New Mexico Territory
Territory of New Mexico | |||||||||||||||||
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Organized incorporated territory of the United States | |||||||||||||||||
1850–1912 | |||||||||||||||||
James S. Calhoun | |||||||||||||||||
• 1910–1912 | William J. Mills | ||||||||||||||||
Organic Act (part of Compromise of 1850) | September 9, 1850 | ||||||||||||||||
June 24, 1853 | |||||||||||||||||
• Colorado Territory established | February 28, 1861 | ||||||||||||||||
• Arizona Territory established | February 24, 1863 | ||||||||||||||||
January 6, 1912 | |||||||||||||||||
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The Territory of New Mexico was an
Before the territory was organized
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1850 | 61,547 | — |
1860 | 93,516 | +51.9% |
1870 | 91,874 | −1.8% |
1880 | 119,565 | +30.1% |
1890 | 160,282 | +34.1% |
1900 | 195,310 | +21.9% |
1910 | 327,301 | +67.6% |
Source: 1850–1910 (1860 includes both Arizona and New Mexico;[3][4] |
In 1846, during the Mexican–American War, the United States established a provisional government of New Mexico. Territorial boundaries were somewhat ambiguous. After the Mexican Republic formally ceded the region to the United States in 1848, this temporary wartime/military government operated until September 9, 1850.
Earlier in 1850, organizers proposing New Mexico for statehood had drafted a state constitution that prohibited
Compromise of 1850 and disputes over slavery
The Compromise of 1850 put an end to the push for immediate New Mexico statehood. Approved by the United States Congress in September 1850, the legislation provided for the establishment of New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory. It also defined the disputed western boundary of Texas.
During the territorial period, the status of
As one of the final attempts at compromise to avoid the Civil War, in December 1860, a U.S. House of Representatives committee proposed to admit New Mexico as a slave state immediately. Although the measure was approved by the committee on December 29, 1860, Southern representatives did not take up this offer. Many had already left Congress due to the imminent declarations of secession by their states.[6]
On February 24, 1863, during the Civil War, Congress passed the "Arizona Organic Act", which split off the western portion of the 12-year-old New Mexico Territory, establishing the new Arizona Territory, where it abolished slavery. As in New Mexico, slavery was already extremely limited, due to earlier Mexican traditions, laws, and patterns of settlement. The northwestern corner of New Mexico Territory was included in Arizona Territory until it was added to the southernmost part of the newly admitted State of Nevada in 1864. Eventually, Arizona Territory was admitted in 1912 as the State of Arizona.
Territorial evolution
The Purchase treaty defined the new border as "up the middle of that river (the
The boundaries of the New Mexico Territory at the time of establishment (September 9, 1850) contained most of the present-day
The
The
The creation of the Union
In 1850, all 73 churches with regular services in the New Mexico Territory were Catholic.[9] In the 1910 United States census, 26 counties in the New Mexico Territory reported the following population counts (after 7 reported the following counts in the 1850 United States census):[4]
1910 Rank |
County | 1850 Population |
1910 Population |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Bernalillo | 7,751 | 23,606 |
2 | San Miguel | 7,074 | 22,930 |
3 | Chaves | – | 16,850 |
4 | Rio Arriba | 10,668 | 16,624 |
5 | Colfax | – | 16,460 |
6 | Quay | – | 14,912 |
7 | Grant | – | 14,813 |
8 | Santa Fe | 7,713 | 14,770 |
9 | Socorro | – | 14,761 |
10 | Valencia | 14,189 | 13,320 |
11 | McKinley | – | 12,963 |
12 | Doña Ana | – | 12,893 |
13 | Mora | – | 12,611 |
14 | Eddy | – | 12,400 |
15 | Roosevelt | – | 12,064 |
16 | Taos | 9,507 | 12,008 |
17 | Curry | – | 11,443 |
18 | Union | – | 11,404 |
19 | Guadalupe | – | 10,927 |
20 | Torrance | – | 10,119 |
21 | Sandoval | – | 8,579 |
22 | San Juan | – | 8,504 |
23 | Lincoln | – | 7,822 |
24 | Otero | – | 7,069 |
25 | Luna | – | 3,913 |
26 | Sierra | – | 3,536 |
Santa Ana | 4,645 | – | |
New Mexico Territory | 61,547 | 327,301 |
American Civil War
As the route to
The Battle of Glorieta Pass in May 1862, following the retreat of Texan Confederate forces back south to El Paso, placed the area of the Rio Grande valley and eastern New Mexico Territory with the capital of Santa Fe under the control of the Federals with their Union Army.[10] However, the government and leadership of Confederate Arizona persisted until the end of the Civil War in June 1865 with the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department, living in exile in El Paso, Texas with its delegate still in Richmond.
Territorial symbols
A coat of arms of New Mexico was adopted by the territorial legislature in 1887, formalizing an earlier design, introduced in the early 1860s, already used in the territory's great seal.[11][12] The legislation, titled "An Act adopting and establishing the coat of arms and great seal of the territory", was approved by Governor Edmund G. Ross on February 1:[11]
The coat of arms of the territory of New Mexico shall be the Mexican Eagle grasping a serpent in its beak, the cactus in its talons, shielded by the American eagle with outspread wings, and grasping arrows in its talons. The date MDCCCL [1850], under the eagles, and above that, on a scroll, the motto: Crescit Eundo. That the great seal of the territory have the coat of arms thereon, being the same seal now used by the secretary of the territory, and that the same be adopted and established as the official seal and coat of arms of the territory of New Mexico.
The "American"
See also
- New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War
- Governors of the Territory of New Mexico
- History of New Mexico
- Mexican–American War, 1846–1848
- Silvester Mirabal
- Territorial evolution of the United States
References
- ^ 9 Stat. 448
- ^ ANDREW Glass (September 9, 2015). "New Mexico and Utah organized as incorporated U.S. territories, Sept. 9, 1850". Politico.
- ^ Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. pp. 14–15. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ a b Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. pp. 110–111. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ New Mexico Territory Slave Code (1859–1867) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
- ISBN 978-0-06-131929-7.
- ^ "Department of State – Gadsden Purchase". July 6, 2007. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
- ^ New York Times – The New Territory of Arizona
- ISBN 978-0816038671.
- ^ National Park Service – The Battle of Glorieta
- ^ a b Zieber, Eugene (1969) [1895]. Heraldry in America. Haskell House. pp. 161–162.
- ^ a b c "State Seal". New Mexico Secretary of State. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
Further reading
- David L. Caffey, Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2014.