Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/72

 62 F. L. Fax son Dakota, Nevada, and Arizona territories. As in the past sessions of Congress, the debate was less upon the need for the erection of several territorial governments than upon the attitude which any bills should take upon the slavery issue. In the demands of the Republican leaders in the territorial debates from 1858 to 1867 can be measured the advance of antislavery attitude, from exclusion of slaves through guaranties to free negroes, and up to the abolition of the " white " clause in the franchise qualification. This obsession of Congress by the slavery debate precluded territorial legislation in the years 1859 and i860, but the session ended with the reason- ableness of one of the demands well presented. In a secondary way the governmental argument was strengthened by petitions for the service of the mails, for post-roads from Fort Laramie to Golden City and from Atchison to Denver. And though on Alay 12 all of the territorial bills were tabled for the session,^ the need for them was clearer than it had been at any time since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854. The territory of Jefiferson, as organized in November, 1859, had been from the first recognized as merely a temporary expedient. The movement for it had gained weight in the summer of that year from the probability that it need not be maintained for many months. When Congress, however, failed in the ensuing session of 1859- 1860 to grant the relief for which the pioneers prayed, the wisdom of continuing for another year the life of a government admitted to be illegal came into question. The first session of its legislature had lasted from November 7, 1859,- to January 25, i860. It had passed comprehensive laws-'' for the regulation of titles in lands, water, and mines, and had adopted civil and criminal codes. Its courts had been established and had operated with some show of authority. But the services and obedience to the government had been voluntary, no funds being on hand for the payment of salaries and expenses. One of the pioneers from Vermont wrote home, " There is no hopes [ JiV] of perfect quiet in our governmental matters until we are securely under the wing of our National Eagle."* ' Cong, Globe, 36 Cong., i Sess., 2079-2085. "The Rocky Mountain News had the text of Steele's message in its issue of November 10, 1859. It is also found' in House Misc. Doc. 10, 36 Cong., i Sess., Serial 1063, pp. 11-15. ^Provisional Laws and Joint Resolutions Passed at the First and Called Sessions of the General Assembly of Jefferson Territory, Held at Denver City, J. T., November and December, i8s9, and January, i860. Published by Authority (Omaha, N. T., Robinson and Clark, i860, pp. 298). The writer knows of the existence of only two copies of this pamphlet. the Bennington Banner, Bennington, Vermont, 1859-1860 (Denver?, n. d., pp. 88), S4.
 * Early Day Letters from Auraria (now Denver) Written by Libeus Barney to