The word “secession” is usually associated with the Civil War and the attempt by southern states to secede from the Union. But in 1867, New Mexico experienced a small secession movement of its own, one having nothing to do with the great war.
This episode was led by the people of Silver City and Grant County who finally got fed up with crooked Santa Fe politics. In the centennial year of the American nation they voted to break away from New Mexico and join the neighboring Territory of Arizona. It was a bold move taken in desperation.
Grant County had been
created in 1868 by lopping off the western part of huge Doña Ana County.
Silver City, after its founding in 1870, became the county seat. Within
a few years it was rated the most prosperous boom town anywhere in the
territory. A Las Cruces newspaper called it “a go-ahead place, an
example of energy and enterprise.”
Mining was the mainstay
of Silver City’s economy. But lumbering was important too. And the first
woodworking mill in the territory was opened there. Also, local
merchants did a thriving business supplying a vast area of western New
Mexico, eastern Arizona and northern Mexico. Silver City was on the way
up.
That is, it was going up,
provided it could get around dirty politics in the capital. Santa Fe
was proving hostile to progress in Silver City.
The trouble lay with the
notorious Santa Fe Ring, a clique of Anglo Republicans that included the
governor, many legislators, judges and lawyers. They controlled the
territorial politics, by manipulating the majority Hispanic vote, all
for personal profit.
In the 1871-72 session,
the Republicans in the legislature fell to squabbling among themselves.
That allowed the minority Democrats to gain temporary control. Alarmed,
Republican Gov. Marsh Giddings brought armed federal troops into the
capitol building to intimidate the Democrats and keep power in the hands
of the Ring.
Speaker Diego Archuleta
denounced the governor as a tyrant “who seeks to overawe us and force us
to obey his despotic will by the presence of U.S. bayonets. Before we
submit, the Mexican people had better be placed upon reservations as the
Indians now are.”
Grant County, of course,
opposed the rascally governor. As a result, he saw that two legislative
bills important to it were killed. One would have given Silver City a
charter, allowing it to incorporate. The other would have permitted
Grant County to establish a public school system.
Resentment caused by this
action ran deep and lingered long. It finally peaked in 1876 when Grant
County announced it would seek to cut its political ties with New
Mexico and join Arizona. The people declared they were tired of being
held in a state of vassalage by Santa Fe and its Ring.
By uniting with Arizona,
Grant County citizens saw a number of advantages. Not only would they be
rid of Santa Fe where they were under-represented and without
influence, they would be much closer in miles to Arizona’s capital at
Tucson. Also, Arizona was a mining state that could understand their
special problems. Then there was the matter of the Chiricahua Apaches
who were still on the warpath. Arizona, suffering the same trouble,
could be counted upon to be more attentive in developing mutual defense.
Urged on by local
newspapers, residents went to the polls and overwhelmingly voted for
Grant County’s “Declaration of Independence.” The fact that the national
centennial was in progress and much patriotic fervor was in the air
probably contributed to the outcome of the election.
Arizona seemed delighted.
A newspaper in Yuma proclaimed: “For our part we would welcome them
with open arms.” Arizona Gov. Anson P.K. Safford warmly approved and
steered through his legislature a memorial asking Congress to allow his
annexation of New Mexico’s Grant County. The people there, he said, were
the proper judges as to which territory they should belong. And the
people had spoken.
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