USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 31
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Next followed the treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, October 28th, 1867, which, when concluded, took away their hunting grounds between the Platte and the Arkansas, and exiled the entire tribe to the Indian territory, a removal which could only be accomplished by force. A year later Black Kettle, with the last remnant of his followers, was attacked by General Custer in the Antelope Hills, on the Wichita river, and the band nearly exterminated. Custer's force had been for some time on the track of the hostiles, without, however, discovering the trail to their headquarters. At last it was found by a fortunate accident, and the troops followed straightway to the general encamp- ment of both the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. It was stealthily approached, and the charge made at daybreak by a strong force of cavalry. The Indians, hunted to their " last ditch," so to speak, fought desperately, the women more fiercely resisting, and more courageously charging the troopers than the warriors. They shot to kill, making no effort whatever to shield or save themselves. A flanking company which had been detached to strike the rear of the
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camp, unexpectedly encountered a large band of Arapahoes, and every man was slain. Custer found them all together where they fell, piled up in ghastly heaps, but the Indians had disappeared.
In 1873-4 General Miles had a long contest with the Southern Cheyennes, but pursued them so hotly and continuously they were compelled to surrender March 6th, 1874. In 1876 the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes united in another outbreak, which culminated in the massacre of General Custer with his entire command at Little Big Horn. On the 25th of November General Mackenzie destroyed a large village of Cheyennes, which left them so decimated and broken there was no alternative but to surrender and submit to being placed on a reservation in Indian territory.
We pass now from the field of war to the development of the country, as a sort of respite from almost incessant strife, in which manifold new lines, industrial and commercial, were established. The financial institutions of the city of Denver down to the year 1865 had been personal ventures, the first banking house having been estab- lished by George W. Brown, who was also the first Collector of Internal Revenue, Daniel Witter being the assessor. Next came O. D. Cass & Co., followed by Warren Hussey, who also founded a branch in Central City, of which Mr. J. A. Thatcher (now president of the Denver National bank) was for many years the manager, and subsequently president of the First National in the same place, with Mr. Frank C. Young as cashier. C. A. Cook & Co., Turner & Hobbs and Clark & Co. carried on private banks, but we believe that Cook's was the only one which issued a paper currency.
April 17th, 1865, the First National bank received from the first comptroller of the treasury authority to organize, with Jerome B. Chaffee as president, Henry J. Rogers as vice-president, and George T. Clark, cashier, the business of Clark & Co. having been absorbed by the new concern. The stockholders were A. M. Clark, M. E. Clark, Bela S. Buell, J. B. Chaffee, H. J. Rogers, George T. Clark, C. A. Cook and Eben Smith.
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The bank opened for business May 9th, 1865, and simultaneously George T. Clark & Co. opened a private banking house in Central City. Prior to this, as far back as 1860, James E. Lyon, George M. Pullman, D. A. Gage and others had carried on a money and gold brokerage business in the mines as a substitute for regular banking.
The First National bank building was erected on the northeast corner of Blake and Fifteenth streets by Eben Smith, at a cost of about forty-five thousand dollars, and at the time was by far the most imposing block in the city, and for many years stood as the center of business. The first issue of currency was made August 22d, 1865, the first note signed having been presented to William N. Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain "News."
In 1867 D. H. Moffat, Jr., of the firm of Woolworth & Moffat, booksellers and stationers, was elected cashier of the bank, which position he retained until 1880, when by the retirement of Mr. Chaffee he became its president. From the date of his election as cashier the institution, which had not been remarkably prosperous, owing to defective management, began to assume a dignity and sta- bility theretofore unknown, through the introduction of methods which evinced the presence of a masterful hand in the administration of its affairs. It grew steadily in public confidence until it became in the later eras one of the leading financial institutions of the West. By the force of his genius for this kind of work, Mr. Moffat soon acquired great power and influence, was in truth the First National person- ified, Mr. Chaffee being absent most of the time deeply immersed in politics and extensive mining operations. Here, too, was cemented the extraordinary friendship existing between these two distinguished leaders, the one in finance, the other in political affairs, which remained unshaken until the death of Mr. Chaffee in 1886.
On the 27th of May, 1865, arrived Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieut. Governor Wm. Bross, of Illinois, Albert D. Richardson, of the New York "Tribune," and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield "Republican." For some
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time previous Mr. Colfax had made this excursion one of his cherished projects, and only awaited a convenient opportunity for carrying it into effect. In the closing session of the Thirty-sixth Congress he mapped out the plan of a trip to California overland. From the beginning of set- tlement here he had been the principal champion of our interests in and out of Congress. The subject of a Pacific railroad had long engaged his attention, and that he might be better informed and therefore fully equipped to aid the measure then before the country, he resolved to examine the proposed route and on his return make the result of his observations an effective instrument for the passage of needed amend- ments to the bill. Notwithstanding the generous offers made by Con- gress as inducements for the construction of the road, the movement dragged. The scheme was rather too colossal for the capitalists of that day, who stood appalled at the enormous amount of money required for such an undertaking. They were not accustomed to enterprises which involved the expenditure of sixty to seventy millions of dollars, and knowing little about the country it was intended to traverse, except that it was, with the exception of Salt Lake City, an unsettled and compar- atively barren region, it seemed like an extra hazardous investment. It was to inspire a more active interest in it that Mr. Colfax was induced to make the journey.
The war was over, the country prosperous. Having decided to start on a certain day, he made a final call upon President Lincoln, who said, "You are going to California, I hear. How I would rejoice to make this trip, but public duties chain me down here, and I can only envy you its pleasures. Now I have been thinking over a speech I want you to make for me to the miners you may find on the journey," and this was the speech that Mr. Colfax delivered to the miners at a public meeting held in Central City.
" I have," said he, " very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were
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adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine makes the payment of that debt so much the easier. Now," said he, speaking with much emphasis, " I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many have feared that their return home in such great numbers might paralyze industry by furnishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room for all. Immi- gration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our shores hundreds of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that waits for them in the West. Tell the miners from me that I shall promote their interests to the utmost of my ability, because their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation ; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, "we shall prove in a very few years that we are indeed the treasury of the world."
Such was the message and the prophecy, in the fulness of years abundantly verified, which the immortal President bade his chosen representative deliver to the miners of the Rocky Mountains. With rare perspicuity he comprehended their need of willing hands to push on the work of developing the vast resources planted here, and had laid his plans to assist in furnishing them, as a part of the many he had formed for the regeneration and rehabilitation of the country after the results of the war should have been fully adjusted.
From the earliest epoch the press and people had been almost shrieking their invitations into the ears of capital and labor at the East to come out and take a hand in the mighty effort we were making to found a new State in the western wilderness, and it was Mr. Lincoln's great purpose to encourage the formation of industrial columns armed with picks, shovels and plowshares for the new conquest of peace.
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It was the last message he ever delivered, almost the last words of his life.
In June, 1865, the political elements recommenced the agitation of the State question, with the view of starting a new movement for organ- ization under the Enabling Act of 1864 which they insisted was still alive, and its provisions therefore available if the people chose to take advantage of them. On this occasion Jerome B. Chaffee assumed the direction of affairs, and having spent some time in the greater schools of politics in New York and Washington, and being by taste and nature well fitted for the conduct of political movements, he took a position which eventuated in his elevation to the headship of the Republican party in Colorado.
On the 13th of July a petition extensively signed, and reciting that to secure the permanent location and construction of the Pacific railway through this territory, and to obtain protection for our miners, with titles to their property, it was indispensable that we should have proper representation in the halls of Congress, with many other well considered reasons, was presented to the executive committees of the several polit- ical organizations, requesting them to issue a joint call for a constitu- tional convention to consider the propriety of making application for admission into the Union. The reader will comprehend the shrewdness of this appeal, which was intended, first to silence partizan opposition and then to bring all the elements into a general convention for the single purpose of begetting a charter, which when obtained would leave each party free to lay its own particular nets for the loaves and fishes in the event of its acceptance by the people.
The committees assenting readily to the proposition, the call was published July 19th for a convention to be held in Denver, August 8th. Public feeling had undergone some change since the last attempt, but there still existed much violent opposition, owing partly to the revival of old combinations, but chiefly to the sparsity of population. But with the disbandment of the armies a new tide of emigration began to set in from the East. It seemed as if the spirit of Lincoln were directing the
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exalted purpose of his speech. At all events we grew stronger and more confident now that the Indian troubles had been quieted, and the hostile influences removed from our principal thoroughfares. The mining sales of 1864, though ill-advised and in the main unfortunate ventures for the purchasers, brought much new blood into the veins of local enterprise.
The convention met in the People's theater August 8th, elected W. A. H. Loveland president, and O. J. Hollister temporary secretary. Hollister resigned, when Webster D. Anthony was chosen permanent sec- retary. The organization perfected, a resolution was introduced, duly considered and adopted, declaring it expedient to proceed to the insti- tution of a State government, and that application should be made at the earliest possible date for admission. This time there were no embar- rassing alliances, and but little pronounced opposition. All parties met in harmonious deliberation for the common purpose of bettering the general condition. The constitution as framed went to the people on its merits as a distinct proposition without reference to State officers, Senators or other entanglements.
After full and free discussion the vote was taken and the instru- ment found to have received a majority of one hundred and fifty-five, a result which demonstrated a strong current of remonstrance, and when analyzed was discovered to be for the most part south of the Arkansas river, where the people were rather more content with the territorial system than those of the northern division, and it was broadly hinted from that quarter that the meager majority had been secured by skillful manipulation of the returns. Still, it was not seriously contested. Here the effort to overthrow the project terminated, and the two parties rallied their forces in a resolute endeavor to capture the spoils. Con- ventions were held and tickets for State officers, Congress and a general assembly put in the field. That of the Republicans or Union adminis- tration men, convened October 16th. On the 19th Alexander Cum- mings of Philadelphia arrived as the successor of John Evans who had resigned as territorial governor, and thus was introduced the chief factor in the ultimate defeat of our admission as a State, as will shortly appear.
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The Democrats nominated Captain William Craig for Governor; George A. Hinsdale for Lieutenant-Governor ; D. D. Belden for Con- gress ; Stanley Hatch for Secretary of State ; J. J. Mallory for Treas- urer ; Hugh Butler for Attorney General, and Lawrence N. Greenleaf for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Union administrationists nominated George M. Chilcott for Congress ; William Gilpin for Governor ; Dr. Eugene F. Holland for Lieutenant-Governor; J. H. Gest for Secretary of State; Warren Hussey for Treasurer ; U. B. Holloway for Attorney General ; Rufus K. Frisbee for Superintendent of Public Instruction ; for the Supreme Bench, W. R. Gorsline, A. A. Bradford and J. Bright Smith.
Sand Creek became a prominent and an incessantly intrusive feature of the campaign. It entered into, permeated, and, it may be said, lit- erally infested every stage of the contest. The Republicans were com- pelled to put a plank in their platform condemning the malevolent attacks upon the soldiers of Colorado who were engaged in that san- guinary affair, and declaring that they would not support for political office any person who now sympathized, or who had sympathized with the Indians that made war upon our people and our commerce, or who had at any time denounced the officers and men who had so gallantly fought the battle of Sand Creek. It would seem that this pronuncia- mento was sufficiently emphatic to satisfy the most violent Sand Creeker
-but it was not. So they resolved to have a Sand Creek ticket, pure and unadulterated, from top to bottom. Every nominee who failed to indorse that battle in its entirety without evasion or qualification, was to be crucified and forever branded as the Iscariot of his race. The leaders of this intolerant faction, bent upon the consummation of their pur- pose, sent this ticket to the people for ratification :
For Governor, Edwin Scudder ; for Lieutenant Governor, George L. Shoup ; for Secretary of State, J. H. Gest ; for Treasurer, Alex W. Atkins; for Attorney General, U. B. Holloway ; for Congress, George M. Chilcott, and for Supreme Judges, Jacob Downing, William R. Gorsline and Jesus Maria Velasquez.
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John M. Chivington, James M. Cavanaugh and John B. Wolff came out as independent candidates for Congress, but the first named soon withdrew in favor of Chilcott, deeming his record on the subject of Sand Creek wholly irreproachable, and therefore worthy of support. The election occurred in September, and when the returns came in it was discovered that the Union administrationists had elected all of their ticket excepting Lieutenant Governor and Treasurer. This party had expended its greatest efforts upon the nominees for the General Assem- bly, with especial reference to the subsequent election of U. S. Senators.
The legislature met in Golden City on the 18th of December, and elected John Evans and Jerome B. Chaffee, Senators. Though the question of negro suffrage had been submitted with the State ticket, it was overwhelmingly negatived, but the assembly in joint session adopted a resolution pledging itself to adopt the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States abolishing slavery, in the event of the admission of Colorado as a State-a sop to Cerberus which failed to satisfy him. The session continued only a few days, when it adjourned, subject to call of the Governor. Meanwhile, on the 12th of September, the territorial machine being still intact, a legislature was elected as pro- vided by statute.
The advent of Governor Cummings was not hailed with enthusiasm by any class of people except the leaders of the anti-state faction, which, though small, was a constantly active and irritating contingent led by A. C. Hunt. Of all the executives ever imposed upon this or any other Territory, Cummings was perhaps the most unpopular because wholly unfitted by the peculiar bent of his disposition to govern a free and radi- cally independent people. The contest for supremacy which ensued almost immediately upon his installation, increased in virulence until, after a stormy and wholly unfruitful administration he shook the dust from his shoes and bade us a final, but by no means reluctant farewell. He was one of those who by nature and association seem determined to exact homage and servile obedience from the lower stratum, and rever- ence from all who are above them in political station. He was stiff
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necked, obstinate, wilful and craftily able; an Aaron Burr in fertility of resource, but lacking his diplomacy ; educated, scholarly, a clear and forcible writer and speaker, but pig-headed and dictatorial to the last degree. Yet he was easily led, twisted and distorted in the wrong direc- tion by those who were, or appeared to be, ready instruments for the accomplishment of his designs. He hated, despised and unremittingly . antagonized all who opposed him, and to procure their downfall pro- ceeded to any and every extreme. He was readily approachable when accompanied by the deference and humility which he felt to be due to the dignity of his exalted position, of which, it is needless to say, he entertained a grossly exaggerated estimate. He had come to Colorado to be its Governor, in other words, according to his conception, its com- mander. Therefore, he required of all men the respectful and suppliant manner that is extended only to the chief magistrate of the nation. He came, not as the servant of the people, but as their master, and believing that the entire scheme of government should be under his personal direction and supreme control. Among the first of his official acts was the issuance of a proclamation of thanksgiving wherein he advised the people to "assemble at their places of worship and render unto God devout thanksgiving for the riches of his grace manifested through his Son, Jesus Christ." This raised a storm about his ears within twenty minutes after its promulgation. The Hebrews, even then a considerable element of our population, considered themselves debarred from ren- dering thanks after the manner proposed, and virtually cast out from the national festival. It was without precedent or warrant, and in direct violation of the spirit, if not the strict letter of the constitution. Any- how it was deemed utterly unjustifiable, so they resented it vociferously. Some attempts were made to induce His Excellency to modify the offending clause, but without effect. The objections urged only riveted his determination not to alter a syllable. It should stand as uttered, and the Jews must make the best of it. He had intended neither dis- courtesy nor exclusion, therefore he would not abate one jot nor tittle of the record.
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The more ardent of the State leaders cherished the hope that the State would be admitted by executive proclamation immediately after the senators elect should have reached Washington and laid their credentials before the President, hence it would be superfluous to hold another terri- torial legislative session, or to treat the territorial administration as any- thing more than a temporary affair which would soon be wholly super- seded. But events proved that they reckoned without comprehending the designs of the man who represented it. Cummings had no intention of being shut out from the delicious privilege of preparing and delivering a message to the legislature, which lay very near his heart. Finding the impression to be widely extended that the assembly should not and would not be convened at the time provided by law, and charging its responsibility to the State leaders, he issued a rather venomous procla- mation, stating that inasmuch as certain parties were attempting to dis- courage the meeting of that body, he begged to remind them that the State was not yet admitted, and that until admitted the territorial regime would be observed and maintained in spite of all opposition ; also inti- mating rather significantly that Congress was very busy reconstructing the States lately in rebellion, and might not have time to consider the somewhat irregular request for admission, especially in view of the fact that the people had last year formally and legally declined to accept the Congressional proffer of statehood. Here, then, was an unmistakable challenge, so construed, and the gage of battle accepted by the State men, who aligned their forces to meet it.
Cummings selected his confidential friends from those who had dis- tinguished themselves in opposing the State, but as chief adviser A. C. Hunt, late United States Marshal, a man of great shrewdness, indomi- table energy, fully acquainted with every settlement, highway and cross road, and withal eminently qualified to direct the campaign now resolved upon. It was not long before a conflict of authority arose between the Governor and Secretary Elbert. Suspecting Elbert of being diligently concerned in the conspiracy to discourage the meeting of the legislature, and knowing him to be in active sympathy with the State organization,
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he soon found occasion to precipitate a quarrel, by attempting to reduce the Secretary to the grade of a clerk and servant, subject at all times to the royal will. Feigning alarm lest the great seal of the territory should be put to unlawful uses, he surreptitiously entered the Secretary's office during the temporary absence of that official, and carried off the seal to his own quarters. Here was a supplemental declaration of hostility, designed to be interpreted as war to the knife, and further, that no quarter would be asked or given.
Under the strict construction of the organic act, the Secretary was in no wise within the control of the Governor. His duties were dis- tinctly prescribed by that instrument. He was made the custodian of the public funds and the disbursing agent of the treasury, matters over which the executive could exercise no legal jurisdiction whatever, and with which he had no right to interfere. He was required to attest the signature of the Governor to public documents, and to keep a record of his official acts. But the irascible Philadelphian took a different view of it. The Secretary must submit himself to such discipline and unques- tioning obedience as he, in defiance of law or custom, chose to exact.
Elbert, in a short but entirely respectful note, demanded the return of the seal, making Eli M. Ashley the bearer of his message. The Governor replied at great length, in which he opened and recklessly poured out the vials of his wrath for all real and imaginary offences against his administration. It was especially designed to establish the status of his office as against that of his predecessor and his adherents ; against the State by attacking it through one of its leading advocates, in short, a furiously bellicose announcement that the Anti-state party with himself at the head, intended not only to maintain its position, but to force the fighting.
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