Timeline
1836 Statehood
In the Territory's final action to qualify for statehood, the Constitutional Convention met and framed a constitution, choosing Fent Noland to deliver the document to Washington City. The Gazette's Extra, containing the constitution, arrived before Noland and was the basis of the House committee's consideration of Arkansas's statehood. The Senate passed the bill for statehood in early April, but the House deliberated longer, particularly over the slavery issue. The proposed constitution forbade the legislature of Arkansas from freeing slaves or from excluding slave importation into the State. These two provisions drew the concern of John Quincy Adams and Caleb Cushing, who were otherwise willing for Arkansas to enter as a slave state. Finally, over their protests, the bill for statehood passed. On June 15, President Jackson signed it into law. Although still a frontier region, Arkansas was now a state with representation in both houses of Congress and equality with the other 24 states of the union.
Arkansas politics in 1836 were clearly dominated by the Sevier-Conway-Johnson family. A small caucus of family members and allies met in January to nominate Democratic candidates for the first state offices. Fulton, though not a "family" member, would join Sevier as the state's first senators to be elected by the General Assembly. James Sevier Conway would have the honor of being the first governor, with his brother Elias as State Auditor. Archibald Yell, a very powerful "outsider," was conceded the seat in the House while William Woodruff, a strong ally, was selected for State Treasurer. While remaining a publisher, Woodruff retired as editor of the Gazette in anticipation of a busy life in state and private business. The elections proceeded just as the caucus had planned with only minor protests over the "family" influence.
The most fateful decision of the first State General Assembly, meeting in the new State House, was the chartering of the State Bank of Arkansas, a government agency and the Real Estate Bank of Arkansas, a government-backed institution. Created to strengthen the state's economy and assist growth, they would both fail within a few years
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