Colorado overcame obstacles of territorial days

By Rebecca Jones

Had Republicans not expected the presidential election of 1876 to be a squeaker in which each vote would be critical, Colorado might have waited many more years to join the union.

Had Democrats not been such pie-in-the-sky optimists about which way the political winds were blowing in the Rocky Mountains, they never would have agreed to it.

Had the railroad not come through when it did, Colorado might have remained a backwater with too few residents to be seriously considered for statehood for years to come.

But everything came together for Colorado in the summer of 1876. On July 1, after years of dispute and disappointment, Coloradans overwhelmingly approved a state constitution.

A month later, on Aug. 1, President Grant issued a proclamation declaring Colorado the 38th state.

It was the culmination of a process that began 18 years earlier, when Colorado was mostly unexplored territory and its leading city, Denver, was just a gold camp.

It was in the summer of 1858 that the earliest settlers met and decided to ask the federal government to detach the territory from Kansas, give it a name and allow it to set up its own government.

``But the Congress was too agitated over the coming Civil War to pay much attention,'' said David Halaas, chief historian for the Colorado Historical Society.

By April 1859, settlers again attempted to make Colorado a sovereign state. But the first gold boom was over by then, and settlers were leaving.

In September, voters rejected the first constitution, but a provisional territorial government was set up. It was called the Territory of Jefferson.

A year and a half later, Congress created the Territory of Colorado, and President Lincoln appointed William Gilpin its first governor. In August 1861, the first territorial legislature met.

By 1864, those legislators were again itching for statehood. They drew up another constitution to put before voters in September.

Statehood, proponents argued, was greatly desirable. As a state, Colorado could secure government protection from hostile Indians.

It also would be easier to lure the railroads here and to protect mining interests. And Coloradans would have the privilege of self-government.

But opponents noted that Colorado could hardly afford self-governance. Most mines were not producing, and the Civil War was retarding westward expansion.

In the end, Coloradans voted their pocketbooks, rejecting the constitution - and statehood - by 5,006 to 4,219.

But advocates of statehood would not be denied. A new constitution put to another vote in 1865 was approved - barely - 3,025 to 2,870.

Something else happened in 1865 that would alter the course of Colorado history. In April, Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson - a Democrat - became president.

Johnson, a Southerner, already had his hands full with a Republican Congress, and he wasn't inclined to admit any more Republican states to the union. And Colorado leaned Republican.

Also looming in the background: the Sand Creek Massacre. Col. John Chivington figured himself a shoo-in to become Colorado's first U.S. representative. ``But he was under criticism from Army command that he wasn't paying enough attention to the Cheyenne and Arapaho because he was too busy politicking,'' Halaas said. ``So he struck at Sand Creek, thinking a victory not only would get him a brigadier general's star but a top hat in Washington.''

The 1864 massacre, in which 163 Indians, mostly women and children, were killed and mutilated, tarnished Colorado's image. Many who otherwise might have supported Colorado statehood backed away, Halaas said.

Bills to bring Colorado into the union continually failed.

Easterners objected to bringing in sparsely populated new states that would be entitled to two senators - as many as the older, more populous states had. Southerners objected to bringing in new states until all the states of the old Confederacy were readmitted.

Some folks just objected to Colorado statehood on general principles.

``Do not allow Colorado in, with its roving, unsettled horde of adventurers with no settled home, here or elsewhere,'' an Eastern newspaper warned. ``They are in Colorado solely because a state of semibarbarism prevalent in that wild country suits their vagrant habits.''

``There is something repulsive that a few handfuls of rough miners and reckless bullwhackers should have the same voice in the Senate as Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio,'' the Pittsburgh Commercial said.

Still, Colorado had powerful friends in Washington, among them Schuyler Colfax, Indiana representative, speaker of the House and later vice president under Grant.

Colfax was a half-brother of Clara Witter, a Denver settler. He visited Denver twice between 1865 and 1868 and liked what he saw.

``He's sometimes called `Smilin' Schuyler' because he was always glad to do favors - in exchange for someone doing something for him. Or naming something for him,'' Denver historian Phil Goodstein says.

Colfax became one of Colorado's staunchest allies in Washington. The payoff: In 1868, the road marking Denver's original southern boundary was named for him.

Four years later, Colfax got caught up in the Credit Mobilier scandal, in which public officials took bribes from the railroad. He was never charged with anything, but Grant dumped him from the ticket in the 1872 campaign.

Even so, there was never talk of renaming Colfax Avenue. ``I don't think people cared all that much at that time,'' Goodstein said. ``Considering the morals of the 19th century, was he really doing anything all that much worse than anybody else? After all, he was a good, honest politician. Once bought, he was always bought.''

Colorado's big break in Washington came in 1875.

The state had shown impressive growth since the railroads arrived in 1870. State population topped 135,000 by 1875, the minimum needed then to be considered for statehood.

Opposition to Colorado statehood began to fade. Republicans, sensing a tough election in 1876, coveted Colorado's electoral votes, which they felt sure would fall in the GOP column.

But Thomas Patterson, one of two territorial delegates to Congress and a staunch Democrat, assured Democrats that Colorado wasn't as Republican as the Republicans believed.

Patterson, who would later buy the Rocky Mountain News and win election to the U.S. Senate, told a convincing tale, and the Congressional Democrats bought it.

Democrats went along with the Republicans and passed legislation to bring Colorado into the union.

In Colorado, a constitutional convention was called and delegates began drawing up the document that would govern the state. On July 1, 1876, the new constitution was passed 19,483 to 15,830.

A month later, President Grant's proclamation made statehood official. Colorado, which entered the union just as the United States was celebrating its 100th anniversary, became the Centennial State.

July 27, 1999

Colorado Millennium 2000 is a yearlong project by the Denver Rocky Mountain News, NEWS4 and the Colorado Historical Society
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