Chasing the Santa Fe Ring

Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico

David L. Caffey

• Publisher: UNM Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780826354426
• eBook ISBN: 9780826354433
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Anyone who has even a casual acquaintance with the history of New Mexico in the nineteenth century has heard of the Santa Fe Ring—seekers of power and wealth in the post–Civil War period famous for public corruption and for dispossessing land holders. Surprisingly, however, scholars have alluded to the Ring but never really described this shadowy entity, which to this day remains a kind of black hole in New Mexico’s territorial history. David Caffey looks beyond myth and symbol to explore its history. Who were its supposed members, and what did they do to deserve their unsavory reputation? Were their actions illegal or unethical? What were the roles of leading figures like Stephen B. Elkins and Thomas B. Catron? What was their influence on New Mexico’s struggle for statehood?

Caffey’s book tells the story of the rise and fall of this remarkably durable alliance.

CHAPTER ONE

THE GILDED AGE, EAST AND WEST

Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Charles Dudley Warner did not invent the syndrome of values and aspirations that characterized the period between the Civil War and the turn of the century, but in a satiric novel of contemporary society, they gave it a name: The Gilded Age. In truth, the postwar boom in industrial development, speculation, and large living was not all that far along when the book was published in 1873, but Clemens—Mark Twain—and Warner had seen enough to portray some of its more egregious features. Creating a caricature in words, they drew attention to the unbridled pursuit of wealth, an increasing penchant for speculation, the ostentation of the newly rich, and the discovery of “Beautiful credit!” as a foundation of modern society.¹ Historians of post–Civil War America have been faulted for too great a reliance on the cynical view expressed in the novel, but there can be little doubt that the authors had identified some signal characteristics of the period.

Enterprise and Exploitation

Fueled by the second Industrial Revolution and continuing waves of immigration, the postwar period saw unprecedented growth in population and manufacturing. In the industrial Northeast, and then in the Midwest, cities mushroomed. In the 1860 census, the ten largest U.S. cities had a combined population of fewer than three million. By the end of the century, New York alone had more than 3.4 million residents, and the total for the largest ten had grown more than three times. The proportion of urban residents doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent, while rural residents declined from 80 percent of the population to 60 percent and falling.² During the same period, demand for fuels soared. The American steel industry was born, and by the early 1900s it had grown to strapping proportions, leading all other producers in the world. Manufacturing also grew rapidly, increasing fourfold between 1870 and 1900.³ With all of their problems and possibilities, the nation’s industrial cities grew up, attracting waves of immigrants, along with many of the rural poor who chose the city over a hazardous and uncertain journey to the frontier West.

With growth in population and productivity came corresponding expansion of wealth and income. By one estimate national wealth, the sum of tangible assets to which a dollar value could reasonably be assigned—just over $16 billion in 1860—had grown to more than $88 billion by 1900.⁴ Estimates of national and personal income showed similar gains.

Boats of all sizes rose with the tide of increasing income and wealth, but they did not rise at the same rate, and many who were struggling lost their boats. Spectacular fortunes were made by some, and less spectacular but still substantial fortunes were made by thousands of others. The emergence of an economy in which manufacturers could produce inexpensive goods for national and international markets created opportunities all along the chain of production—in mineral extraction and production of steel and other basic materials, in manufacturing and transportation, and in finance. The achievements and wealth of men like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt are the stuff of legend, and they helped put a human face on the phenomenon by which men of ordinary means amassed incalculable fortunes. Opulent homes and lifestyles provided visual evidence of fabulous wealth and prestige, inspiring ambition in some, envy or scorn in others.

The rapid economic growth of the Gilded Age was made possible by advances in technology and transportation, but companies and capitalists also benefited from a favorable regulatory climate and a tax system that supported accumulation of personal wealth. Congress was slow to react to complaints concerning monopolistic practices, and its members were equally reluctant to assume a more active role in management of the economy. Official Washington took its time in addressing the grievances of an increasingly vital and vocal labor force. Urban problems festered for decades in the absence of any significant response on the part of the government. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court, during the interval between the Civil War and the new Progressive Era, maintained a posture that was notably friendly to business, rendering key decisions that deflected threats to corporate power.

The rise of corporations holding unprecedented sway over markets and labor created new opportunities for their chiefs to exploit and manipulate on a grand scale. Government, in its reluctance to regulate economic activity, provided a flimsy line of defense. Prevailing conditions invited abuse in the form of official corruption and corporate exploitation of workers and consumers. Some incidents, like the Star Route mail fraud of the early 1880s, rose to the level of public scandal. More common were allegations of graft, price gouging, and monopolistic practices that benefited managers, owners, and not infrequently government officials at the expense of the public.

For some, the government’s laissez-faire attitude with respect to internal economic matters amounted to a license for the rich and powerful to run roughshod over the weak in society and to steal from the public coffers. These conditions facilitated the emergence of a new class of robber barons, derided for gains believed by many to be ill gotten and undeserved. In the view of one student of the period, “The unscrupulous capitalist was a product of his age, and he measured his success by his power and control. No one taxed his wealth. No one told him how to run his business. No one protected his labor force.”⁵ As gilded connotes a gleaming but fragile exterior concealing something base underneath, the ostentation of the privileged concealed, and was often supported by, the misery of the poor and the corruption of those whose pursuit of wealth was unrestrained by ethical or humanitarian considerations.

For many other aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals, for whom personal ambition was constrained by civic spirit and respect for law, the values of the age normalized and justified the notion of economic progress as the signal activity of society and pointed to affluence as the accepted measure of success.

To be sure, the boom in business growth and the increases in wealth, income, and corruption that characterized the Gilded Age did not last forever, nor was the upward trend in economic expansion unbroken. The Panic of 1873, brought on by abandonment of silver as a standard for U.S. currency and the failure of one of the nation’s largest investment bankers, J. Cooke and Company of Philadelphia, threw the country into a long and painful depression. A monetary crisis in 1893 resulted in hundreds of bank failures, thousands of corporate bankruptcies, and widespread unemployment.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 left much to be desired as an antidote to the spoils system, but it foreshadowed more substantive reforms to come. Likewise, the Interstate Commerce Act, passed in 1887 for the major purpose of regulating railroad rates, fell under the spell of big business and failed to achieve all that reformers had hoped. The Sherman Antitrust Act, adopted in 1890 to curb monopolistic practices, instead preceded a period of unprecedented growth in trusts and monopolies. Eventually the reality of reform would catch up to the intent, as organized labor and muckraking journalists helped hasten the end of a commitment to laissez-faire that precluded any meaningful regulation of business. While it lasted, however, the Gilded Age offered enterprising capitalists unparalleled opportunity to accumulate wealth at the expense of workers, customers, and the public.

Across the Wide Missouri

The expanse of territory now comprising the lower forty-eight states had been acquired by the United States prior to the Civil War. The national map had undergone few changes since the 1803 acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, but within the space of nine years, the country fulfilled the aspirations of those who advocated expansion to the Pacific as its Manifest Destiny. This was accomplished through the annexation of Texas (1845); a treaty with Britain giving the United States possession of the Oregon country (1846); the Mexican Cession, including a vast portion of the modern American Southwest (1848); and the Gadsden Purchase, a smaller tract needed for a southern transcontinental railroad route (1853).

The conventional understanding of Manifest Destiny emphasizes national ambition and economic expansion, but it should not surprise that an expansion the magnitude of the Mexican Cession comes with unintended, unanticipated consequences. In addition to an Indian population that was small but impossible to ignore, the United States gained a population of new citizens who spoke Spanish and lived under different systems of law and governance. These characteristics, regarded by many of the English-speaking newcomers as marks of an inferior culture, were the same ones that speculators and other opportunists exploited. For Hispanic New Mexicans, Manifest Destiny meant colonization of a homeland they had known as northern Mexico, followed by a long struggle for property and dignity, and the emergence of a distinctive Mexican American people.⁶

If the Gilded Age was a time of exploitation and development, the western territories offered much to exploit and develop. Agricultural lands, grazing lands, timber, and minerals were available in abundance, and cheap if you didn’t count the hazard and effort involved in acquiring them and delivering goods to market. The Confederate surrender at Appomattox freed hundreds of thousands of men in the prime of life, many of whom had little to lose in abandoning their old homes and everything to gain by trying their luck out West.

The importance of postwar railroad construction to the development of the western United States can hardly be overstated. By the turn of the century, five transcontinental lines had been built, revolutionizing ease of access throughout the West.⁷ Writing about a narrow-gauge spur between the fictional New Mexico town of Saragossa and nearby Ridgepole, Eugene Manlove Rhodes remarked in West Is West that exports of the track-end hamlet were “cattle, sheep, wool, hides, horses and ore,” while imports from the wider world included “food, playing cards and school ma’ams.”⁸ On a grander scale, the transcontinental railroads facilitated a similar exchange, transporting natural resources and range-fed livestock to the industrial East, while bringing throngs of settlers and supplying them with an ever-increasing array of manufactured goods.

The prospect of increased settlement and increased productivity attracted speculators, both individual and corporate, who hoped to acquire large tracts of cheap land and reap quick and generous returns. Working hand in glove with the speculators were the local boosters, who advertised promises of prosperity to all who would come to establish ranches, farms, or businesses and contribute to the growth of new towns and territories. A brochure produced by the Maxwell Land Grant Company was typical of promotional materials calculated to attract settlers. Having invested in ditch systems intended to increase the value of its lands, the company promised abundant crops, ready markets, and reasonable costs for fuel and materials, and proclaimed, “This section has the healthiest and most beautiful climatic conditions that can be found in any portion of the United States or the world.” An illustration, likely created by an artist who had never seen the area, depicted three men in a boat, afloat on a vast and peaceful lake.⁹

The work of winning the West was not quite finished, as much of the territory coveted by white settlers was inhabited by Native Americans, many of whom resisted the assault on their homeland. Thus a military presence was required for the protection of advancing railroad builders, miners, merchants, and settlers. The presence of hostile Indians was widely viewed as an intolerable hazard and an impediment to progress—a virtue beyond question in the Gilded Age—and the public incurred significant expense in the deployment of troops to remote outposts for the purpose of protecting the aggressors. These conditions created still more opportunities for commercial ventures, since the soldiers and forts had to be supplied with beef, grain, and other necessities, as did Indians who were compelled to become reservation dwellers and wards of the American government. These needs were generally supplied through contracts with enterprising, sometimes unscrupulous ranchers and merchants.

New Mexico offered an additional attraction—an abundance of land grants awarded by the Spanish and Mexican governments prior to the American Occupation. These were protected under a protocol adopted in connection with the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, but many grants were shrouded in ambiguity as to size and ownership, and their creation under alien legal systems rendered them confusing to American courts and judges. The nature of these claims requiring confirmation by the American government invited exploitation of native people, many of whom lacked fluency in English or familiarity with the American legal system. These grants provided opportunities for speculators and for attorneys whose services were needed to secure confirmation. Some grants may eventually have been confirmed as intended, in accordance with the Spanish and Mexican laws under which they were made, but a failure of the U.S. government to competently administer the confirmation process also resulted in erroneous and damaging legal interpretations, as well as instances of deliberate fraud and abuse.

The newcomers were interested in acquiring land, mining claims, livestock, and virtually anything of immediate or potential value. In the words of one observer, “Whether the Westerner was an agrarian, a capitalist, or community promoter, speculation was his way of life.”¹⁰

The Machine

After the Civil War, migration from Europe and rural America to the cities of the East and Midwest accelerated, and massive social and economic change gave rise to a syndrome of urban problems that would become all too familiar. Concentrated in cities and cut off from the sustenance of the land, emerging classes of urban poor and working-class people needed food, housing, employment, transportation, work, and education. When times were good and jobs were plentiful, they managed. When business was bad and work was scarce, they struggled. Municipal governments were ill prepared to deal with the diverse needs of the masses, but a new structure emerged to meet the mutual interests of those who craved power and those who had none. The urban political machine offered an informal but often efficient structure through which individual needs could be addressed.¹¹ In turn, those who were dependent on the machine for employment and other needs provided a reliable political base that kept the boss and his minions in office. On the street, the machine was personified by a ward heeler—a functionary who had access to influence and who could help his constituents land a job, get medical aid for a sick child, ply the judicial system for leniency, or put food on the table in hard times. The machine was equally capable of denying services and otherwise punishing those who were disloyal to the cause.

Nineteenth-century urban political organizations fulfilled some functions of the modern...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction What Do You Know of Its Existence?
• Chapter One The Gilded Age, East and West
• Chapter Two A Ring Is Formed
• Chapter Three Colfax County and the Maxwell Land Grant
• Chapter Four The Lincoln County War
• Chapter Five The Firm of Elkins and Catron
• Chapter Six The Business of Land
• Chapter Seven A Progressive and Enterprising Spirit
• Chapter Eight Fracture in the Ranks
• Chapter Nine A Territory or a State?
• Chapter Ten The End of an Epoch
• Chapter Eleven The Myth of the Ring
• Chapter Twelve Conquest and Consequence: Reflections on the Ring
• Appendix A Who Was in the Santa Fe Ring?
• Appendix B Profiles of Alleged Ring Participants
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index