Beginning
The Family developed following a fatal duel between former friends Robert Crittenden and Henry Wharton Conway on October 27, 1827 near Napoleon, Arkansas.
Conway had served as territorial delegate for Arkansas, with Crittenden acting behind the scenes on his behalf. After the resignation of Territorial Governor Miller in 1824, Conway nominated Crittenden to fill the position. President James Monroe appointed George Izard instead.
Crittenden continued as secretary of state. He and Conway disagreed over the latter's decision not to seek re-election in 1825. Conway defeated Robert Oden, who was backed by Crittenden.
After a period of public conflict through the newspapers, Crittenden challenged Conway to a duel. Conway fired first and hit a button on Crittenden's coat; Crittenden shot and hit Conway, who died of his wounds weeks later. By firing at Conway after having been hit, Crittenden broke the dueling etiquette. His political career suffered. Conway's brother James formed a political alliance with Ambrose H. Sevier and supported his appointment to fill the deceased Conway's territorial seat.
The duel caused realignments and a split in Arkansas politics. Crittenden supporters later became the Whig Party. The Conways and Seviers led the Democrats in opposition to Crittenden.
Read more about this topic: Conway And Sevier Family
Famous quotes containing the word beginning:
“Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation.... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“with the plane nowhere and her body taking by the throat
The undying cry of the void falling living beginning to be something
That no one has ever been and lived through screaming without enough air”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasn’t the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes without the dressing, and she knows how life’s lived before it gets to the parlor door.”
—Djuna Barnes (1892–1982)