Danver Steven L. (Edited). Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia (ENG)

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declared the winner. In some locations, two polls were conducted, one with the

regular ball ot box, and a second for those who required afﬁdavits to vote. Brooks

and his Brindletail supporters considered opening a second legislature, inaugurat-

ing Brooks, and then petitioning the U.S. Congress to resolve the problem.

Baxter took ofﬁce on January 6, 1873, and was sworn in by Chief Justice John

“Poker Jack” McClure, who was also edit or of the Daily Republican. But revised

results of the election, presented as an “Address to the People” by Brooks and

his supporters, a nd published in the Gazette on January 23, 1873, claimed that

Brooks had garnered 43,802 votes to Baxter’s 41,394. Baxter also desired to

enfranchise former Confederates who were prohibited from voting by the Arkan-

sas constitution of 1868. On March 3 , 1873, Arkansas held a special election to

determine the result of the Franchise Amendment. With a much lower voter turn-

out, it passed with 24,304 votes for and 3,694 against. This vote signaled a shift in

political climate and was a precursor to the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas.

Shortly into 1873, the Baxter administration was encountering its own turmoil.

The special election on enfranchisement inspired Democrats to call for a new con-

stitutional convention. Later that year, Baxter successfully quashed the railroads’

efforts to require the state to accept company stock as payment for bonds issued

earlier and to impose a tax of three mills to pay interest on these bond s. In 1874,

the governor opposed Arkansas Central Railroad’s request for more state bonds.

On June 2, 1873, Arkansas attorney general T. D. W. Yonley prepared a writ of

quo warranto, requesting that Baxter prove his legal claim as governor. Simultane-

ously, in June 1873, Brooks ﬁled a lawsuit against Baxter in Pulaski Circuit Court,

claiming Baxter had illegally obtained the ofﬁce of governor. During the remainder

of 1873, the courts denied any legitimacy to Brooks’s claims to the governorship.

Early in April 1874, Sena tors Powell Clayton a nd Stephen F. Dorsey thought

Baxter’s moves away from the Republican platform needed to cease. They offered

Baxter a federal judgeship and an undisclosed amount of money if he would resign

the governorship. Baxter refused any bribes. Later in April 1874, P ulaski Circuit

Court judge John Whytock activated the case of Brooks v. Baxter (29 Ark. 1874).

Since there was no attorney to r epresent Baxter, he declared Brooks the de jure

governor of Arkansas. Chief Justice McClure then swore in Brooks, who on

April 15, 1874, with about 20 armed men, stormed the governor’s ofﬁce and

expelled Baxter.

Baxter’s forces retreated to the Anthony House, a hotel about three blocks away

from the governor’s ofﬁce in Little Rock. With the seal of the governor still in his

possession, Baxter then declared martial law, appointe d former Confederate

colonel Robert C. Newton as commanded of the militia, and telegraphed the

president for assistance. By April 20, each side had about 1,000 men in military

service. Brooks’s forces brought two artillery pieces from Fayetteville, and the

546 Brooks-Baxter War (1874)

Baxterites found an aband oned Confederate cannon, which they dubbe d “Lady

Baxter.” Several armed skirmishes occurred in Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and along

the Arkansas River. During the next few weeks, over 200 men were killed in the

armed confrontations, and most of these were accidental deaths.

During the conﬂict, Baxter’s forces at Pine Bluff sang a battle song to the tune

of “Good-Bye, My Lover”:

Do you see that boat come round the ben’?

Good-bye, my lover, good-bye;

She’s loaded down with Baxter men!

Good-bye, my lover, good-bye.

When they heard this, the Afr ican Americans among Brooks forces responded

with the following:

Oh for the day that soon shall send,

That boat again around the bend!

The Grant administration, having been embroiled the previous year in the chaos

of the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana, had recognized the governorship of Baxter.

After declaring martial law, Baxter seized a st rategic communication s center, the

Little Rock telegraph ofﬁce. On May 9, representatives of Brooks and Baxter

met with attorney general George Henry Williams (1823–1910), w ho issued his

ﬁndings that Baxter should be the governor of Arkansas. President Grant then pro-

claimed on May 15, 1874, that Brooks should relinquish the ofﬁce to Baxter.

Brooks was replaced as governor by Baxter on May 15, 1874, after attempting

to serve only one month. Reconstruction in Arkansas e ffectively ended at this

time. During July 1874, a new constitutiona l convention convened to replace the

1868 constitution. This new consti tution limited powers of the governor in favor

of more power for the counties. Statewide ofﬁces were reduced to two-year terms,

and the legislature required only a majority to override a governor’s veto. In it,

whites were re-enfranchised, and blacks were given the right to vote. It was ratiﬁed

in a special election in October 1874. The dethroning of Joseph Brooks from the

Arkansas governorship has been called by many the end of Reconstruction in the

South.

—Ralph Hartsock

See also all entries under Shays’ Rebellion (1787);Whiskey Rebellion (1794); Dorr Rebel-

lion (1841–1842); Molly Maguire s (1870s); Black Patch War (1909); Bonus Army (1932);

Battle of Athen s (1946); Sagebrush Rebellion (1979–1 981); World Trade Organization

Protests (1999).

Brooks-Baxter War (1874) 547

Further Reading

DeBlack, Thomas A. With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861–1874. Fayetteville: University

of Arkansas Press, 2003.

Harrell, John M. The Brooks and Baxter War: A History of the Reconstruction Period in

Arkansas. St. Louis, MO: Slawson Printing, 1893.

Thompson, George H. Arkansas and Reconstruction: The Inﬂuence of Geography,

Economics, and Personality. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1976.

Woodward, Earl F. “The Brooks and Baxter War in Arkansas, 1872–1874.” Arkansas

Historical Quarterly 30 (Winter 1971): 315–336.

548 Brooks-Baxter War (1874)

Baxter, Elisha (1827–1899)

Born on September 1, 1827, Elisha Baxter, merchant and attorney, served as the

10th governor of Arkansas and participated in the Brooks-Baxter War. Baxter,

born in North Carolina, moved to Arkansas in 1852 to run a business in Batesville.

A Whig, he subsequently served as a state representative and, after passing the bar

in 1856, as a prosecuting attorney. Baxter, who was possibly a slave owner

although evidence is inconclusive, played litt le in the political events that

prompted Arkansas to secede from the Union. He did oppose secession as both

unjust to the federal government and disastrous to the South. When offered the

command of a Union regiment in 1862, Baxter declined it. Nevertheless, Confed-

erates chased him to Missouri and brought him back to Arkansas for trial for trea-

son. Baxter escaped, made his way to Union lines in Missouri, and then served as

colonel of the Fourth Arkansas Mounted Infantry. At the end of the Civil War, the

Republican Baxter held several minor political posts and served as a judge.

In 1 871, Joseph Brooks, leader of the insurgent wing o f the Republican Party,

sought the governorship of Arkansas. His strong record on civil rights combined

with his platform of restoring the vote to former Confederates, universal amnesty,

and honesty in government ma de him popular among many Democrats. Regular

Republicans nominated Baxter. The election in November 1872 was marred by

fraud, intimidation, and stuffed ballo t boxes. Returns from fo ur counties were

declared invalid and thrown out. Ofﬁcial returns gave Baxter the election with

41,681 votes to 38,415. Brooks attempted to overturn the election, but the legisla-

ture, dominated by Regular Republicans, refused to allow a hearing. Once in ofﬁce

on January 6, 1873, Baxter immediately took action to restore voting rights to for-

mer Confederates. The voters quickly passed the amendment in March 1873, mak-

ing Arkansas the l ast state to remove voting disab ilities on former Confederates.

The voting change allowed Democrats to ﬁll most vacancies in the legislature.

When Baxter refused to issue any more railroad construction bonds, he threatened

to undermine the Republican plan for an economic Reconstruction. In response,

his political opponents revived the case of Brooks v. Baxter. On April 15, 1874,

the judge declared Brooks to be legal governor of Arkansas. Brooks and a dozen

armed men then forced Baxter to vacate the governor’s ofﬁce. Forced by the vio-

lence to intervene, President Ulysses S. Grant telegraphed his support for Baxter.

At the state convention, Democrats shortened the governor’s term to two years,

dramatically reduced his powers, and kept his salary low. In 1874, Baxter was suc-

ceeded as governor by Augustus H. Garland. Baxter spent the remainder of his life

on a small farm near Batesville, practicing law until his death on May 31, 1899.

—Caryn E. Neumann

549

Further Reading

Donovan, Timothy P., Willard P. Gatewood Jr., and Jeann ie M. Whayne, eds. The Gover-

nors of Arkansas: Essays in Political Biography. Fayetteville: University of Arkan sas

Press, 1995.

Whayne, Jean nie M ., e t al. Arkansas: A Narrative History. Fayetteville: University of

Arkansas Press, 2002.

Brooks, Joseph (1821–1877)

Joseph Brooks held the governorship of Arkansas for about one month. Following

a contentious election of 1872 against Elisha Baxter, h e forced his way into the

governor’s ofﬁce in 1874, expelling Baxter. President Grant lat er sided with the

opponent as the legitimate governor of Arkansas. Brooks also survived an assassi-

nation plot.

Brooks was born November 1, 1821, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Indiana

Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana, known today as DePauw University.

He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was ordained in

1840, at the age of 18. In 1846, he moved to Iowa, and 10 years later (1856), he

moved to St. Louis, where he became editor of the Central Chri stian Advocate,

the only antislavery paper published in a slaveholding state west of the Mississippi

River.

At the outset of the Civil War, he became chaplain of the 1st Missouri Artillery

and then the 33rd Missouri Infantry, located in Phillips County at Helena, Arkan-

sas. He then advocated the enlistment of African American troops, and by the fall

of 1863, he became chaplain of the 3rd Arkansas Colored Infantry, later named the

56th United States Colored Infantry. After the war, Brooks purchased a plantation

in Phillips County, Arkansas, territory that bordered the Mississippi River.

In 1868, he became a leader in the state constitutional convention. Brooks dem-

onstrated his ability as a speaker and was determined to expose corruption in

Arkansas state government. On October 22, 1868, George A. Clark of the Ku Klux

Klan attempted to assassinate Brooks and an Arkansas congressman, James M.

Hinds (1833–1868), near Indian Bay, in Monroe County. Hinds was killed, and

Brooks injured. Brooks also became a member of the Arkansas House of

Representatives, replacing J. N. Tobias of Helena, who had died in 1868.

In 1872, the Republicans were divided. Minstrel Republicans, named after the

musician John G. Price, were led by Senator Powell Clayton. Brindletail Republi-

cans were led by Brooks, whose voice resembled a brindle-tail bull. Brooks sup-

ported civil rights for former slaves, and allied himself with the Liberal

550 Brooks-Baxter War (1874)

Republicans. The gubernatorial election that year was particularly contentious.

Mins trels nominated a native Unionist, Elisha Baxter, fro m Batesville, while the

Brindeletails nominated Bro oks. Following voter fraud, a majority committed b y

the Minstrels, Baxter was declared the w inner. He took ofﬁce on January 6,

1873, and was sworn in by Chief Justice John “Poker Jack” McClure, who was

also editor of the Daily Republican. On April 15, 1874, McClure swore in Brooks,

who with about 20 armed men, stormed the governor’s ofﬁce and expelled Baxter.

The Brooks-Baxter War then escalated to an armed conﬂict.

The Grant administration, not wanting a repeat of the chaos associated with the

Colfax Massac re in Louisiana, had supported Baxter’s governorship. Using his

private seal, Baxter declared mar tial law and seized a strategic communications

center, the Little Rock telegraph ofﬁce. Following a proclamation by President

Grant that recognized Baxter as governor, Brooks relinqu ished control to Baxter

on May 15, 1874, after having attempted to serve for only one month. After being

dismissed from the governorship, Brooks was appointed U.S. postmaster in Little

Rock. He died on April 30, 1877.

—Ralph Hartsock

Further Reading

DeBlack, Thomas A. With Fire and Swo rd: Arkansas, 1861–1874. Fayetteville: University

of Arkansas Press, 2003.

Woodward, Earl F. “The Brooks and Baxter War in Arkansas, 1872–1874.” Arkansas

Historical Quarterly 30 (Winter 1971): 315–336.

Republican Party

The Republican Party had been formed in the mid-1850s as the Whig Party started

to disintegrate and the issue of the abolition of slavery became an important on e

for Americans in the northern states. Its aim was to curb the expansion of slavery

and eventually abolish it, although there were already many Republicans by the

1860 election who wanted to end slavery outright.

During the 1856 presidential election, John C. Fre

mont was the Republican

presidential candidate. However, he was not on the ballot in Arkansas, nor was

Abraham Lincoln, t he Republican presidential ca ndidat e in 1860. Arkansas had

sided with the Confederacy during the America n Civil War, and in 1868, Powell

Clayton became the ﬁrst Republican governor of the state. He was succeeded by

Brooks-Baxter War (1874) 551

Ozra A. Hadley and then by Elisha Baxter. By this time, the Republican Party was

split between the Radical Republicans, who had passed the Reconstruction Acts of

1867, and the moderates. The former was keen on pushing ahead with major

reforms to the nature of government in the southern states that had been in the

Confederacy. They wanted universal public education for all, and the ability for

all people including African Americans to vote.

Some moderate Republicans baulked at this, and there was soon a split in the

Arkansas Republicans in much the same way as there wer e splits in the Republi-

cans ruling in other states. Some of thi s divide came from the Arkansas Republi-

cans, born in the state, known as scalawags—who termed themselves “Liberal

Republicans”; and those who came from the North, who were called the carpet-

baggers. The latter were keen on expanding public services, especially to African

Americans, while the others opposed many of these moves because of the cost.

The Liberal Republicans adopted Joseph Brooks as their leader. He denounced

the i ncrease in government expenditure, and his supporters were soon clashing

with the gover nor, Powell Clayton, whom they ma naged to get impeached. This

resulted in Ozra Hadley becoming acting g overnor, and Elisha Baxter being

elected as governor in 1872. Then the two factions of the Republican Party headed

to the courts over new legislative moves by Baxter, leading to Brooks trying to

seize power.

The outcome of this was the Democrats returning to power in Arkansas. Indeed,

it was not until January 1967 when a Republican, Winthrop Rockefeller, was

sworn in after winning the state gubernatorial election. Since then, there have been

two more Republican governors, with one, Mike Huckabee, unsuc cessfully con-

testing the 2008 Republican Party primaries for the U.S. presidential election.

—Justin Corﬁeld

Further Reading

Driggs, Orval. Issu es of the Clayton Regime. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 1943.

Harrell, John. The Brooks and Baxter War. St. Louis, MO: Slawson Printing Company,

1893.

552 Brooks-Baxter War (1874)

Flight of the Nez Perce

(1877)

The Native American tribe, the Nez Perce

, lived in the region around Washington,

Oregon, Montana, and Idaho, and during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803–

1806, their lands were about 17 million acres , and they were living peacefully.

Indeed, Lewis and Clark noted the help that they received from the Nez Perce

. Eth-

nographers and archaeologists h ave identiﬁed some 300 sites where they ha d

lived, and their lifestyle saw them migrate from permanent winter settlements into

the Great Plains of Montana to hunt buffalo each year. The arrival of settlers saw

the tribe members dispersed, and when they were to lose most of their fertile lands

in the 1870s, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

organized a strategic retreat whereby

he and members of the Nez Perce

tribe ﬂed toward Canada, being chased by U.S.

soldiers. This was to see the last great battle between any of the Native American

nations and the U.S. Army.

Essentially, the major pressure on the Nez Perce

came after the death of Colonel

George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Gold had been found in

the region, and this had created the confrontation with the Sioux at the Little

Bighorn. For the Nez Perce

, it was esse ntially that white cattle ranchers felt that

they could establish open ranges for their cattle in the Wallowa Valley. In spite

of serious reservations from some administrators i n the region, politicians in

Washington, D.C., wanted the Nez Perce

moved. There were imm ediate efforts

to try to get the Nez Perce

to accept living in reservations, but most of the tribe’s

people did not want to give up their access to the buffalo and their hunting lands,

or to the lands where their ancestors had been buried. Up until that point, the

Nez Perce

had never killed any white settlers, in spite of provocations, and were

care ful in all their dealings with the settlers. Chief Joseph had managed to argue

his c ase against moving to a reservation so convincingly that it was only when

orders came from Washington, D.C., that a crisis resulted.

Atreatyhadbeendrawnupin1863wherebytheU.S.governmentcommis-

sioners had managed to get one Nez Perce

chief to sign an agreement to cede the

Wallowa Valley in return for a reservation centering on Lapwai village, Idaho. It

had only 780,000 ac res, but the government did offer schools and a hospital. It

had also split the Nez Perce

into those who supported the treaty and those who

opposed it. Chief Joseph the Elder had refused to sign, and his son, Chief Joseph,

was able to persuade local ofﬁcials that it was invalid. In 18 71, he had promised

553

his dying father that he would look after the tribe’s land and, in 1873, had negoti-

ated the right to stay. Nevertheless, the U.S. government wanted to enforce it, and

this involved moving all the Nez Perce

to a reservation, sanctioning what they cer-

tainly saw as a theft of their land.

A council was held when General Oliver Otis Howard met with Chief Joseph,

Chief White Bird, and Chief Looking Glass. Howard offered them new land,

which was occupied by settlers, but the Native American chiefs refused as it would

be taking land that did not belong to them. Chief Joseph added that, “A man who

would not defend his father’s grave is worse than a wild animal.” However,

Howard was unmoved and gave the Nez Perce

an ultimatum of 30 days to leave

the Wallowa Valley.

While Chief Joseph and others met to decide what to do, news reached them that

a Nez Perce

, whose father had been killed by settlers, had taken revenge and killed

four white settlers. Chief Joseph had hoped for peace, but he quickly realized that

war was about to result. In June 1877, when Captain David Perry was sent against

them, they fought on June 17 at White Bird Canyon, and they killed 34.

Realizing that the U.S. forces would move on them in large numbers, the Nez

Perce

thentriedtoleavetheregion.Theytriedtoseekrefugeinthelandofthe

Crow people, but these did not want to risk the ire of the U.S. government. Chief

Joseph, Chief Looking Glass, and Chief White Bird then resolved to escape with

his people—some 800 warriors, women, and children—to Canada. They were sur-

prised by General Howard on July 11 at Clearwater, and despite being outnum-

bered, the Nez Perce

managed to escape, heading eastwards. They manage d to

skirt around Fort Fizzle, which was being held by volunteers from Montana.

U.S. forces under Colonel John Gibbon caught up with them on August 9, and

some 89 Nez Perce

were killed at the Battle of Big Hole. However, most of the rest

of the Native Americans managed to escape, heading through Yellowstone

National Park. The Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman was on holiday

in the park at the time, and was certainly surprised by the commotion.

Heading north, the Nez Perce

then crossed the Mi ssouri River and had alm ost

reached Canada, covering a distance of 1,500 miles before they were cornered

on October 5, only 40 miles south of the border with Canada. Near the Bear Paw

Mountains, in northern Montana, facing annihilation, the Nez Perce

under Chief

Joseph surrendered to Colonel Nelson A Miles. In his speech for the surrender,

he ended it with his comment, “From where the sun now sta nds, I will ﬁght no

more forever.”

During the ﬂight of the Nez Perce

, the events connected with it were extensively

covered in the press, with the military campaign costing the U.S. government

some $1.9 million. During that time, the Nez Perce

had harmed very few noncom-

batants, and many political and society ﬁgures urged that the surviving Nez Perce

554 Flight of the Nez Perce

(1877)

should be well treated. Indeed, Chief Joseph was regarded as the “Red Napoleon”

who had fought humanely, and who had had to react to harsh injustices. Half of

them were sent to the reservation in Idaho, and the other half to another reservation

in northern Washington state.

—Justin Corﬁeld

See also all entries under Pueblo Revolt (1680); Pima Revolt (1751); Pontiac’s

Rebellion (1763); Wounded Knee I (1890); Trail of Broken Treaties ( 1972); Wounded

Knee II (1973).

Further Reading

Brown, Mark H. The Flight of the Nez Perce

. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

Chalmers, Harvey. The Last Stand of the Nez Perce

: Destruction of a People.NewYork:

Twayne Publishers, 1962.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Nez Perce

and the Opening of the Northwest. New Haven, CT:

Yale University Press, 1965.

Lavender, David Sievert. Let Me Be Free: The Nez Perce

Tragedy. New York: HarperCol-

lins, 1992.

Thompson, Scott M. I Will Tell of My War Story: A Pictorial Account of the Nez Perce

War.

Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, in associa tion with the Idaho State His-

torical Society, 2000.

Flight of the Nez Perc e

(1877) 555