The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [60]
Then too, there were a lot of things being said in those speeches that Jacob didn’t understand at all. He didn’t know who “John Brown” was. He didn’t know what was meant by “emancipation” and “secession” and “state sovereignty” and “Fugitive Slave Law.” Finally somebody said, “Today’s session is adjourned. You gentlemen will please collect your remuneration at the door.” Jacob didn’t know what “remuneration” was either, but he got in line with the rest of the fellows, and when his turn came a man at the door gave him three dollars cash money, which was a pleasant surprise, and meant that he wouldn’t have to sleep with his horse at the livery stable but could get a bed in a house somewhere. But outside the capitol, there was a fancy-dressed black man hollering, “This way, gemmens and sirs!” and pointing down the street at a big building with a sign on it that said Anthony House. All the other delegates were heading that way, so Jacob tagged along, and when he got there he found that they weren’t even going to charge him anything for his room, and he got a big room all to himself, and they put out a fine big supper downstairs and afterward most of the delegates sat around smoking cigars, and somebody gave Jacob a handful of cigars, and they poured honest-to-God pure whiskey, and drank and swapped yarns and cussed Lincoln and stayed up nearly all night.
Jacob discovered that the Presiding Delegate, David Walker, was the son of the Judge Walker who had “pardoned” Jacob years before when he “stole” his heifer at Fayetteville. Jacob told this yarn to Walker, told it on himself, and they both had a good laugh over it. Then Jacob got chummy with a distinguished-looking old white-haired gent who was the delegate from Ashley County down in the southeast part of the state, and owned a twenty-room house and 340 slaves. Jacob confessed that he wasn’t nothing but a ignorant hillbilly, and he got the old gent to tell him the meaning of “secession,” “emancipation,” “state sovereignty,” “Fugitive Slave Law,” and who “John Brown” was. The old gent was right proud to harangue Jacob’s ear until nearly dawn, and Jacob went to bed thinking that the secessionists sure had a good case for their cause.
Back at the capitol the next day he listened to speeches all day long, and that night at the hotel he asked the old gent from Ashley County to explain anything that he hadn’t understood. This went on for three days, and on the third day the head delegate David Walker stood up and said, “Would the delegate from Newton County care to express his views?” Jacob wondered who the delegate from Newton County was, and after a minute of silence he noticed that several men were staring at him, and then he remembered who the delegate from Newton County was, and he coughed and bobbed his Adam’s apple, and mumbled, “I reckon not.” “Are we ready to vote, then?” asked the head delegate. “AYE!” they all hollered, and David Walker said, “Those in favor of secession, please stand.” Thirty-five men stood up. “Those opposed?” Jacob found himself rising up from his chair, and his chum the old gent from Ashley County was glowering ferociously at him. But thirty-eight other men were also standing. And outside, on the banks of the river, thirty-nine Federal guns were fired in salute of those who had kept Arkansas in the Union. Jacob collected his last remuneration and went back home to Stay More. When any of the Stay Morons asked him, “What was that all about?” he would shake his head and say, “Durn if I know.”
March passed, and then April, and when May came a messenger brought word