[ENSLAVEMENT & ABOLITION]. A pair of letters from J. W. McConaughy of Little Rock, AR, to the Honorable C. J. McRae, providing 1861.

Each letter 7 1/2 x 9 1/2, matted and framed together to 25 x 18 in. (not examined out of the frame). Creasing to both, discoloration and several ink spots to 6 April letter.

In his letter of 20 March, McConaughy writes to inform McRae that Arkansas will likely vote in favor of Secession In part: "Our convention has just agreed to submit the question of 'Secession' or 'cooperation,' to the people in August. The submissionists[?] had a majority & the above was the best that our friends could do, and indeed it is regarded here as a Secession triumph. Only it creates to [sic] much delay. I shall be glad to be remembered to you while you are at Montgomery in the way of documents. By the way I am going to canvass the state & wish you would send me some statistical matter to us &c. You may set Arkansas down as going with the South..."

By 6 April, anti-secessionist arguments had made headway, potentially disrupting McConaughy's former prediction. He explains, in part: "We are in a death struggle here. The submissionists to carry the Northern & Nor-Western portion of our state, where there are but few slaves & the heaviest popular vote, are endeavoring to array the non-slaveholders against Secession they tell them that the whole difficulty was brought about by slaveholders for their benefit, & that the non-slaveholder will have to do the fighting & receive no benefit &c. Will you do me the favor to send me documents to meet this difficulty addressed to the non-slavehold? The questions are new here & those who could prepare documents are too firmly engaged in the canvass to write. I shall begin a general canvass of the state in a few days."

The state of Arkansas seceded from the Union exactly one month later, on 6 May 1861, with a vote of 65-5 in favor of the ordinance of secession. This came as a surprise to some, as many Arkansans publicly professed strong sentiments for the Union, especially those living in the non-slaveholding regions of the Ozarks and the western portion of the state. What likely turned the tide of opinion was Lincoln's 15 April call for troops, 3 days after the attack on Fort Sumter.

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