In November 1870, aldermen Frederick Kramer of the first
ward and Asa Richmond of the third ward ran for re-election to the Little Rock
city council. Both were supported by the regular republicans (the “minstrels”),
a faction headed by Gov. Powell Clayton, but were opposed by the anti-Clayton
reform republicans (the “brindle-tails”) who viewed them as barriers to controlling
the council. One brindle-tail leader, Little Rock Mayor A. K. Hartman,
especially wanted Kramer, a fellow Prussian and an implacable foe, off the
council. To that end, Hartman helped carry out a brindle-tail plot to usurp the
ward 1 polling place, replacing the regular election judges and ballot box with
their own. The plot’s results were not what Hartman or the other brindle-tails expected.
********
12:01 a.m., Monday,
November 14, 1870
Downtown Little Rock
Both hands of the town clock had just pointed straight up. Midnight.
Time had come for the seven men hiding out in a small room under the Arkansas governor’s
office to move out. They had been cooped up there for six hours, protected by members
of the Governor’s Guard in their fancy new Zouave jackets. Before leaving, the
men tied on masks, pulled on shabby outer clothes, and plopped beat-up hats onto
their heads. In that garb, they hoped, no one on the streets at this late hour would
recognize them.[1]
The men crossed the State House courtyard to Markham Street,
the darkness broken by gas lights and muted rays filtering out of scattered saloons.
Their coarse clothes warded off the nippy mid-November weather. Clustered
closely, the knot of men – five of them white and two black – shuffled down the
street with their heads down and the edges of their misshapen hats pulled to
their eyebrows. No one saw them. The street was empty.
Quickly they reached a two-story building on Markham close
to its intersection with Main Street. One of the men fished a key out of his
pocket, unlocked the door and swung it open. The men slipped inside and waited as
the-man-with-the-key lit lamps. Then they took a few steps to a large meeting
room. Inside, they peeled off their masks and removed their hats and outer
garments. They seated themselves around a large oval table as a drum stove was lit.
The fire knocked away the damp chill in the room.
Near 1:00 a.m., a man stood to address the five men seated
around the table, and thus began the first meeting of the new Little Rock city
council that had been elected six days earlier.[2] The
man who spoke was Alderman James V. Fitch, the president of the outgoing city
council who was starting the second year of his two-year term. The other men at
the table were Alderman Calvin Sanders, who, like Fitch, was a holdover
beginning his second year on the council; D.P. Upham and Daniel Ottenheimer, newly
elected aldermen; and aldermen Frederick Kramer and Asa Richmond, who had been
re-elected at the recent election, but whose victory was being challenged. That
challenge was the reason for the extraordinary circumstances of this meeting. Two
of their colleagues, aldermen Charles Tipton and David Robinson, both holdovers,
had not been informed of the meeting.
Fitch called the council meeting to order and noted that its
first task was to swear in the aldermen who had won the recent election. Then,
the council would, as required by the state law governing first-class cities,
complete its other organizational duties. He reminded the aldermen that the
council, because of rumored threats, would stay in session until midnight.
The man-with-the-key, City Clerk James M. Vance, had unpacked
the city seal and council records he had earlier removed from the city hall for
safe keeping. He sat at a desk near the oval table taking notes.
In the calm of the early morning in a familiar room secured
by city policemen, the men around the table were likely thinking, “So far, so
good.”
And a few blocks away...
1:01 a.m., Monday,
November 14, 1870
A Building at the
Corner of Main and Mulberry (Third) Streets
As the city council meeting started, another group of men sat
impatiently in a first-floor room of a two-story building located on the northeast
corner of Mulberry (recently renamed Third) and Main Streets. The room was in the
offices of two physicians, Dr. Alexis Karl Hartman and Dr. John Edwin Quidor. The
ten or so men in the room had been waiting several hours for the early morning
to arrive. They, like the men who had hidden under the governor’s office, planned
to occupy surreptitiously the city council chambers early that morning to hold
the organizational meeting of the new council. When they did, they would install
Dr. Quidor and Charles Winstead as aldermen in place of Kramer and Richmond.
The two would-be aldermen were there in the room as were the
aldermen, Robinson and Tifton, who were missing from the council meeting that
had just convened without their knowledge. Also present were two men who had
served with Robinson and Tifton on the outgoing city council: Norval W. Cox,
who had not stood for re-election, and Andrew Alexander, who had lost to
Ottenheimer in Ward 4.[3]
Mayor A. K. Hartman
The most important man in the room was Dr. Hartman, Little
Rock’s mayor, the group’s leader. Hartman, 32 years old, was, according to the Daily Arkansas Gazette, whose editor
detested him, “large and corpulent, resembling much a large lager beer barrel,
of which he is said to be very fond.” The Gazette
reported that Hartman had a “dull sneaking look in his eye, and is in no manner
prepossessing in appearance.” Despite that unflattering picture painted by the newspaper,
many years later, Kramer, who was not Hartman’s friend, recalled him as being a
“fine looking man.”[4]
Hartman spent his first twenty or so years of life in Saxony,
a province of Prussia. He studied medicine there, and in the late 1850s
emigrated to the United States, marrying and settling in St. Clair County, Illinois,
not far from St. Louis.[5]
He and his wife Margaret were living in O’fallon in Clair
County when he joined the 43rd Regiment of the Illinois Infantry on June 17,
1864 as an “assistant surgeon.” He served on its regimental staff in Little
Rock from September 1, 1864 until December 31, 1864. Perhaps because of some difficulties
with the job, he resigned “for the good of the service.”[6] After the war ended, he returned to Little Rock, bringing his
wife and three kids with him.
In Little Rock, Hartman practiced medicine, and much of his
work was attending to the growing number of freedmen who had flocked to the
city during and immediately after the war. He was appointed city physician in
1868. In that position, he treated patients who had no money to pay for their medical
care. He continued to hold that position throughout 1869, even as he served as
mayor.
Hartman was well regarded by the city’s African-Americans for
the attention he gave to even the poorest residents needing medical help. His
work was lauded by “An Old Citizen” who wrote in an 1868 letter to the Morning Republican, “Unwearied, in
season and out of season, at all times and in all weather, the Doctor is ever
ready to wait on the poor as well as the rich.”[7] His virtues were also celebrated in a
long poem published in the same paper a day after his first election as mayor. This
verse lauded his work as a physician:
The
widow, the orphan, the sick and the poor,
His help
never would ask in vain.
Hope and
relief at misery’s door
He’d
leave, over and over again.[8]
Hartman’s well-earned popularity with black men, who in 1869
were newly enfranchised and made up a majority of registered Little Rock voters,
was instrumental in his election as mayor. In January 1869, he was elected to the
office for an eleven-month term by a vote of 1,106 to 310 and in November 1869 to
a two-year term by a vote of 813 to 159.[9]
During his first term from January to November, 1869, Hartman
dominated the city council so thoroughly that the Arkansas Gazette described him as a “boss” and nick-named him “Count
Bismarck.” At the time, the real Otto von Bismarck, a husky man, was the
minister president of Prussia who was masterfully using war and diplomacy to make
Germany a unified state.[10]
The Gazette
complained about Hartman, “He controls the whole council. If a motion is made
which he does not like, he simply refuses to put it to a vote.” The Gazette also found little to like about
the eight-member city council that included four freed slaves: “We venture the
assertion, without fear of successful contradiction, a more ignorant,
illiterate, uncouth, and undignified set of men than that which composes the
present city council could not be brought together in one body.”[11] Such poisonous remarks were common in the Gazette, an organ of the
Democratic-Conservative Party, that regularly maligned blacks, whom they viewed
as lacking the intelligence to vote, much less hold office.
Hartman’s domination of the council ended when his first
term expired. The aldermen elected in November 1869 were less inclined to defer
to the mayor. Only two aldermen from the previous council – Andrew Alexander
and Asa Richmond -- were re-elected, and only Alexander had consistently
supported Hartman. Among the six newly elected aldermen, only one, David
Robinson, was a Hartman ally. Thus he had the dependable support of only two of
the eight aldermen on the new council.
One reason for the uneasy relations between the mayor and a
majority of the aldermen was his affiliation a few weeks before the election with
the reform republicans, an emerging faction of the Republican Party opposed to
the leadership of Gov. Powell Clayton.[12] This affiliation did not endear him to the six
aldermen who were aligned, some closely, some loosely, with the regular
republicans loyal to Clayton.
Hartman destroyed his chances for a cordial relationship
with the council majority with a letter sent to the alderman ten days after the
November 3, 1869 election. In it, he demanded that the council remove from
office two newly elected aldermen whom he maintained were not qualified under
law to hold office. One of his targets was Kramer, a fellow Saxon.
Frederick Kramer was a wealthy and widely respected citizen
of the city who had immigrated to the United States in 1848 from Halle in the
Prussian province of Saxony and had settled in Little Rock in 1857 after
serving six years in the U.S. Army. In November 1863, he had opened a grocery
store with a partner, Charles Miller, that had grown into one of the largest in
the city. Although Kramer had been supported by the Republican Party in the November
1869 election, he insisted he was not a member of the party. Nonetheless, he did
not sympathize with the aims of the reform republicans and was expected to vote
consistently with the regular republicans.
In his letter to the city council dated November 13, 1869, Hartman
wrote:
I have undeniable information that Mr.
Frederick Kramer, one of the aldermen elect of the 1st ward, has
voted “against” the present constitution of the state of Arkansas, and consequently
could not register, and in fact has not registered under the state legislation.
He has also by taking the oath of office required by law committed perjury.[13]
This letter outraged most of the council members, who tossed
it aside and denounced Hartman for writing it. Three months later, still angry at
him and unimpressed by his conduct in office, the city council by a 6 – 2 vote declared
the office of mayor vacant and stopped paying the mayor’s salary.[14] Most of
the council’s actions against Hartman were overturned by a court decision, but
by then the council had transferred the bulk of the mayor’s powers to the
president of the city council.
As the November 1870 election approached, Hartman badly
wanted a new council with a majority of aldermen who were reform republicans, by
then widely called “brindle-tails.” A council with a brindle-tail majority
would return power to the mayor and would support the larger agenda of the
faction.
To get a brindle-tail majority on the council, they needed
to win the seats held by Kramer and Richmond, whose one-year terms were expiring.
Hartman particularly wanted Kramer defeated because he – thanks to Hartman’s
efforts to remove him from the council -- had become a dangerous enemy.
Dr. John E. Quidor, Brindle-tail Candidate
for City Council
To defeat Kramer and help get a brindle-tail majority on the
council, Hartman convinced his medical practice partner and next-door neighbor,
Dr. Quidor, to run for the ward 1 alderman seat. Quidor was born in New York in
about 1827, the son of John Quidor, a talented “literary painter” and Eliza
Jane Quidor. His father was known as a “visionary eccentric” whose paintings
evoked “poetic fantasy;” although he achieved only minor fame during his
lifetime, interest in his work revived in the 1940s and many of his paintings
are exhibited in prominent American art museums.[15]
Before the Civil War, Dr. Quidor completed some training in
medicine in Virginia and graduated from Castleton Medical College in Vermont.
In 1859, he became the city physician of Jersey City, New Jersey, where, among
his other duties, he conducted autopsies for the local police investigating
murders.[16]
When the Civil War started, Quidor served for three months as
the surgeon of the 2nd Regiment, New Jersey Militia. Then in August
1861 he was appointed by the President to be a surgeon of the Union Army with the
rank of major. He was sent west and carried out duties in Kansas and New Mexico.
After a little more than two years in the position, he was discharged from the
Army on November 30, 1863, likely because “elements of his character … irked
his military superiors.”[17] Barely two weeks earlier, his wife Mary had died
in Jersey City, leaving four young girls.[18]
In the years that followed, Quidor resumed his medical
practice, put his children in orphanages, and in 1866 moved to Batesville,
Arkansas, the location of an army post. Quidor operated the post hospital there
as a contractor.[19] In the latter half of 1869,
when the Batesville post was transferred to Little Rock, he also moved there.
The 1870 census showed that he and a woman named Margaret, who was born in
Prussia, resided together in a house next to Mayor Hartman’s. It is uncertain if
she was his wife.
Like his father, Quidor was a peculiar man. A northern dandy,
he made quite an impression – but not an especially favorable one – as he
walked around Little Rock in fine clothes and a plug hat, a stovepipe like that
favored by the martyred president. The Gazette
described him making a presentation before the city council “with all the
suavity of manners and airs of a French dancing master.”[20]
The Gazette tagged
him with a deprecating nickname: Squedor. According to a nasty article in the Batesville Times that was republished
in the Gazette, Quidor had been “the butt of all jokes” there and had “confined
himself almost exclusively to the companionship of negroes.” The article said
that “The citizens of [Little Rock] should either hang him or send him to an
insane asylum.”[21]
An anonymous letter published in the Gazette a few days before the 1870 election made scurrilous
accusations against Quidor and his character.[22]
Among the more interesting were that Dr. Quidor had a side job of playing the
violin in “Little Rock’s fast saloons” and once was engaged as a second violin
for a circus visiting the city.
Whatever Quidor’s failings as a human being, Hartman supported
his candidacy as his best bet to replace Kramer as the Ward 1 alderman thereby
helping obtain a brindle-tail majority on the city council. He also had a
bigger goal in mind: if Hartman were elected as a Pulaski County state
representative (the brindle-tails had nominated him for a seat in the Arkansas
House of Representatives), he wanted Quidor, his close ally, to succeed him as
mayor.
In pursuit of those goals, Hartman campaigned diligently for
the brindle-tail ticket. Also, perhaps because of how much he wanted to achieve
those goals, he agreed to take part in a clever, but patently illegal, plot to
ensure that the brindle-tails were victorious in the November 1870 election in
Ward 1 and throughout the County.
Sunday Morning,
November 6, 1870
Two Days before the
Election
Law Offices of Rice
and Benjamin, Markham Street
On the Sunday morning before the Tuesday election, a group
of prominent brindle-tails, including John L. Hodges, one of the two main
leaders of the faction, gathered to review how the campaign was going in
Pulaski County. They met in the law offices of Rice and Benjamin, located in
the Weaver Building across Markham from the Arkansas State House. The “Rice” of
“Rice and Benjamin” was B. F. Rice, one of Arkansas’s U.S. Senators, who was
crossways with Gov. Clayton and supported the brindle-tails.
Attending the meeting, in addition to Hodges, were other
members of the brindle-tail brain trust: Mason W. Benjamin, Rice’s law partner
and brother-in-law; Milton L. Rice, the senator’s brother and member of the law
firm; Judge John Whytock of the Seventh Circuit Court; and E. W. Gantt, a
prosecutor in Whytock’s circuit. In addition, in attendance were several front-line
brindle-tail office holders, including Mayor Hartman, Clerk of the Pulaski
County Court George W. McDiarmid, and U.S. Marshall Robert Francis Catterson.
The men at the meeting were united in their disapproval of
Gov. Clayton and his self-serving ways, but they also had other reasons for
splitting from the Republican Party. Some likely joined the reform republicans
for their own gain. Others joined because of their strong belief in the need to
provide greater help to the state’s African Americans. Included in this second
group was County Clerk McDiarmid, who at 28 was the youngest man at the
meeting. He had been an abolitionist living in Kansas before the Civil War, and
when the war began, he joined the Union Army as a private in Company G, 5th
Kansas Cavalry. He rose through the ranks, and at the end of the war, was
Captain of Company A, 54th U.S. Colored Troops, garrisoned in Little
Rock. McDiarmid’s determination to champion African-American civil rights was likely
bolstered by his marriage in 1866 to Clara Alma Cox, a well-educated, liberal, and
action-minded young woman.[23]
One of the men at the meeting, U.S. Marshal Catterson, had not
split from the regular republicans (who in 1870 had become widely known as the
“minstrels) for personal gain or for idealistic reasons. Instead, he had joined
the brindle-tails to avenge an insult by Gov. Clayton, a former friend whom he
had loyally served: In October, 1869, Clayton
had, literally, slapped him in the face.
According to one account of the incident, Clayton had
scheduled a secret meeting with some leading Democrats to explore how the
Republican Party might cooperate with them to squelch the rise of the nascent reform
republican faction. The planned meeting sparked rumors that the Governor was
going to “sell out” the Republican Party to get the votes of Democrats for his
bid to become a U.S. senator.
On October 18, Governor Clayton was on his way to his office
when he was met at its entrance by General Catterson. At that encounter,
[Catterson] openly took him to task
for arranging a meeting with Democratic leaders for “turning over the State to
the Democracy.” The Governor promptly responded that he was “a liar.” The
General…retorted that the Governor was “a d___d liar.” This was drawing a nice,
if profane, distinction of epithets. The one-handed Executive [Clayton had lost
hand in a hunting accident about a year earlier] rejoined with a stinging slap
upon the General’s right cheek. The Governor had to reach upward to strike his
lank lieutenant, who offered no resistance… [Catterson] looked a volume of
martial law, but only remarked that he would not strike a one-armed man and
went his way, with the print of Clayton’s fingers on his face.[24]
A few minutes later, Gov. Clayton regretted what he had done.[25] His impulsive
act had cost him a friend and had created a dangerous, capable enemy.
Catterson had demonstrated his capabilities and courage as a
front-line officer in the Union Army. He had enlisted as a private and was
quickly made an officer. He rose to the rank of colonel and led his brigade into
many battles. On May 31, 1865, shortly before he left the army, he was
brevetted to Brigadier General.[26]
He moved to Union County, Arkansas, after the war to go into
business, and in March, 1868 was elected to the Arkansas House of
Representatives to represent Union and Calhoun Counties. When Gov. Clayton
began forming a state militia shortly after his inauguration, he put Catterson
in charge of a district that included his home county. Then, when the governor
deployed the militia to end violence against Republicans and African-Americans
in several counties, he appointed Catterson to be the brigadier general in
charge of the militia in the large Southwest Arkansas district.
The Militia Wars began in November 1868 and ended in early
1869. Catterson led a poorly equipped and badly provisioned militia comprised
largely of African-American troops that managed in about three months to pacify
the district. However, his militia was accused of committing numerous crimes
and outrages during its campaign.[27]
While the Militia Wars made Catterson a villain among
Democratic-Conservatives throughout Arkansas, he was a hero to most
Republicans, especially African-Americans. Thus the slap, the main reason Catterson
was sitting in the offices of Rice and Benjamin two days before the 1870
election, had given the brindle-tails a boast in its battle against Gov.
Clayton’s minstrels.
In the midst of the Sunday morning meeting, Mayor Hartman joined
Hodges at his invitation in a small side room for a private discussion. He sat
across from Hodges, the “short thick man with mutton chop whiskers, red face,
and tip-tilted nose,” as Hodges told him how the brindle-tails planned to make
sure they were not cheated out of winning the upcoming election in Pulaski
County and asked him to help carry out the plan in Ward 1.[28] Hartman
described the plan – the usurpation plot -- in testimony later given to a U.S.
Senate committee:
[Hodges] made me acquainted with
the plan to take possession of the polls and nominate [election] judges by the
people against the set of regularly nominated judges nominated by the registrar
of the county, and he put me in charge of the First Ward, where I reside, to
take care of that ward for that purpose….
It was to be done by going to the
polling places at an early hour, before midnight or so, and putting a squad of
men in and holding the polling room, or room where the votes were polled, at
all hazards, and if the regularly appointed judges appeared, to refuse them
admittance, and at the hour of 8 o’clock in the morning, elect judges by the
people and hold an election.[29]
Later in his testimony, he clarified his explanation of the
plan and how it would work:
…the general plan was not to
prevent the regular judges from holding elections, but it was for the other
parties to be at the polling places ahead of time and then claim that the
regular judges were not on hand at the proper time; that the regular judges
were not to be superseded, but when they made their returns, McDiarmid, the
county clerk, was to count the returns of the bogus judges instead of the
regular judges, which he did.
As part of their plan, the brindle-tails designated a
leader, like Hartman in Ward 1, at each of the larger Pulaski County precincts,
and each of these leaders was deputized by Pulaski County Sheriff William S.
Oliver and by U.S. Marshal Catterson. As deputy sheriffs and deputy U.S.
marshals, the usurpation plot leaders in various precincts could, if needed,
use the force of law to help take over the polling places.
In his Senate committee testimony, Hartman said that he told
Hodges he doubted the legality of taking the planned actions, but that Hodges assured
him that Sen. Rice and others had reviewed the plans and determined they were
legal. Furthermore, when Hartman asked U.S. Marshal Catterson about the
legality of the planned actions, Catterson told him that he had a telegram from
President Grant authorizing him to move ahead with the plan. Hartman said that
he asked to see the telegram, but never did.
In testimony before the same Senate committee, and in
statements elsewhere, Hodges denied the substance of the meeting as described
by Hartman. He said he had done nothing except alert poll leaders that if the
regular judges did not show up to open polling places on time, they should
elect their own judges to open and operate the polling places.[30]
6:30 a.m., Tuesday,
November 8, 1870
Election Day
The Truck House, the Ward
1 Precinct Polling Place
Dr. Charles D. Ludwig was certain he was about to be shot.
It was about 6:30 a.m. He had been arrested by a foreigner
named Johnson or Jamison or Johannson, who claimed to be a deputy sheriff, because
he refused to leave the truck house, the designated site for Ward 1 voting that
day.[31] Then he had watched as the “deputy
sheriff” told a black man named Lewis Hunt to remove him from the building. Ludwig
had not been too frightened when Lewis unsheathed a pistol, cocked and waved it
in his face, and ordered him to leave the building. He knew Hunt, who worked
for Mayor Hartman, and was not scared of him. Ludwig had again said he wouldn’t
leave.
Then things got rough. Ludwig was manhandled by some of Hunt’s
buddies who carried him from the building, ripping his clothes in the process.
He had watched as Hunt gave one of the muscle men, whom Ludwig did not know, a
pistol and told him to shoot Ludwig if he “moved a finger.” Ludwig’s eyes had followed
Hunt as he walked away, then he heard his guard cock the pistol and felt its
barrel pressed against his back. He heard the man yell, “God damn you, drop
that pistol or I will kill you now.”
Ludwig didn’t have a pistol. He started screaming at Hunt to
come back, his panicked tenor voice raising alarm for blocks around.
Charles D. Ludwig, DDS
Ludwig had not expected to face any danger when he showed up
at 6 a.m. to begin his duties as one of three duly appointed election judges
for Ward 1. He had arrived recently in Little Rock, having settled with his
wife Josey in the city in Spring 1870 to offer his services as a dentist. He
brought impressive credentials with him: a graduate of the Pennsylvania Dental
College, he had for the past few years taught “operative dentistry and therapeutics”
at the St. Louis Dental College.[32]
Charles, 37, and Josey, 24, set up their residence and his
office on the second floor of a two-story building on the corner of Mulberry
(Third) and Main Streets. On the first floor below them were the offices of Drs.
Quidor and Hartman. Like Hartman, both Charles and Josey were German
immigrants. Charles had come to the U.S. from Württenberg as a child with his
parents, and Josey had immigrated recently from Bavaria.
Up until election day, the Ludwigs had enjoyed Little Rock,
and he and Josey had made quite a splash, mainly with their singing. According
to the Gazette, Josey was a “prima
donna from New York” who a visitor in Little Rock had heard sing at the
Stuttgart Royal Opera two years earlier. Hearing her prepare for her first
Little Rock concert, the Arkansas
Gazette gushed that he “had never heard a finer singer,” noting that she
had a “pure soprano voice,” and “she has not her superior in this country.”[33]
Soon after their arrival, Charles and Josey began organizing
concerts featuring her and other local talent. The first was held on July 8,
1870 in the Little Rock City Hall. Another of her grand concerts took place at
the City Hall on October 14th, only three weeks before election day.
At that concert, as part of a longer program of fine music, she and her husband
sang a duet, The Awakening of the Statute, from the operetta The Beautiful Galatea by Franz von Suppé.[34]
On October 26, 1870, Ludwig was asked by the county Board of
Registrars, also known as the Board of Review (whose members were James V. Fitch,
Asa Richmond and E. M. Phillips), to serve as an election judge for Ward 1
along with George Reichardt and L. W. B. Johnson. He accepted the appointment,
and that led him to show up early at the ward 1 polling place, the truck house where
the Defiance Hook and Ladder Company kept its fire equipment. Finding the door locked
and seeing about 30 men inside, he insisted on being admitted to the building.
After getting in, he was arrested and the events that followed had led to the
cocked pistol poking his back and his frantic shouts.
Fortunately, his shouts attracted attention, and Ludwig was
relieved when Hunt returned and disarmed the guard. About that time, Deputy
Sheriff Johnson-Jamison-Johannson exited the building and declared that he was
going to take Ludwig to jail. He and another man, with Ludwig in their custody,
had walked him down Markham Street, when, as they reached the plush Pacific
Hotel, Ludwig refused to go any further. About that time, L.W.D. Johnson, one
of the other ward 1 election judges, and Ferdinand Sarasin, a ward 1 election
clerk and long-time resident of the city, walked by and stopped to see what was
going on. Faced with a protesting prisoner and inquiring citizens, the Deputy
Sheriff abandoned Ludwig, warning that he would return with a posse to take him
to jail.[35]
Back at the Ward 1 Polling Place
After Ludwig was released from custody, he and Johnson met
up with the third judge, Reichardt, and they went together to the ward 1 polling
place, arriving at about 7 a.m. They found the truck house was still locked and
occupied by a couple dozen men; Mayor Hartman had joined the men inside and refused
to allow anyone else to enter.
About then, H. H. Rottaken, a Prussian immigrant who was the
foreman of the Defiance Hook and Ladder Company, came by to see why there was a
crowd in front of the truck house. When he tried to enter the building, Hartman
sent a man to see what he wanted. Rottaken described what happened:
… [I told the man that] I was
foreman of the [Defiance Hood and Ladder] company and the proper custodian of
the room and responsible for everything in the house, and that no one had any
right to enter without my permission. I opened the door and found other parties
inside, some asleep – some were colored men. I admitted the judges regularly
appointed by the board of review, as I had previously given them permission to
occupy the room for election purposes, and ordered all others to vacate the
room. This was before the hour of seven o’clock a.m.[36]
According to sworn testimony of the three election judges
and several witnesses, the regular Ward 1 polling place opened in the truck
house shortly before 8 a.m., the time polling places were supposed to begin
operation.
Nevertheless, implementing the usurpation plot, the
brindle-tails who had been kicked out of the truck house assembled on its porch
and pretended they did not see the regular judges or the opened polling place. One
of them, Frederick Krull, an immigrant from Bremen, testified before a U.S.
House of Representatives committee that he was at the polling place at 8 a.m.
and it was not open and the judges were nowhere to be found. He continued:
At that point the crowd of men
outside the building demanded that the polling place open so they could vote,
so the men elected judges to replace those who were absent. After that, Hartman swore in the new judges
and a list of eligible voters was provided by an emissary of county clerk McDiarmid.
The polling place opened and Hartman spent most of the day directing black
voters to the outside poll…. [37]
The substance of Krull’s testimony was repeated under oath (in
almost the same words) by more than a half-dozen other witnesses.
Hartman testified that on election day, “All that I could
make vote I made vote there [the outside poll].” He told black voters that the
inside poll was “illegal.” He was successful: almost all black ward 1 voters
cast their ballots at the outside polling place.[38]
The voting at the two polls – the regular one inside the truck
house and the alternative one outside of it – went smoothly until about 3 p.m. when
U.S. Marshall Catterson showed up to arrest the three regular election judges
on trumped up charges of violating the federal “Enforcement Act” by illegally
denying a person the right to vote. The judges were able to post bonds and return
quickly. When
the election was over, the judges at the two polling places counted the votes
and reported them to the county.
Wednesday, November
9, 1870,
The Day After the
Election
The issue of the Arkansas
Gazette published on November 9th, the day after the election,
overflowed with dismay at and condemnation of the brindle-tail efforts to usurp
the Pulaski County election. The Gazette headline was:
The Election
Disgraceful Proceedings --
The Brindle-Tails Attempt to take Forcible Possession of Polls
Are Foiled and Hold Separate Elections –
Regular Elections Broken Up in
Eastman, Ashley and Badgett
Precincts by the Radicals --
The Death Struggle
The first sentence of the story was, “The details of the
election yesterday are sickening and disgusting in the extreme to every honest
citizen.”
While the Gazette
documented the election usurpation in Pulaski County for several days, the Morning Republican – affiliated with minstrels
– was restrained, mildly observing “the frauds attempted to be perpetuated by
certain individuals will be exposed at the proper time.”[39]
In contrast, another Republican newspaper verged on the
hysterical in its reaction to the usurpation plot. In an article headlined “The
Satanic Clique”, the Fort Smith New Era
condemned the usurpation as “fraud more contemptible than was ever perpetuated
by any class since America was first discovered.”
In several stories, the Gazette
reported what had happened at the Ward 1 precinct and also at the Eastman,
Ashley, Gray, Campbell, and Badgett precincts at which the regular judges were
driven away and the usurper’s judges ran the only polling places. In addition,
the newspaper told of the drama at Little Rock’s third ward precinct and the
Eagle precinct, both of which ended up with two polling places (the regular one
was forced outside), as well as at other precincts where the interlopers were
foiled in their attempts to take over the polls.
All of the city’s papers, except for the Arkansas State Journal, the
Brindle-tail paper, reported the results from the regular polling places in
Ward 1 and Ward 3 as follows:
Ward
1 Ward
3
Kramer 234 Richmond 161
Quidor 3 Winstead 4
However, according to the votes tabulated at the usurper’s
polling place, the results were:
Ward
1 Ward
3
Kramer 11 Richmond 32
Quidor 346 Winstead 377
County-wide vote results that included the votes cast at the
usurper’s polls showed Brindle-tail candidates winning, by lop-sided majorities,
all of county offices and Pulaski County’s seats in the Arkansas legislature.[40]
Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday, November 11, 12, and 13, 1870
The Run-up to the Little
Rock City Council’s Organizational Meeting
On the Friday, November 11th, County Clerk McDiarmid
buttressed the claim to office of the candidates who received a majority of
votes at the usurper’s polls by issuing them “Certificates of Election.”
Usually, this certificate was treated as conclusive evidence that a candidate
had won the office for which he had competed.[41]
Unfortunately for the brindle-tails, the Certificates of Election
proved to be a weak link in their plot: state law did not mandate that
legislative bodies seat candidates issued this certificate. Instead, it allowed
each one to decide who would be permitted to serve on it. Thus Little Rock’s minstrel-dominated
city council would determine who had won seats on the council.
When this situation became clear, Hartman and his allies realized
that Quidor and Winstead would not become aldermen unless some minstrel
aldermen were persuaded to vote to seat them or unless some minstrel aldermen were
absent when the council decided who could take the oath of office.
Rumors of a March and Possible Riot
By Saturday, Nov. 12th, rumors circulated that the
brindle-tails were mobilizing their black supporters to help pressure the
city’s aldermen to vote Quidor and Winstead onto the city council. Stories were
whispered of plans for a massive march of armed “colored” men to the city hall
on Monday night when the new city council would organize itself. It was said
that the march would turn into a riot if the aldermen did not take the right
actions.
That rumor was reinforced by what “a friend told a friend”
about Dr. Quidor’s “harangue” urging “a few colored men” to “bring others from
the country, armed with pistols, to intimidate and overawe the citizens of this
place into letting certain persons claiming to be elected Aldermen into the
City Council.” According to the friend, “[I]t was urged to bring not only those
who had arms, but to bring those who had none, and that arms would be furnished
them in the city.”[42]
Another rumor: Mayor Hartman would take forcible possession
of the city council and “install the bogus aldermen from the first and third
wards.” Also, “Several threats [were made] to burn down certain buildings, in
case [their owners] were opposed to their revolutionary scheme.”[43]
Then word got around that on Sunday,
[A] gun-smith was assaulted by
three colored men, in the most violent and abusive language, and ordered to
open his gun shop, that they “wanted some pistols.” The gunsmith informed them
that he did not sell arms on the Sabbath, but if they would come down on Monday
his store would be open, and he would wait on them. In reply to this, the
colored men told him that Monday would not do, and that he must go home and get
his key, and that they were bound to have his arms within twenty-four hours. (Emphasis in the original story)
Worst of all, people heard about Quidor’s conversation with
a friend’s friend:
On Saturday evening, in a
conversation held between a friend of ours and a Dr. Quidor, … Quidor said that
“there was a plan on foot to force him as Alderman onto the City Council on
Monday evening, that there would be an armed force of colored men on hand to
accomplish this thing….; that he, Quidor, and Winstead, from the Third Ward,
were to go into the council as Aldermen, and that the man who said aught
against, no matter who he was, would be a dead man; that he and Winstead were
to be installed or the whole d____d town would be laid in ashes, and the
d____dest riot ever seen would follow.”[44]
The truth of these various rumors is unknown. However,
evidence that something was going on is found in the fact that on Sunday,
November 13th, Quidor was arrested, probably by city policemen. The Gazette reported:
Dr. Quidor, who claims to have been
elected aldermen of the first ward at the bogus polls, and who had made some
indiscreet remarks about suppressing the council was arrested yesterday evening
on the charges of endeavoring to incite a riot, and on giving bond was released.[45]
The disposition of his case is unknown.
The Fiat Accompli Plan
In case the intimidation plan did not work, the
brindle-tails formulated a second plan: they would hold a rump city council meeting
very early on Monday morning that only the brindle-tail aldermen would attend.
At that organizational meeting, the aldermen would swear in Quidor and Winstead
as members of the council. To carry out this rump meeting, the brindle-tails had
allies in the city hall who would not only get them into the council chambers,
but also would provide access to city records and the city seal. If all went
well, the brindle-tails would present the minstrels a fiat accompli to chew on
with their Monday morning bacon.
To be sure, the plan had its problems. The main one was the
lack of a fifth aldermen, who along with Tifton, Robinson, Quidor, and
Winstead, would comprise a quorum and a majority of the council. To get the
fifth alderman to the meeting, they nicely asked Sanders, who represented the 2nd
ward, to attend the rump meeting, but Sanders refused to take part in it. Then
some hot heads threatened his life if he did not cooperate, but Sanders still
said no.[46]
The attempt to strong arm Sanders, a tough 33-year-old
former slave who had fought with the Union Army, was a mistake. He was alarmed enough
by the threats to ask Gov. Clayton for protection. When Clayton heard about the
threats and plans for a rump meeting, he told his allies on the council what
was going on. Then he helped them formulate a plan to thwart the brindle-tails:
they would hold a city council meeting before the brindle-tails could hold theirs
and would occupy the council chamber for the entire day to make sure no rump
meeting was held there on Monday. The plan, of course, was a top secret. The
governor would provide a hideout beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. From there
the aldermen could go to city hall soon after midnight without being seen.
1:05 a.m., Monday,
November 14, 1870
Council Chambers of
the Little Rock City Hall
After the Little Rock city council opened its meeting, those
present examined the Credentials of Election submitted by Upham, Ottenheimer,
Kramer, and Richmond. Finding them in order, the council allowed the four men to
be sworn in as aldermen. The city council then choose Finch to be its president.[47]
1:10 a.m., Monday,
November 14, 1870
Offices of Drs.
Quidor and Hartman
The men assembled in the offices of Quidor and Hartman were eager
to occupy City Hall to hold their rump city council meeting. Before going,
however, Hartman sent the burly Cox, one of the outgoing aldermen, to scout the
path.
With barely enough light to avoid a tumble, Cox walked three
blocks down deserted Main Street, nary a soul to see, and turned left on
Markham Street expecting a dark city hall to come into view. Instead, he saw a
lighted building with a uniformed man standing at its front door. The policeman
beckoned him, inviting him to go in to see the new city council at work. Cox
took a quick peek inside, and then retraced his steps to the doctors’ den as
rapidly as his big-man legs could move.
Breathing heavily from his exertions, he told the men in the
room what he had just seen. According to an “observer,” whose account was
mainly intended to amuse, when the men heard the news, their faces were filled
with “dismay, consternation, defeat, and humiliation.” They had been “outwitted
and outgeneraled…. Squedor turned a double somersault to vent his anger,
swearing ‘h__l and demnition take all de ploody ku-klux;’ the mayor groaned
like one who had received a death blow; Winstead stood by with gaping mouth and
rolling the whites of his eyes like one who had staked his all and it suddenly
vanished.”[48]
Even with the exaggerations of this colorful description, it
contains a core of truth: Hartman and his co-conspirators must have realized
they had been defeated.
12:30 p.m. Monday,
November 14, 1870,
Little Rock City
Council Chambers
After a short noon recess, Quidor and Winstead appeared
before the Little Rock city council to contest the seating of Kramer and
Richmond as aldermen. They presented their Certificates of Election and
demanded to be installed as the rightfully elected aldermen. The council, with
Tipton and Robinson in attendance (they had been notified by the city marshal of
the meeting at about 6 a.m.), referred the appeal to the newly formed committee
on credentials that consisted of aldermen D. P. Upham, Frederick Kramer, and
Dan Ottenheimer, men unlikely to be sympathetic to the claims.[49]
11:59 p.m., Monday,
November 14, 1870
Little Rock City
Council Chamber
The session of the city council that had started twenty-three-hours
earlier neared its end. It had recessed several times to give the alderman some
breaks, but nevertheless the day had been a long one, and a minute before the
meeting would finally adjourn, the aldermen were slouching around the oval
table in the city council chambers.
During the early evening hours, the atmosphere in the
council chambers had been tense as the aldermen awaited the arrival of armed
marchers. Some aldermen feared a race riot and some worried their businesses or
homes might be torched. But as the minutes passed with no signs of trouble,
they relaxed. Despite the many rumors and false reports of planned violence,
all remained calm.
When both hands of the city clock again pointed straight up,
the city council adjourned and six tired but pleased aldermen headed home, this
time walking onto Markham Street without their disguises. Their long meeting
had accomplished what they had set out to do: thwart a rump council meeting and
install Kramer and Richmond as alderman. As a bonus, no mob had materialized.
The day had been a good one for the minstrels, but, as they would learn in the
coming year, not as good as they thought.
The Aftermath
11:00 p.m. Tuesday,
November 7, 1871
Election Day, Downtown
Little Rock
The results of the 1871 municipal elections had been
announced, and the brindle-tails were celebrating with an impromptu march, many
“hoo-rahs, some guns shooting into the air, and not a little alcohol. They had swept
the city elections: Their candidate for mayor, former U.S. Marshal Catterson,
had trounced, by a 710 to 374 vote, the incumbent mayor A. K. Hartman, the
minstrel nominee, and the four brindle-tail supported city council candidates had
won, ousting aldermen Fitch and Sanders.[50]
This resounding success of the Pulaski County brindle-tails
came only a year after their widely condemned and mostly disastrous effort to
usurp the county elections. Not only had the Little Rock city council refused
to seat the tainted candidates who won at the usurper’s polls, but the Arkansas
General Assembly did the same, depriving the brindle-tails of a state senate
seat and four Pulaski County state representative seats.
Because most African-Americans voters had not voted at the
regular polling places in 1870, their votes had not counted. If their votes had
been cast at the proper polling places, they likely would have given most of the
brindle-tail candidates in Pulaski County a winning margin.[51] Thus with their misguided plot, the brindle-tails had,
it seems, stolen victories from themselves.
They did not do the same in November 1871, though the path
to victory was a strange one.
Impeachment
Proceedings Against Hartman
A few weeks after the 1870 election, the Little Rock city
council, as fully expected, denied the claims of Quidor and Winstead to seats
on the council. Then on December 1st, three Little Rock citizens
filed “misdemeanor in office” charges with the city council against Mayor
Hartman for slandering Kramer in 1869 and interfering with the 1870 election. The
charges triggered impeachment proceedings. The council scheduled a trial on the
charges for December 3rd. If convicted, Hartman would be permanently
removed from office.[52]
The trial was stopped by a temporary restraining order issued
by the circuit court. Still waiting for a court decision that would allow the
trial to proceed, the council voted on the last day of 1870 to suspend Hartman
from office until the city council determined he was innocent of the charges.
The council appointed a temporary mayor to fill the position.[53]
Durning the
first three months of 1871, while Hartman’s trial remained on hold, the state was
roiled by political turmoil. After Gov. Clayton was elected U.S. Senator on
January 10th by the state legislature, he refused to take the position as long as
Lt. Governor J. M. Johnson, an anti-Clayton Liberal Republican, would succeed
him. So, during January, Clayton tried to remove Johnson from office, first by
a vote of the state legislature, then through the state courts. His efforts
failed.
In February, the
Governor’s enemies – Democrats and reform republicans – tried to impeach him
for his treatment of Lt. Governor Johnson. The House of Representatives narrowly
voted for articles of impeachment, but they were rejected by Senate.
Then
suddenly, for reasons no one understood, the Lt. Governor agreed in early March
to leave his position to become Secretary of State, a post that became vacant
through the resignation of a Clayton ally. At the same time, Clayton got Ozra
A. Hadley elected president of the Arkansas Senate, the office next in line to
become governor in the absence of a Lt. Governor. Thus when Clayton resigned to
become senator, Hadley, his selected successor, became governor.[54]
Hartman Denounces the
Brindle-tails and Impeachment Charges Are Defeated
With the daily headlines about state-level political intrigue,
outrage over the 1870 election usurpation in Pulaski County faded, and interest
in Hartman’s impeachment waned. However, Hartman bolted back into view when on March
2, he renounced the brindle-tails, claiming they had tricked him into “doing
dirty work” for them. Further, he wrote in a letter:
Messr. Brooks, Hodges, & Co.
have shown themselves to be entirely unfit to be the leaders of the Republican
party – wanting in honesty and patriotism – qualities which entitle them highly
in their present occupation as leaders of the Democratic party….I consider it
my duty as a Republican to support Governor Clayton and his administration.”[55]
Hartman’s repudiation of the brindle-tails likely saved him
from being removed from office when, on May 5, 1871, the council finally convened
his trial. At the trial, Hartman’s lawyers denied the charges made against him,
then the council quickly adjourned the proceedings until late October, just a few
days before the expiration of Hartman’s term of office and the 1871 election.[56]
Hartman Nominated by
the Minstrels
As the 1871 election approached, rumors abounded about who
would be the minstrel candidate for mayor. On October 9th, the minstrels settled
the question at their city convention, nominating Hartman, the man who minstrel
council members had twice removed from office for untoward acts! They were
willing to overlook the fact that less than a year earlier, their candidate had
been a leader of a plot to steal the 1870 election from them.[57]
On October 30th, barely a week before the
election, the city council reconvened Hartman’s impeachment trial and voted 4
-1 to acquit him of the charges. Kramer voted against the acquittal, and the
brindle-tail aldermen did not attend the trial. By the another 4 – 1 vote, the
council expunged the charges against Hartman from the record.[58]
As the election campaigning took place, the Gazette conveniently forgot what it had
written soon following the usurpation attempt in 1870:
The Brindles have been flaxed out
in [city government] as well as in the state government and henceforth we may
congratulate ourselves … on having got rid of that pestiferous and
revolutionary element in our state politics.[59]
That newspaper and most Democratic-Conservatives (whose
party had not nominated a slate of candidates) supported the brindle-tail
candidates in Pulaski County, and the Gazette
did its part to promote the campaign of Gen. Catterson, whom the paper had harshly
criticized in previous years. Following his victory, the Gazette observed: ‘The new mayor, Gen. Catterson, we believe will
honestly and faithfully administer the duties of his office. In times past we
have widely differed from the general in politics, but we have never heard his
honesty or integrity question.” It praised the results of the election as the
triumph of “honesty over rascality.”[60]
As the Brindle-tails celebrated their 1871 victories on the
streets of Little Rock, Sen. Powell Clayton was likely somewhere nearby, thinking
about what he could do to in 1872 to redeem the minstrel’s losses. After all, Gov.
Hadley held substantial powers in the conduct of elections. Next time he could
use them much more effectively for the benefit of minstrel candidates. And he
would.
Footnotes
[1] The early morning events of November 14, 1879 are
described, with some embellishments in “Town Talk.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 30, 1870, p. 4. The new uniforms of
the Governor’s Guards were mentioned in this article: “Governor’s Guards.” Morning Republican, Nov. 17, 1870, p.
4. It stated that “they present a gay appearance in their new uniforms.” The
Zouave jackets are mentioned in John M Harrell. 1893. The Brook and Baxter War: A History. Slawson Publishing Co., p 154.
[2] The organizational meeting of the city council was
covered “City Council – Its Organization.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette. November 15, 1870, p. 4.
According to state law governing larger cities, the city council was
required to organize itself at a meeting held on the Monday following a
municipal election.
[3] The article describing this meeting does not explicitly
name Cox and Alexander as attending, instead referring to “portly” ex-aldermen “C.
and A.” who were about to become “functus officio.” Both Cox and Alexander fit
this description. Cox had, according to
the Daily Arkansas Gazette (October 12, 1869, p. 4)
“aldermanic proportions” and Alexander had “a rotund figure who is size
compares to the mayor” (“The Municipal Election in November – Pen Picture of
the City Council.” Daily Arkansas
Gazette, August 11, 1859, p. 4.) The terms of both men expired when new
aldermen were sworn in.
The presence of Alexander at the meeting is not surprising
because he had been a supporter of Hartman on the council. However, Cox had not
been a Hartman supporter. Nevertheless, since faction affiliations were fluid
at this time, he may have switched sides.
[4] Kramer’s comments were in “Accused of Pension Fraud.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, June 23, 1894,
p.8. The article included a reprint a story published in the St. Louis Globe and Democrat about
Hartman’s arrest for attesting to a signature on a widow’s pension application
even though he was not present when the signature was completed. The charge was
later thrown out by a judge who noted that Hartman had been helping the widow
without charge and the mistake was a technical error without criminal
intent.
[5] Hartman gave Saxony as his birthplace in the 1860 and
1870 censuses. It is unknown in which town or towns he lived in Saxony. Circuit Court Records of St. Clair County show that
he married Margaret Althus on June 7, 1859 in St. Clair County, Ill. Her father had emigrated from Saxony, but she
was born in the United States. The 1860 census showed the two living in St.
Clair Co. His obituary stated that he
attended the “State Medical School at Saxony.”
“Dr. Hartman Dead.” St. Louis
Republic, January 12, 1899, p. 12.
[7] [Letter]. Morning
Republican, March 17, 1868, p3
[8] “To A.K. Hartman.” Morning
Republican, January 8, 1869, p 2
[9] “The City Election.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, January 6, 1869, p.3 and “City Election.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, November 3,
1869, p. 4.
The January 1869 municipal election was held to replace the
council members appointed in 1868 by the military governor. New members were
elected to fill all eight aldermen positions. The members elected in January
served a shortened term because the 1868 constitution specified municipal
elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of
November.
At the November 1869 election, the first under the new state
constitution, all eight city council seats were up for election. Except for
this first election, aldermen were to serve two year terms, staggered so that
four would be elected each year. Following the November 1869 election, the
aldermen drew lots to determine which four would serve two year terms and which
four would serve only one-year terms. Both Kramer and Richmond drew one-year
terms.
[10] and [11] “The Municipal Election in November – Pen
Picture of the City Council.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, August 11, 1869, p. 4.
[12] The affiliation of Hartman with Brooks was discussed in
“The Upcoming Election.” Daily Arkansas
Gazette, October 1, 1869, p. 2.
This dissenting faction was initially formed by Liberal
Republicans, comprised mainly of native Unionists who were unhappy with Clayton
because of the Militia Wars to quell the Ku Klux Klan. They were joined, and
later surpassed in importance, by radical Republicans who supported greater
efforts to expand and protect the civil rights of African Americans. Both
Liberal Republicans and disaffected Radical Republicans were unhappy with
Clayton’s imperious ways and his distribution of patronage. See George
Thompson. 1976. Arkansas and
Reconstruction. Kennikat Press, pp 90 – 96.
[13] “The City Council Grossly Insulted by the Mayor.” Morning Republican, November 19, 1869,
p. 4 and “Council Proceedings.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, November 21, 1869, p. 4.
[14] “City Council. Office of Mayor Declared Vacant.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, February 19,
1870, p.4.
[15] In the 1860 census, Quidor reported his age as 40,
indicating he was born around 1820. In the 1870 census, his age is listed as
43, corresponding to a 1827 birth date. The few facts in biographical sketches
of his father indicate that he was likely married in the latter part of 1820’s,
providing some evidence that John E.’s birth year was closer to 1827 than 1820.
The art of John Quidor (January 26, 1801 – December 13,
1881) is exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art,
and other museums. He is considered one of America’s foremost literary
painters. Many of his paintings are scenes from books by Washington Irving. Quidor’s
style was distinctive, differing substantially from traditional realism. Quidor
was unable to support himself with his paintings, and supplemented his income
by painting tavern signs, parade pennants (banners), and fire engines. For more
information, see
[17] See Francis Barnard Heitman. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army from Its
Organization, September 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903, vol. 1 (accessed on
ancestry.com). This book wrongly states
that Quidor died in October 1876. In fact, he remarried in the late 1870s and had
a son, named John E. Quidor, in 1879, who became a doctor in Little Rock and
North Little Rock. He was elected in the 1900’s to the Argenta City Council.
Also see [Note]. Trenton
State Gazette, August 12, 1861, p. 3, which announced Quidor’s appointment
to as a Brigade Surgeon of the U.S. Army.
[18] “Died.” New York
Times. November 19, 1863. [Mary
Quidor, wife of John E. Quidor, died on November 18, 1863 in Jersey City, NJ.]
[19] Quidor signed a
contract on July 12, 1866. It is indexed in this publication: Contracts
of the medical department. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting, in
compliance with the act of March 3, 1809, a statement of contracts made on
account of the medical department of the Army for the year 1866. March 13, 1867. Accessed on
genealogybank.com
The following article mentions Quidor in Batesville at the
army post: “Batesville and its Garrison.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, April 23, 1867, p. 2.
[20] The quote is from “City Council – Its Organization.” Daily Arkansas Gazette. November 15,
1870, p. 4.
[21] “Squedor.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, November 29, 1870, p. 4
[22] “Bismarck’s Man Friday.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, November 4, 1870, p. 4.
According to this entry, she was the “foremost nineteenth
century women’s reformer” in Arkansas, supporting “suffrage, temperance, women’s
education and the women’s club movement.”
[24] The information and quote is from John M Harrell. 1893.
The Brooks and Baxter War: A History.
Slawson Publishing Co., p 94. Harrell was a Democrat who deeply resented
Reconstruction, disliked Radical Republicans, and held strong enmity for
Catterson because of his role in the Militia Wars. His history of
Reconstruction in Arkansas reflects those views, which became the most common
narrative of reconstruction years in the state.
Newspaper stories about the incident were published in the
newspapers of several states. For example, “Row Between Arkansas Radical
Chieftains.” Galveston Daily News,
October 23, 1869, p 1. It noted that “considerable feeling was aroused between
the Governor and his former friends.”
Surprisingly, the incident was not mentioned in the Arkansas Gazette, which should have
delighted in the conflict between two enemies. It also was not mentioned in the
Morning Republican.
[25] In his autobiography, Clayton had a slightly different
explanation of the slap. He said it took place because Catterson thought
Clayton was going to leave the governorship to go to the U.S. Senate, allowing
a Unionist to become governor. Clayton had assured his allies he would not do
so. Then:
Having given this assurance to my
friend, General Catterson, which he rejected in terms that I considered a
reflection upon my veracity, in a moment of unguarded passion, I struck him. He
did not return the blow and a moment after I left him I would have given a
great deal to recall it, and I have always regretted it.
Powell Clayton, 1914. The
Aftermath of the Civil War, in Arkansas. Neal Publishing Co., reprinted by
Negro Universities Press, 1969, p. 315.
[27] Powell Clayton provided
his justification for the Militia Wars and described what happened during the
Wars in his book. Powell Clayton 1914. The
Aftermath of the Civil War, in Arkansas. Neal Publishing Co., reprinted by
Negro Universities Press, 1969. Harrell (see
Note 24) held a strong negative view of the militia actions, and in his book he
detailed misdeeds and crimes by the militia. He maintained that the Ku Klux
Klan did not exist as an organization in the state and was used as a pretext
for actions to humiliate opponents of the Radical Republicans. Similarly,
Thomas S. Staples enumerated the misbehavior of the militia and dismissed the
need for action against the Ku Klux Klan. Thomas S Staples. 1923. Reconstruction in Arkansas, 1862-1874.
Longman, Green, and Co. reprinted by Forgotten Books, 2015.
[28] Description of Hodges is in Harrell p 138 (see footnote
24)
[29] Report No. 512, An Inquiry into Certain Charges Against
Hon. Powell Clayton in Reports of the
Committees of the Senate of the United States for the Third Session of the
Forty-Second Congress, 1872-73. GPO,
1872. The report is accessible as a free e-book at:
[30] Whatever Hodges did or did not say to Hartman, state
law made clear that if regular judges were not at their designated legal
polling place at the scheduled opening time, they were to be replaced by vote
of the people gathered at that polling place. Of course, the law had no
provision allowing a group of men to stop appointed election judges from
entering designated polling places or to ignore their presence there.
[31] The man was Christian Johannson, who was also known as
Johnson and sometimes Jamison. He was a lawyer who lived with Mayor Hartman. He
had been in Arkansas and Little Rock for about three months at the time of the 1870
election and in the United States for about two years. He was not a U.S.
citizen. In an affidavit for the Little Rock city council, he described how he
had arrived at the ward 1 polling place at 1 a.m. the morning of the election
and had brought with him a set of poll books and a ballot box (provided by the
county clerk.) The fact that he brought these is strong evidence that the
usurpation was pre-meditated, not the spontaneous result of the absence of
regular election judges as sworn by brindle-tails. “Council Proceedings.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, January 1,
1871, p. 4.
The account of what happened to Ludwig on election day is
drawn from Johannson’s affidavit) and Ludwig’s affidavit filed with the
Committee of Credentials of the Little Rock City Council. All of the sworn
affidavits collected by the city council’s committee on credentials were published
in the Morning Republican on
December 2, 1870 and the Daily Arkansas
Gazette on December 3, 1870.
[32] [Untitled new
item]. Daily Arkansas Gazette, April
9, 1870, p. 4 and [Advertisement]. Daily
Arkansas Gazette, April 8. 1870, p. 4.
[33] “Mrs. Wheat’s Concert Tonight.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, May 13, 1870, p. 4.
[34] “Mrs. Ludwig’s Concert.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, July 8, 1870, p. 4 and “Grand Concert Given by Mrs. Josey
Ludwig “(advertisement), Daily Arkansas
Gazette, October 14, 1870 p 3. Also
see, Daily Fair Gazette,
October 16, 1870, p. 4.
[35] Affidavits of Johnson, Sarasin. Reichardt, and Wilfred Schoot
in “The Charges Against the Mayor.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, December 3, 1870, p. 4.
[36] Affidavit of Rottaken in “The Charges Against the Mayor.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, December 3,
1870, p. 4.
[38] Hartman’s Senate testimony {see note 29)
[39] “The Election – Disgraceful Proceeding.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 9, 1870,
p. 4; “The Election in the City.” Morning
Republican, Nov. 9, 1870. P4.; and “The Satanic Clique.” Fort Smith
New Era, December 2, 1870, p. 1.
[40] These results were published in House hearings (see
note 37), but not in the Daily Arkansas
Gazette or the Morning Republican.
[41] “Heaping Up Wrath.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, November 13, 1870, p. 4.
[42] “Keep Quiet, and All will be Well,” Morning Republican, Nov. 14, 1870, p. 4.
[43] “Our City Affairs.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, November 15,1870, p. 4.
[44] “Keep Quiet, and All will be Well.” Morning Republican, Nov. 14, 1870, p. 4.
[45] “Items.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, November 15, 1870, p. 4.
In the same column of items this was reported, “Two hundred armed
negroes were reported at Fourche Dam ready to march on the City. but we believe
it proved to be a canard.”
[46] “Town Talk.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 30, 1870,
p. 4. For more information on Sanders,
see
Goodspeed, 1889. Biographical and
historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline,
Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed
history of the state... biographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] Available
for downloading at:
[47] “City Council – Its Organization.” Daily Arkansas Gazette. November 15, 1870, p. 4.
[48] “Town Talk.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 30, 1870, p. 4.
[49] “City Council – Its Organization.” Daily Arkansas Gazette. November 15,
1870, p. 4.
[50] “The Election.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, November 8, 1871, p. 4.
[51] For example, combining the votes at both the inside and
outside polls, Kramer had a total of 245 votes and Quidor had 349 votes.
Assuming that the voters at the usurper’s polls were legitimate and were
accurately counted, Quidor would have received a majority of Ward 1 votes if
all had been cast at the regular polling place.
[52] “The Charges Against the Mayor.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, December 3, 1871, p. 4. “Council
Proceedings.: Daily Arkansas Gazette.
December 2, 1871, p. 4. “City
Council—Third Ward Contested Election Case Decided.” Morning Republican, December 9,1870, p. 4.
[53] “Council Proceedings.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, January 1, 1871, p. 4.
[54] Thomas Staples. 1923. Reconstruction in Arkansas, 1862-1874, Columbia University Press
(reprinted by Forgotten Books, 2015), pp. 374-376.
[55] “Dr. Hartman’s Letter”. Morning Republican, March 3, 1871, p. 4 and “Hon. A. K. Hartman.” Morning Republican, March 27,1871 p. 2.
[56] “Mayor Hartman: The City Council as Court of
Impeachment.” Daily Arkansas Gazette,
May 5, 1871, p. 4.
[57]” Republican Convention.” Morning Republican, October 10, 1871, p. 4.; also “The Radical
Caldron Boiling.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, October 10, 1871, p.4.
[58] “City Council.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette, October 31, 1871, p. 4.
[59] “Radicalism Dead in Arkansas,” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 15, 1870, p. 4.
[60] “The Results of the City Election.” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Nov. 9, 1871,
p. 4. At the time of the 1871 election,
Catterson was no longer a U.S. Marshal. He had been removed from the position
by President Grant at the urging of Sen. Clayton.
