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SIX OVERNOR CALHOUN FOUND the strain of New Mexico's insoluble conflicts extremely tiring. In poor health and low spirits, he began a trip to the East in May of 1852, accompanied by his two daughters and their husbands. Although his plans were to visit Washington and his family home in Georgia, Calhoun's forebodings were so strong that he took a coffin with him. On the plains of Kansas, the governor did die, and the small group of travelers carried his body to Independence, Missouri, for burial. Apparently his grave in that city isan unmarked one.1 President Fillmore appointed William Carr Lane as the second territorial governor. Lane, a man in his early sixties, had a career of public service to prepare him for a job that would certainly require all his ability and leadership. While a young man, Lane studied medicine and became a medical doctor. As a soldier, he fought in the Old Northwest against Indians led by the powerful Tecumseh, and later his idealism led him to consider joining Simon Bolivar in the liberation of Latin America, this plan being cancelled onlyby hismarriage. The people of St. Louis, Missouri, elected the handsome, athletic Lane mayor of their city nine times, and it was said that he was so respected in Missouri politics that he could easily have been elected at any time to the United States Senate over the influential Thomas Hart Benton. In 1826, he won a Democratic seat in the House of Representatives, but while in Congress he became disillusioned with his party and particularly its leader, Andrew Jackson. His subsequent joining of the Whig party 75 G A Changing Territory 76 NEW MEXICO'S QUEST FOR STATEHOOD made him a logical man for Whig President Fillmore to appoint as New Mexico's governor.2 In compliance with his orders, Lane proceeded west immediately and ended his long journey on September 9, 1852, just north of Santa Fe where he was enthusiastically greeted by a group of citizens3 led by John Greiner, secretary of the territory and an ardent Whig, who was the creator of William Henry Harrison's campaign song "Tippecanoe and Tyler too/'4 The welcoming committee escorted the new governor to the town's plaza where a "rousing" militarysalute was given in his honor. The goodwillgesture was not ordered by Colonel Sumner but by his subordinate , BrevetLieutenant Colonel HoraceBrooks, who was reprimanded for the act. Since Calhoun's departure, Sumner, ignoring Secretary Greiner,5 had been acting as civil governorof the terirtory, and he felt only resentment toward a new governor who would take his place. Despite widespread civilian support for Lane, including a warm letter of introduction from Delegate Weightman,6 Sumner used his position to make life very difficult for the new governor. Colonel Sumner arbitrarily removed from the plaza the American flag that had flown in the capital since Kearny's triumphant entry in 1846. When Lane courteouslyrequested aflag,Sumner replied that he had no authority from the government to furnish him with government supplies. Governor Lane was a tall, impatient redhead, a man not inclined to forget such insults, and the exchange led to a personal enmity between the two men. When Colonel Sumner later refused to use five hundred volunteers to fight the marauding Navajos, Lane challenged him to a duel, a challenge declined by Sumner.7 In a letter to Colonel Sumner, Lane expressed his frustration with affairs in New Mexico. Never was an executive officer in a more pitiable plight than I was at this time. I was an utter stranger to my official duties, without having any competent legal adviser, and with scarcely an official document on file to direct or assist my official actions; the secretary of the Territory was likewise lacking in experience[.] . . . [There was] not cent of money on hand, or known to be subject to the draft of the governor, superintendent of Indian affairs, or the secretary of the Territory; not a cent in the city, county or Territorial treasuries, and no credit for the county. There were no policemen and no constabulary force for either city or county, . . . nor wasthere a single company of militia organized in the whole Territory, nor a single musket within reach of a volunteer, should there be an offer of service by anyone; and you, Colonel Sumner, must have been, from your official position, duly informed of these things.8 On December 7,1852, Lane delivered his first address to the territorial...

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