Brooks–Baxter War (apr 15, 1874 – may 15, 1874)
Description:
AKA: Brooks–Baxter Affair
An armed conflict in Littlerock, Arkansas between factions of the Republican Party over the disputed 1872 state gubernatorial election. It came at the end of a struggle between white Republican pre-war-residents of the state, known as scalawags, and newer Republican arrivals called carpetbaggers, over power in state government during Reconstruction after the American Civil War.
The struggle began with the ratification of the 1868 Arkansas constitution, rewritten to allow Arkansas to rejoin the United States after the Civil War. Congress's 1867 Reconstruction Acts required rebel states to accept the 14th Amendment – establishing civil rights for blacks – and enact new constitutions providing suffrage to freedmen (ex-slaves) while temporarily disenfranchising former Confederate Army officers. Some conservatives and democrats refused to participate in the writing of the constitution and ceased participation in government. Republicans and unionists wanting Arkansas to rejoin the United States formed a coalition to write and pass the new constitution, and formed a new state government. In the wake of a wave of reactionary violence by the Ku Klux Klan and a poor economy, the coalition soon fractured into two factions: the "Minstrels", who were mostly carpetbaggers, and the "Brindle Tails", who were mostly scalawags. This led to a failed impeachment trial of the carpetbagger Republican governor, Powell Clayton; he was then elected a U.S. Senator by the General Assembly.
The 1872 gubernatorial election resulted in a narrow victory for Minstrel Elisha Baxter over Brindle Tail Joseph Brooks in an election marked by fraud and intimidation. Brooks challenged the result through legal means, initially without success, but Baxter alienated much of his base by re-enfranchising former Confederates and in 1874, Brooks was declared governor by a county judge who declared the results of the election to have been fraudulent. Brooks took control of the government by force, but Baxter refused to resign. Each side was supported by its own militia of several hundred Black men. Several bloody battles ensued between the two factions. Finally, President Ulysses S. Grant reluctantly intervened and supported Governor Baxter, bringing the affair to an end.
The incident, followed by the new Arkansas Constitution of 1874, marked the end to Reconstruction in Arkansas. The conflict significantly weakened the Republican Party in the state as the Democrats took power and controlled the governorship for 90 years.
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History of Leadership In The States
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