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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
• 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 twentyfifth 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.