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The recent actions of the political conventions of the Republicans and Democrats, in
Philadelphia and
Kansas City, appear to make it opportune and appropriate for some notice of a few points of history, and to observe the prospects of the future.
In the platforms of both parties there is one item, or matter, to which I desire to refer, and to direct attention.
It is the item of making new States of the
Territories of
New Mexico,
Arizona and
Oklahoma.
The Republicans in their platform say: ‘We favor home rule for and the early admission to Statehood of the
Territories of
New Mexico,
Arizona and
Oklahoma.’
The Democrats in their platform say: ‘We denounce the failure of the Republican party to carry out its pledges to grant Statehood to the
Territories of
Arizona,
New Mexico and
Oklahoma, and we promise the people of those Territories immediate Statehood and home rule during their condition as territories, and we favor home rule and a territorial form of government for
Alaska and
Porto Rico.’
From these quotations from the two platforms, it seems that in the success of either party the result must be that the
Territories shall be admitted as States of the
United States.
Some points of history.
My purpose is now to recite a few facts of history concerning the
Territory of Arizona.
This Territory is a part of the great
Mexican purchase by the
United States from
Mexico, through the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo, of the
United States with
Mexico in 1848, growing out of the
Mexican war, and five years later by the Gadsden purchase.
By these two acquisitions of territory, the
United States made a great expansion.
By the treaty the
United States acquired 522,568 square miles, or 334,443,520 acres of new territory, and by the Gadsden purchase the
United States received other new territory of 45,535 square miles, or an area of 29, 142,400 acres.
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This acquired territory has since been divided into several States and Territories, to-wit:
California,
Nevada,
Utah and
New Mexico, was subsequently divided, and by this subsequent partition comes the interesting history of the
Territory of Arizona.
A Territory named
Arizona was first laid out and organized by the
Confederate States of America.
On the 1st of March, 1861, the
Territory was taken in charge by
Lieutenant-Colonel John R. Baylor, who was in command of the Confederate Army force in the
Territory, and possession was held on behalf of the
Confederate States of America.
The new Territory was to be included ‘in all that portion of
New Mexico lying south of the 34th parallel of north latitude,’ and a proclamation was issued, ‘declaring said Territory temporarily organized as a military government until such time as Congress might otherwise provide.’
Officers were appointed for the government of the
Territory.
In the next year, 1862, the Congress of the Confederate States passed ‘an act to organize the
Territory of Arizona.’
The first section of the act prescribed as follows:
‘The Congress of the Confederate States of
America do enact, That all that part of the present Territory of
New Mexico, included within the following limits, to-wit: Beginning on the
Colorado river at the parallel of north latitude 34 degrees, thence with said parallel to the eastern boundary of
New Mexico; thence with said boundary until it intersects the line of
Texas, and thence with said line to the
Rio Grande, and so on to the line of
Mexico, on said river, as fixed by the treaty of 1854; thence with the boundary line established by said treaty between the late
United States and
Mexico to the
Colorado river, thence up the
Colorado river to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby created into a temporary government, by the name of the
Territory of Arizona; and nothing in this act shall be so construed as to inhibit the government of the
Confederate States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory to any other State or Territory of the
Confederate States, and the institution of slavery in said Territory shall receive all necessary protection, both from the Territorial Legislature and the Congress of the Confederate States; provided, also, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of persons or property now pertaining to the Pimos and
Maricopas Indians
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on the
Gila river, or the right or claim of the
Confederate States to the remainder of the
Territory of
New Mexico, or to any other Territory north of the line of 34 degrees of north latitude.’
The second section provides for the executive power and authority to be vested in a governor, and prescribes his term of office to be six years, and his official duties.
The various other sections of the act provide for other officers and their duties, and for representatives in the Legislature, and delegates to the Confederate Congress, and for the general regulations for the government of the
Territory.
The act is too lengthy to copy here, and it is not necessary to do so.
I have an official copy of the act taken from Confederate records in the city of
Washington in the Department of the Interior.
The last section (17) recites: ‘That the provisions of this act be and are hereby suspended until the
President of the
Confederate States shall issue his proclamation, declaring this act to be in full force and operative and shall proceed to appoint the officers herein provided to be appointed in and for said Territory.’
The act was approved by the
President,
Jefferson Davis, on January 18, 1862.
Accordingly,
President Jefferson Davis, published his official proclamation, in pursuance of the said act, as follows:
Organization of the
Territory of Arizona.
Proclamation of the
President of the
Confederate States of America—Whereas, an act of the Congress of the Confederate States of
America, entitled, ‘An act to organize the
Territory of Arizona,’ was approved by me on the 18th day of January, A. D. 1862;
And, Whereas, It is therein declared that the provisions of the act are suspended until the
President of the
Confederate States shall issue his proclamation declaring the act to be in full force and operation, and shall proceed to appoint the officers therein provided to be appointed in and for said Territory:
Now, therefore, I,
Jefferson Davis,
President of the
Confederate States of America, do issue this, my proclamation, declaring said ‘Act to organize the
Territory of Arizona’ to be in full force and operation, and that I have proceeded to appoint the officers therein provided to be appointed in and for said Territory.
Given under my hand and the seal of the
Confederate States of America, at
Richmond, this 14th day of February, A. D. 1862.
By the
President:
(Seal.)
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So much now for the facts of the
Territory of Arizona, as to being created and organized by and under the government of the
Confederate States of America.
In the next year, 1863, on the 24th day of February, it appears that the Congress of the United States, in session in
Washington city, followed the Congress of the Confederate States and passed ‘an act to establish and organize the
Territory of Arizona,’ formerly a part of the
Territory of
New Mexico.
The name, as will be observed, is the same as that of the
Confederate Territory.
See the
United States Statutes-at-Large, volume twelve, page 664, or
Revised Statutes of the
United States, edition of 1878, page 335. It appears in the above cited act of February 24, 1863, that the
United States made the
Territory of Arizona of the western portion of
New Mexico, by including all that part ‘situated west of a line running due south from the point where the southwest corner of the
Territory of Colorado joins the northern boundary of the
Territory of
New Mexico, to the southern boundary line of said Territory of
New Mexico, and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the
Territory of Arizona; provided, that nothing contained in the provisions of this act shall be construed to prohibit the Congress of the United States from dividing said Territory or changing its boundaries in such manner and at such time as it may deem proper; provided, further, that said government shall be maintained and continued until such time as the people residing in said Territory shall, with the consent of Congress, form a State government, republican in form, as prescribed in the
Constitution of the United States, and apply for and obtain admission into the union as a State on an equal footing with the original States.’
The second section of the act provides for appointment of officers and prescribes duties as conferred by the act organizing the Territorial government of
New Mexico.
The third section provides ‘that there shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, and all acts and parts of acts, either of Congress or of the
Territory of
New Mexico, establishing, regulating, or in any way recognizing the relation of master and slave in said Territory are hereby repealed.’
Approved February 24, 1863.
It will be observed that there were then two Territories by the name of
Arizona during the period of the
Civil War, the
Confederate
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Arizona being in the eastern part or division of
New Mexico, and the
United States Arizona being the western part of
New Mexico.
The
Arizona of the
Confederate States was the first organized by that name.
Of course, it ceased to exist as an organized Territorial Government when the
Confederacy went out of existence as a government.
It is of some interest to notice the special features of these two Territorial Governments with reference to slavery.
The old citizens of the
United States will recall to memory the great agitation of long time ago about the matter of slavery in the
Territories.
These acts of the
Confederate States and of the
United States may be of some interest to students of history, who may desire to learn of the agitations of the old times.
It will be noticed that both the acts which created the two Arizonas recite that they were to be temporary.
When did the
United States since then enact that the
Territory should be a permanent Territorial Government?
True, the act says it shall be continued until the people residing therein, with consent of Congress, form a State Government.
Have ever the people or Congress moved in it?
In this connection I may mention the fact that the various school histories now in use in our schools and colleges do not give any notice or information at all about the facts of the organization of a
Territory of Arizona by the
Confederate States of America, and yet the fact is as true as any other established act or fact concerning the
Confederacy, and it is as much a part of the history of the
Confederacy and of the times of the
Civil War as any other item of history.
The omission of such a fact of our history of the
Confederacy shows the defective system of our modern school histories, and it may also show the positive prejudice or the inexcusable ignorance, or the ‘cussed’ carelessness of the so-called authors or scribblers of history.
The real truth of history should be given of every important event.
As the political parties are now on record favoring expansion and admission of new States, let them also tell the truth of history and let them demand that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth shall be given to the children in our schools.
Teach them in only true facts.
Editor Constitution:
Will you kindly permit me to make a supplementary statement about the
Territory of Arizona, in connection with my article which you published in your paper on the 31st of July, with regard to the
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first organization of the
Territory of Arizona, by the
Confederate States?
I did not state it definitely, and it may not appear quite clearly from my article as it was published, that the
Confederate States Territory of Arizona, as defined and laid out by the act of the
Confederate States Congress, in Feb., 1862, embraced or included the whole of the old-time, ante-bellum territory of
New Mexico, to the
Colorado river, as the west boundary line, excepting a little point or area in the northwest corner of the old-time
New Mexico, north of the
Colorado river.
An inspection of an old map, and of the limits or lines as defined by the act of the
Confederate States Congress in 1862, will make it very plain to any reader or student who may wish or care to verify this statement.
Then the act of the United States Congress of February 24, 1863, created or defined the lines of the present
Territory of Arizona, which overlaid or covered the western portion of the
Confederate States Territory of Arizona, which was the old-time Territory of
New Mexico.
The new
Territory of Arizona includes that point or area in the northwestern corner that lies north of the
Colorado river, that was not in the
Confederate States Arizona.
If the
Confederate States had been successfully and permanently established, then there would not have been any more of the
Territory of
New Mexico but that little corner above the
Colorado river, and the present
Territories of
Arizona and
New Mexico, together, excepting that corner, would be the
Confederate States Arizona, as organized first by the
Confederate States in 1862.
So it may be observed that whenever the present
Territories of
New Mexico and
Arizona shall be admitted into the union of States, ‘on an equal footing with the original States,’ they will comprise that area which was once the
Territory of Arizona, as it was first organized by that name, by the
Confederate States of America, excepting the little northwest corner as stated.
As a matter of fact in history, this may be of some interest, and may be worthy of note for future reference.
Very truly yours,
