Arkansas Became the 25th U.S. State
On this day · 15 June 1836
After a marathon debate over slavery, Arkansas slipped into the Union on a single signature in June 1836.
On June 15, 1836, President Andrew Jackson signed the bill admitting Arkansas as the 25th state of the Union. The former territory, organized in 1819, had grown past the roughly 60,000 residents then expected for statehood, and its first governor, James Conway, was elected soon after.
The path was not smooth. Arkansas drafted a constitution before Congress formally authorized one, and the House spent hours debating whether a territory could presume statehood that way. The deeper fight was over slavery: Arkansas entered as a slave state, balanced against free-state Michigan to preserve the fragile equilibrium in the Senate.
Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state of the Union on June 15.
The key figure behind the bid was delegate Ambrose Sevier, who steered the measure through Congress. With Jackson’s signature, the borders sketched on a territorial map became the fixed outline of a new American state.
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