Personality as Politics

 Without an entrenched political establishment, the politics of the new territory were wide open. As a result, Arkansas attracted many ambitious young men who were eager to make names for themselves. Many were from prominent families from former frontier regions such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. Early immigration was so slanted toward such would-be leaders that the first issue of the Gazette contained an editorial stating that the Territory already had a surplus of doctors and lawyers for the foreseeable future, and hoping that future arrivals would be restricted to farmers.

First to emerge among these young Turks was a handsome Kentuckian named Robert Crittenden. Although he never rose higher than territorial secretary, a position he assumed at just 21 years of age, Crittenden dominated Arkansas politics for nearly a decade. It was leadership forged more on the force of Crittenden's charisma than any overt ideology. The ambitious Crittenden filled a vacuum left by the half-hearted leadership of Arkansas's first territorial governor, James Miller, a hero of the War of 1812. Miller was slow to arrive in Arkansas after being appointed governor and was frequently absent from the territory, leaving Crittenden to run things and appoint his friends to office.

Though Crittenden's appeal was broad, his inner circle tended to be restricted to Kentuckians, a fact noted in this April 21, 1827 letter from Gazette printer Hiram Whittington:
" The town, and I believe the whole Territory, is inhabited by the dregs of Kentucky, Georgia and Louisiana, but principally from the former, and a more drunken, good for nothing set of fellows never got together. The Secretary of the Territory and the Judges of the Supreme Court drink whiskey out of the same cup with the lowest born, and roll together in the same gutter. The greatest drunkards fill the most responsible offices. In August, the election of a member of Congress and members of the General Assembly takes place. The opposing candidates never meet in the street without stopping to blackguard each other, and very often fight. Most of the inhabitants carry dirks or pistols in their pockets, but the greater part of them are too cowardly to use them. Mr. Woodruff, my employer, being an honest and sober man, the majority of the people are his bitter enemies, and he has frequently been threatened. About a month ago, three worthies got into such a fury, owing to a piece published in the Gazette criticizing the conduct of the Secretary, that they threatened to annihilate all printers, and one of the judges of the Supreme Court swore he would pulverize every printer in the Territory in less than a month.
In an article published on May 8, 1846, a Gazette correspondent, most likely Benjamin Borden, recalled that partisan politics had not existed in Arkansas prior to 1827:
"No man in the elections of that day ever heard of a Democrat or a Whig Party. A candidate for public office was elected by his own merits or popularity, not by any peculiar set of political doctrine he advocated."
The decline of fortunes of Crittenden and his followers actually began in 1825 with the appointment of George Izard as governor. Initially, the two men cooperated in the cause of Indian removal, but their relationship quickly deteriorated. Izard was not nearly as inclined to give Crittenden a free hand as his predecessor. What really changed things in 1827, however, was the presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson. As the candidate of the west, Jackson was universally admired on the frontier. There was not a politician in Arkansas who did not, in some way seek to capitalize on Old Hickory's popularity. Unfortunately for Crittenden, his brother and Jackson were mortal enemies. Crittenden and his followers suddenly found themselves cast in the role of political outsiders when Jackson allied with their rivals, a group of interrelated ex-surveyors and land speculators known as "the Family."

It was perhaps not surprising that politics based on personality should degenerate into bitterly personal attacks that were mostly fought out in letters to the newspapers. The cult of personality became a double-edged sword. The result was often the fighting of duels, a predilection the Crittendenites proved far more adept at than electoral politics, prompting one Kentucky newspaper to note: "Down in Arkansas, when a man cannot be gotten rid of at the polls, he is immediately killed off in a duel."

Gen. George W. Jones supplied this account of the duel fought between Robert Newton and Ambrose Sevier in September of 1827:
"The duel took place at Point Remove, about 60 miles above Little Rock. The parties stood side by side at ten paces apart. Holding their muzzles down at a perpendicular. The words were, 'Gentlemen, are you ready? Fire. One, two, three, stop.' Each fired at about two. "
Fortunately both men missed and their seconds were able to end the affair.

Henry Conway would not prove so lucky. Only weeks after his re-election as Arkansas Territory's delegate to Congress, he was slain by Robert Crittenden on October 29, 1827. According to dueling historian Hamilton Cochran, the contest "attracted what was probably the largest crowd ever to see two men shoot at each other."

Only a few years earlier, the two had been good friends. Their fatal encounter was the result of an incident when they had worked together to bring about the removal of the Quapaw. In the course of the recent Congressional campaign, Robert Oden, Conway's opponent, had charged him with having misappropriated $600 intended for the Quapaw. Conway said that this was to cover his expenses, that Crittenden had agreed, and that he had reimbursed the treasury upon his return to Washington. Despite the fact that only a year previous, Conway had defended Crittenden before Congress against allegations that he had mishandled Indian funds, Crittenden declined to corroborate Conway's version of events.

The situation quickly deteriorated into an exchange of verbal attacks via the press. In an August 17, 1827 letter to the Gazette entitled "Address to the Public," Conway wrote:
" Mr. Crittenden did, willfully and intentionally, state what he knew to be false for the purpose of injuring my election and more, I believe him to be so destitute of principle, that he will resort to any measure, however base and groveling in its nature, to accomplish his object, when it cannot be otherwise secured."
Critenden responded in kind:
"If Conway means to charge me with falsehood, or deliberate misrepresentation I hurl the foul imputation with scorn back upon him; and more that he uttered a foul falsehood, knowingly and for the worst of purposes."
Andrew Jackson replaced Crittenden as territorial secretary with William Fulton, a Jackson crony from Alabama. Crittenden would never again hold a substantial office - or live to see his 38th birthday. Still, for all of Crittenden's flaws, it is hard not to concur, at least in part, with the assessment offered by Charles Bertram in the July 3, 1833 issue of the Advocate:

"There is no man who is acquainted with Mr. Crittenden, let him be friend or foe, but will do him justice to accord him talents of the first order. To say nothing of the opinion of his friends, he has violent enemies who have repeatedly said of him, that he was by far the most talented man in Arkansas."