In an earlier chapter the history of New Mexico has been brought down to the organization of a territorial government by act of congress in 1850, and in certain matters, notably the Mexican boundary controversy and survey, has been carried somewhat further. The organic act of September 9, 1850, was similar to those by which other territories were created, and need not be analyzed here, so far as minute details are concerned. By its provisions the president was to appoint for four years a governor at a salary of $1,500, a secretary at $1,800, attorney at $250, marshal at $200 and fees, and three justices of the supreme court at $1,800 each. The governor was to act also as superintendent of Indian affairs for a compensation of $1,000 per year. The secretary was to act as governor in the absence or disability of that officer. A legislative assembly, consisting of a council of thirteen members elected for two years, and house of 26 representatives elected for one year, was to hold annual sessions of 40 days at a compensation of three dollars per day for each member, and mileage at the rate of three dollars for 20 miles. All acts must be submitted to congress, to be null and void if disapproved. The supreme court was to consist of a chief justice and two associates, appointed by the president for four years at a salary of $1,800, each to reside and hold district court in one of the three judicial districts assigned him, besides an annual session of the whole court at the capital. A delegate to each congress was to be elected by the people. The choice of a temporary seat of government, apportionment of representatives, time and places of election, and the appointment of local and subordinate officials were left at the beginning with the governor, but were subsequently to be regulated by territorial law.

The officials appointed by the president in 1851 were James S. Calhoun as governor, already in New Mexico for some years as superintendent of Indian affairs; Hugh N. Smith, not confirmed by the senate, and replaced by William S. Allen, as secretary; Grafton Baker as chief justice, with John S. Watts and Horace Mower as associates; Elias P. West as attorney; and John G. Jones as marshal. Governor Calhoun was inaugurated on the 3d of March, and thus, very quietly so far as the records show, the territorial government went into operation; an election was held by the governor’s order, and the new legislature was ready to begin work in June. These early officials were for the most part men of fair ability and honesty, though not as a rule appointed with any special view to their fitness. Governor Calhoun was a politician of considerable executive ability, honorable in his intentions, popular, but intemperate, who was for some time unfitted by illness for his official duties, and died in June 1852 on his way to the states. Colonel E. V. Sumner, the military commander, in the absence of the secretary, took charge of civil affairs until Governor Lane arrived in September. This act of Sumner, particularly his dealings with certain criminals, led to a controversy. The people, or the little clique of politicians masquerading as the people, claimed the right to choose their temporary rulers in the absence of the appointees, and some public meetings were held to protest against military despotism. On the other hand, anarchy and even intended revolt were talked of, all apparently without any real foundation. All was indeed an outgrowth of the old quarrel of 1849-50 between the advocates of state, territorial, and military government, which for several years did not wholly disappear. The masses knew but little and cared less about the matter. Colonel Sumner in his report of May took a very unfavorable view of the country and its prospects. No civil government emanating from the United States could be maintained without the army, making it virtually a military government, costly and burdensome to the nation, without helping the New Mexicans, who would become only the more worthless the more public money was spent in the country. “Withdraw all the troops and civil officers,” was his advice, “and let the people elect their own civil officers, and conduct their government in their own way under the general supervision of our government. It would probably assume a similar form to the one found here in 1846; viz., a civil government but under the entire control of the governor. This change would be highly gratifying to the people. There would be a pronunciamiento every mouth or two, but these would be of no consequence, as they are very harmless when confined to Mexicans alone. The secretary of war went a step further, and suggested the buying of all New Mexican property, either for money or m exchange for other lands, and abandoning the territory as much cheaper than employing a military force at an annual cost of nearly half the total value of real estate. And indeed, it would have been cheaper in dollars if humanity, civilization, and treaty rights might have been disregarded. But Delegate Weightman spoke eloquently in defence of the character of his constituents and their claim to protection; and presumably there was no danger that congress would seriously entertain so remarkable a proposition. Nearly every prominent official became involved in controversies and the object of divers accusations, into the merits of which, with the often meagre and one-sided evidence at my command, I can­not enter with any hope of doing justice to the parties interested. Governor Lane was highly esteemed as a man of superior ability, and his rule ended in his attempt to be elected delegate and his defeat by Padre Gallegos. Governor Merriwether had his foes, and was even burned by them in effigy. Secretary Davis has become famous for his books on New Mexico elsewhere noticed, in one of which he describes to some extent his experiences in these years. Governor Rencher was a lawyer who had been member of congress and minister to Portugal. Governor Connelly was an old resident and trader on the Santa Fé trail, a man of good intentions, of somewhat visionary and poetic temperament, of moderate abilities and not much force. All these rulers performed their routine duties with commendable zeal and skill; and their annual messages are filled with expressions of patriotic and intelligent interest in the welfare of the territory. The first legislative assembly convened at Santa on June 2, 1851. A large majority of the members of council and house were naturally native New Mexicans. About twenty family names include a very large majority of the membership for the whole period; and indeed, a few wealthy and influential families in each county, in connection with the few American residents, natural-born politicians, controlled the election of representatives and all other matters of territorial government, with only the slightest interest or action on the part of the masses. Yet the legislators were as a rule intelligent and patriotic men, but rarely accused of corruption, and probably superior in respect of honesty to representatives of later years. All proceedings were carried on in the Spanish language, the acts and journals being printed in that language and also in English translation. In session the members puffed their cigarettes and indulged in other peculiarities of con­duct unknown to American assemblies; but the results will I think compare favorably in most respects with those of early legislative efforts in other territories.

In a note I give a résumé of legislative acts for the successive sessions. To a large part of these acts no justice can be done in such a résumé. Many of them at each session relate to the subdivision of counties into precincts and other local matters which are here altogether omitted. Another large class, also omitted, is that relating to court sessions and legal methods in civil and criminal practice. Of acts of still another class, that bearing on the agricultural, stock-raising, mining, and other industrial interests of the territory, an analysis would seem desirable from certain points of view, but is found to be absolutely impracticable within the space at my command. The general method observed in these matters was to continue the ancient usages and the Mexican laws in respect of irrigating ditches, herding, fencing, etc. The laws passed were as a rule special and local, such as seemed to be called for by the needs of the time and district. Though this plan led to the accumulation of a mass of special laws, complicated and even contradictory, which in later years had to be replaced by general legislation, yet it is probable that under the peculiar circumstances no system likely to be adopted would have led to better results. With the exception of the classes here referred to, all important acts of the legislature are mentioned in the note.

Among the acts thus mentioned in my résumé, there are many bearing upon a few special topics so clearly historical in their nature that they may properly receive brief additional attention in my text, with further information in some cases from other sources. At the first session, the capital was fixed at Santa F3, where it had always been, and has since remained without controversy. Congress had appropriated in 1850, for the erection of public buildings, $20,000, with which the foundations of a grand capitol were laid on a lot adjoining the old palacio. A new appro­priation of $50,000 was obtained in 1854, and with it the walls of the awkward and ill-planned structure were raised a story and a half in height to stand in the same condition for over 30 years. Meanwhile, the adobe palacio served for all public purposes, frequent efforts to obtain funds for proper repairs being unsuccessful. The importance of preserving the Span­ish archives was more or less fully realized, and often urged; but there was no money, and these invaluable records of the past were left for the most part uncared for, to be exposed in later years, as we shall see, to still more disastrous neglect. An historical society was organized in 1859-60, but practically nothing was accomplished.

The first legislature at its second session divided New Mexico into nine counties—Taos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fé, San Miguel, Santa Ana, Bernalillo, Valencia, Socorro, and Doña Ana—with names and bounds substantially as in earlier times. In 1854-5 the Gadsden purchase was added to Doña Ana county, but in 1859-60 was organized into a new county of Arizona with county seat at Tubac, and a little later at Tucson. At the session of 1861-2, on the organi­zation of Arizona territory, the county act was repealed, and all of Arizona remaining in New Mexico was restored to Doña Ana. In 1860 the county of Mora was created in the north-east, with seat at Santa Gertrudis de Mora. In 1861 was created the county of San Juan in the north-west, with seat at Baker City; but the next year this act was repealed. Changes of county seats will be mentioned in a later chapter on local matters, and a map will indicate the boundaries as finally fixed.

In 1850, according to the United States census, New Mexico had a population of 61,547, exclusive of Indians, and in 1860 the number had increased to 80,567. Of these numbers respectively, 58,415 and 78,856 were natives of the territory, 772 and 1,168 being natives of other parts of the United States, while 2,151 and 5,479 were of foreign birth.

Financially, as the salaries of territorial officers and legislature were paid by the United States, the burden of taxation was not heavy. The total valuation of property, which was $5,174,471 in 1850, had in 1860, according to the census reports, increased to $20,838,780, of which sum $7,015,260 is given as the value of real estate; $2,361,070 should be deducted for Arizona. The total taxation in 1860 was $29,790, or $9,255 for territory, $12,485 for counties, $3,550 for towns, and $4,500 miscellaneous. A direct war tax of $62,648 per year was imposed in 1861, but this was offset a little later by the capitol and road appropriations, and was never collected. The territorial debt in 1860 was $3,673, which was constantly diminished, until in 1863 there was a surplus of $3,080, in the treasury.

Nowhere in the United States was popular education in so lamentable a condition as in New Mexico during this period. Of the population in 1850 the census showed a total of 25,085 adults, and in 1860 of 32,785, who could not read or write; and the correct figures would doubtless have been considerably larger. The reports of 1860 show that 600 pupils, though one table makes the total attendance 1,466, were being educated in four colleges, academies, or private schools, and 17 public schools, with 33 teachers and a revenue of $13,149. There were practically no public schools at all. The priests, though in theory friends of education and somewhat awakening from their apathy of centuries sufficiently to regret that they had no funds to establish catholic schools, practically used their influence against any common-school system. Territorial officials and leading citizens realized the importance of educating the masses; and several memorials were sent to congress asking for money aid in place of the usual land appropriations, which as yet could not be utilized. At the session of 1854-5 was passed an act establishing a system of schools to be supported by a tax; but in four counties this proposition was submitted to the people, with the result of 5,016 votes against to 37 in favor of the tax. In 1859-60 an act of the legislature provided for a school in each settlement, to be supported by a tax of fifty cents for each child, the justice of the peace to employ a teacher and require attendance from November to April, and the probate judge to act as county superintendent. This was the system for many years with but very slight modification.

All industries were at a standstill in those years. There were no modifications of method worth noticing, and it is not my purpose to present here the slight available statistics and details of non-progressive monotony. Some statistics of 1860 may be utilized later for purposes of comparison. Indian depredations, as we shall presently see, were worse than ever, effectually preventing all progress in the old industries of commerce, agriculture, and stock-raising as well as the development of mining and other new industries. Merchandise to supply the needs of the people was still brought in wagon trains from the Missouri over the old Santa Fé trail. We have few details of the business, but Davis estimated the amount at from $750,000 to $1,000,000 per year, the freight costing nine or ten cents per pound. The trains arrived in August, after a trip of 45 to 60 days. The circulating medium was gold from California and silver from Mexico, the merchants making their remittances to the states in drafts obtained from United States officials. Merchants paid a license for transacting business, and by the act of 1852 were relieved of the ad valorem tax of the Kearny code. In 1862 Acting-governor Amy had high hopes of being able to take advantage of the United States and French blockades of Texan and Mexican ports to supply large portions of Mexico with goods by way of New Mexico and restore the past glories of the Santa Fe trade. The old-time annual fairs were still a prominent feature of trade, and the legislature in 1852-5 legally established these fairs for eight or twelve days at Las Vegas, Doña Ana, Mesilla, Tome, Las Cruces, Alburquerque, Socorro, and Santa Fe. Trading at these periods was free from all taxation, and gambling was permitted by payment of a small license; at Santa Fe, indeed, all the prohibited games might be played free of license, and the occasion was to be marked by an oration and other literary exercises, the pueblo Indians being invited to come in and indulge in their characteristic dances. But the acts establishing these fairs were repealed in 1856-7.

There was a marked increase in the number, size, and value of farms in the decade of 1850-60, though the census reports show a diminution in the acreage of improved lands, the increase being in grazing farms. Several acts bearing on irrigation, fencing, and other matters connected with these leading industries are mentioned in my résumé of legislative proceedings, and many more of a local nature are omitted. The presence of the United States troops afforded an improved market for many products; but at the same time the money spent by the government gave an opportunity for many to live with less exertion than before, and that seems to have been now as ever the main purpose of the masses. Seasons of drought were thought to be of more frequent occurrence than in earlier times. The boring of artesian wells for an increased water supply was often urged, and sometimes discussed in government reports. In 1858-9 a well was bored near Galisteo, as an experiment, to the depth of 1,300 feet, but though it showed the practicability of wells for the supply of travellers, it did not bring water to the surface, and so far as irrigation was concerned, was deemed a failure. Horses and mules increased during the decade from 13,733 to 21,357; cattle from 32,977 to 88,729; and sheep from 377,271 to 830,116, notwithstanding the constant depredations of Indians, which were commonly asserted to have paralyzed stock-raising. A large number of sheep were driven from New Mexico to California, especially in 1858-9.

Closely connected with agricultural interests In a new territory should be the disposal of public lands; but as in New Mexico nearly all the available, that is, irrigable, lands had long been reduced to private ownership, and as there was practically no immigration, the matter did not of itself assume any very important phases in this period. The legislature in 1851-2 passed resolutions in favor of reserving mineral and timber lands for public uses, and provided that a claim or improvements on public lands should be a transfer­able interest, and valid against all parties bat the United States. In accordance with the president’s recommendation of 1853, congress, by act of July 22, 1854, provided for the appointment of a surveyor-general, extended the operation of the land laws over the territory, and gave to every citizen residing there before 1853, or settling before 1858, a donation of 160 acres, to be patented after four years’ occupation. The usual grant of two sections in each township, 16 and 36, for schools and two townships for a university was made. Surveyor-general Pelham arrived in December, and in the following April established an initial meridian lines at a hill on the west bank of Río Grande. From this beginning the surveys were slowly advanced from year to year, appropriations being small, the authori­ties at Washington not deeming a rapid or extensive survey desirable until private and Indian claims could be settled, and the remoteness of the public lands from the settlements rendering operations in the field often dangerous. Down to 1863 there had been no sales, though a land-office was opened at Santa Fé in 1858. About 100 donation claims were filed, but only a few patented. The total area surveyed was 2,293,142 acres, the area of the territory being 77,568,640 acres, or 121,201 square miles.

New Mexico being an old province, settled for two centuries and a half by an agricultural community, the best portions of the territory along the rivers and susceptible of irrigation had naturally long been reduced to private ownership under Spanish and Mexican grants, protected in theory by the treaty of 1848. In a general way, these New Mexican private claims, and the problems arising in connection with them, were the same as in California. There was the same careless informality in respect of title papers, and the same vagueness in boundaries; the grants were, however, more numerous, much more complicated by transfers and subdivisions, more varied in their nature as originating from different national, provincial, sectional, and local officials; and the archives were much less complete; but on the other hand, there was no influx of settlers and speculators to foment controversy and fraud, and to create an active demand for the segregation of public lands. The proper policy of the United States was or should have been clear enough. Com­missioners and surveyors should have been promptly sent to examine titles, take testimony on possessory rights, and define boundaries, that patents might be issued—all at government expense. There would have been a certain amount of error and injustice; many personal and local controversies would have been encountered, to be settled by arbitration, by the awarding of other lands, or by litigation in territorial courts; but the great question of land tenure in its essential features would have been easily and inexpensively solved, and the country left in a proper condition for future development. Otherwise serious troubles, including the success of fraudulent claims and defeat of just ones, were sure to result. The government did nothing until 1854, and then instructed the surveyor-general to investigate the private and town claims, and report them to congress for confirmation. That official had no fa­cilities for this work, clerical assistance and appropriations being entirely inadequate; but he searched the archive records at Santa to some extent, finding some thousands of documents bearing on about 200 claims; and he notified claimants to present their titles. Many in their ignorance were timid about surrendering their papers, feeling moreover secure in their long possession, and noting presently how tardy was action on the claims presented. Moreover, by the law of 1862, they had to bear all the expense of investigation and survey, which temporarily put an end to the presentment. Down to 1863, however, out of 60 or more claims filed, about 30 had been examined, and most of them approved by the surveyor-general. He had also approved £he Indian pueblo claims, which to the number of 17 were confirmed by congress in the act of December 22, 1858. By this act and the later one of June 21,1860, congress also confirmed 19 private and town claims. In 1861, there had been surveyed 25 claims of both classes covering an area of 2,070,094 acres. In 1862-3 there had been examined of all classes 48 claims, and approved by congress 38. The surveyor-general constantly protested his inability to do justice to this work, urging the appointment of some kind of a commission, and congressional committees fully realized the impossibility of founding correct decisions on the meagre data furnished, predicting much more serious difficulties in the future; but no change was made in the system, and matters were allowed to drift.

The period of 1851-63 was in no sense one of mining development. That the country was rich in mineral resources was not doubted, but such items and statements as are extant on the subject deal almost exclusively with mining successes of the remote past, generally exaggerated as the reader of earlier annals is aware, and with predictions of future successes resting on a much more solid foundation. On account of the slight immigration, and especially of constant Indian hostilities, the conditions were most unfavorable for mining; yet the soldiers and others accomplished much work incidentally in the way of prospecting, some discoveries being made in different sections, and the prospects, as is customary in a country of hostile Indians, being as a rule too highly colored. In the last years of the period some actual work was done in the south. The census reports of 1860 mention only one silver and three copper mines, all in Doña Ana county, employing 390 workmen, and producing $212,000; but the governor in his message of 1861-2 alludes to 30 gold lodes at Pinos Altos, employing 300 miners and paying $40 to $250 per ton, to rich gold placers near Fort Stanton, and to work at Placer Mountain near Santa Fé, besides the copper mines at Santa Rita and Hanover. There are other items of information on these and other mines, but I have not deemed it necessary to compile the meagre data, though some items may be utilized in later mining annals. All work was suspended during the confederate invasion of 1861-2, but from 1863 the industry was in a small way revived.

The New Mexican delegates to congress have been named in this chapter. In some cases, the elections were contested and charges of fraud freely made, but evidence is much too meagre for impartial investigation of these contests on their merits. The struggle was largely one between two factions of the catholic church, one headed by Bishop Lamy—of French origin—and his new clergy, and the other by the Mexican priests, who regarded the newcomers as intruders. Gallegos elected in 1858 was a priest. His election was contested unsuccessfully by Ex-governor Lane, who claimed among other things that the votes of pueblo Indians for him had been illegally rejected, this appears to have been the main point, but congress decided practically against the right of the Indians to vote. Gallegos was again elected, according to the governor’s certificate, in 1855; but his seat was successfully contested by Otero. The chief ground of this contest was the voting of men who, after the treaty of 1848, had chosen—not in due legal form as was claimed—to remain citizens of Mexico, but had now changed their minds. Congress was not disposed to recognize these men as citizens of the United States, bat the controversy lasted many years. The delegates seated were men in fair abilities, and perhaps did as much as anybody could have done, which was very little. Congress took but slight interest in New Mexican affairs, and was con­tent for the most part with making the annual appropriations called for by the organic act, with grudging concessions of other small sums for special purposes, and with much larger payments of Indian and military expenses.

In an earlier chapter I have recorded the national boundary survey, and noted the fact that the United States and Mexican commissioners agreed upon an initial point on the Rio Grande, which gave the Mesilla valley to Mexico. Before this agreement, it appears that a few settlers from Doña Ana, a little farther north, had entered the valley; and after it a Chihuahua colony under Rafael Ruelas had colonized the district in 1849-50 as Mexican soil. While I find no evidence, as I have before stated, that any other line was ever agreed upon down to the date of the Gadsden treaty, which settled the whole matter in 1853-4, yet there was a senate report against the Bartlett line, and the appropriation bill forbade the expending of money on the survey until it should appear that the line was not farther north of El Paso than it was laid down on Disturnell’s map, the president accordingly declining to authorize the expenditure. In New Mexico there was much feeling on the subject, involving a popular determination not to give up Mesilla. Governor Lane, who it seems also engaged with Bartlett in some written controversy, by a proclamation of March 13, 1852, asserted the jurisdiction of New Mexico over the disputed tract. I must confess that I have not been able to find any satisfactory original evidence as to what ensued. Lossing, the historian, says that in 1854 Chihuahua took armed possession of the disputed territory. For a time war seemed inevitable between the United States and Mexico. Newspapers of the time also contained some warlike rumors, with very little defi­nite information. We have seen that Bartlett was probably wrong in the original concession; but ob­viously Mexico could not be blamed for regarding the agreement of the commissioners as final; and while there was a question whether the United States was bound by the agreement—especially in view of the refusal of the surveyor to sign it—it was clearly a matter to be settled by national negotiation as it was settled by the final treaty. The only troublesome point left in later years was respecting the validity of the Mexican colony grants made after 1848, and therefore not protected by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The explorations of this period for railroad and other purposes, such as those of Sitgreaves in 1851, Whipple in 1853-4, Parke in 1854-5, Beale in 1857, and Ives in 1858, though pertaining more or less to New Mexico, have been sufficiently noticed with references to the authorities in the annals of Arizona. In 1851 Captain John Pope made a reconnaissance from Santa Fé to Fort Leavenworth by the Cimarron and Cedar Creek. The Texan explorations of captains Marcy and McClellan in 1852 involved some matters pertaining to different parts of New Mexico, and the routes leading to that territory from the east. In December 1853 Major J. H. Carleton, with a detachment of 100 men, made an exploring expedition from Alburquerque to Casa Colorada, Abó, Quarra, and Gran Quivira. The railroad survey of the thirty-second parallel from the Red River to the Rio Grande was accomplished by Captain Pope in 1854. Secretary Davis’ book contains an interesting narrative of his journeying to and in New Mexico in 1854-5, though these are not in the nature of explorations. In 1859 Captain Macomb made an important exploration of the north-western portions of the territory, and of the adjoining parts of Colorado and Utah.