USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume II > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
" [Signed]
EDWARD M. MCCOOK."
The receipt of this dispatch inspired the hope that since the Gov- ernor had expressed his assent, I would accede to their demand for a respite, if not for a commutation of the sentence. At 9 o'clock on the morning of the fatal day, as I passed down Larimer Street toward my office in the Good Block, the telegram quoted was handed to me, and soon after the committee of Germans who had presented the petition in the first instance, appeared and made still more urgent entreaties for clemency, dwelling at some length upon the expressions of assent given by the Governor in his dispatch. It had been made a rule of the Exec- utive office to refrain from interference with the Courts in criminal causes, except upon petitions indorsed by the presiding judge and pros- ecuting attorney, expressing doubts of guilt, or requesting the exercise of clemency for good and sufficient reason. It was held that the laws were
150
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
made to be enforced, courts established to make full investigation of all cases brought before them, and that their judgments should be final ; that when it appeared of record that a full and impartial trial had been given and the result showed that the offender should be punished as the law directs, neither the Executive nor any other power should interpose to nullify or change such action. The committee were so informed and their request denied, until it could be established, as alleged by his coun- sel, that grave errors had been committed. Judge Harrison, chief counsel for the prisoner, had been indefatigable in his attempts to obtain some modification of the stern decree, but in vain. Not one of the judges, after careful examination, could discover any material fault in the record. As a last resort he claimed to have discovered " that the statute as enacted by the legislature had been mutilated in printing," but investigation of the original bills proved the contrary. The principal lawyers and business men of the city were then importuned to visit my office and plead for a respite. Scores came, but I felt then as I do now, that they should never have been persuaded to undertake a mission of that nature, knowing it to be wrong.
Great excitement prevailed upon the streets, and it was reported that the prisoner would be rescued from the sheriff on his way to the scaffold, which induced Mr. Cook to take due precautions by calling out the military for its prevention. Meiers was executed at the time appointed. He maintained stoical coolness and indifference to the last. He had never made any concealment of his crime, nor did he express the least contrition. Two or three distinct confessions were made, cov- ering all the details, both before and after the trial, and at the closing hours of his life, Meiers was about the only person connected with the case who maintained his mental equilibrium.
The first legal execution under the Territorial government was that of a man named Van Horn, who was hanged at Central City, in Jan- uary, 1864, for the murder of Josiah Copeland. After his arrest, an . attempt was made by a large body of citizens, with whom Copeland had been a general favorite, to lynch Van Horn, who had come to Gregory
151
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Gulch a short time previous and settled down to the business of keeping a whisky shop. He brought with him a woman who was not his wife. Copeland occupied the position of chief clerk in the Massasoit House in Central City, was young, handsome, sprightly and attractive. In the course of events he and the woman mentioned became acquainted, and one bright moonlight evening toward the last of October, 1863, they strolled out together on the only reasonably level promenade in the county, known as the "Casey Road." Van Horn concealed himself at a convenient point, and when they appeared, sprang out, pistol in hand, and began firing at Copeland. At the first shot his victim turned and ran ; Van Horn followed and killed him, then sought refuge in flight. He was pursued, captured, and lodged in jail. The citizens, apprehensive that he might escape punishment by law, organized a movement to take him from the sheriff when he should be brought out for preliminary examination, which was to be held in the old Montana theater. When the day arrived, hundreds came to witness the proceedings. The doors were no sooner opened than the auditorium, gallery and every available place was filled with miners and business men, the greater part fully resolved upon having a lynching that afternoon. They had planned to seize the prisoner as he was conducted from the court room, assuming that the sheriff (Wm. Z. Cozens) would bring him down by the front stairway, when, by a simultaneous rush, both could be overpowered. But immediately after adjournment of court, Cozens, divining their intention, spirited his prisoner out by a back door. The jail was only a few rods distant, but Van Horn being ironed, hands and feet, could make only slow progress, notwithstanding his alarm at the violent demonstrations made in the street below when the ruse was discovered. But the sheriff succeeded in distancing his pursuers and soon lodged his prisoner in jail. The crowd which filled Eureka Street rushed forward and demanded the keys. Cozens met them with a cocked revolver in each hand, returning an emphatic refusal.
"Then we'll take him !" yelled the leaders.
152
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Cozens instantly drew a line across the street with the toe of his boot, and pointing to it, said :
" I'll kill the first man who crosses it."
The dense mass was made up of all classes, the miners predom- inating. Some of them were intoxicated and apparently disposed to take desperate chances. The heroic sheriff stood firmly at his post, unappalled by the boisterous clamor,-cool, collected, resolute. Every one knew him to be a dead shot with rifle or revolver, a brave man and a faithful officer. The leaders paused for an instant in silent admiration of this magnificent spectacle of patriotic intrepidity. They respected and admired him for the almost unexampled power he had maintained for years over the most desperate of the criminal classes. He had been sheriff and general regulator of public morals through all the trying periods of the camp; had passed through all the storms of turbulence from the earliest days; had conquered by the sheer force of his indom- itable will every desperado and outlaw within his jurisdiction, many of whom would not have surrendered to any other officer. There was that in his flashing black eye and the expression of his clear-cut, immobile features which warned offenders not to attempt resistance or trickery with him. When he walked or rode up to such men with a command to surrender, his bearing indicated that resistance would be useless. No marksman upon the frontier could draw quicker or shoot more uner- ringly than he, yet I believe he never shot a human being in the whole course of his remarkable career. He never touched liquor, was an athlete of splendid physique and muscular force. He stood as the shield of the people against evil doers ; they relied upon him in every emergency which demanded prompt action and unfaltering courage. Such emergencies were frequent, but he never failed them. Intrusted with the public safety, he preserved it to the best of his ability.
A saloon near by furnished unlimited whisky to the crowd. A rope was obtained and a noose fixed, and a tree selected for the lynching. The leaders vehemently exhorted and urged the swaying masses to advance upon and overwhelm the sheriff, but under no cir-
153
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
cumstances do him bodily injury. Thus inspired, they made a sudden spring toward him, when up went his revolvers and then rang out a sharp command to halt, with the reiterated warning, "There is the line. I'll kill the first man that crosses it!" They approached, but did not overstep the bounds prescribed, for no man was bold or drunk enough to do so in the face of a decree which carried with it the death knell. He ordered the crowd to disperse and retire to their homes. They retired, but did not disperse. The wild excitement attending repeated efforts to reach the prison continued all the afternoon and up to mid- night. Multiform devices were proposed for seizing and abducting Cozens, but all proved abortive. During the night the prisoner was secretly taken to Denver and lodged in the jail of Arapahoe County, to avoid further riotous scenes. In due time he was tried, convicted of murder in the first degree and sentence of death pronounced. Having maintained stolid indifference to his fate until within the last hour, when the sheriff went to his cell to bring him out for execution, he broke down completely and whined piteously for mercy. Cozens procured a large glass full of whisky and, as he handed it to him, implored him to brace up and die like a man, since die he must, and not like a coward. The liquor gave him courage to straighten up and say, "I will. Lead on, and you will see that I shall die like a man."
The entire populace turned out as if for a holiday, to witness the awful proceedings. The prisoner was put in a wagon, supported on one side by Cozens and on the other by United States Marshal A. C. Hunt, and, followed by the multitude, passed down the Casey road to a point near where the murder was committed and where frowned the scaffold with its dangling instrument of death. He mounted the rude structure briskly, and placed his feet firmly on the trap. There were no religious or other ceremonies, no delays. A few minutes later the spirit of the murderer passed to its Maker for final judgment.
This incident is recorded as the first legal execution that took place under our Territorial statutes. The reasons which actuated the citizens in their attempts to lynch Van Horn, grew out of the apprehension that
154
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the laws as administered were inadequate to the punishment of capital crimes, and that no decrees save those of the people's courts to which they had been accustomed and which permitted no guilty person to escape, could be relied upon for the execution of justice. Though twenty-six years have passed, the opinion has not changed. The people simply acquiesce and hope for a better and a juster system of laws.
Two years later, on the 24th of May, 1866, Franklin Foster and Henry Stone, both young men, one twenty and the other twenty-six years of age, were publicly hanged in Denver for the murder of Isaac H. Augustus and another named Sluman, near the old Junction House on the Platte River, one hundred miles east of this city. Foster confessed the crime and implicated Stone. The latter denied partici- pating in this affair but admitted having killed four people in the States prior to coming to Colorado. On this occasion the scaffold was erected at the foot of the low bluff overlooking Cherry Creek near the southern boundary of East Denver.
The third was that of Theodore Meiers. No further legal execu- tions occurred in Northern Colorado between 1874 and 1888, when in the latter year Andrew Green, a colored man, was hanged on Cherry Creek just below Broadway bridge, for the murder of a street car driver. With that horrible event passed away forever, let us hope, the right to execute criminals in the presence of a multitude.
Resuming the order of political events in 1872, it may be stated that the administration of Governor McCook passed on without noteworthy incident, our internal affairs being ordinarily tranquil, until it began to be bruited about that a certain contract for supplying the Ute Indians with cattle and sheep, as provided in the appropriation which had been secured chiefly through the efforts of ex-Governor Hunt, and which it was openly asserted induced McCook to seek the appointment for himself, had been made an instrument for the perpetration of glaring frauds upon the government. He came here, as repeatedly declared, and with many expressions of virtuous indignation, for the express purpose of investigating and exposing the mendacious operations of the "Indian
155
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Ring," with 'a view to its utter destruction, both here and at Wash- ington, its general headquarters. He admitted that this combination, through long years of corrupting influences, had become stronger than the government itself, and while it would be a formidable and hazardous undertaking, he entertained strong hopes of success in his efforts to produce its overthrow. Under these righteous impulses he entered upon the rather perilous enterprise immediately, and as time passed, claimed to have made some startling discoveries. As Superintendent of Indian affairs, ex-officio, he had at his command all the books, papers, official reports and documents of his predecessors, in short, everything relating to the subject. Some of his acts in this connection awakened public attention, not so much because of his engagement in a search for irregularities, as in the unmistakable diversion of his movements from the main object toward the rather striking sequel, which will appear as we proceed.
Toward the close of his term of four years, so much adverse com- ment had been passed upon his acts as to induce the circulation throughout the Territory of a petition to the President remonstrating against his reappointment, and requesting the selection of Samuel H. Elbert in his stead. This paper was extensively signed, and together with others relating to the subject, forwarded to President Grant. As a result, McCook was set aside, and Elbert appointed. The new
appointee who had been absent during the later of these proceedings, returned to Denver April 3d, 1873, was met at the depot by a large delegation of citizens and warmly congratulated upon his elevation to the gubernatorial chair. He was escorted to the residence of ex-Governor Evans, where a reception was held, Hon. H. P. H. Bromwell delivering the address of welcome.
Governor Elbert qualified and assumed the executive office April 17th, 1873. On the 26th President Grant, accompanied by his wife and daughter, Gen. Harney of St. Louis, Gen. O. E. Babcock, his private secretary, and Gen. Giles A. Smith, arrived, were received by the Gov- ernor, Delegate Chaffee and others, and entertained by ex-Governor
156
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
Evans. A day or two later they visited Central City and the gold mines thereabouts, dined at the Teller House, and afterward took carriages for Idaho Springs, the President being driven by William L. Campbell. It was on this occasion that Campbell, or " Red Cloud," as he was more familiarly called by his more ardent admirers, created so favorable an impression upon the President as to cause his appointment to the office of Surveyor General of the State some years later.
During his visit here Gen. Grant had abundant opportunities for observing the condition of government in the Territory, and the general sentiment respecting Elbert and his administration. He knew that the appointment had been well received; that Elbert had been identified with public affairs since 1862, and that with the single exception of his prominent association with, and his persistent advocacy of, the several State movements, had created no serious antagonisms. As a lawyer he stood high in the profession ; as a citizen he was universally esteemed. The people believed that his administration would be just, impartial and progressive.
While it was known that McCook felt deeply humiliated by his summary dismissal, for it amounted to that, and secretly inclined to resent it, his following was not strong enough, nor were his few admirers so attached to him as to warrant the fear of a factional uprising in his behalf. Nevertheless, on his departure for the East, he was reported to have declared his ability and intention to overturn the existing gov- ernment and come back to the Territory in due time as its executive head.
He proceeded to Washington, established his residence there, and arranged his plan of campaign for the future. Having been associated with Grant's Western army in a number of battles in command of a division of cavalry, it was not difficult for him to secure the adhesion of some, at least, of his old comrades. His first step was to fortify himself in the confidence and esteem of Gen. O. E. Babcock, then one of the more influential of the President's attaches. Passing over the minor details, it is sufficient evidence of the progress made, that on the 27th
157
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
of January, 1874, the President suddenly and without the slightest warning, sent to the Senate the following nominations :
Edward M. McCook to be Governor, John W. Jenkins of Virginia to be Secretary, and T. B. Searight of Pennsylvania, to be Surveyor General of Colorado, vice Elbert, Hall and Lessig removed. No charges were preferred, no explanation given, or reasons advanced for the change. It had been resolved upon without consulting any one save McCook and his supporters. The blow fell upon Chaffee and his friends like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. The names had scarcely reached the Senate chamber before Chaffee was apprised of the fact by his friends in that body. Though stricken with consternation by the announcement, he instantly determined to fight the confirmations, and if defeated to resign his office, return home, and institute a new campaign in Colorado. His first act was to telegraph Governor Elbert. On receipt of the dispatch the Governor sent it to me with the request to call at his office, where many of the prominent men of the Republican party had gathered for consultation respecting the course to be pursued in this emergency. If the intelligence created widespread astonishment here, as it certainly did, it was even more pronounced in its effect upon Mr. Chaffee and his adherents in Washington, where his intimacy with the President had been a subject of universal knowledge. He had been one of Gen. Grant's warmest and most trusted friends; had earnestly supported his nomination, election and administration ; had rendered him conspicuous service on many occasions. Why, therefore, he should thus have precipitated a bitter conflict was beyond compre- hension. But without waiting or asking for an explanation, or attempting to see the President, Chaffee strode into the Senate chamber and began organizing his friends there against confirmation.
In Denver and throughout the Territory innumerable conjectures were indulged. Without details for a rational conclusion as to the cause of the removals, rumor took the place of fact. The people fairly rioted in the variety of reasons which came from a thousand sources, but the better informed at once recalled and repeated McCook's threat to
158
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
oust Elbert and supplant him. The excitement grew apace, stimulated and kept aflame by a coterie of malcontents who, having nothing of the loaves and fishes of federal patronage to hope for from the reigning power, plunged gleefully into the turmoil under the impression that their reward might come by accident if in no other way, as one of the resulting consequences.
On the 28th a meeting was called at Guard Hall for the purpose of giving expression to public sentiment upon this surprising event. The town was in an uproar. As time passed the disinterested observer found ample food for reflection by watching the numbers who were attaching themselves to the cause of the rehabilitated leader. The meeting had been called by the friends of the deposed Governor to voice the popular indignation against his sudden and unwarranted decapitation. While many of his friends were present, as the hall filled it began to be manifest that the opposition was largely represented, and there being no reason why its leaders should not give vent to their opinions, they made bold to utter them from the platform. Some of the speakers rejoiced over the great political upheaval which the mis- guided President had somewhat rashly caused. The old State and anti- State factionalism, for some time dormant, reappeared; long buried prejudices were revived. As a matter of fact, the tone and temper of the gathering had been diverted from the primary object of the call to a ratification of the change. Not that McCook was popular with any class, nor that Elbert had given any offence to be avenged; scarcely one of the speakers rejoiced over his downfall, yet there was a coloring of gratification that the dominating faction which they alleged had set them aside, ignoring their claims and thwarting their political aspi- rations, had been cast down. Elbert was not arraigned for any unjust or unwise executive act, nor because of any objection to him as a man and a citizen. For his excellencies of character he was universally respected, but he was, nevertheless, by virtue of his office and his prom- inence in affairs, and especially with the party, which from 1864 onward had originated and prosecuted all the movements for the admission of
159
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
the Territory as a State, in some degree in opposition to the popular will, made the leader of a new project to that end, and in the resultant distribution of political favors, if successful, would necessarily exert great influence. In a word, it was a contest of the "outs" against the "ins," and the reappointment of McCook seemed to open the way to their advantage.
We have said there were no objections to any of Elbert's admin- istrative acts, yet there was one which was now brought forward and employed with telling effect against both Chaffee and himself, but with much greater force in Washington than in Colorado,-the nomi- nation of David H. Moffat to be Territorial Treasurer, to the council of the assembly then in session. As upon this act, insignificant and trifling as it may appear, hinged all present and subsequent disorders which filled that stirring epoch in our history, and became in due course a vital factor in the proceedings which culminated in the abolition of the Territorial government, and the creation of a powerful State in 1876, it is proper to give a rapid digest of the underlying impulses whereby such momentous consequences were produced.
The carefully devised plot at the bottom of these developments was not discovered immediately, but came to light some time after its main purpose had been partially consummated. It was then discovered that a small cabal had been formed by W. W. Lander, an able, shrewd and wholly unscrupulous politician, well known,-too well known in fact -at the National capital, but a comparative stranger here, being out of favor with the ruling powers, and sadly in need of a place, had under- taken to make one for himself in Colorado by revolutionizing the Denver postoffice. Observing his opportunity in the defection of Mc- Cook and his allies, he took up the cause at this end of the line in co-op- eration with the ex-Governor's scheme at the other. He began his con- spiracy in the late autumn of 1873, through a series of furious assaults upon Mr. H. P. Bennett, then postmaster at Denver, charging him with flagrant mismanagement of his office and culpable misdirection of the mails. These attacks were published in a weekly newspaper called the
160
HISTORY OF COLORADO.
" Mirror," edited by Stanley G. Fowler, a brilliant writer and an expe- rienced journalist, who had established his paper upon the basis of superior literary merit. Lander presented his evidence of Bennett's shortcomings and at length persuaded him to give it a highly sensa- tional coloring, though in reality it had no substantial foundation. The objective point in this case was to procure the removal of Bennett upon manufactured allegations, and the appointment of David A. Cheever to the place, with Lander himself as assistant and general manager. It is but simple justice to state that Cheever was an honest, upright man, and whatever his connection with Lander may have been, or with the events which finally led to his appointment, he was in no sense a willing conspirator, even while apparently lending himself for the time being to a project which ultimately effected his ruin, for in the end his rascally assistant reduced him to the verge of absolute destitution.
The most venomous fulminations against Bennett appeared in every issue of the "Mirror," which, in the then convulsed state of public feeling, produced some effect. A petition favoring Cheever's appoint- ment was circulated and received a considerable number of signatures, though by the majority the charges against the incumbent were rejected as malicious misrepresentations. But something more than a petition was deemed essential to the success of this daring enterprise, for post- masters are not removed from office under such allegations without investigation, and Lander knew that if he rested his cause wholly upon an examination it would be a fatal mistake. The influence of the dom- inant political power must also be undermined and broken if his bold adventure were to have a fortunate issue. Therefore, almost simultane- ously with his crusade upon Bennett, there appeared in the same paper a surprising expose of an alleged gigantic land steal in the county of Bent, in which the fair name and reputation of Mr. David H. Moffat were involved. Having a desire to be informed of the facts in this case, I, with others, set about a rigid examination of the statements pub- lished, and having access to the land office at Pueblo, whose officers
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.