which, as we have seen, was recognized by the federal government as existing, and which continued to exist, until the government under the new conStitution assumed its administration, or took effect.
After the most mature consideration of the whole case, involving many new and difficult questions, which have arisen under circumstances growing out of the late action of the state, we feel fully sustained, by the weight of authority, and upon principle, as well as by the express decisions of the court of appeals of the state of Kentucky, in the case of Norris vs. Doniphan, reported in 4 Metcalf, page 385, and of the supreme court of the state of Mississippi, in Hill et al. vs. Boylan et al., decided at the October term, 1866, in announcing the following, as the conclusions at which we have arrived.
| 1. | That the state of Arkansas did not, either by the passage of the ordinance of secession, by which she unsuccessfully attempted to dissolve her connection with the United States government, or by any subsequent act of hers, suspend or destroy the existence of her state government. |
| 2. | That the government of the state continued to exist de jure, from the time she attempted to secede, until suspended by the state government under the new constitution, and that the acts of the state government, during that period, were valid and binding as though no attempt to secede had been made. And, consequently, the judgment rendered in the case before us was valid, unless by the subsequent action of the convention that framed the constitution of 1861, it was invalidated and rendered void. |
Upon examination of that part of the acts of the convention, which, it is assumed, invalidate and declare void the acts of the government of the state of Arkansas, under the constitution adopted by the convention assembled on the 4th of March, 1861, it is difficult to determine, whether it was intended as a preamble to the constitution, or as an independent ordinance. Perhaps, in view of its position, its recital of facts, and its emphatic declara-
