i6o 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
tionship to American occupation, was so comprehensive that when it came to the enactment of 
a law by the Amei*ican Congress whereby all of these titles, in so far as any claim, made by 
the Government of the United States was concerned, could be settled, his influence as a lawyer 
and citizen of New Mexico before the Senate and Congress of the United States was so pro- 
nounced that he was in position to render the people of the southwest a great service. His 
testimony and his arguments before the various Congressional and Senate committees had 
more to do with the passage of the act providing for the establishment of the Court of Private 
Land Claims than of all other New Mexicans combined. 
As I have said, when I undertook the writing of the biographies of the members of the 
bench and bar, dealing with those classified as having come with the American occupation 
period, I found very little recorded in New Mexico beyond the decisions of our Supreme 
Court, and there were only two volumes of reports at that time. And so it was that I con- 
cluded that future historians and searchers would not be put to that inconvenience if any of 
my time could be profitably used in recording and accumulating information with reference 
to all of the members of the bar of my own period. Naturally there was much of interest in 
securing all possible information from so prominent a man as Mr. Springer. While my 
acquaintance with him was not intimate at that time but was of a professional nature, I found 
him then, as he is today, one of the most modest and reticent of men. It was almost impossible 
to acquire any information in ordinary conversation if he happened to know its purpose, and 
while living in Las Vegas, I took occasion to invite him to my residence, when unknown to 
him I was able to draw out the story of all the facts relative to the early history of the Maxwell 
Land Grant and earlier events occurring in Colfax County, every thing which had to do with 
the various lavyyers and judges who practised in the courts of Taos, Colfax, San Miguel, and 
Mora counties, and had it very carefully recorded by a stenographer who was concealed in an 
adjoining room, Mr. Springer being at the time unconscious of the fact until years later, when 
I published the Leading Facts of New IMexican History, and later, in some notes to my Span- 
ish Archives. Recognizing that he had played a most prominent part in the making of New 
Mexico, I began preserving all of the printed records, briefs, arguments, newspaper clippings 
and accounts of his activities, and so it is that upon this occasion I am able, in a small way, 
to contribute a compilation of all of the printed accounts which have been thus preserved. 
This volume I am now tendering as a small contribution on my part to this really great New 
Mexican ; a contribution not for today but as a source book which the future historian will 
appreciate, who will amplify the work of those of us who have sought to- record the facts of 
history in the southwest. This compilation, I believe, will be appreciated by the present and 
future generations of Mr. Springer’s family, as well as by the historical writers of the future. 
Llis courteous treatment of his fellow members of the bar, his consideration for the 
shortcomings and limitations of the younger members of the profession, his great respect 
for judicial authority and personnel, and his mastery of many unsolved legal problems which 
confronted the early practitioners in the courts of New Mexico, are outstanding features of 
Mr. Springer’s career. 
Dr. Hewett: Thanks to Colonel Twitchell for this sketch of Mr. Springer’s 
activities in those great days of the making of onr state. From among the men 
who have more recently come into positions of influence and usefulness I wish 
to present one who can speak of Mr. Springer’s place in business and public 
affairs. I introduce to you Mr. James G. McNaiw, president of the First Na- 
tional Banks of El Paso and Las V egas. * 
