Old Politics, Or Whose Ghost Is It Anyway? Part Two

 

The second part of this article takes us back to the year 1872 and two men named Joseph Brook and Elisha Baxter.  Both were corrupted.  Dead men voted.  Living men voted more than once.  Ballots will birch.  Voters threatened at gunpoint or towed to vote for the gun holders candidate.  In the end, Baxter one because he had more voting territory. Brook was infuriated of this because I had read the same territories and a previous position.  Brook filed a complaint against Baxter.

The following two years, Baxter seemed to put corruption behind him.  He made good on promises.  The most important of these bills was re-enfranchised all the men who lost the vote because they supported the confederacy.

Brook saw this act as the end of the Republican domination of the state of Arkansas and decided to take action.  Brook staged a revolt with the support of his Republican peers.  A Republican judge ruled that Baxter could not hold office because of Brook’s complaint from two years past.  Brook became governor, was sworn in, gathered a militia, and had Baxter thrown out of the building.  A cannon was placed in front of the building to make sure Baxter didn't return.

Baxter didn't return instead he set up shop a few blocks down from the assembly building.  Brook might have had the support of judiciary and a large militia but Baxter didn't give up and formed his own army.

Two hundred men died in the small battles took place over a month between the two fractions.  President Ulysses S.  Grant interceded a restored Baxter back to his position in the end.

Brook survived a coup and avoided jail time for it but it didn't keep him out of politics either.  Brook served Arkansas as postmaster general until we died. Brook never forgave himself for his failure in claiming the position he most coveted.  Others believed it is Brook is the one haunting the Arkansas assembly building.

I guess in the end it doesn't matter who's ghost haunts the Arkansas assembly building.  The debate will go on until he is figured out.  What matters is these two dramas are never repeated.

First part of article

Old Politics Or Whose Ghost Is It Anyway- Part One

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