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Gov. Powell Clayton
- University of Arkansas Press
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Gov. Powell Clayton In the summer of former Union army commander Powell Clayton was sworn in as the first Republican governor of Arkansas. He won the governorship because many Democratic voters had been disfranchised by provisions of the ReconstructionActs of .Traditionally,historians have portrayed Clayton as little more than a thief, or a “thieving poltroon,” as one of Clayton’s many enemies called him.In more recent decades historians have tended to acknowledge that Clayton at least brought railroads to the state,that he deserves some credit for founding the University of Arkansas,and that he essentially destroyed the Ku Klux Klan.He was too complicated to be easily categorized,though everyone conceded that Powell Clayton was a brilliant commander of cavalry forces. Clayton was born in Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, on August , . His father was a carpenter and orchardist. He received a good education, including attending the Partridge Military Academy in his home state. He also studied civil engineering for a time in Delaware. Like many young and ambitious men of his time, Clayton sought his fortune on the frontier, settling in Leavenworth, Kansas, in . Working as a surveyor and doing a little land speculating on the side, Clayton soon made a place for himself in the small Kansas town. In , when the Civil War commenced, Clayton was named commander of a light infantry company in the First Kansas Infantry. Within three months of being sworn in, Clayton was tested under fire at the battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield, Missouri. The First Kansas was in the thick of the fight, losing forty-nine of seventy-four troopers, and Clayton was commended for his leadership. Clayton worked his way up the command structure with speed and agility. In February , he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and only a month later he was promoted to colonel of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry. In this capacity Clayton came to Helena,Arkansas, an important port town on the Mississippi River.When Confederates mounted an attack on Helena on Independence Day , Clayton played a major role in defending the city. After participating in the capture of Little Rock in the fall of , Clayton was sent to command a post at Pine Bluff. On October , , a large force of Confederate forces attacked the city. Clayton’s outnumbered men fought off the rebels, with the considerable help of recently freed slaves.Later,Clayton was promoted to brigadier general. He was mustered out in August , ready to start a new life in Arkansas—a state that had been a battleground so recently. POSTBELLUM POLITICIANS Powell Clayton, Reconstruction governor and U.S. senator. Photo courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. [54.89.70.161] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 03:31 GMT) Even before the war ended, Clayton invited his twin brothers, Union army veterans William Henry Harrison Clayton and John Middleton Clayton, to join him in Jefferson County and purchase a plantation. He soon married a woman from Helena,Adaline McGraw. Clayton seemed to like being a planter,for he never sold his plantation and ultimately accumulated over forty thousand acres of land. At first Clayton refused to involve himself in politics, but he later changed his mind, claiming that confrontations with ex-rebels convinced him that Unionists needed protection.After the adoption of the federal Reconstruction Acts of , Clayton helped organize the Arkansas Republican Party.He was nominated for governor in ,but over the opposition of a native Unionist from northArkansas,James M. Johnson,who would become a continuing thorn in Clayton’s side.With many former rebels now disfranchised under the Reconstruction Acts, which denied the vote to anyone who had fought for or otherwise served the Confederacy, Clayton won the governorship. It was a hot July , , when governor-elect Clayton and outgoing Gov. Isaac Murphy rode in an open carriage to the statehouse on Markham Street in Little Rock.Clayton’s formal attire,including white gloves, puzzled Gov. Murphy. Why would anyone wear “dude gloves” on a hot day. Clayton, in perhaps his only recorded humorous statement , commented that he would “take off the gloves” considering the task he was undertaking. Clayton became governor at a time of violence and uncertainty. The Ku Klux Klan moved into Arkansas from its base in Tennessee, and before long the new governor was receiving reports of freedmen being lynched and white Unionists being threatened. Republican Congressman James Hinds was murdered in October, and Clayton declared martial law in fourteen counties on November , . Clayton’s...