This was two years before the disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election and national compromise that resulted in the Republican government withdrawing federal troops from the South.

[3] We, the People of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government; for our civil and religious liberty; and desiring to perpetuate its blessings, and secure the same to our selves and posterity; do ordain and establish this Constitution.

This article establishes the boundaries of Arkansas as running from the Mississippi river on the east to the Oklahoma and Texas borders on the west, and bound by Missouri in the north and Louisiana in the south.

[9] The General Assembly fought over apportionment of delegates between the two "halves" of the state: the upland northwest with a largely white population, and the agrarian southeast, with an economy and society based on slavery and plantation agriculture, who sought to adopt an apportionment where slaves counted as three-fifths of the free white population, mirroring the three-fifths Compromise.

[10] Convening in Little Rock on January 4, 1836, the convention quickly sought to re-litigate apportionment, this time for the Arkansas Senate.

Ultimately, a compromise was reached giving the northwest and southeast regions eight senators each, with one from central Arkansas (Pulaski, Saline, and White counties).

The legislature was the most powerful branch; it selected US Senators, supreme court and circuit judges, and all state offices other than governor.

Only white males were allowed to vote, but there was no property ownership requirement and poll taxes were banned except for raising funds for county government.

He did not arrive until March 8; Sevier instead presented a duplicate printed in the Arkansas Gazette to Congress on February 4 to begin discussion and debate.

After passing both houses of Congress, on June 15 of that year, President Andrew Jackson signed the act making Arkansas the 25th state.

The economy of Arkansas was in shambles and guerrilla warfare ravaged the countryside and small towns throughout the war.

[14] Major General Frederick Steele began reorganizing a state government following the Battle of Bayou Fourche, whereby Federals captured Little Rock.

By January 1864, the requisite 10% of the state's voters had taken the loyalty oath to the Constitution necessary to begin preparing for restoration to the Union.

The convention sent the Constitution to a vote of the people on March 18, 1864, alongside a new slate of Republican state officials.

The 1867 Acts required former Confederate states to recognize former slaves as citizens, and to adopt constitutions providing suffrage for freedmen.

In late 1867 Arkansas elected delegates to a new Constitutional Convention, which took place in early 1868 in the old capital building in Little Rock.

Following the political realignment surrounding the Brooks-Baxter War that brought the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas, unreconstructed Democrats returned to power in the General Assembly.

Having chafed under Republican rule since the end of the Civil War, one of the principal goals of Democrats upon returning to power was to undo many provisions of the 1868 constitution, especially weakening the executive branch.

The General Assembly submitted a call for a constitutional convention to the people of Arkansas on June 30, 1874, which passed overwhelmingly, with delegates selected during the same election.

[18] Grandison Royston was elected president of the convention, Augustus H. Garland served as a legal advisor and instrumental force behind the new constitution.

The delegates gave the most power to county governments, including for legal issues, transportation, taxation and spending.

Neither the original nor amended provisions allowed the legislature to make any exceptions to the general usury law, as happened in other states.

Further, since religious freedom is provided for in the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights, any attempt to do so would be struck down in court.

Not only does the wording of this amendment specifically bar Congress from restricting freedom of religion, but current legal precedent holds that these provisions and the rest of the United States Bill of Rights are binding on the states under the Liberty Clause of the 14th Amendment to the federal Constitution.