon the
“generous and just public” to “sympathize and investigate our affairs and our
condition” which was “more appropriate to the barbarous or dark ages than the
enlightened age of the nineteenth century” and “wages so low that negro slavery
is far preferable, and death sweet, rather than continued durance vile”. In
regard to a noted abolitionist who preached “the perpetuation of the Federal
Union” the workers wrote that “under these circumstances that now exist, and
have existed between us and our employers, let the former union and the present
slide forever, before they shall any longer enslave and abuse us”. Hindman then spoke about “John
Brown's invasion of Virginia,
and slaughter of her peaceable citizens”:
The Republican
members here may now disclaim all sympathy with that old traitor; they may say
again and again that they contributed nothing to his enterprise, either in men,
money, arms, or favorable wishes; but until they shall have abandoned Republicanism,
and repented of their connection with it, a discerning and intelligent public
will deride and spurn all such protestations. These innocent lambs that now
bleat so gently, under fear of popular condemnation, are the same men who
wrought up the northern mind to that pitch of frenzy out of which John Brown's
bloody raid proceeded. By their maddening and furious abuse of slavery and
slaveholders, they set on fire the brain of that old fanatic. Had there been no
Republican party, there would have been no invasion of Harper's Ferry. John
Brown was the tool of Republicanism, doing its work; and now, that the work is
done, Republican politicians cannot skulk the
responsibility. The country will hold them to it, and will gibbet them for it,
as effectually as if the hemp that strangled John Brown and his confederates
had also strangled these his instigators, from SEWARD,
the author of the infamous irrepressible-conflict doctrine, down to his
last-made convert and disciple, the member from Pennsylvania. [Laughter on
the Democratic side.] I refer to that member from Pennsylvania [Mr. HICKMAN] who has on this
floor twice threatened to apply the teachings of SEWARD, and to reenact the
conduct of John Brown, by mustering and marching eighteen million northern men
against the South, to whip her into submission to the higher law. When that
invasion is made, the price of hemp will go up, for our whole crop will be
needed to hang the abolition soldiery; [laughter from Democrats and the
galleries;] but the price of arms will go down, for we will take from our
invaders arms enough to equip our whole population.
Hindman
closed by likening the fate of such an invasion to the Assyrian King Sennacherib’s
failed invasion of Judea in the Bible. “That,
sir” said Hindman “will be the fate of the invaders of southern soil.” (15)
Back home in Arkansas,
as well as throughout the South and even up into Maine, Hindman’s speech was praised. By
March, 50,000 copies had been sold to both Northern and Southern Democrat
circles.
Meanwhile, as war clouds inevitably
gathered, militia companies throughout the South began to form, in order to be
prepared for the worst. The first company in Phillips
County was the Yell Rifles and among
its first recruits were Cleburne
and Magnum. Also in its ranks was Lucius Polk, nephew
of the Bishop Leonidas Polk. Although born in North
Carolina, Lucius had grown up in Columbia,
Tennessee, graduated from the University of Virginia,
and then moved to Phillips
County where he became a
planter.
The Yell
Rifles derived their name not from the Rebel Yell, but from Archibald Yell, a
former governor and commander of a cavalry regiment in the Mexican War. At
first, the company drilled under the command of Edward Cowley, the county
clerk. But when he suffered a head injury, the men elected Cleburne as captain.
Cleburne’s knowledge as drillmaster, which he learned from his days in the
British Army, served him well as he instructed the company of planters,
farmers, lawyers, and store-owners. While at this stage in the crisis,
large-scale infantry tactics were kept to a minimum, he taught the correct way
to arrange accouterments, clean a musket and drill. In addition to these
technicalities, he encouraged that the men hold shooting contests in which each
man would shoot at a one-inch square piece of paper nailed to a tree at a
distance of 40 yards when standing and 60 when in the prone. Already expert
marksmen, this practical training made the men deadly; the finalists’ eleven
bullets would usually leave a combined mark of the size of a half dollar on
their targets. A private in another company remarked that “I never before nor
since saw as fine a body of men, or as well drilled, as was the Yell Rifles”. (16)
As far as Cleburne was concerned,
the North’s opposition to slavery in the South was “merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority
and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and
liberties.” As Nash observed,
“religious fanaticism and the clanking of the chains of slavery did not excite
[immigrants] to cruel combat with their brothers”. For Cleburne, this held especially true when his
brother, Joseph, expressed his intention to fight for the North. In a letter to
his half brother Robert, who was living in Newport, Kentucky,
he wrote:
I received your letter and one from Joseph. I find we are each on a
different side, Joe with Lincoln,
you for a neutrality that I believe can never be obtained. I am with the South
in life or in death, in victory or defeat. I never owned a negro
and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood
up to me on all occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to
wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in
violation of the constitution and the fundamental principals of the government.
They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the
consent of the governed. They are about to invade our peaceful homes, destroy our property, and inaugurate servile insurrection,
murder our men and dishonor our women. We propose no invasion of the North, no
attack on them, and only ask to be let alone. They cannot conquer us but would
turn the wolf from their own doors by letting this idle, brutal mob come here
to be destroyed. Joe speaks of joining the Northern army. He says the stars and
stripes must be held up, that Davis or Lincoln must be president, that the laws
must be enforced, the Government must be maintained, but there is not one
argument, one reason in his letter. Let him ask himself why the free people of Arkansas should be
robbed and murdered merely because they have determined to live under laws of
their own making. Let him ask himself what the North will do with Arkansas. If she
conquered it, will she keep a standing army of 30,000 men here to maintain her
conquest? We are not striving to become tyrannical invaders. Our army is for
protection, Lincoln’s
to subjugate and enslave the whole Southern people and divide their property
among his vulgar unprincipled mob.
In closing, Cleburne
asked Robert to write to Joe to try to “keep him from joining our invaders.
Send him a copy of this if necessary and tell him if he joins the North my
honor forbids me from further correspondence with him during the war.” (17)
The
1860 presidential election was a contest among Southern Democrat John C.
Breckinridge, Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, Constitutional Unionist John
Bell, and Republican Abraham
Lincoln. The reason for two candidates from the Democratic Party originated from
a breakup of that party which occurred at its national convention which met in Charleston, South
Carolina in April. Douglas
had been the party’s fore-running candidate at one time, but his endorsement
largely by Northern Democrats and their promotion of such issues as popular
sovereignty prompted Southerners to request another candidate. When neither
side gave way, the Southerners walked out. These later organized a new
convention, reaffirming the party’s platform of the peoples’ right to settle in
whatever territory they wished, with their property, and that these rights
should be protected by the government. The convention nominated John C.
Breckinridge and Joseph Lane for president
and vice-president. Meanwhile, the remaining delegates of the old convention
nominated Stephen A. Douglas and Benjamin Fitzpatrick for president and
vice-president.
As
far as the candidates were concerned, Hindman stood behind Breckinridge,
claiming that Douglas’s platform “denied to the people of the South equal
rights with the people of the North”, that Bell gave the “simple cry of Union
without explanation or interpretation” and that his was a platform which
“southern extremists and northern fanatics could stand side by side upon” and
that there was little difference between him and Lincoln. (18)
As
Election Day, 1860 dawned, “the most important day to these United States
and perhaps to mankind since 4th of July 1776”, wrote one judge, Southerners
were hoping for a decisive victory. However, it was not to be. Although Arkansas went for Breckinridge, nationally, the vote
went: Lincoln 180 votes, Breckinridge 72 votes,
Bell 39 votes, and Douglas 12 votes.
When
Congress convened on December 3, President James Buchanan called for a
compromise to avert the threat of secession. Forthwith, after 38 Republicans
cast votes contrary to its formation, the House appointed a committee of 33,
one from each state, to review “the present perilous condition of the country.”
It took the Senate considerably more time to form a committee, but, after much
debate, it was formed. However, it soon became apparent that the Republicans
would refuse to cooperate. Speaker of the House William Pennington, who
appointed the committee of 33, chose 16 members of his own party, bypassed
Breckinridge supporters, who he said were “out of harmony with the vast
majority of people”, filled their places with Douglas men, and allowed only 2
members of the Constitutional Unionist Party. After the refusal of several
proposed constitutional amendments, which Southerners hoped would settle the
problem, 23 members of the House, including Hindman, and 7 senators declared
that all hope of reconciliation through Congress, was dead, that “the honor,
safety, and independence of the Southern people are to be found only in a
Southern Confederacy” and that the primary aim of each of those states should
be an “absolute separation from an unnatural and hostile Union.” (19)
Just five days before Christmas, South Carolina, using her
constitutional right, seceded. Cleburne,
writing Robert, admitted that it had been a “gloomy
Christmas” for him. “I have been invited to twenty parties this Christmas and
have not attended one.”
As to my own position I hope to see the Union
preserved by granting to the South the full measure of her constitutional
rights. If this cannot be done I hope to see all the Southern States united in
a new confederation and that we can effect a peaceable separation. If both of
these are denied us I am with Arkansas
in weal or in woe. I have been elected and hold the Commission of State as
captain of the volunteer Rifle Company of this place and I can say for my
company that if the stars and stripes become the standard of a tyrannical
majority, the ensign of a violated league, it will no longer command our love
or respect but will command our best efforts to drive it from the State. (20)
Sources
1: Stonewall of the West: chapter 2 page 40
:
Ibid
: Biographical Sketches: page 96
: The
Lion of the South: chapter 2 pages 33-4
2: Biographical Sketches: page 46
: A Meteor Shining Brightly: chapter two, page 42
3: The Lion of the South: chapter 2 page 37
4: Pat Cleburne Confederate General: chapter 3
page 31
:
Ibid
5: Biographical Sketches: page 66
:
Ibid
:
Ibid: page 68
6: A Meteor Shining Brightly: chapter two,
page 44
:
Ibid
:
Ibid
:
Ibid: page 45
7: Biographical Sketches: pages 69-70
: Pat Cleburne
Confederate General: chapter 4 page 40
8: The Lion of the South: chapter 2 page 38
: Stonewall of the
West: chapter 2 page 41-42
: The Lion of the South: chapter 2 page
38
9: Pat Cleburne Confederate General: chapter 4
page 40
10:
The Lion of the
South: chapter 3 pages 41
: Ibid: page 42
: Ibid
11: The Lion of
the South: chapter 3 page 45
: Ibid
12: The Lion of
the South: chapter 3 page 46
13: The Lion of
the South: chapter 3 page 47
14: The Lion of
the South: chapter 3 page 48
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid: page 54
15: The Lion of the
South: chapter 4 page 69
: The Congressional
Globe, The Official Proceedings of Congress New Series: No. 33, pages 523, 524.
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid
: Ibid
16: Pat Cleburne Confederate General: chapter 5 page 46
17:
Pat Cleburne Confederate General: chapter 4 page 39
: Biographical Sketches: page 95
: Pat Cleburne Confederate General: chapter 4
pages 44-5
: Ibid
18:
The Lion of the
South: chapter 4 page 78
19: The Lion of
the South: chapter 4 page 80
: Ibid
: Ibid: page 82
20: Pat Cleburne
Confederate General: chapter 4 page 39
: Ibid
: Ibid: page 40