The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-13
Anarchy IN Arkansas-Prospcct or =


Arkansas, to the federal Executive for support
in his rights. But in the Attorney Generals
Office at Washington the rival claimants
were apparently in agreement on one
important point. BY their representatives
they assented that the Legislature of
their State was supreme authority for
the determination of the point raised by their
caims-the point as to who was Governor
Brooks agreed to o compromise on the basis
Of the submission of the case to the body
representing the political sovereignty Of the
people, and Baxter's recognition of the pro-
priety and right of such course has been
declared from the commencement. With the
assent Of both sides, therefore to the submis-
SION Of their claims to the Legislature pacii-
cation seemed easy and all further steps
merely points of detail.
But on these points that presumably were
mere details-points of the method and date
and place Of assembling of the Legislature
the whole case really turned; for the purpose
of Brooks seems to have been, under the pre-
tence Of assembling the Legislature to
gather factous body of his retainers, his
minority of the Legislature. and by filling va
cancies, giving seats to contesting members or
some similar hocus pocus of political trickery,
to fill this body out to proper proportions
have it vote a recognition of his right to the
Office of Governor, and thus present to the
country and the authorities at Washington
further duplication than that of the State Ex-
ecutive, and so, by constantly deepening the
muddle, to indefinitely defer disposition of
the case. His possession of the State House
would, as we have seen in the story OF Louisi-
ana, have much assisted this game. But the
straightforward honesty of the President has
exploded it.
Baxter and Brooks had proposed different
days for the meeting of the Legislature, and
the day named by Baxter had already arrived,
and fifty-one members of the Legislature had
come together obediently to his call. By the
mere drift of the negotiation, apparently, the
body thus assembled became so distinctly rec
ognized as the body to which appeal must be
made, that the door was closed upon the pro-
ject of organizing a rump Legislature and
clouding the issue by the presentation of
duplicature of the whole State government.
General Grant, acknowledging the justice of
Brooks demand in favor of time for assem-
bling the Legislature under his call appealed
to Baxter on the subject and Baxter, SEEM
ingly in simple good faith replied that the
Legislature of the State was already in session
under his call, and would adjourn from day to
day until quorum was secured, and that this
adjournment from day to day would give oppor-
tunity for the arrival Of whatever members
would answer only Mr.. Brooks call; that thus
Brooks demand would practically be met, and
that, in order to show his good faith, Mr..
Brooks should evacuate the State House that
proper place Of meeting free from the appre-
hension and restraints that would be necessarily
incident to the presence of armed forces
So reasonable and fair u proposition could
but commend itself to the Presidents good
sense, and it was therefore laid before Brooks
as a proposition that the national Executive
deemed just and would support but of
course, it did not meet the views of that gen.
tleman. II the gathering of legislators under
his call should merely result in filling
q few more seats in the body already assem-
bled under Baxter's call, his project could
make no progress, for this would be merely
new session of the very same body that had
already rejected his claims. Although the So
called Supreme Court Of the State, under
some peculiar pressure applied by his party,
had given judgment in his favor in direct
conflict with its own previous decision, he
could scarcely hope that the Legislature would
be equally amenable, and he perhaps knew
that it had not been possible to apply to the
Legislature the ''pressure" that had been 80
successful IN changing the views of the Judges
of the Supreme Court His only hope was in
some other Legislature than the legitimate and
recognized Legislature of the State OF Arkan-
sas, for that body was, as he already knew,
hopelessly against him. 1t was because it
was against him that he had appealed to the
Courts, in the hope to have those bodies de-
termine political points by the declaration of
legal principles. The success, therefore,
of his usurpation, depended upon denial
of the validity of the Legislature as
assembled under Baxters call, and the
keeping the door open for a new call of his
own adherents, who, gathering in the State
House, Of which he holds armed possession,
would act as sort of private pocket Legisla-
ture, thoroughly meet all his requirements
and make up on his behalf record of politi-
cal legitimacy that, to the careless observation
of the many, might seem as good as the record
on which Baxter holds Office.
But to deny to the President the authority
of the body that had all the time been recog-
nized as the tribunal before which the claims
of the parties were to be heard, the assem-
bling of which he had pretended to desire,
and to still keep up the farce of appeal to the
national Eyecutive was evidently not fhou obf