THE TERRITORY OF JEFFERSON 1 7 



might develop. On the first of August it convened again to spend five 

 days in the double work of framing a constitution and deciding whether 

 to apply for state or territorial existence. Unable to choose between the 

 alternatives, it evaded the decision by presenting at once a constitution 

 and a territorial memorial, and referring the matter to popular vote. 

 The election on September 5 rejected the constitution for the State of 

 Jefferson. 



Thus far the movement for a local organization had failed — while 

 the need for it had become greater every month. But before Septem- 

 ber came to an end a call had been issued for another convention to 

 frame a provisional constitution for the Territory of Jefferson. And 

 on the 7th of November this movement terminated when its constitu- 

 tion was made effective, its legislature met for a first session, and Robert 

 W. Steele, of Ohio, its first governor, read his inaugural message. 



The Territory of Jefferson was an illegitimate commonwealth. It 

 came spontaneously when the need for it was felt; and so long as it 

 endured, it lived in defiance of the laws of Kansas and Nebraska, and 

 without the sanction of the United States. Yet its life covered a year 

 and a half. Its governor was twice elected; two legislatures met to 

 transact its business; its courts were organized and respected; and it 

 was only when it tried to collect its revenues that it showed its weakness. 

 But for several months it was an effective instrument in the preservation 

 of order and law, while its corporate existence was terminated when 

 Congress in the spring of 1861 created the Territory of Colorado, and 

 Lincoln appointed William Gilpin to be its governor. Then the old 

 organization lived up to its platform, as it resigned its powers into the 

 hands of the lawfully constituted authorities. 



The Territory of Jefferson is only an episode in the process of 

 commonwealth-building in the West. But it illustrates the constant 

 quality of frontier citizenship and the spontaneous instinct for self- 

 government that give to American life so much of its distinctive char- 

 acter. It was a government that originated in necessity ; that, although 

 illegitimate, bore every earmark of a reign of law; that served a useful 

 purpose, and that died an honorable death after a not unhonorable life. 

 "If there be any vestige of power yet remaining in the Provisional 



