Col. John M. Harrell, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.2, Arkansas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[16] as keenly as its more wealthy neighbors. But it contained a people who were bred to hatred of oppression and injustice. They were familiar with the conditions of their friends, and regarded the slavery agitation as unreasonable and uncalled for—the demands of a haughty power which spurned the obligations of the law for the sake of an infatuation which was too unnatural and degrading to be sincere. The State then hurled back the defiance of her freemen, represented in the convention, and through weal or woe, resolved to stand by those akin to them, rather than raise a fratricidal hand against them. Thus, Arkansas defied the hordes of all lands gathered under the name of ‘the government’ for the invasion of the South, and took her place in the ranks with her sister Southern States. She did it with a full sense of all the responsibilities. She would form the outer guard, and stand face to face with the foe. Missouri, on the north, had listened to the pretense of conciliation until she was undeceived by the rude blow of the mailed hand. Arkansas, now awakened, must answer on the instant—no more hesitation or division. Her people were one in interest and sentiment. The convention represented their principles.

The convention, at this juncture of events, devoted its attention to making preparation for the coming struggle. Mr. Murphy's resolution to seize the money of the United States in the hands of receivers of the land districts was carried into effect. The $36,000 paid for arms by the legislative commissioners, Churchill and Danley, had to be charged to ‘profit and loss,’ as the orders, if filled, were never delivered. A new State constitution was adopted. The new constitution differed but little from the former, except that in all the sections of its declaration of rights the word ‘white’ was prefixed to the word ‘men.’ The State of Arkansas had become adjusted in its relations to the Confederate States. It provided for the election of members of the Provisional Congress of