Timeline
1842 Bank Failure
The Real Estate Bank of Arkansas failed and went into receivership on April 1. Unfortunately, the bank's trustees were left to settle its accounts. The state, now burdened with its own debt of nearly $300,000, had to assume the debts of the Real Estate Bank without being able to participate in the settlement of its affairs. Arkansas bank notes were at 50 percent of face value and the state's economy, apparently so healthy a few years earlier, suffered greatly.
In reaction to the dire economic situation and the failing banks, change and reform came to dominate General Assembly politics. The new faces in the legislature found their targets in corruption, mismanagement and favoritism.
Early in its fourth regular session, the General Assembly reelected Ambrose Sevier to the Senate. But later in the session, a joint committee investigation into Sevier's role as a bank commissioner left him and fellow commissioner T.T. Williamson, censured for several irregularities. Their unauthorized activities included loaning bank money to four Arkansawyers in New York, retaining bank funds for their own use and paying themselves $5,000 for their services as commissioners.
Into this reform-minded General Assembly, William E. Woodruff went with a non- competitive bid for the office of state printer and a request for relief from the debt he incurred during his term as state treasurer. He pointed out how valuable the Gazette had been for the election of Democrats and also warned he might be forced to sell the newspaper if he was not supported by his party. But such a political payoff did not appeal to the General Assembly, especially for someone who had been on the Board of the Real Estate Bank. Woodruff lost on both issues and immediately made arrangements to sell the Gazette to the opposition Whig party. Though an excellent businessman and an effective campaigner for others, Woodruff was not graceful in his own defense.
People's minds were quickly taken off the bad economy when Samuel G. Trowbridge, the new mayor of Little Rock, was arrested as the mastermind of a gang of clever burglars and counterfeiters. This criminal case proved to be Little Rock's most sensational for many years.
