USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 19
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The other point to be made refers to the Texas-New Mexico boundary. The complex nature of this dispute, involving, as it did, before final settle- ment, many considerations apparently remote, is perhaps best stated in the words of a contemporary writer of the period. After referring to the failure of Texas to determine her western boundary, he observes: "A por- tion of the disputed ground, the tract lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, as it is of little value to either claimant, and can never support a population large enough to support a state by itself, will probably be abandoned to Texas without controversy. Not so with the Santa Fé dis- trict and the other portions of New Mexico lying on the east bank of the upper Rio Grande. The native inhabitants of this region cherish sentiments of bitter hostility towards the Texans, who now threaten to extend their disputed dominion over them by force. A border warfare must ensue if Congress does not intervene. Slavery cannot be introduced into this region, which is too elevated, too barren, and situated too far north to recompense any other than free labor; but if the laws of Texas are extended over it, it becomes a portion of a slave state, and whatever political power it may subsequently obtain will be lost to the cause of freedom. Both humanity and policy require, therefore, that the north should submit to any reasonable sacrifice for the purpose of severing this region from Texas and adding it to the free Territory of New Mexico. Now, by the terms of the proposed compromise the sacrifice required is a very trifling one. Texas is willing to sell her claim to the disputed region for what she calls a fair price-a few millions of dollars; and the United States are bound in equity to cause the creditors of Texas to be paid a sum at least equal to this price, because the revenue from the customs of Texas, which is now paid into our national treasury, was formally and solemnly pledged to these creditors as a security for their debt. Having taken away the security, our government is bound to see that the debt is paid, and it can be paid with the price of the claim to the disputed region. The south makes no objection to this arrangement ; Texas, as we have said, consents to it, and the north ought to be satisfied with it, because, first, it will preserve the national faith, and, secondly, it will rescue a large tract of country from the dominion of a slave state, and by joining it to New Mexico add it to the 'area of freedom.'"
The compromises outlined above were portions of the great compromise measures, under the authorship of the venerable Henry Clay, which afforded
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the last breathing spell for the two sections of the nation hurrying on to the inevitable conflict. The great battle had reached its height at Washing- ton early in 1850, and under the leadership of Mr. Clay the opposing ele- ments were brought together on the compromise measures which were enacted into law the following September.
The essential points of the compromise were as follows: The admis- sion of California as a free state. The organization of two new terri- tories-Utah, including Nevada, and New Mexico, including Arizona- without the Wilmot proviso; that is, with no conditions prohibiting slavery. The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, and, in return, a stringent law was passed for the arrest of fugitive slaves in northern states.
Involved in the settlement was the provision that Texas should be paid $10,000,000 in return for surrendering her claim to the territory east of the upper Rio Grande. The organic law of the new Territory made the following provisions as to boundaries :
The state of Texas will agree that the boundary on the north shall commence at the point at which the meridian of one hundred degrees west of Greenwich is inter- sected by the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and shall run from said point due west to the meridian of one hundred and three degrees west from Greenwich ; thence her boundary shall run due south to the thirty-second degree of north latitude, thence on the said parallel of thirty-two degrees of north latitude to the Rio Bravo del Norte, and thence with the channel of said river to the Gulf of Mexico,
The boundaries of the new Territory of New Mexico were defined as follows :
Beginning at the point in the Colorado river where the boundary line with the Republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east with said degree to its inter- section with the one hundred and third degree of latitude west of Greenwich; thence north with said degree of longitude to the parallel of thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains to the thirty-seventh parallel of north lati- tude; thence west with said parallel, to its intersection with the boundary line of the State of California; thence with said boundary line to the place of beginning.
The executive power of the Territory was vested in a governor, who should hold office for four years. Provision was also made for the appoint- ment of a secretary of the Territory, and a legislative assembly, consisting of a council and a house of representatives, the council to consist of thirteen members and the house of twenty-six members. All white males above the age of twenty-one years who were residents of the Territory at the time of the passage of the act were granted the right of franchise, as well as "those recognized as citizens by the treaty with the republic of Mexico, concluded February 2, 1848," known as the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Territory was subdivided into counties, towns and districts. The judicial power was vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts and justices of the peace, and the first supreme court consisted of a chief justice and two associate justices. The Territory was divided into three judicial districts. Provision was also made for the appointment of an
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attorney and a marshal, and the election of a delegate to the Congress of the United States.
With the appointment, under the provisions of the organic act of September 9, 1850, of the officials named in that act, the territorial govern- ment of New Mexico came into existence. James S. Calhoun, already mentioned as Indian agent, was appointed the first governor, and was in- augurated March 3, 1851. The first delegate in Congress was Richard H. Weightman. The other officials for the year, and also those for subsequent years, will be found in the official records that form a part of this work. The first legislative assembly was elected by order of the governor, and convened for its first session at Santa Fé, June 2, 1851. The majority of the members being native New Mexicans, the proceedings were carried on in the Spanish language, although the acts and records were printed in both languages, and an interpreter was employed.
In fact, the first act passed by the first legislature was one "establishing the office of translator for the Territory of New Mexico," and provided that such officer should furnish translations of all public documents from Spanish into English and vice versa, when called upon to do so by the legislative assembly or the executive department, and his salary was fixed at two thousand dollars per annum, with an assistant at three dollars per day. By the second act the pay of chief clerks of the assembly was fixed at four dollars per day, and that of other employes at three dollars per day.
At this session the act incorporating the City of Santa Fé was also passed, but repealed at the next session. This legislature also divided the Territory into three judicial district's, as follows :
First district :- Counties of Santa Fé, San Miguel and Santa Ana ; Second district :- Counties of Taos and Rio Arriba;
Third district :- Counties of Bernalillo, Valencia, Socorro and Dona Ana.
The first territorial militia was organized by the legislature in 1851. The law provided that every free white male inhabitant of the Territory over eighteen and under forty-five years of age, who was not disabled by bodily infirmity, should constitute the militia of the Territory; but exempting priests, ministers and teachers in religious denominations. The militia was divided into three divisions, each commanded by a major-general, whose staff consisted of a division inspector, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel, a quartermaster and two aids, each with the rank of major. The first, or northern division, included Taos and Rio Arriba counties; the second or central division comprised Santa Fe and "San Miguel el Bado" counties; the third or southern division comprised Santa Ana, Bernalillo, Valencia, Socorro and that portion of the territory lying south of the Jornado del Muerto. Each division was divided into brigades, regiments and companies.
By act approved January 9, 1852, it was provided that "there shall be allowed at the county seat of each county in the Territory one or more gambling houses," and the license fee was fixed at "six hundred round dollars." There were some restrictions placed upon gaming in those days, the law referred to prohibiting "winning or losing money or property" at any game of monte, faro, tenpins, dice or roulette, and betting on the results of federal or territorial elections.
Indian hostility was a constant menace to the welfare of the Territory.
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The treaty of 1848 had guaranteed protection from Indians to the popula- tion of the ceded territory, but it was found very difficult to subjugate the tribes. Indian hostility and the wishes of the people are described in the following extracts from a joint resolution of the legislature in 1852:
"Whereas, since the entrance of the American army, under General Kearny, this Territory has been a continual scene of outrage, robbery and violence, carried on by the savage nations by which it is surrounded; and,
"Whereas, Our citizens, both native and adopted, are daily massacred before our eyes, our stock driven from our fields, our property taken from our dwellings, our wives and daughters violated, and our children carried into captivity; and,
"Whereas, The presence of the powerful and well-armed tribes of the Utahs, Kiaways, Shienes, and Jickarias, on the north; the Comanches and Pawnees on the east and southeast; the Mescaleros on the south; and the Gila and Coita Apaches and Navajos, on the west and southwest, render it impossible for our citizens, unarmed (and) impoverished as they are, to resist, avert, or prevent these evils; and,
"Whereas, It is our firm opinion, founded on long experience, that the nations above alluded to, can only be brought to a permanent peace, and the Territory to a state of security, by forcible measures, which owing to the peculiar character of our country, its mountainous aspect, and its natural fastnesses, can only be carried out effectually against them by our own citizens, who are acquainted with their retreats and mode of warfare; and,
"Whereas, Our only hope and dependence for protection and relief is in the power and liberality of the government of the United States.
"Now, therefore, Resolved *
* *
"First. That our delegate in Congress is hereby required and instructed to rep- resent in the most forcible manner, to the Congress of the United States, the facts stated in the preamble to these resolutions.
"Second. That he be also instructed to use every exertion in his power to pro- cure the passage of a law providing for the raising of at least two volunteer regi- ments in this territory, for the period of one year or more, to be armed, equipped, subsisted, and paid by the general government." * * *
The government, though unable to carry out a plan which would ex- terminate the hostile tribes-which object was not desired-or which would hold them on reservations at government expense, did establish a number of military posts in New Mexico and contiguous territory and for a number of years maintained a force of several thousand soldiers in the southwest.
Fort Union, in Mora county, was established by Colonel Sumner in 1851, and the founding of Fort Marcy at Santa Fé has been described in connection with the Kearny occupation. In 1851 the troops along the southern -border were located at Socorro, Doña Ana, El Paso and San Elizario. But in that year Colonel Sumner concentrated them at Fort Conrad-later called Fort Craig-near Val Verde, and at Fort Fillmore, forty miles above El Paso. Fort Fillmore was abandoned about 1860, despite the protests of citizens of Doña Ana county. A post was established among the Navajos in 1851, and from 1852 was known as Fort Defiance, situated just across the line in Arizona. Fort Stanton, on the Rio Bonito, and Fort Bliss, near El Paso, were established about 1855. Other forts of the fifties were Fort Thorne, at the upper end of Mesilla valley, and Old Fort Wingate. In 1862 Fort Wingate was established on the Gallo; Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo, on the Pecos, and Fort West at Pinos Altos.
From these posts the soldiers were kept in almost constant motion by the raids that continued with diminishing frequency for thirty years. The motives of the raiders were plunder or revenge, and hence there is no system by which the depredations may be classified. Each outbreak had no connection with any other, and only a general view could be presented
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of the subject without the inclusion of numberless details that would be out of place in this narrative.
The commanders of the military forces in New Mexico from the time of territorial organization were as follows: 1851, Colonel John Monroe ; 1851-2, Colonel E. V. Sumner; 1852-4, Colonel Thomas J. Fauntleroy ; 1854-8, General John Garland; 1858-9, Colonel B. L. E. Bonneville; 1859- 60, Colonel Fauntleroy ; 1860-1, Colonel W. H. Loring; 1861-2, Lieutenant- Colonel E. R. S. Canby ; 1862-6, General James H. Carleton; 1867, General George Sykes; 1867-71, General George W. Getty; 1871-3, General Gordon Granger ; 1873-4, General J. I. Gregg; 1874-5, General T. C. Devin; 1875-6, General Granger; 1876, General J. F. Wade; 1876-81, General Edward Hatch; 1881, General Luther P. Bradley; 1881-3, General R. S. Mac- kenzie.
The gradual pacification of the Indians and the increased population and civilization have marked the passing of the military régime. One by one nearly all the old forts have been abandoned, or their barracks and land reserves have been converted to sanatoria or other objects of peace. Fort Stanton, in Lincoln county, one of the last posts to be abandoned, has been turned into a sanitarium for treatment of tuberculosis among the marine service.
THE GADSDEN PURCHASE.
As already stated, the southern boundary of New Mexico was not fixed without difficulty. The people of New Mexico and the United States government were not satisfied with the point 32° 22' as the latitude of the international boundary. For the first four years of New Mexico's terri- torial existence her southern boundary west of the Rio Grande followed roughly a line passing through the present towns of Las Cruces, Deming and Lordsburg, and in Arizona the line followed the Gila river. There were many objections to this boundary.
In the first place, it was urged that the American commissioner had yielded too much, and should have maintained the boundary point on 31º 54'. Also, even at that time it was seen that the overland rail route must pass south of the Gila and largely through the country that according to the results of the treaty lay in Mexico. With the boundary at 32° 22', moreover, the fertile Mesilla valley lay in Mexico, although it was claimed by New Mexicans.
With these points prominent, it was felt that a new treaty was neces- sary to settle the matters left indefinite by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. James Gadsden was at the time minister to Mexico, and negotiated the treaty with the Mexican ministers, so that his name has usually been affixed to the chief result of the treaty-the "Gadsden Purchase."
The Gadsden treaty, concluded December 30, 1853, ratified at Wash- ington, June 30, 1854, between the governments of the United States and Mexico, professedly was undertaken to remove all differences between the two governments because of various interpretations of the boundary as defined in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Retaining the same dividing line between the Californias as laid down in the treaty of 1848, the new treaty defines the international line as the Rio Grande river from its mouth "to the point where the parallel of 31º 47' north latitude crosses the same; thence due west one hundred miles ; thence
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south to the parallel of 31° 20' north latitude; thence along the said par- allel of 31° 20' to the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado river twenty English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers; thence up the middle of said river Colorado till it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico."
This cession of land was really a purchase, for "in consideration of the foregoing stipulations the government of the United States agrees to pay to the government of Mexico * * the sum of ten million dollars." *
William H. Emory was the United States commissioner and surveyor to establish the new boundary line, and the Mexican commissioner was Jose Salazar Ilarregui. The survey began in January, 1855, and proceeded with most harmonious relations between the commissioners until completed in the following August. The boundary was laid down according to the treaty, and follows the line that has ever since remained the southern boundary of New Mexico and Arizona.
It will be remembered that the New Mexico territory as organized in 1850 included substantially the New Mexico and Arizona of later years, with a small part of Colorado. The eastern boundary was the one hundred and third meridian, as at present, but it extended north to the thirty-eighth parallel, the extreme northeastern corner of the original Territory being about the location of the town of Las Animas, Colo. The north line ex- tended from that point west to the crest of the Sierra Madre, and then south to the thirty-seventh parallel, as at present.
The land acquired by the Gadsden purchase was at first attached to Doña Ana county, the remainder of the Arizona country being nominally divided into the same counties as the western part of New Mexico, their western boundaries being merely extended to California. The settlers of Arizona kept up a continual agitation for the organization of a new territory, but it was not until the 24th of February, 1863, that Congress finally granted their wish. According to the measure which on that date became law, all of New Mexico west of the one hundred and ninth meridian was organized into the new Territory of Arizona, this including, also, that part of the Gadsden purchase which lay west of the same meridian. The block of territory, one degree wide, lying above latitude 37 was attached to Colorado in 1867. These changes reduced New Mexico to the limits that bound her at the present time.
This process of boundary change and the carving of new territories has been cleverly stated by John W. Knaebei, an eminent attorney, in an address before the New Mexico Bar Association in 1904. He was quoted as follows:
"It would be curious to speculate on what would have resulted in the course of years had our government yielded to the claims of Texas and, instead of paying her $10,000,000, had, in 1850, relinquished to that state eastern New Mexico, including Albuquerque, Santa Fé, Las Vegas, Taos and the sites of the present Trinidad, La Junta and other Colorado cities and towns. Then perhaps Socorro would have become the seat of govern- ment for the remnant left, and Arizona would never have come into being as a separate territory. But enterprising men from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts pushed their search for gold, silver and copper, as well as for com- mercial opportunities, into southwestern New Mexico. They discovered
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and worked valuable mines. They were annoyed and disgusted by the want of railroads and telegraph lines and the consequent tediousness of communication with the seat of government at Santa Fe, and, moreover, they were not content with the numerical superiority of the native vote. So they stirred up Congress to carve a new territory out of New Mexico, and Congress (always omnipotent in territorial affairs) thereupon created in 1863 the present Territory of Arizona. The same kind of American influences had already been at work in the northwest part of the Mexico cession. Valuable silver mines had been discovered and worked by Ameri- can pioneers, and they were ambitious for self government. Their efforts led in 1861 to the organization of the Territory of Nevada, and within three vears afterward to the admission of that territory to the Union as a state. The golden apple of New Mexico was gnawed again in 1867, when all of her territory lying north of the thirty-seventh parallel was taken away and given to the new Territory of Colorado. Residents of New Mexico thus found their homes moved by the magic art of Congress from New Mexico to Colorado, and it is for them to say whether or not they have found the exaltation and increased liberties of their new political life resulting from the statehood granted to Colorado in the centennial year a blessing or a curse."
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CIVIL WAR PERIOD
CIVIL WAR PERIOD
Fifteen years after General Kearny had effected the conquest of New Mexico, the Territory was compelled to withstand the shocks of civil war and become the battle ground of the contending armies of the north and south. Though the valley of the Rio Grande became one of the arenas of the rebellion, and the battles of Val Verde and Glorieta have a permanent place in New Mexican annals, nevertheless it is noteworthy that of all the states north or south that furnished battlefields for the war, New Mexico was the least vitally interested of them all. Hundreds of volunteers went from the Territory to the armies of both sections, especially to the defense of the Union, and the Confederate invasion in 1861 brought the realities of war very near to the people. Yet on the question of slavery and its attendant conditions New Mexico could occupy a position as neutral as any state or territory in the Union. Negro slavery was practically unknown here. Peonage and Indian slavery were survivals from the Mexican régime, but confined to the Mexican part of the population and were rapidly being eliminated from the customs and laws. The geographical position of New Mexico was such that her interest and share in the national questions then agitating the nation were small. And, furthermore, the larger proportion of the population having only recently transferred their allegiance to the American government, could not be supposed to possess the ardent loyalty that would be found in older states.
It will be remembered that one of the reasons for the conquest of the southwest was the desire and enterprise of the southern leaders in extending the area of slave territory. The Mexican cession of 1848 was attached to the Union under southern auspices, as it were, and certainly some of the far-sighted statesmen of the south must have looked forward to a time when the new acquisitions would form an extension of slave-holding terri- tory to the Pacific coast. But omitting the plans of southern leaders before the war and the failure of any attempts, if such were really made, to push the domain of slavery into New Mexico, it is certain that as soon as war was actually declared the occupation of New Mexico and California became a matter of moment to the Confederate generals and statesmen. The energy of the north in blockading the entire southern coast line early caused the southern government some anxiety to gain a free outlet to the west. Already the forces of political manipulation and intrigue had been utilized by the northern and southern sympathizers to retain in the Union or force into the Confederacy such doubtful states as Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas and the new western territories. Southern California was strongly counted on to declare for the Confederacy, and by dominating Arizona and New Mexico the power of the south would extend from ocean to ocean. Had not Union sentiment, when the test came, proved strong enough throughout the western country to more than overcome the southern move- ment for secession, there is no doubt that the course of the war would have
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