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By Root 1406 0

convention at the state capital, Little Rock. The delegate, they were told, need not be a politician, lawyer or county official; there were only two qualifications: one, that he be wise, and two, that he be typical. The people thought of all the wise men of Newton County, but none of them were typical. Then they thought of all the typical men of Newton County, but the only wise one among those was Jacob Ingledew, so the people prevailed upon him to become their delegate. Jacob didn’t want anything to do with any city, or even a big town. But the people pointed out that the convention was only supposed to last a few days. Jacob protested that he didn’t have any idea of what he was supposed to do when he got there, and none of the people did either, but they told him that he was the only one of them who was both typical and wise.

Pride was not one of Jacob’s sins, but he couldn’t help feeling flattered when they told him that, so he accepted, and at the appointed time, mid-March, he saddled his horse, donned a fine nut-brown suit of clothes that Sarah had woven and sewn special for the occasion, and rode off down to Little Rock, a distance of some 150 miles. He reported for duty at the capitol, a large building made entirely out of white marble; it was the biggest building he’d ever seen. He was assigned a seat at a desk in a big room, the biggest room he’d ever been in, with dozens of other desks. The men sitting at the other desks looked well-fixed and most of them were smoking cigars. Jacob decided he would keep his mouth shut and his ears open and not let anybody put anything over on him. So when the well-fixedest-looking man of them all came into the room, and all the men stood up, Jacob stayed in his seat. Somebody announced, “His Excellency, Governor Rector!” and everybody but Jacob clapped their hands, and the well-fixedest-looking man stepped up on a platform in the front of the room and made a long speech. Jacob listened carefully.

The governor began by saying, “Gentlemen, it is assumed by most that this convention was called in response to the election, last month, of Jefferson Davis as provisional president of the Confederacy. President Lincoln, who received not one single Arkansas vote in the recent election, apparently likes to think of us as a safe Border State, along with Missouri. But, gentlemen, Arkansas is south of Missouri!” Jacob realized that, if nothing else, he was going to learn a few things about geography. The governor went on to say, “Many of you gentlemen are pioneers. I am a pioneer. Many of you gentlemen are also slaveowners. I am a slaveowner. The Confederacy is made up of pioneers and slaveowners. Shall we join them, or not? That is the issue of this convention!”

The governor’s speech lasted for over an hour, and Jacob had to admit that the man was the fanciest speaker he’d ever listened to. Then several other less-fancy speakers took turns giving one-hour speeches. They didn’t all sound the same. The ones that talked just like folks back up home were the ones who didn’t want to join the Confederacy. The ones that wanted to join the Confederacy, like the governor, talked real slow and lazy-like. At first Jacob didn’t have any idea what the Confederacy was, but gradually he got a picture of it, yet he still couldn’t understand that the only reason they were confederated was because they didn’t want to give up their slaves.

Jacob had seen slaves, back in Tennessee, where just about anybody with a lot of land that wasn’t too hilly would have some niggers around the place. And there was even one family he knew of, up in Newton County not too far from Stay More, who kept a couple of niggers. Jacob had met them. He had never given a thought to having a slave himself, because, the way he saw it, a man shouldn’t have more land than him and his sons could take care of. And he had never been able to understand why slaves all had to be dark-complected. He’d never heard of a light-complected slave. But apparently what he was supposed to do in this convention was listen to all these men talk about joining