Timeline
1820 General Assembly Meets
The first territorial General Assembly met in February and immediately petitioned President Monroe for federal assistance in providing services felt crucial to the improvement of the Territory:
- to remove Indians from Arkansas;
- to establish two land offices and to offer land for sale;
- to survey and mark territorial boundaries
- to open 12-foot wide roads along post routes; and
- to force appointed judges to reside in Arkansas before being paid.
The Presbyterian Church established Dwight Mission, a school for the Cherokee Nation in Arkansas. These western Cherokees encouraged continued relocation from the "old Cherokee Nation" to strengthen them in their struggle against the Osage tribe, a struggle which occupied much of Governor Miller's time. Late in the year, the United States negotiated a treaty giving a large tract of Arkansas land to the Choctaw Nation. Settlers in Arkansas vigorously complained that the newly proposed Choctaw tract occupied the most densely populated portion of the Territory.
The "Missouri Compromise" in the United States Congress cleared the way for the Maine and Missouri territories to become states. This Compromise maintained the balance of free and slave state representatives in the Senate and prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of Arkansas.
Having postponed the decision from February, the Arkansas General Assembly met again in the fall and chose Little Rock as the new seat of government beginning in 1821. Serving as temporary clerk of the House was Ambrose Hundley Sevier, 19 years of age, first cousin to Henry Wharton Conway, 27 years of age, who was receiver of public monies for the Arkansas Land District. Both would play major roles in Arkansas history.
< 1819 Territory Established | 1821 Little Rock Chosen as Capital >
