Weekly Register-Call/ Gilpin County News

Western History Should Give Arizona Pause For Thought

Arizona is trying hard to keep immigrants from Mexico out. They’ve passed laws, one sheriff has set up camps, and so on. It’s all getting a lot of national attention. The history of the west (west of the 100^th meridian that is) should warn Arizona that attempts to keep out immigrants have all failed. Consider the last big wave of immigration. From the point of view of Mexico or the Mormons in the 1840s and 50s, all of those immigrants moving from east of the Mississippi were illegals. The Mexicans and the Mormons all tried to stop the tide, but to no avail.

The Mormon empire called “Deseret” had initial success in keeping out the “gentiles.” Mexico had halted the U. S. immigrants at the Red River and the Arkansas River for a time. But, the Texans just kept coming into Mexican territory. It was only a matter of time until Texas would be lost. Once the gold rush hit there was no keeping the miners out of Colorado either. “Gentiles” (non-Mormons) kept filtering into Deseret too. We’ve had a mixing pot of peoples here in the west for at least a couple of centuries. That western mixing pot is as American as green chili. All the attempts at keeping the “others” out have failed. I’d be surprised if Arizona had any better luck stopping the immigrants than did Mexico or Mormon leader Brigham Young, who was for a time the unchallenged ruler of much of the west.

Mexico Tried Hard To Stop The Immigrant Tide

When the famously controversial General Wilkinson sent Zebulon Pike out our way in 1806, the U. S. had very little idea of what was here. President Thomas Jefferson knew he’d bought quite a bit of real estate from France in 1802, but not exactly where it was. He knew his Louisiana Purchase butted up against the traditional lands of the Spanish Crown. Most of all, Thomas Jefferson knew a lot about the restless nature of the Americans. Once word got out about the West, the immigration was bound to begin. Pike’s reports spurred that emigrant tide, and so did those of Lewis and Clark.

Jefferson was somewhat threatened by the prospect of western movement, perhaps not as much as the Mexicans were, but still worried. He knew that there was a plot afoot to develop a separate nation out here with Aaron Burr as king. President Jefferson had some idea that General Wilkinson was more than just the biggest of the U. S. Army generals. Jefferson surely knew that Wilkinson was in league with Aaron Burr and shared Burr’s idea of setting up an independent country in the west. Jefferson also must have known that Burr wanted to grab some of that Mexican land as part of his new empire. Mexican land was so temptingly sitting here just on the other side of the Arkansas River and in Texas, and who knew where else. But Jefferson had many big fish to fry. He did eventually get Burr tried for sedition, but trying to stop the western expansion was never front and center for him.

Zeb Pike, Lewis and Clark, and Other Travel Writers

Mexico was afraid that soon there would be hordes of Gringo illegal immigrants moving west. It was happening in Texas after all. In fact they sent out an armed force to stop Lewis and Clark from exploring. That little armed column of Mexicans never got anywhere near Lewis and Clark, but the attempt was made. What would have happened if those two famous travel writers hadn’t made their journey and popularized the West?

Harpers Magazine sold out when the accounts of the western explorers were first printed. Very soon after, settlers and adventurers were on their way west. Once Zebulon Pike reported on the gold finds in Bayou Salado (today’s South Park) the gold miners were bound to come here too. Of course all of this immigration took time and the immigrant story is complex. Nevertheless, the urge to move into the new land was not different for those settlers than for the Mexicans moving to Arizona today. Many people want a new chance in a new land. The sitting government can try to keep people from moving, but here in the west it hasn’t worked so far. Heck, governments haven’t even been able to keep people from marrying each other.

Colorado Miscegenation

Mexico lost half of its land to the U.S. under the great annexation called the Mexican War. But, Mexico did manage to bargain in the peace Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo for some rights and customs. One of those customs was inter-marriage across racial and cultural lines. Few Mexicans did not carry some “Indian blood” and vice versa. So, Mexico never had a miscegenation law. Miscegenation laws were in place in most U.S. States and “whites” marrying “blacks” or “other races” could be fined and their marriages annulled. Therein lies a story.

I once heard some senior lawyers discuss that odd fact in our court house. Since former Mexican territory included everything west of the Arkansas River, the Colorado miscegenation law didn’t apply to about four fifths of the state. Only once was the Colorado miscegenation law invoked. Shortly after World War II, a mixed race couple was kicked out of their Denver apartment and the landlord invoked the miscegenation law. They fought in court and the judge ruled that since they had been legally married in Pueblo, Colorado (former Mexican territory and on the Mexican side of the Arkansas River) the law did not apply. Fortunately that miscegenation law was repealed shortly thereafter in one of those general legal house cleanings we have from time to time. Not only has it been hard to hold off  immigration in the west, it has been hard to hold off people marrying “immigrants” too.

The Mormons Put Up A Tougher Fight

Once Brigham Young had set out his bold plan for the land of Deseret here in the west, he fought hard to keep control of the fiefdom. He colonized Las Vegas and southern Idaho right from the start. He saw the iron mines and the coal and the shipping possibilities from Los Angeles. He was an excellent planner with a big design for a new nation of the saints. Deseret was going to be a rich country, but absolutely only for the elect. While he allowed a few “gentiles” to live there, mostly he forbade immigration.

Those who defied his rule were dealt with much more directly than anything Arizona has tried yet. Although there are rumors that the “minutemen” who patrol the Arizona border have shot at Mexicans, so far such incidents must be rare. Not so in Deseret. Young simply sent out his “avenging angels” to kill those who wouldn’t swear allegiance. The “avenging angels” hunted down the “illegals” on the list mercilessly. I’ve been reading a biography of one of those “angels,” Port Rockwell. (“Orin Porter Rockwell, Man of God/Son of Thunder” by Harold Schindler) Rockwell, along with Effie Hanks and Dan Hickman, killed quite a few who defied the prophet. That system worked well for a time, and no one entered Deseret or tried to set up there without permission.

By 1857 or so, the tight rule of Brigham Young was all but over. Brigham Young was indicted for ordering murders and later for treason. He resigned as governor of Utah in 1858 with President Buchannan’s federal troops literally at the door. The Mormon kingdom of Deseret was opened for immigration from then on.

Will Western History Repeat Itself?

Will Arizona have success in kicking Mexicans out of the cactus state? Even a quick reading of western history shows that many a government has tried to keep out those people thought to be “outsiders.” It hasn’t worked so far in the west, but for all of us armchair historians, it will be fascinating to watch.