Timeline
1853 Woodruff Retires from Public Life
The General Assembly chartered five railroad companies including the Memphis and Little Rock, which would become the first railroad in Arkansas going into public service and the Cairo and Fulton, forerunner of the Missouri Pacific line in Arkansas. After the legislature adjourned, Congress granted lands to Arkansas, for the development of the railroads, to be surveyed under the direction of the General Assembly, but Governor Conway refused to call a special session to proceed with the railroad grants.
Conway's private secretary, Richard H. Johnson, editor of the True Democrat, defended Conway's inaction, saying it avoided "hasty and ill-natured legislation." Solon Borland's resignation from the Senate to become minister to Central America gave Conway another reason to postpone the special session. Bob Johnson, Conway's appointee to replace Borland, would have more time to establish himself as a senator before he faced election by the General Assembly.
With Bob Johnson in the Senate and the state's growing population now qualifying it for two seats in the House of Representatives, Arkansas sent two new congressmen to Washington. The Democrats nominated Alfred Greenwood in the northern district and Edward A. Warren in the southern. Warren drew formidable opposition from the Whig candidate, Frederick W. Trapnall, but Trapnall died on the campaign trail and Warren easily won over James Curran, Trapnall's replacement.
Weary of the public and political role that a newspaper publisher must play, William E. Woodruff sold the Gazette and Democrat to C.C. Danley, the State Auditor and retired to his land agency business. He thus left public life for good, though he lived more than 30 more years.
