USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. IV > Part 41
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Judge Wells of the supreme court resigned within a few months after his election, leaving a vacancy on the bench. October 2, 1877, an election was to be held for county and other local officers, and both political parties agreed to leave the nomina - tion of his successor to the bar of the state, instead of making the selection by the ordinary method of a party convention. The choice of the bar association fell on Wilbur F. Stone, and, although several ran as independent candidates, he received 22,047 votes, out of a total of 22,342.
According to the provisions of the constitution the first general assembly was required to submit to the voters of the state the question of extending to women the right of suffrage. In har- mony with that provision the first legislature passed an act which was voted on at the October election in 1877. The proposition was defeated by a vote of 14,055 to 6,610.
In 1878 the state enjoyed all the excitement of a political cam- paign for the first time, unattended by congressional supervision. July 17, the Democrats held a convention at Pueblo for the non-
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ination of a state ticket. Thomas M. Patterson was renominated for congress; W. A. H. Loveland was named for governor; Thomas M. Field for lieutenant-governor; J. S. Wheeler for secretary of state; Nelson Hallock for treasurer; John HI. Har- rison for auditor; Caldwell Yeaman for attorney-general, and O. J. Goldrick for superintendent of public instruction. In the platform the cardinal principles of the Democratic faith were declared to be "A strict construction of the constitution with all its amendments; the supremacy of the civil over the military power ; a complete severance of Church and State; the equality of all citizens before the law; opposition to all subsidies, monopolies, and class legislation ; the preservation of the public lands for the bona fide settler; the maintenance and protection of the common school system; and unrestricted home rule under the Constitution to the citizens of every State in the American Union."
The platform further declared that the commercial and indus- trial depression that had so long prevailed throughout the country was the legitimate result of the vicious financial legisla- tion of the money power, effected through the agency of the Republican party in congress. It denounced the act exempting the United States bonils from taxation ; demanded the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the repeal of the resumption act, the substitution of United States legal-tender paper for national bank notes, and asked congress to establish a mint in Colorado.
'The Republicans held their state convention at Denver August 8, and nominated the following ticket : For congress, Lames B. Belford; governor, Frederick W. Pitkin ; lieutenant- governor, H. A. W. Tabor; secretary of state, Norman II. Meldrum; treasurer, N. S. Culver; auditor, E. K. Stimson ; attorney-general, C. W. Wright, and superintendent of public instruction, J. C. Shattuck. The platform asserted that "the General Government should provide and be responsible for honest national money, sufficient for all the legitimate needs of the country, with gold, silver, and paper equal in value, and alike receivable for all debts public and private. The interest-bearing debt of the nation should be as soon as possible reconverted into a popular loan, represented by small bonds, or notes within the reach of every citizen." Governor Routt's administration was endorsed; a mint was asked for the state; and the convention pledged itself to work for the election of the nominees.
A Greentack ticket was nominated at Denver on the 14th of August. Fourteen counties were represented in the convention.
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R. G. Buckingham was nominated for governor; P. A. Simmons for lieutenant-governor; J. E. Washburn for secretary of state; WV. D. Arnett for treasurer; G. W. King for auditor; Alpheus Wright for attorney-general; A. J. Chittenden for superintendent of public instruction, and Henry C. Childs for congress. The Democrats were charged with advocating and supporting the institution of chattel slavery, and the Republicans were accused of legislating in the interest of the money power and against the general good of the people. Demands were made for the issue of an absolute paper money by the government, and the payment of the whole of the interest-bearing debt in such currency. Bond issues were unalterably opposed and an income tax was advocated.
The election occurred on the first Tuesday in October. The vote for governor was as follows: Pitkin, 14,308; Loveland, 11,535; Buckingham, 2.783. Belford defeated Patterson for congress by a plurality of about 2,200. A lively contest ensued for members of the legislature. Sixty-three members in the two branches were to be elected. The Republicans in order to have a majority had to elect thirty of the new members and the Demo- crats would have to elect thirty-four. The Democrats and Green- backers elected but fourteen, which gave the Republicans a large majority on joint ballot and insured the election of a Repub- lican to succeed J. B. Chaffee in the United States senate. The second session of the state legislature was convened at Denver on the first day of January, 1879. One of the first acts of the assembly, after the organization, was the inauguration of the new executive officers.
Frederick Walker Pitkin, the second state governor of Colo- rado, was born in Manchester, Conn., August 31, 1837. In 1858 he was graduated from the Wesleyan university, Middletown, Conn., and entered the Albany law school from which he received his degree the following year and was admitted to the bar. For a long time he was a member of the law firm of Palmer, Hooker & Pitkin, of Milwaukee, Wis. In 1872 he withdrew from active practice on account of his health. After a trip to Europe and a winter spent in Florida trying to regain his health, but without satisfactory results, he was advised to try the climate of Colorado. For three years he roughed it in the mining camps in the high mountains of Southern Colorado, and recovered his health so far as to enable him to again engage in business for himself. While governor of the state he was called on to settle the Ute uprising at the White river agency, and to quell the riots growing out of the miners' strike at Leadville. In the latter case he caused
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martial law to be proclaimed in Leadville which many of his friends thought would certainly defeat him for re-election. In this they were mistaken for he received the nomination of his party and was elected in 1880 by a larger majority than he had received two years before.
On January 14 the general assembly held an election for United States senator. The Republican candidate was Nathaniel P. Hill, the Democrats supported W. A. H. Loveland, and the one Green- back member voted for R. G. Buckingham. Hill received 53 votes to 19 for Loveland and was declared elected. A conven- tion at Denver on the 5th of December, 1878, had brought the question of irrigation prominently before the people. An act was passed by the legislature of 1879 authorizing the county com- missioners of each county to hear all applications for the use of water and fix the charges therefor. The act also fixed penalties for polluting the streams of the state. A memorial to congress was adopted asking for the donation of all the public domain, except mineral lands, in Colorado for the purpose of constructing a system of irrigation. Carbonate county was created, with Leadville as the county seat, but three days later the name was changed to Lake. Acts were passed for the protection of fish, and for regulating mining and the branding of cattle.
The year 1879 will remain memorable in the annals of Colorado as the year of the Ute war. To get at the causes that led to the outbreak it will be necessary to go back several years, and notice the relations that existed between the Utes and the white men. As early as 1800 exploring parties penetrated into what is known as the San Juan country, which was afterward included in the Ute reservation, but no gold was found, and the conclusion was reached that there was none there. About the years 1867-68 a controversy came up between Colorado and New Mexico regard- ing the territory comprising Costilla and Conejos counties. The dispute was finally settled in favor of Colorado, and the survey of the southern boundary was made in 1868, about the time the Ute treaty was made. In 1869, Governor Pile of New Mexico, as an act of reprisal, sent an exploring party to the head waters of the San Juan. No discoveries of importance were made that season, but the next summer they pushed westward and dis- covered the Little Giant gold lode. The district . was soon crowded and by the summer of 1871 several valuable silver lodes had been found. The Indians complained to the government of the trespass, and in 1872 troops were sent to evict the miners and prospectors who had gone on the reservation without authority.
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This only increased the desire to work the newly discovered mines, and a commission was sent to treat with the Indians for the purchase of the mineral lands along the San Juan range, but. they absolutely refused to sell.
It was now the turn of the whites to complain. The various bands of Utes held as a reservation a tract of land that, if divided up, would give to every brave, squaw and papoose about four thousand acres. They would not adopt the customs of civilization and put the land to its best use, for of all their vast reserve they had less than one hundred acres under cultivation. In the hills were deposits of valuable metals that they would not work them- selves nor allow others to develop. They were permitted to keep innumerable ponies, and were fed by the government while they spent their time in hunting and horse-racing.
All this talk had its effect and in 1873 Felix Brunot was sent to talk to the Indians and if possible persuade them to relinquish their title to the mineral lands. By claiming great friendship for them he induced them to cede about 6,000 square miles in the San Miguel and San Juan country, with the understanding that it was to include only mineral lands. Congress ratified the Brunot agreement in April, 1874. By its provisions the white people were to be excluded from the reservation, according to the stipulations of the treaty of 1868; an agency was to be established for the southern bands, which up to this time had been connected with the agency at Los Pinos ; the Indians were to allow the con- struction of one road through the reservation to the ceded lands, and in return they were to receive an annual payment of twenty- five thousand dollars, forever. Congress provided for the annu- ity by placing securities to the credit of the tribe in sufficient amount that the interest would meet the payments as they fell due. Under this arrangement the first payment was overlooked. No appropriation was made for it, and, as no interest would be due for one year, the Indians were compelled to wait. Failure to receive the first payment caused many of the tribe to become dissatisfied with their bargain. Then trouble arose over the boundaries. The official survey, which included part of the Ute farms and Uncompahgre park, did not correspond to Brunot's representations. This injustice, as the Utes regarded it, was afterward corrected by President Grant, who, in August, 1876, added to their reserve a tract four miles square, to compensate then: for the loss of the park. Settlers upon the four-mile tract que tioned the president's power to make the addition and refused to vacate. In the spring of 1877 troops were sent to eviet them.
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Senator Teller interested himself in behalf of the settlers and wrote a letter to Carl Schurz, then secretary of the interior, ask- ing for six months grace to give the settlers an opportunity to harvest their crops. The request was granted, but instead of those who were there going away more came in. Another order for their removal was issued in the spring of 1878, and troops sent to enforce it. The whites, knowing that a commission had been appointed to treat for the four-mile tract, threatened to kill enough Indians to bring on a war if they were molested before the commission made its report. Fearing that they would carry out their threat the Indian agent requested the withdrawal of the soldiers.
The commission met the Indians in August and had no difficulty in securing a cession of about 1,800,000 acres in the southern part of the reservation, but no argument conkl influence them to give up the four miles square, which was the principal bone of con- tention. The following winter some of the chiefs were taken to Washington, and a deal was consummated by which the tract was restored to the public domain.
More than one road was opened through the reservation for the transportation of supplies to the mining camps that had sprung up in the new cession, and the Indians looked with apprehension upon this move, which they regarded as an encroachment on their rights, and created more dissatisfaction.
Meantime trouble was brewing at the White river agency. The agent there was N. C. Mecker, frequently referred to as "Father Mecker." He went to Colorado in 1800, as the head of the Union colony that founded the town of Greeley, and in May, 1878, on his own solicitation, was appointed agent for the White river Utes. He was an honest man, of excellent motives, but one who knew little of Indian character. When he applied for the agency it was his purpose to civilize the Indians that came under his care and protection. His first act was to remove the agency about twenty miles down the river, to a place called Powell's bottom, where there was land suitable for tillage. This location was. a favorite winter camp of the Utes, because it afforded good pasturage for their numerous ponies, and they looked upon the removal with disfavor. The next step was to construct a ditch for the irrigation of the soil. Mecker tried to get the Indians to allow the appropriation of some of their money for this pairpose on the grounds that the ditch was for their benefit. Again he was opposed by the Indians, but the work went on nevertheless. Some of those belonging to Chief Doug-
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las's band even assisted in digging the ditch, but those under Chief Jack refused to work, saying it was the place of the white men to do all the work, and that the Utes at Los Pinos never per- formed any labor. The establishment of a school, with Miss Jose- phine Meeker as teacher, was another cause for dissatisfaction.
There were still other and deeper-seated sources of discontent. When the treaty of 1868 was made, the White river Utes were very much disappointed over the appointment of Ouray, the Uncompahgre, as head chief, instead of one of their own chiefs. There were a number of White river leaders who would gladly have accepted the head chieftainship. Foremost among them were the chiefs Colorow, Douglas, Jack, Antelope and John- son. Not only was each of these chiefs displeased with the appointment of Ouray, but they were jealous of each other. This was especially true of the factions led by Jack and Douglas, and Mecker used it to his advantage. Whatever one faction favored the other opposed, and by pitting one against the other the agent managed to get along fairly well for awhile with his notions of reform and civilization. Sometimes the government was not prompt in the payment of annuities and this added to the rising spirit of revolt, the White river bands attributing the delay to the influence of Ouray, and at one time a conspiracy was formed kill him.
Still Meeker never wavered in the course he had mapped out. In December, 1878, he wrote to Senator Teller: "When I get round to it in a year or so, if I stay as long, I shall propose to cut every Indian down to bare starvation point if he will not work. The 'getting round to it' means to have plenty of tilled ground, plenty of work to do, and to have labor organized so that whoever will shall be able to earn his bread."
Thus matters stood on January 1, 1879, when the legislature was convened, and the situation led to the adoption of a memorial to congress, representing "That the present Ute reservation, extending along the western boundary of this State,, includes an arca three times as great as that of the State of Massachusetts, and embraces more than twelve million acres of land, and is occu- pied and possessed by three thousand Indians, who cultivate no land, pursue no useful occupation, and are supported by the Federal Government. . That the territory embraced within said reservation will support a population of many thou- sands, and is destined to become one of the most prosperous divisions of our State. . . .
That the only approach by wagonroads to five extensive and productive mining districts is
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across said reservation. That the Indians view with distrust and jealousy all supposed encroachments now necessarily made in communicating with the mining districts aforesaid, and that the transportation of machinery and supplies to said districts, and communication with them, is attended by great risk and danger to life and property. That the interest upon a small portion of the moneys which will be derived by the General Gov- ernment for the sale of lands in said reservation will support its present occupants on another or less extensive reservation.
Your memorialists therefore most respectfully urge and . pray your honorable body to take such action as may be neces- sary for the opening of said reservation to settlement and the removal of the Indians therefrom."
The adoption of this memorial was but giving official endorse- mient to a popular demand. All through the spring of 1879 the general cry was, "The Utes must go!" Some of the Colorado newspapers kept it standing at the head of their columns. Even school children, who comprehended little of its true meaning, could be heard repeating the slogan, "The Utes must go!"
During the summer of 1879 the land at Powell's bottom was subdivided, by Meeker's orders, to be allotted to those Indians who might show a disposition to work and become civilized. The first chief to avail himself of the offer was Johnson, who boasted "two wives, three cows and a hundred and fifty ponies." A log house was built for him, but instead of plowing the land, he used it to pasture his ponies, and continued to draw supplies from the government. In September Meeker determined to plow the land himself, but some of the Indians went out with their guns and forbade the work to proceed. Mecker tried the old tactics of trying to win one of the factions to his side, but this time the scheme failed to work.
On September 10 Johnson went to the agency and on some trivial pretext assaulted Meeker, who would in all probability have been killed had he not been resened from the irate chief by some of the agency employes. This unprovoked assault caused Mecker to change his views regarding Indian character. To Col. John W. Steele, an agent of the post-office department he said: "I came to this agency in the full belief that I could teach them to work and become self-supporting. I thought I could establish schools and interest the Indians and their children in learning. I have given my best efforts to this end, always treating ghem knidly but fundy. They have caten at my table and received coutinnal kindness from my wife and daughter and
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all employes about the agency. Their complaints have been heard patiently, and all reasonable requests have been granted them, and now the man for whom I have done the most, for whom I have built the only Indian house on the reservation, and who has frequently caten at my table, has turned on me without the slightest provocation, and would have killed me but for the white laborers who got me away."
Colonel Steele advised Meeker to leave the agency, but instead he telegraphed to the Indian commissioner and Governor Pitkin for troops, and on the same day wrote to his friend W. N. Byers, of Denver : "I think they will submit to nothing but force. How many are rebellious I do not know; but if only a few are, and the rest laugh at their outrages, as they do, and think nothing of it, all are implicated. I didn't come here to be kicked and hustled out of my house by savages, and if the government cannot protect me, let some one else try it."
The Indians soon found out the agent had sent for troops to protect him, and they began secretly preparing for an outbreak. They kept themselves fully informed of all that was going on. When they learned that Maj. T. T. Thornburgh, with three companies of cavalry and one of infantry, had left Fort Laramie, Wyoming ter., a party of five Utes, including Jack and Colorow, went out to meet him and urge him not to come to the agency. On September 26 this embassy met Thornburgh on Bear river. A parley was held and the Indians denied that there was any trouble at the agency. They insisted that the troops should remain at Bear river while Major Thornburgh should go on to Powell's bottom to satisfy himself that they were telling the truth. Major Thornburgh explained to them that he must obey orders and go on, but that he would halt his troops a day's march from the agency and go on alone. The Indians retired, apparently satisfied with this arrangement, but they hurried back to the agency and demanded of Meeker that he stop the troops from coming on the reservation. Meeker wrote to Thornburgh, informing him of the Indians' demand, and suggested that he leave his command at the boundary of the reservation on Milk creek, and come on to the agency accompanied by five men. Thornburgh replied : "I have carefully considered whether or not it would be advisable to have my command at a point as distant as that desired by the Indians who were in my camp last night, and have reached the conclusion that, under my orders, which require me to march this command to your agency, I am not at
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liberty to leave it at a point where it would not be available in case of trouble."
At an early hour on Monday morning, September 29, a large number of Indians left the agency, taking with them their guns and ammunition, ostensibly to hunt. The same morning the soldiers under Thornburgh crossed the boundary of the reserva- tion. About half a mile after crossing Milk creek the road ran through a ravine called Red canon. Along the sides and top of this canon was a heavy growth of shrubbery in which lay con- cealed the hunting party that had left the agency early in the morning. As the troops entered the canon a small detachment, under Lieutenant Cherry, acting as advance guard, saw some Indians along the top of the ridge and started to reconnoitre. An old scout named Rankin scented an ambush and urged Major Thornburgh to fire on the Indians in sight. Thornburgh replied that he had positive orders not to fire first and that he dreaded a court-martial, with its consequent disgrace, more than he feared an Indian ambush. He had not long to wait until he could obey orders, for when Lieutenant Cherry's com- pany was discovered in pursuit of the Indians on the ridge an Indian fired his gun and the engagement was on. The wagon train was some distance in the rear and Major Thornburgh, seeing the Indians massing to cut off his supplies, ordered the men to fall back to the train. In charging the Indians that had secured a position in the rear, Major Thornburgh and thirteen of his men were killed. The command then devolved upon Captain Payne, as the senior officer, and after a loss of forty-two wounded he reached the wagons. The whole force was put to work digging trenches and constructing breastworks out of such materials as they could find. Wagons, boxes, bundles, sacks of flour and grain, were all hurriedly thrown together to afford a shelter from the galling fire of the howling mob around them. Even the bodies of their fallen comrades and the carcasses of horses were piled up and covered with earth to strengthen the fortifications. The Indians then attempted to dislodge them by setting fire to the sage brush and tall grass about the improvised fort. For a time the situation of the heroic little band was pre- carious in the extreme. No' water was at hand to extinguish the flames which the wind was bearing swiftly toward them. Still they did not despair. With blankets, overcoats, anything that would answer the purpose, they smothered the fire and that dan- ger was past. In the end the fire proved a blessing to them. By binning the tall grass the Indians destroyed their only chance
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