National Republican., 1880-10-28
THE REpUpIA11oNvorE IN ARKANSAS


THE REPUpIAIIoNvorE IN ARKANSAS.
We have waited three months to get at
the truth in regard to the action Of the
people of Arkansas upon the FIsnBACK re-
pudiating amendment At first IL was
heralded in eastern democratic papers that
the proposition had been defeated by an
immense majority. We believe THE RE
PUBLICAN was the only paper TO doubt the
assertion for several weeks Subsequently
the real vote began to leak out, but there
has been suspicious withholding of
publicity which will deiract from conf
dence in the figures now given. The vote,
rs now announced, was:
For, Ga 407; against, Al, ,040. Under the state
constitution an amendment fails of adoption
unless n majority of all the electors voting at
tho time it is submitted supports IL. At the
September election 132, 65I persors as nearly
IT'S can be ascert;ined, cast their votes. The
total number cannot be given exactly now,
because the clerks of nine counties failed to
give the total number Of votes in their ccrtiG.
Gates. By estimating the total vote in these
counties u grand total of 1872 654 persons vot'
lug is obtained. By counting the number OF
persons who failed to vote oil tho amendment
(abOut 27,lOS) MS voting against il, total OF
Oo,l57 negative votes, or majority of 3.G6O
against the amendment, is obtained. The
amendment was not supported by the repub-
licans. If ,S3l moro democrats had voted on
it the affirmative minority, according to the
above figures, would have been 9. When the
dilatory clerks send in their returns of the
total vote the adverse majority may be in
creased to about 1000. Tho vote for the
amendment .497) falls short of the demo-
cratic vote in 1878 by "a ,231 Tor 677 less than
the number of persons who failed to vote on
the amendment this year., but is 6,426 larger
than the vote for TILDEN in 1876. The vote
against the amendment al 0i9) is only 2,3SC
greater than the vote for HAYES in 1876.
very fine work had TO be done to cipher ou
n defeat of the repudating amendment
Those who favored it in Arkansas are Ell
tirely satisfied that it was adopted ant
that it has been counted out. The politi
clans at the state capital were opposed t.
it. They are nearly all interested in keep
ing the question open aud are said TO hav,
largely invested in the bonds designed Il
be repudiated.
But it is of very little consequence
whether the amendment was really adopted
or not The fact remains that very larg
majority of those who voted did so in favo
of reputation; ii is also clear that the re
publicans were almost alone in voting I
preserve the credit of the state.
When Senator GARLAND wrote his eX
cellent letter against the adoption of Til
amendment he was very confident that hi
party would be able to claim the credit c
voting it down. We told him that he wa
mistaken and predicted just the resul
which is now before us viz: That the bond
holders must look to the republicans
they ever expected to get paid.
Even such n victory as has been game
in the defeat of epudiation will bring bu
little comfort to the creditors of the stat,
The legislature is largely democratic an
will vote against any provision for the pay
ment of the debt by an overwhelming me
iority Almost every democrat elected
pledged against the recognition of tn
bonds in any manner whatever.
J Those democratic and assistant Democrat
organs who were swift to cite Arkansas 6
, a southern state which had given the lie
radical assertions in regard to souther
tendencies to reputation will be slow
/ give their readers the above facts