Hi folks! I thought this little biography of the governor of Arkansas at the beginning of the WBTS I ran across on the CSA-History-L mailing list might be of some interest. -- Robert W. King I'm an ingenieur, NOT a bloody locomotive driver! SnailNet: 19023 TV Tower Rd, Winslow, Arkansas 72959 BellNet: 501-634-2086 InterNet: [email protected] http://www.wildweasel.net -----Original Message----- From: Missouri Mule [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, 04 September 2000 11:44 To: [email protected] Subject: Arkansas Governor Henry M. Rector Arkansas Governor Henry M. Rector was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. In reply to Lincoln's call of troops, Rector replied, "In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas, to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury." (The governors of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and North Carolina made similar defiant answers.) At the Battle of Helena, Arkansas, Rector lost his second son, Lieut. W. Rector, who fell during an assault on the enemy's guns. Governor Rector was inaugurated on November 15, 1860. In his inaugural address he counseled moderation in the action of the State government. He hoped for the display of a more conciliatory disposition on the part of the successful candidates in the late Federal election than could be discerned in the unauthorized publication of the press, and in sectional agitation going on in all parts of the common country. But, should the new officers yield to such influences and manifest the same spirit which had caused many powerful States to deliberately violate the compact of the Union, and should the general government take any step to encroach upon the constitutional rights of the Southern States, then the State of Arkansas should place herself in the column with her sister States of the South, and share their destiny. Governor Rector was a native of St. Louis, Mo., where his father, Col. Elias Rector, had been formerly surveyor-general of the Territory of Missouri, which then included Arkansas. He removed to Arkansas before he arrived at maturity, for the care of landed interests which he had inherited from his father. He was descended, in part, from the Seviers, of Tennessee, and was a relative of Senator, and one time United States Minister, A. H. Sevier, of Arkansas. He resided at Little Rock, after holding several positions, as member of the general assembly from Saline county, United States marshal of the western district of Arkansas, surveyor-general, and associate justice of the Supreme court. CMH, vol. 10 Confederate Military History, vol 1 gives this biography: Henry M. Rector, first war governor of Arkansas, was born at St. Louis, Mo., in 1816. He became a citizen of Arkansas in 1835 and soon rose to prominence as an attorney and public man. He was United States marshal from 1843 to 1845, and judge of the Supreme court from 1859 to 1860. Through the bequest of his father, Maj. Elias Rector, he was interested, and finally successful as a claimant in the famous Hot Springs litigation. In June, 1860, the Democratic State convention nominated Richard H. Johnson for governor, and Rector resigned his position as supreme justice to run as an independent candidate on a platform embodying the Union sentiment. After a heated canvass he received a majority of about 3,500, and was inaugurated November 15, 1860, in his address on that occasion deprecating hasty action. but asserting that Arkansas should unite her fortunes with the other Southern States in case of any encroachments upon their rights. When the issue was upon the State, he was emphatically a war governor, and energetic and faithful in the discharge of his delicate and important duties. By a defect in the constitution of 1861 his term was shortened from four to two years, and on account of the resulting controversy he resigned November 4, 1862. and declined renomination, maintaining that he was en. titled to hold for the four years. Governor Rector is still living at Little Rock, at the age of eighty-one years (1897). NOTE: Ex-Governor Rector continued to serve his State, as a member of the Arkansas Home Guards, after leaving political office.