Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1864-1869, 1865-02-18
HON. JAS. NJ. ASHLEY,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Houss Of Representatives;
SR:-l respectfully beg leave, through
you, to address the committee over which
you have the honor to preside, on sub
joct in which |, in common with the pco-
pie whom have the honor to represent,
feel a deep concern.
That portion Of the Territory Of New
Mexico known as Los Coneios, being the
extreme northern portion OF that Terrific
ry, was severed from New Mexico and ad.
dcd to the Territory Of Colorado, by Act
ofCongress, approved 2Sth February, 1861.
The sole purpose of such q severance was
to give cyenneSs and symmetry to the
southern boundary of Colorado, This
really unimpOrtant object was attained by
that Territory at the serious expense II
New Mexico, aud with tho emphatic dis
appreciation Of almost tho entire people
whom | have the honor to represent. |
ain instructed to ask, in their namo, the
restoration to New Mexico of the region
Of country thus taken from her boundaries.
This request seems to be founded in the
most simple and manifest justice. The
population of Los Concjos, numbering
about three thousand, are almost entirely
NcxicaRs. They are foreign in language,
as they are in nativity, from the great body
Of the people Of Colorado. Tho laws Of
tha! Territory arc enacted and published
only in the English language, which they
do not understand, and the Legislative dis
cusslons and deliberations are conducted
in the same language. High amongst the
rights Of freOmcn, stands that Of partici-
psting in the enactment Of their laws, and
of knowing what thsy mean when enacted.
Yet to those people, as now situated, those
privileges, so dear and sacred, are utterly
denied. They can neither tako an intelli-
gent part in Legislation, nor understand
from their laws, when created, either the
rights they confer or the obligations they
impose; and they must remain in dark
ness as to the character of tho laws undor
which they live, until the government OF
the United States shall. at its own great
expense, have those laws translated into
their native tongue. But even thon the
aims of justice would be far from having
been attained; for the people over whom
laws are extended have right to partici-
pate in tho deliberations thatprecode their
enactment, in order that thoy may com
prehend the reasons on which they are
founded. That right, which is Of the
very essence Of liberty, they cannot enjoy
while ignorant of tho language in which
such deliberations are conducted. Todeny
to people such privilege, is tantumount
to their exclusion from every ohare in the
legislation Of the country. Yet such, un-
der existing circumstances, is the snomal-
Gus and extraordinary condition of those
people. They live under laws to which
they arc strangers, and are nominally
within the pale of government In which
they take no essential part, except to share
its budens. Such condition 10 utterly
repugnant to the true principles of liberty,
and should not be permitted, undera FREQ
government, moment to exist!
Another source of injustice to those pco-
pie, resulting from their political associa-
ton with their new Territory, is to be
found in the fact that it involyos the es-
tablishment over them Of a system Of iu-
.risprudcnce to which they are entire
strangers They have been accustomed,
in their courts, and nthe legal adjustment
Of all their rights, alone to tho principles
and rules Of the civil law. Tho common
law principles and forms Of proceeding,
which prevail in Colorado, as they do
generally in the states and territories Of
the Union arc widely different from those to
which they have been sccustomed and to
suddenly ongraft those principles and
rules Of jurisprudence on a community Of
people whose rights Of property, and all
Of whose domestic relations, have hereto
fore been controlled and settled by the
principles and forms Of system of law
with which the common law is so widely
at variance, would be an innovation that
would strike violently at the very founda-
ton Of society, disarrange the whole struc-
turO of their domestic organization, and
be second only, as public calamity, to
legel restraints suddenly and violently i'm.
posed on their freedom Of conscience and
their religion. The laws Of Inheritance;
the relations OF husband and wife, parent
and child, guardian and ward; the distri.
button and administration Of estates, and
all tho varied domestic relations of com
munity, as well 90 the forms Of proceed.
ing in the courts, are SO foreign under the
civil law from what they are under the
common law system, that it would bO a
palpablc injustice to substitute the latter
for the former, over body Of people who
have forever heretofore been governed by
the rules and principles Of the former,
which are interviewer with their usage,
and customs, their history, their affections
and the very fabric of their society.
This system Of jurisprudence has moi
been disturbed in its prevalence and op,
Grafton over New Mexico, by tho change
Of rulers that the scountrs has undergone
on the contrary, it has been protected and
preserved with the most jealous care, and
has survived the change Of sovereignty
which the country experienced, through
the fortunes Of war, and the largo acqai
Sition Of an intelligent foreign population
who had been educated in different sys
tenn Of jurisprudence. So devoted wer,
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