Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/70

 6o F. L. Paxson October lo this convention met. " Here we go," commented Byers, " a regular triple-headed government machine ; south of 40 deg., we hang on to the skirts of Kansas; north of 40 deg., to those of Ne- braska; straddling the line, we have just elected a Delegate to the United States Congress from the ' Territory of Jefferson ', and ere long, we will have in full blast a provisional government of Rocky mountain growth and manufacture."' In this convention of Oc- tober 10, 1859, the name of JeiTerson was retained for the new terri- tory, the boundaries of April 15 were retained, and a government similar to the highest type of territorial establishment was provided for.^ If the convention had met pursuant to an enabling act, its career could not have been more dignified. It adopted a constitution with little trouble, and then dissolved after calling an election for territorial officers for October 24, 1859. The election of this day seems to have been orderly and generally participated in, for the need of government was obvious. It resulted in the choice of a leg- islature and an executive staff headed by Governor Robert W. Steele of Ohio.^ Two weeks later Steele met his assembly and delivered his first inaugural address. The territory of Jefferson, which thus came into existence on November 7, 1859, is one of the most illuminating incidents in the history of the American frontier. From the days of the State of Franklin' the frontiersman has always resented his isolation, and upon receiving evidence of governmental neglect has always been ready to erect his own government and care for himself in a political way. There are many incidents in the history of statehood movements in which settlement has rushed forward more rapidly than legal in- stitutions, with results in the erection of illegitimate provisional gov- ernments. But none of these illegitimate governments has been erected more deliberately or conducted with more propriety than this territory of Jefferson. The fundamental principle of American government which Byers expresses is applicable at all times in similar situations : We claim [he wrote in his Rocky Mountain Ncii-'sl that any body, or community of American citizens, which from any cause or under any circumstance, is cut off from, or from isolation is so situated, as not ' Rocky Mountain News, October 6. ^Hollister, 92; Smiley, 314; Bancroft, 406; text in Roctty Mountain News, October 20. 3 Binckley and Hartwell, Southern Colorado (Canon City, 1879), 5; Smiley, 315- ■• George Henry Alden, " The State of Franklin ", in American Historical Review, VIH. 271-289; see also the Clarksville (Indiana) Resolves, ibid., II. 691-693-