Statewide County ArArchives Biographies.....Pope, John 1770 - 1844
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 30, 2011, 9:23 pm

Source: See Below
Author: John Hallum

GOVERNOR JOHN POPE.

  Governor Pope, one of the most eminent and celebrated characters connected
with the early history of Arkansas, was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia,
in 1770, the grandson of Thomas Pope, who was the father of George Washington's
mother.

  No higher lineage, no nobler blood flows through ancestral tides in this or
any other country or age. The heraldry of this line was baptized in a spotless
fame by the "Father of his country," and it will survive the invasions of time
as the best legacy, the world's best character, could give mankind until history
perishes in the fall of man.

  At the age of seventeen he entered that ancient seat of learning in the Old
Dominion, William and Mary, where so many noble youths drank deep at the Attic
fount of inspiration, and took on that noble character which has left its
impress where-ever her sons have gone. He spent five years at this institution
in laying deep the foundations of his future usefulness and fame. Three years
carried him through the curriculum of the literary, and two through the law
department, in both of which he graduated with flattering honors.

  About this time his father and family joined the western tide of immigrants
and located on the fertile lands near where Louisville has since grown up; John,
the son, located in Lexington in 1794, and soon entered on his brilliant career
in law and politics.

  Five years later an unknown and unheralded youth, born in Hanover county,
Virginia, in 1777, a stranger to fame, an alien to wealth and all the advantages
it imparts to youth, entered the same village, determined to achieve
emancipation from the obscurity in which he was born; his arrows were pointed
toward the sun; his foundations were broad and deep and strong enough, to
support a pyramid of fame in the coming years; his mind was the restless nurse
of exalted ambition with a reserved force sufficient to support its flight. In
the crystallization of political forces and concentration of energies in the
formation of parties, he embraced the school of Jefferson rather than that of
Hamilton, as the one nearest the hearts and affections of the people.

  Pope was not devoid of high aspirations, but he never suffered his ambition to
mould or color his political convictions. He was a great admirer of that
brainiest of all American statesmen, Alexander Hamilton, and became a federalist.

  These two young men, John Pope and Henry Clay, were destined at no distant day
to become great rivals in a great field, candidates for fame before the same
constituency on platforms widely divergent. Both soon became conspicuous leaders
in the legislature of Kentucky, and both soon broke down the barriers which
confined them to local fame, and became conspicuous actors in national politics.
The legislature of Kentucky, in 1806, elected both of them to the senate of the
United States, Mr. Clay to fill the unexpired term of John Adair, Mr. Pope for
the full term. During his senatorial career Pope married Miss Johnson, of
Maryland, sister to Mrs. John Quincy Adams, by whom he had two daughters, both
celebrated for their attainments and beauty. Florida died in early womanhood
unmarried. The eldest daughter married the gifted John W. Cocke, a member of the
bar, who came to Arkansas in 1836.

  Governor Pope, though a federalist, supported President Madison's
administration, but was strongly opposed to the war of 1812, his great rival,
Mr. Clay, being one of the leaders of the war party. His opposition to the war
caused his defeat for the senate in 1813, and he was succeeded by Jesse Bledsoe.
He never entered the senate again. When he retired from the senate he resumed
the practice of his profession at Lexington, until 1816, when he was nominated
for congress by the federal party. The national republican party put Clay in the
field against him.

  These two great champions immediately entered on perhaps the ablest and most
brilliant conflict ever fought in the arena of American politics. Clay possessed
the higher art of oratory and an unrivaled magnetism over his auditors. Pope
possessed the greater depth and expansion of brain forces, the sharpest wit, and
at times a polished irony surpassing Juvenal.

  Their respective partisans from town and village, hill, valley and wild wood
glen, came rushing and pouring in one magnetic stream to their appointments to
witness the battle of the giants, and drink deep the wisdom and inspiration of
the great leaders like Paul at the feet of Gamaliel. It was not only a contest
between great men, but in it for the time being the political heart of the
nation seemed to focalize; because, on the result depended the issue as to
whether Kentucky would wheel into republican or federal line, espouse the
doctrines of Jefferson or wed those of Hamilton. Mr. Clay triumphed, and
federalism found a grave in Kentucky beneath the ruins of the noblest battle she
ever fought.

  The history of this great intellectual contest in the heart of "the dark and
bloody ground," after seventy years have rolled away, is handed down from sire
to sŤ>n in yet fadeless tradition. Speak of it to a Kentuckian in any quarter of
the globe and his eye kindles with enthusiasm and his heart swells with pride.
After this defeat he retired from politics, and devoted himself for twelve years
to the practice of law, but in 1828 he again came to the front in the meridian
of his splendid powers, having in the mean time learned from accomplished facts,
that democratic institutions can stand the strain of war and federal pressure,
without the dangerous machinery of a more centralized power. In 1824 he voted
for Jackson in preference to his great brother-in-law, John Quincy Adams, but
took no part in the canvass.

  His decided preference for General Jackson, in the presidential campaign of
1828, over John Quincy Adams, led him to canvass Kentucky and Virginia with
great zeal and ability. In this connection it must not be understood that he was
a democrat or that he claimed to be; he had the courage of his convictions on
all occasions, and individuality of the most pronounced type, and only supported
General Jackson as the nearest approach to his own convictions; but the
democracy regarded his defection to Adams, as of great significance, and it was.
His active canvass and great abilities, centered public opinion on him as
Jackson's attorney-general, but that portfolio was tendered to John M. Berrien
of Georgia, and Mr. Pope was appointed governor of the territory of Arkansas for
the unexpired term of Governor George Izard, who died in the fall of 1828. The
appointment was made March 9, 1829, and was renewed for four years in March,
1831, and he continued to act as governor of the territory until superseded by
Governor Fulton in April, 1835.

  There is, until this chapter goes greeting to the public, some secret,
hitherto-unwritten history, connected with this change of administration in the
affairs of Arkansas, which significantly illustrates the stubborn will and
character of the actors, Governor Pope and General Jackson. In 1832 General
Jackson put his autograph to his congressional message of that year and sent it
to Governor Pope, which was interpreted by the latter as a desire for an
expression of opinion on the merits of the performance, which he proceeded to
give in the most decisive terms.

  Governor Pope always indulged the most decisive convictions, regardless of the
time-serving consideration, as to what effect their free expression, would exert
on his political fortunes. He acknowledged no lord of commanding mien in the
field of thought, and was always the fearless and absolute master of his own
convictions. He differed widely with the president on the fiscal policy and
relation of the government to the people; he favored a United States bank and a
high protective tariff, and com-batted the views of the president with much
ability, in a private letter to him. This was distasteful to the iron will of
the old hero, who never accustomed himself to brook opposition from any quarter,
and he made up his mind to remove the independent governor of Arkansas, and sent
for Ambrose H. Sevier, then our delegate in congress, to consult with. Sevier
was eminently a wise and sagacious politician, he had successfully contended
with the Crittenden party since its organization, and foresaw probable political
disaster to himself and party if Governor Pope was rashly driven to augment the
strength of the opposition, and he prevailed on the president to abandon the
idea of removing the governor. But the axe fell when the term expired, and
Governor Fulton, Jackson's personal friend, inherited the succession. Governor
Pope's administration, was certainly enlightened and progressive; under the old
territorial administrations the officers were appointive and not elective; he
took immediate steps to have this changed by congress, and succeeded in having
all the offices elective, except the governor, judges and secretary.

  Up to the commencement of President Jackson's first administration, it had
been the uniform policy to appoint generals from the army as governors of
territories. Our first and second territorial governors, Miller and Izard, were
generals of distinction in the army. The precedent was set in the appointment of
General St. Clair by General Washington as governor of the North-West territory
in 1787, the first territorial government under our system. Then the policy was
a good one, because the history of all the States and territories, new and old,
is written and sealed in blood, and there ought to be no discord and division of
authority and power when an enemy was to be kept at bay with small forces.

  In 1829, the government established the first weekly mail between Little Rock
and Memphis, which was carried overland on horseback, via the military road then
recently opened. This event was regarded as of the highest importance to
Arkansas, and the press of the period hailed it as the advent of a new and
progressive era.

  In the first recommendation the new governor made to congress, he advised a
river mail-route, from Little Rock to Memphis and New Orleans, by a weekly line
of steamers. In an age of wonderful achievements, when electricity is harnessed
to the most delicate machinery and put on duty as a post-boy, and required to
make the circuit of the world with the news of the day in a few moments, we can
hardly realize these things. What a mighty contrast spans the historic chasm
between then, and now! In October, 1819, Governor James Miller, with a military
suite of twenty persons, embarked at Pittsburgh in the United States keel-boat
Arkansas, for the capital of the infant territory, and when she rounded the bend
below the Post at the end of her tow-line, on the 1st of January, 1820, seventy
days out, her sailor boys in blue struck up the national air of "Hail Columbia,"
and the officials on shore fired a salute of twenty-live guns; an hour later her
noble prow touched the quay of our first inland mart. The little trading depot,
established more than a century before, by the ancient Canadian voyageur, was
then wearing the honors of capital city of the territory, by congressional
favor, with dimensions embracing about twenty rude log cabins. Town and
environs, then presented the picturesque appearance of a gala day on the wild
frontier, and animation, curiosity and joy reigned supreme for the hour. The
aborigines of America were largely represented by the Quawpaws, Osages and
Cherokees, in their primitive dress of skin, feather and tinsel, supplemented
with the savage gaiety imparted by rude application of war-paint. By his side,
the strongest factor in the same crowd, stood the no less picturesque
backwoodsman, with buckskin raiment and coonskin cap, his trusty rifle in hand;
as rude as he was noble, as gentle as he was brave, and as independent as Roman
knight or Norman lord, from whose loins a hardy native race have sprung. The
hunter's wife, with child in arms, and the squaw, with pappoose lashed to her
back, lent a wildwood charm to the scene. Robert Crittenden, until then acting
governor of the territory, with the judges of the superior court, Jouett from
New England, Scott from Missouri, and Letcher from Kentucky, stood on the
landing in republican simplicity, to receive the governor and suite. The martial
roll of the drum, and inspiring note of the fife, proclaimed the disembarkation
complete on the 1st day of January, 1820, and the governor and suite were
escorted with both military and civic honors to the best mansion in the capital
- a log cabin.

  Here is a picture as rude and wild and glorious, as any ever rocked in the
classic cradles of ancient Greece or Rome. It is fraught with inspiration worthy
the epic lyre of "the wandering minstrel from Chios Isle." It is worthy the
genius of a Raphael, to transfer it to canvas, and rescue it from the waters of
Lethe [which are fast closing over it], and baptize it in the name of
immortality. It was the cradle of an infant State which is now taking her proud
place in the grandest aggregation of Commonwealths known to the world - the
landing of our first governor. The artist who grasps this picture in all of its
artistic details, and succeeds in transferring it properly to canvas, will mount
the chariot of fame and journey down the tide of time, the companion of
centuries, and greet a thousand generations of yet unborn Arkansians. But let us
return to Governor Pope, and leave the historic picture which we embraced only
as an illustration of the wonderful vitality and energies of the age in which we
live.

  The spring of 1830, opened with a violent political war between Governor Pope,
then the representative of Jackson's administration, and the Crittenden party,
which had then crystallized into a welding fusion with the whig party. In those
days politics was the warmest institution north of the tropics. In March, 1830,
the Advocate, a whig paper, was established by Crittenden and Bertrand, his
relative and co-laborer in the opposition vineyard. The Gazette was then the
democratic or Ashley organ, and was never noted for enthusiasm for Governor
Pope, whose talents were of the first order. To build him up, would be arming a
dangerous rival. Rivals do not generally embrace so much disinterested activity.
How far these considerations influenced the violent opposition is now, to some
extent conjectural. Selfish motives, where ambition lures to the prize, are
generally passionate and powerful, and leave their foot-prints on record. This
was with varying degrees of intensity, continued without intermission, and
finally led Governor Pope to establish the Intelligencer, as the government
organ, with "Honest John Steele," chief of the editorial staff, who was at times
ably supplemented, with war material from the governor's arsenal. After the
Intelligencer, was established, government patronage was withdrawn from the
Gazette, and her editorial thunder, sharpened by a hungry stomach, was turned
against the governor. Now the ponderous editorials of the Intelligencer, came
right and left to both adversaries, like the blows of Vulcan.

  His term expired in March, 1835, and for reasons already stated, President
Jackson did not renew his commission. Thus ended in Arkansas, the career of one
of the ablest men America has produced. He returned to Kentucky in May, 1835,
and in 1836, was nominated by the whigs in the sixth district for congress, and
was elected by a large majority over Tom Moore, his democratic opponent, and was
re-elected in 1838 and 1840, but in 1842 he was defeated by the celebrated Tom
Hardin, which ended his political career. Pope county was named after him. He
died in 1844, full of years and full of honors, at the advanced age of
seventy-four. He lost an arm by an accident in a mill, at the age of fourteen.
In youth and mature manhood, he was tall and slender, over six feet in height,
but in old age grew very corpulent. Judge Pope of the Federal court of Illinois,
the father of Major-General John Pope of the United States army, (now retired),
was his brother. Governor Churchill of Arkansas is his grandnephew. Fountain
Pope, his nephew and first private secretary, was mortally wounded in a duel in
1831, with C. F. M. Noland. He was succeeded as private secretary by another
nephew, Judge William F. Pope, now of Little Rock, who came in 1832. Judge Pope
is an accomplished gentleman of the old school; his mind is a vast storehouse of
events current half a century ago, and his memory retains early impressions with
great tenacity. The author has drawn from that magazine of learning for many
facts. He has been with us since 1832, and was postmaster under four different
administrations-Tyler's, Filmore's, Lincoln's and Davis'. Governor Pope was one
of the ablest criminal lawyers America has produced; some of his efforts in that
direction are master productions, and rival the best efforts of Curran and
Erskine. In 1824 or 1825, in connection with his young law partner, the
accomplished Thomas J. Lacy, he defended Beauchamp, charged with the murder of
Sol. P. Sharpe of Kentucky, an ex-member of congress, and at the time of the
tragedy a prominent candidate for the United States senate. The murder grew out
of the alleged seduction of Beauchamp's wife, before her marriage. The trial
attracted national notoriety, and is one of the most celebrated in our forensic
literature. Governor Pope's address on that occasion ranks with the great masters.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


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