Arkansas: The Precedent for Reconstruction

            In May of 1868, the New York Times featured an article on how the readmission of Arkansas was the standard for how many Americans felt reconstruction was going to occur. Arkansas had completed all of the necessary steps to be readmitted to the Union, yet there were still politicians (radicals) who felt it was just not enough. It is very clear after reading this article that the author did not believe reconstruction would be easy, but rather “a harder road to travel than most [Americans had] considered it.” This is an interesting article to read because it shows how determined radicals were at wanting to prolong Southern readmission to the union and how ready some people in the Union were ready for reconstruction to be over. It is also clear that Arkansas’ reconstruction story was an accurate depiction of how complicated and drawn out reconstruction truly was.

            Arkansas had “adopted a new Constitution, reorganized and elected its new Legislature and local government, ratified the Constitutional Amendment, and in all respects complied with the letter and spirit of the law.” Arkansas had completed every step that needed to be taken to become a Union state again. Yet there were still radicals in the Senate who were trying to find ways to “prolong the State’s exclusion.” Senator Drake introduced Article 14, which needed to be voted on before Arkansas could be readmitted. Drake was a radical, and there were quite a few others in the Senate who felt the same way as he did. Most radicals felt like the Confederate states deserved more loops to jump through, and that it shouldn’t be easy for the South to rejoin the Union. Though the problem with Article 14 was that the states could not have ratified it or added it to their constitutions until they were a part of the Union again, and that was a process which Arkansas proved to be difficult.

            Another interesting aspect to look at is that Congress wanted each state to readmitted individually, so one states entrance did not ensure the entrance of another state. This is further proof that Congress did not want to reconstruction to be a fast process. Since each state was readmitted individually, it took a longer time to fully complete reconstruction, rather than if they had readmitted all of the southern states at once. If Congress had readmitted all of the Southern states at once, then reconstruction could have a speedier and potentially more successful process. Not only did the admission of each state individually lengthen the reconstruction process, but so did the potential of a new amendment for the states to adopt, reconstruction was believed to take forever. The author of this article believed that reconstruction did not need to be a long process and that the Southern states should be readmitted “whenever they are ready.” This belief is one that is easy to agree with. Even though the South caused a lot of trouble for the country by seceding, there was no need to lengthen the process of readmission after the South had been defeated. The loss in the war was enough punishment for the South because it really hurt their pride, which is something that was very important for that region. If the Southern states only had to adopt the new constitution and elect new legislators, then that should have been enough for readmission.

            The author of this article expressed the views of many Americans at the time. Reconstruction did not need to be a difficult and lengthy process, but rather a process where all of the South was readmitted and then the government should have helped the Southern economy.  Arkansas was proof that reconstruction was going to be a long and difficult process, and that there was going to be a lot of trouble completing the process successfully.

Obstructing reconstruction. 1868. New York Times (1857-1922), May 30.

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