Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/67

The Territory of Colorado 5 7 the heavy migration of 1859 had begun to tlirow its thousands along the trails to Denver. Whether these thousands were sixty or one hundred, no one can tell to-day : but it is certain that after half or more of them had gone home in disgust there remained in Jefiferson nearly thirty thousand settlers to reiterate the demand that Congress provide a government for them and to maintain their provisional territory for the interim. The mission of Hiram J. Graham to the second session of the thirty-fifth Congress failed to produce either an enabling or a terri- torial act. His arrival in ^ashington in January, 1859, was fol- lowed by the appearance of his territorial scheme in the House when A. J. Stephens introduced a bill for the erection of Jefferson Terri- tory.^ Grow of Pennsylvania moved to amend the name to Osage, and when it was reported back from the Committee on Territories on February 16, it was tabled without any serious discussion or opposition.- The fate that had postponed the erection of new terri- tories in 1858 continued to postpone in 1859 when Jefiferson had been added to the list. Slavery debate forbade territorial legislation, and the single scheme which had a real population behind it was left without local or legal government, and was forced to find its way through 1859 until the next session of Congress might perhaps attend to business and provide for it a legal frame. The migration of 1859 multiplied the population of Denver many times and increased the need for orderly government as well by the character as by the number of its inhabitants. A knowledge that no aid from Congress could be had for at least a year revived the local movement until it induced a group of pioneers to hold a caucus, with William Larimer in the chair, on April 11, to consider the local situation.^ As a result of this caucus a call issued for a convention of representatives of the neighboring mining-camps to meet in the same place four days later. And on April 15, 1859, the camps of Fountain City, El Dorado and El Paso, Arapahoe, Auraria, and Denver met through their delegates, " being fully im- pressed with the belief, from early and recent precedents, of the power and benefits and duty of self-government ", and feeling an im- perative necessity " for an immediate and adecjuate government for the large population now here and soon to be among us . . . and ' His petition was presented in the Senate on January 2~ . Cong. Globe. 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 621. Stephens reported bills in the House for Dakota, Arizona, and Jefferson territories on January 28, 1859. Ibid., 657. -Ibid.. 1065. 'Hall, I. 184; Smiley, 306; Bancroft, 403.