Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico

9: A Territory or a State?

169 Chapter Nine A TERRITORY OR A STATE? Y N ew Mexico’s path to statehood was long and often rocky, made more difficult by the prejudices and political considerations that influenced sitting members of Congress, as well as by differences of opinion among residents of the territory that precluded presentation of a unified appeal for admission. Most of those assumed to be part of the Santa Fe Ring were consistent, strong supporters of statehood, generally for economic and political reasons. In some instances their efforts were public spirited and helpful to the cause, but at times the involvement of Ring figures only served to heighten suspicions among members of Congress that the new state would be dominated by an elite coterie of corporate interests and self-serving political operators. When a new president, Benjamin Harrison, assumed the federal executive office in the spring of 1889, New Mexico title attorneys and land speculators could rejoice. George Julian, appointed to be a reformer as surveyor general but an abrasive presence to speculators, was suddenly gone, replaced by Edward F. Hobart, a Republican who was more amenable to the entreaties of grant claimants.1 Edmund G. Ross was also out as governor, but stayed in the territory and resumed his career as a journalist, editor, and printer. He worked briefly for the New Mexican in Santa Fe before moving near the border to edit the Deming Headlight. Some of Ross’s priorities as governor aligned with those of the Republican governors who preceded him and those who followed, but during his term in office, the muddle resulting from a deeply divided territorial government had stalled progress on major issues. Ross had strongly supported the establishment of a federal land court that could resolve tangled issues of title to Spanish and Mexican land grants. He had also advocated establishment of a strong public school system—a step that many citizens thought was long overdue. The Republican-dominated legislature was of no mind to 170 Chapter nine accommodate Ross on anything of substance, but with the territorial government in the hands of a Republican executive and with Republican majorities in the legislature, there was renewed hope for constructive pursuit of these measures. There was also renewed energy for pursuit of the prize that long had eluded Ross and other territorial leaders, including enthusiastic supporters identified with the Santa Fe Ring: attainment of statehood. Resistance to Cultural and Economic Domination L. Bradford Prince, a native of New York, succeeded Ross as governor, but the Ring and the Republican Party continued to find the sailing none too smooth. It fell to Prince to deal with the actions of Las Gorras Blancas, the White Caps—a popular resistance movement organized in response to controversy over land grants and in rebellion against decades of dominance by land speculators and political bosses, as well as more recent developments that threatened the culture and livelihood of rural Hispanics.2 Las Gorras Blancas, who were most active and visible in San Miguel County, embodied the resentment that many of the smaller farmers, stock raisers, and other residents of ordinary means felt toward the acquisitive Euro-Americans and aspiring native New Mexicans who had fenced sections of the range for use in large-scale stock-raising operations.3 The ranchers were following a recent trend in organizing large commercial livestock operations , but whether they came as purchasers, lease holders, or claimants by virtue of inheritance, they were encroaching on lands used by area residents who had lived there for generations. Most in dispute were properties that were widely held to be common lands of community grants, including those of the San Miguel del Bado, Las Vegas, Tecolote, and Anton Chico grants. Grant boundaries, land titles, and water rights were among the issues contributing to the conflict. In some cases these lands had been appropriated or diminished through court decisions or willful deceit by shrewd manipulators . Responsibility for alleged abuses was dispersed among individuals, corporations , and government entities, but the Santa Fe Ring and its supposed leader, Catron, provided accessible objects of hostility for native New Mexicans who felt themselves dispossessed by the actions of ranchers and land speculators. The opinions of Las Gorras Blancas were expressed in an outbreak of fence cutting—the most direct repudiation of those who were seen as intruders on the homeland—and in destruction of other property including crops, 171 A Territory or a State...