COLORADO. 



117 



the death of Lieutenant-Governor George B. 

 Robinson, who died on November 29, 1880, 

 having been shot by mistake by one of the 

 armed guards stationed at his mine, as sug- 

 gesting the propriety of some legislative re- 

 striction upon the power of private corpora- 

 tions to employ armed guards for the defense 

 of their property. He thought it would be 

 wise to impose a severer penalty upon persons 

 guilty of " mine-jumping," which would in 

 part remove the necessity for armed guards. 

 He recommended the establishment of a re- 

 form school for boys in connection with a 

 State farm. 



Very few important bills were passed by the 

 Legislature. Some local feeling was excited 

 over a new apportionment law passed near 

 the close of the session, in which the ratio of 

 representation in the State Legislature was 

 fixed as set forth in the following sections : 



SECTION 2. The ratios for the senatorial apportion- 

 ment shall be : First, one Senator for the first 5,000 

 population ; second, one Senator for each 9,000 popu- 

 lation thereafter, with one Senator for fractions over 

 7,000 population. 



SEC. 3. The ratios for representative apportionment 

 shall be: First, one Representative for the first 1,000 

 population ; second, one Representative for each 5,000 

 population thereafter, with one Eepresentative for frac- 

 tions over 3,000 population. 



The representation of certain counties was fur- 

 ther specifically prescribed in the bill. Ara- 

 pahoe County was allowed eight Representa- 

 tives and Lake County four, the former having 

 a population of 38,607, and the latter 23,787. 

 In behalf of these counties there were many 

 protests against the reapportionment. A law 

 was passed forbidding, under severe penalties, 

 any person to engage in, promote, or aid any 

 lottery, gift-enterprise, or any similar scheme 

 in the State, or to advertise in a newspaper or 

 otherwise any matter relating to a lottery. A 

 law was also passed authorizing the Governor 

 to appoint a State Fish Commissioner, with a 

 salary of $500 per annum, holding office for 

 two years, and the sum of $2,500 was appro- 

 priated to purchase grounds and erect a build- 

 ing for a fish -hatchery. For the expenses of 

 maintaining the hatchery during the year end- 

 ing June 1, 1882, the further sum of $3,500 

 was appropriated, and for the second year 

 $3,000. Under this law the Governor appoint- 

 ed Wilson E. Sisty to be Fish Commissioner. 

 A fish-hatchery was erected on the river Platte, 

 about three fourths of a mile from Denver. 

 It was opened on the 14th of December and 

 stocked with 400,000 brook-trout eggs from 

 the Old Colony trout-ponds at Plymouth, Mas- 

 sachusetts. The hatchery has fifteen troughs, 

 with a capacity of 1,000,000 eggs. 



There were no political conventions held 

 during the year, and no general election took 

 place, the balloting on November 8th being 

 for district judges, district attorneys, and in 

 one district (the sixth) for State Senator. At 

 this election the question of the permanent lo- 

 cation of the State capital was submitted to 



the people. The Constitution of 1876 contained 

 a provision that the capital should be at Den- 

 ver until the first general election of 1881, when 

 the electors of the State should by ballot desig- 

 nate their choice for the permanent seat of 

 government. The total vote on the capital 

 question was 45,497, of which 695 were cast 

 for Salida, 2,788 for Canton City, 4,790 for 

 Colorado Springs, 6,047 for Pueblo, and 30,- 

 248 for Denver, which city, having thus re- 

 ceived a majority of all the votes cast, became 

 the permanent seat of the State government. 

 The vote for Governor in the election of 1880, 

 as officially declared in the Legislature, was : 

 Frederick W. Pitkin (Republican), 28,465; 

 Hough (Democrat), 23,547. Owing to the 

 death before his inauguration of the Lieuten- 

 ant-Governor-elect, George B. Robinson, the 

 Lieutenant-Governor of the previous adminis- 

 tration, H. A. W. Tabor, continues to fill that 

 position. In 1880 the vote for Garfield was 

 27,450, Hancock, 24,647; Garfield's majority, 

 1,368. 



By the removal of the Utes and the Uncom- 

 pahgre Indians from the Colorado reservation 

 to Utah the State is rid of several thousand 

 very undesirable denizens, and vast tracts of 

 the most fertile lands in Colorado are made 

 available for settlers. By the terms of the 

 agreement between the United States and the 

 confederated bands of the Utes, as set forth in 

 the act of Congress approved June 15, 1880, it 

 is provided that " the Southern Utes agree to 

 remove and settle upon the unoccupied agri- 

 cultural lands on the La Plata River in Colo- 

 rado, and if there should not be a sufficiency ot 

 such lands on the La Plata River and in its 

 vicinity in Colorado, then upon such other un- 

 occupied agricultural lands as may be found on 

 the La Plata River or in its vicinity in New 

 Mexico." As no such quantity of lands as was 

 contemplated in this agreement could be found 

 in the locality indicated, its terms were changed 

 and the Indians were induced to consent to a 

 transfer to equally fertile and desirable lands 

 in the Uintah reservation in the Territory of 

 Utah. The Ute Indian Commissioners, Messrs. 

 Mears, Russell, and McMorris, had several par- 

 leys with the braves in the course of the sum- 

 mer, and found them not disposed to keep their 

 agreement. The commissioners named the 25th 

 of August as the day for removal. The White 

 River Utes went peaceably enough, but the 

 Uncompahgres were inclined to fight. Under 

 the orders of the Secretary of the Interior, the 

 assistance of General McKenzie and a force of 

 800 troops was invoked by the commissioners. 

 Though they outnumbered the white troops 

 and were equally well armed, the Indians de- 

 cided to obey, and on the 28th they started for 

 the Utah reservation. During the autumn 

 months there was a good deal of complaint that 

 the Indians returned to the valleys of the La 

 Plata and Uncompahgre Rivers to hunt, and 

 that they annoyed settlers and interfered with 

 the surveys of the Utah extension of the 



