THE TERRITORY OF COLORADO 7 1 



in, for the need of government was obvious. It resulted in the choice of a 

 legislature 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 Novem- 

 ber 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 frontiers- 

 man 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 institutions, with results in the erection of illegiti- 

 mate provisional governments. But none of these illegitimate govern- 

 ments has been erected more deliberately or conducted with more pro- 

 priety 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 News] 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 to be under any active and protecting 

 branch of the central government, have a right, if on American soil, to frame a 

 government, and enact such laws and regulations as may be necessary for their 

 own safety, protection, and happiness, always with the condition precedent, that 

 they shall, at the earliest moment when the central government shall extend an 

 efieclive organization, and laws over them, give it their unqualified support and 

 obedience.^ 



And the life of the spontaneous commonwealth thus called into existence 

 is a creditable witness to the American instinct for orderly government.'* 

 When Congress met in December, 1859, the provisional territory of 

 Jefferson was in operation, while its delegates were in Washington press- 

 ing the need for governmental action. One of the agents, B. D. Wilhams, 



' BiNCKLEY AND Hartwell, Southern Colorado (Canon City, 1879), 5; Smiley, 315. 



' George Henry Alden, "The State of Franklin," in American Historical Review, VIII. 271-89; 

 see also the Clarksville (Indiana) Resolves, ibid., II. 691-93. 



3 Rocky Mountain News, January 4, i860. 



* F. L. Paxson, "The Territory of Jefferson; a Spontaneous Commonwealth," in University of 

 Colorado Studies, III. isr-18. 



