USA > Arizona > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 48
USA > New Mexico > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 48
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446
MILITARY RULE IN NEW MEXICO.
clined to recognize officially the acts of this conven- tion; but Smith soon started for Washington, where, in July 1850, the house, by a vote of 92 to 86, after a long discussion, refused to admit him as a delegate.10
But even before Delegate Smith's failure to secure recognition for New Mexico as a territory, yet another experiment had been tried in the form of an attempted organization as a state, this being in accord- ance with advice from Washington.11 By proclamaion
doorkeeper E. J. Vaughn. The com. to report a plan, etc., was composed of W. Z. Angney, Jos. Naugle, Wm C. Skinner, F. T. Vaca, and A. J. Otero. Gov. Washington, Justice Houghton, and Sec. Vigil accepted seats in the convention. On plan there was a majority report by Skinner and a minority report by Naugle, both of which are given. Fran. Sarracino was chosen as substitute delegate to congress. The final 'instructions,' as adopted, took the form of a series of modest requests for aid and protection.
10 Oct. 16th, J. S. Calhoun, Ind. agent, to sec. interior. Cal. and N. Mex., Mess., 1850, p. 90-1; debate in Cong. Globe, 1849-50, p. 1376-1408. A dele- gate from Utah, or Deseret, was refused admission.
11 Nov. 19, 1849, Sec. War Crawford to Lieut .- col Geo. A. McCall, on his way to join his regiment in N. Mex., in Cal. and N. Mex., Mess., 1850, p. 280-1. Since their annexation these territories, in respect to their civil govt, have in a great measure depended on the officers of the army there in command; a duty it is considered as falling beyond their appropriate spheres of action. .. This condition has arisen from the omission of congress to pro- vide suitable governments, and in regard to the future there is reason to believe that the difficulties of the past are still to be encountered .. . It is not doubted that the people of N. Mex. desire and want a govt organized. . . The question readily recurs, how that govt can be supplied. I have already alverted to past and still existing difficulties that have retarded and may continue to retard the action of the U. S. in respect to this necessary and first want. To remove it may, in some degree, be the part of the duty of officers of the army, on whom, under the necessities of the case, has been devolved a partial participation in their civil affairs. It is therefore deemed proper that I should say that it is not believed that the people of N. Mex. are required to await the movements of the Federal govt, in relation to a plan of govt for the regulation of their own internal concerns. The constitution of the U. S. and the late treaty with Mexico guarantee their admission into the union of our states, subject only to the judgment of congress. Should the people of N. Mex. wish to take any steps toward this object, ... it will be your duty, and the duty of others with whom you are associated, not to thwart but to advance their wishes. It is their right to appear before con- gress and ask for admission into the union.' Doubtless similar instructions were sent to other officers.
Davis, El Gringo, 111-12, gives the best connected narrative of political events of this period in N. Mex. He says: 'About this time two opposite parties sprang up, one in favor of a state, and the other a territorial govt, which engendered a deal of excitement and ill feeling. Several large public meetings were held by the respective parties in Sta Fé. .. At one of these meetings the excitement ran so high that it almost led to bloodshed' (on account of Texan complications, of which more presently). 'The agitation of the question of a state govt originated with the national administration ... In the spring of 1849, James S. Calhoun went to N. Mex. as Ind. agent, but upon his arrival he declared that he had secret instructions from the govt at Wash. to induce the people to form a state govt. For a time the plan received
447
STATE CONVENTION OF 1850.
of Governor Monroe, issued in April 1850, a conven- tion assembled at Santa Fé the 15th of May, under the presidency of James H. Quinn, and after sessions of ten days framed a constitution for the state of New Mexico. This document prohibited slavery, and fixed as the eastern and western boundaries the 100th and 111th meridians respectively.12
It was submitted to the people by the military governor's order of May 28th, requiring an election to be held on the 20th of June, at which the electors were to vote on a separate ballot "for governor, lieu- tenant-governor, representatives to congress, and for senators and representatives to a state legislature to convene at the capital on Monday, the 1st day of July next. It being provided and understood that the election of all officers can only be valid by the adop- tion of the constitution by the people, and otherwise null and void; and that all action of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and of the legislature shall re- main inoperative until New Mexico be admitted as
but little support, but in the course of the summer and fall an excitement was raised, and both parties, state and territorial, published addresses to the people, the former being headed by Calhoun, Alvarez, and Pillans, and the latter by St Vrain, Houghton, Beaubien, and others. The matter continued to be discussed without much effect in favor of the state until the spring of 1850, when Col Geo. A. McCall arrived from the states, upon a like mission as Calhoun. He informed the people that no territorial govt would be granted by congress, and that Pres. Taylor was determined that N. Mex. should be erected into a state govt, in order to settle the question of slavery, and also that of boundary with Texas. The delegate in congress, Mr Smith, wrote home to the same effect.' In view of the neglect of congress, threats of Texas, and disgust of military rule, 'the territorial party at last yielded and joined in the advocacy of a state govt. Accordingly, resolutions to that effect were adopted at a meeting at Sta Fé, Apr. 20th, and also requesting Col Monroe to issue a proclamation, calling upon the people to elect delegates to a convention to be convened on the 15th of May.' The proclamation is found in U. S. Govt Doc., 31st cong. Ist sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 60.
12 This constitution in its essential parts is given in the Amer. Quart. Register, iv. 582 et seq. I have not found the journal or list of members, but in number and personnel this convention was probably similar to that of 1849. The coustitution was dated May 25th. The boundary as defined was as follows: From the irrigating dam of the Rio Grande just above El Paso, east to 100th parallel, north to Arkansas River, up the river to its source, thence by a straight line to where the Rio Colorado is intersected by the 111th parallel, south to the Gila, up the Gila to the intersection of the west line of N. Mex. as it shall be determined by the boundary com., along the national boundary to the Rio Grande, and down that river to the place of starting. Davis tells us that the constitution was drafted by Joab Houghton and M. F. Tuley.
448
MILITARY RULE IN NEW MEXICO.
a state under said constitution, except such acts as may be necessary for the primary steps of organiza- tion and the presentation of said constitution properly before the congress of the United States. The pres. ent government shall remain in full force until, by the action of congress, another shall be substituted." 13 At the election of June 20th, the constitution was adopted by a vote of 8,371 to 39; while Henry Connelly and Manuel Álvarez were elected governor and lieutenant. governor by a large majority over the opposing candi- dates, Vaca and St Vrain. William S. Messervy was chosen as representative to congress.14
The newly elected legislature assembled at Santa Fé at the beginning of July, Alvarez acting as gov- ernor in the absence of Connelly. Francis A. Cun- ningham and Richard H. Weightman were elected United States senators; appointments were made; and elections for local officials were ordered for August. The intention at once became apparent to put the state government into immediate and full operation, without waiting for approval from Washington; to put an end to the existing régime, without regard to the condi- tions clearly expressed in Monroe's proclamation. This led to a controversy, into the developments and merits of which it is not necessary for us to enter minutely. The military governor declared the election proclama- tion, and any others emanating from the new authori- ties, to be null and void, instructing prefects that "the state government of New Mexico has no legal exist- ence, until New Mexico shall be admitted into the union as a state by the congress of the United States; and that, until otherwise determined by competent authority, the present government continues and will
13 Gov. Monroe's procl. of May 28, 1850, in N. Mex., Corresp. on Civil Affairs, 1850, p. 93-4. In Cal. the date and manner of the election were fixed in the schedule of the constitution itself, and Gov. Riley in his procla- mation clearly announced his intention to surrender his powers to the new governor if the constitution should be ratified. Cal. and N. Mex., Mess., 1850, p. 858-9.
1+ U. S. Govt Doc., 31st cong. 2d sess., Sen. Doc. 26, p. 16; Ritch's Legis. Blue-book, 100.
449
POLICY OF GOVERNOR MONROE.
be sustained." And this position he successfully main- tained to the end, notwithstanding the protests and arguments of his adversaries, who rather forcibly cited as a precedent for Monroe the submission of Riley in California under similar circumstances.15
Respecting the civil status of the newly acquired territories after the treaty and before congressional action, there were substantially three theories, in some phases tolerably distinct, in others perplexingly in- terlaced. First, that the treaty put an end to the Mexican system and to the temporary system of the military régime, leaving no government at all, but a right on the part of congress to impose a government,
1> New Mexico, Correspondence on the subject of civil affairs, 1850, in 31st cong. 2d sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 1, p. 92-109. This collection includes, Ist. Monroe to adj .- gen., July 16th, a report of the whole matter; 2d, M.'s procl. of May 28th; 3d, M. to legisl., July 4th, has no communication to make; 4th and 5th, notes of M. and Alvarez, July 11th, 12th; 6th, Alvarez to M., a long defence of his course, or of the state govt. He claims the people had a right to or- ganize a civil govt without consulting the mil. gov .; that any private citizen might have issued the proclamation; that in the absence of congressional legis- lation, the people of N. Mex. had as good a right to form or remodel their old system, or establish a new one, as the people of N. Y. or Va; that Mon- roe's civil power could be no greater than that of the president; and that the president had never pretended to have the power to make a govt for N. Mex., or insist on the old one; but that the president's instructions and all others from Wash. simply advised temporary submission to the old govt as exist- ing by presumed consent of the people. That consent had been withdrawn, and a new govt organized; which must be recognized, until congress should refuse to sanction it. 7th, M.'s reply to A., July 12th, insisting on adherence to the terms of his original procl., and on a continuance of the old régime pending congressional action; 8th, A. to M., July 12th, deploring the contro- versy, but asserting that the people cannot surrender their dearest rights, etc .; 9th, mem. of legislative action, on a state seal, county of Socorro, cen- sus in 1852, election of alcaldes, etc., election of senators, memorial to con- gress, etc. A sec. state, 4 judges, auditor, and treasurer were nominated and confirmed by both houses. 10th, M. to adj .- gen., July 31st, enclosing doc .; 11th, M. and Calhoun to local Indian authorities, assuring them that no change is to be made, June 29th; 12th, M. by Sec. Vigil to prefects, July 23d, directing that no attention be paid to Alvarez' orders, etc .; 13th, A.'s procl. of July 20th for elections; 14th, extract of the legislature's law on elections; 15th, M. to adj .- gen., Aug. 26th, transmitting the following papers; 16th, resolutions of the house and senate, signed by W. Z. Angney, speaker, and Joseph Mangle, speaker, July 15th, approving the position taken by Alvarez; 17th, Lewis D. Shutz, sec. state, July 17th, transmitting the preceding to Monroe; 18th, Alvarez to people, Aug. 8th, no officer elected or appointed under the state govt will attempt to exercise any jurisdiction until after Nov. Ist, or until duly commissioned to act as such. (This is by a joint resolution of the legislature, and may indicate a kind of compromise.) 19th, M. by Vigil to prefects, Aug. 9th, no obstruction to be offered to, and no part to be taken in, the state elections of the 12th Aug., but officials elected are not to be recognized; 20th, sec. war to M., Sept. 10th, in reply to M.'s letter of July 16th, the difficulty removed by act of congress.
HIST. ARIZ. AND N. MEX. 29
450
MILITARY RULE IN NEW MEXICO.
and on the part of the people, pending congressional action, to organize one for themselves. This was the settlers' theory. Second, that the laws of New Mexico, that is, the Mexican laws, not inconsistent with the constitution and treaties of the United States, were still in force, and must still continue in force till changed by competent authority; that is, by that of congress; meanwhile the military commandant was civil governor. This was the position assumed for a time by Governor Riley of California.16 Third, that the temporary system of the military interregnum, virtually the Mexican law as modified by necessity, remained in force as a de facto government with the consent of the people, a consent presumed as an alter- native of a state of anarchy, and could be changed only by congress. This theory, in a practical sense not differing much from the second, was that held by the administration at Washington, and inculcated in various instructions to officers in New Mexico and California, and it was virtually the one maintained to the end in the former territory. Respecting the merits of these conflicting theories no final decision was ever rendered by competent authority. In a practical sense, most differences were slight. No one seems ever to have seriously questioned the right of the people to organize a government and submit it to congress for approval. The administration at first simply advised them to submit to the de facto government resting on their presumed consent, but a later administration favored the withdrawal of that consent and the ap- plication for admission as states. In both sections of the new territory this was done. As to the real status of the new governments as organized before approval or disapproval by congress, the only important practical question at issue, there was no decision. Riley in California, under instructions from Washing- ton, though expressing grave doubts on the legality
16 Royce, California, 246 et seq., the best treatment of the whole subject extant, is 'advised by good authority that Riley's position, in so far as he consistently held to it, was no doubt sounder than the opposing views.'
451
LACK OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT.
of this course, surrendered his civil authority, and permitted the new government to go at once into operation, as indeed he had promised to do in his order for the election; this being in a sense approved by the admission of California as a state. Monroe in New Mexico, more consistently but also under in- structions, inserted in his election order a condition which was subsequently enforced. The people as rep- resented by Alvarez made out a very plausible case, but the Washington plans must not be disturbed, and any change from a state government in full operation to a territorial system might have been awkward. For it must be understood that the whole matter was manipulated by a few men at Santa Fé. In Califor- nia, the gold-seeking new-comers included a multitude of politicians, with 'a right smart sprinkling' of men who believed themselves statesman, so that there was a strong public sentiment on various matters; but in New Mexico the masses took little or no interest in theories as to civil government. They had a degree of prejudice against the existing military rule, and partially realized the desirability of a permanent civil system; but the various conventions and petitions and plans in no sense emanated from the New Mexicans, being the work of a few Americans who acted for their own personal interest or that of their party or section in the states, and aroused popular enthusiasm only slightly by false appeals to native fears-notably that of Texan encroachment. A few of those politi- cians thought they saw an opportunity to serve them- selves by interfering with the plan and putting the state government into immediate operation, as had been done in California; but their attempt was not successful.
Turning from Santa Fé to Washington, I find it by no means necessary to follow congressional debates, or even to chronicle the many successive measures proposed for the government of the new territories. Even a brief résumé would extend far beyond the
452
MILITARY RULE IN NEW MEXICO.
space at my disposal here, and the subject does not properly belong to New Mexican history at all. Somewhat more attention is given to it in other volumes of this series on California;17 but the whole matter belongs to the great national controversy; and nothing that was done or left undone in New Mexico, nothing in the needs or wishes of the people, had any real weight in congress. The territory belonged to the United States, and the necessity, or at least pro- priety, of providing for it a regular system of govern- ment was obvious to all. Neither was the task in itself a difficult or complicated one. The south pro- posed simply to extend national laws over the new territories by the organization of territorial govern- ments. This was on its face a natural and proper course, and under ordinary circumstances all details might have been readily arranged. But a controlling element in the north refused to admit the territories under any system, except with conditions prohibiting slavery. The south had made the war expressly to gain new southern territory, and consequent extension of southern power in the national councils. The north had opposed the war mainly because of the geographic position of the territory to be acquired. This opposi- tion had failed, as had the attempt to make the acqui- sition of territory conditional on the Wilmot proviso prohibiting slavery; but now the north was stronger and more fully aroused, and was resolved to take a firm stand against the extension of the peculiar insti- tution. Southerners maintained their right under the constitution of holding slaves in the territories, though many doubted that any considerable portion of the country in question would naturally become in the end slave territory; they held, moreover, that if there was any doubt respecting their position, or respecting particular points-such as the effect of old Mexican laws abolishing slavery-the question should be decided by the courts; they favored compromise,
17 See Hist. Cal., v., chap. xxii .; vi., chap. xiii.
453
SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES.
founded on mutual concessions, such as the admission of free and slave states in equal numbers, or a geo- graphic line like that of the Missouri compromise; and they protested against an aggressive and offensive policy on the part of the northerners, who would lis- ten to no compromise, and would give southern institutions no standing whatever in the newly ac- quired domain. And indeed, the northern position was radically aggressive; but if on the face of the matter and on the points immediately at issue there was a degree of unfairness, it was believed to be justi- fied by the political trickery on the other side that had led to the present complication, by the irrepres- sible nature of the great sectional conflict that had begun, and especially by the great moral question at issue between slavery and freedom. The fight in con- gress was a long and bitter one, most ably fought on both sides; but, as I have said, the record of its details and the discussion of its merits do not belong in this work.18
There was, however, one phase of this controversy that did directly affect New Mexico, and in which her people took a real interest, though their wishes had very little weight in congress; and this was the question of eastern boundary. As we have seen, Texas had claimed since 1836 the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source as her western bound, relying, so far as it was deemed necessary to rely on anything but repeated asseverations, on the treaty signed by Santa Anna as a prisoner-a treaty never confirmed but always repudiated by Mexico, and never entitled to the slighest consideration from any point of view. For two centuries and a half New Mexico had been ruled continuously as a Spanish and Mexican province, and Texas had never for a day exercised any sort of jurisdiction over any portion of the province, but had, on the contrary, been disastrously defeated in her only
18 See Congressional Globe, 1845-50, 29th to 31st cong., as per index head- ings, N. Mexico, California, Utah, Texas, Slavery in the Territories, Compro- mise Bill, etc.
454
MILITARY RULE IN NEW MEXICO.
attempted invasion. As I have before stated or im- plied, the claim of Texas as against Mexico or New Mexico never had any real foundation in fact or jus- tice. But against the United States after the treaty of 1848, the claim assumed in some respects a different aspect. In annexing Texas the United States had in a sense taken her side in the boundary dispute against Mexico;19 and they had still more definitely assumed that ground by regarding the crossing of the Rio Grande by the Mexicans as an invasion and declara- tion of war. Again during the military occupation, while from motives of policy the Texan claim was virtually ignored by Kearny and his successors, yet in reply to the complaints, or inquiries, of Texas, the president explained that the civil government organ- ized as a temporary expedient at Santa Fé was by no means to be considered as interfering with the ulti- mate rights of Texas;20 and the military governor was a little later instructed definitely not to interfere with the exercise of Texan authority east of the Rio Grande.21 Thus while the administration gradually assumed the ground that there was a question to be settled by congress and the state, yet in an important sense the national government was committed to the justice of the Texan claim. Meanwhile the Texans at home and at Washington constantly asserted their claim with an earnestness that almost leads the reader
19 True, in the act of annexation there was an adjustment of boundaries left to congress; but this adjustment might naturally and properly be re- garded as affecting the rights of Mexico only. It furnished, however, a some- what plausible basis for a different view.
20 N. Mex. and Mess., July 24, 1848.
21 ' With respect to that portion of the instructions which is in the follow- ing words: "In regard to that part of what the Mexicans called N. Mexico, lying east of the Rio Grande, the civil authority which Texas has established or may establish there is to be respected, and in no manner interfered with by the military force in that department, otherwise than to lend aid on proper occasions in sustaining it," I have to remark that it is not expected Texas will undertake to extend her civil government over the remote region desig- nated; but should she do so, you will confine your action, under the clause above cited, to arranging your command in such a manner as not to come iuto conflict with the authorities so constituted. On the claim of Texas to any or the whole of N. Mexico east of the Rio Grande, it is not necessary to give an opinion, as congress and that state alone have the power of adjusting it.' Sec. war to com. N. Mex. March 26, 1849, in Cal. and N. Mex., Mess., 1850, p. 272.
455
THE TEXAN BOUNDARY.
to think they really believed it a just one; and the state had also contracted a debt, based on the 'full extent' of its domain, so that the interests and rights of 'innocent third parties' became involved. To dis- member New Mexico would be an outrage; still, some- thing was due to Texas.
I find no very definite record of what occurred in this connection at Santa Fé; but it appears that the Texan legislature went so far as to organize a county government for New Mexico, to give that county a right to one representative, to pass acts regulating the militia, to establish a judicial circuit, and to appoint a judge to hold court in the Rio Grande valley.22 Says Davis: "Early in the spring of 1850 Texas sent a commissioner, Robert S. Neighbors, into New Mexico, with instructions to divide the country east of the Rio del Norte into several counties of that state, and to hold elections in them for county officers. Upon the mission of Neighbors being known, it was loudly denounced in public meetings throughout the territory, and a very strong opposition was raised against him and the objects he had in view. He issued a proclamation fixing time and places for an election, but nobody went to the polls, and the matter fell to the ground.23 In congress, while Texan repre-
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