Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-10-25
IT SHALL Be
NEW MEXICO
Constitutional Conve n ii O n
Does Not Even Consider
Change of Name.
BOUNDARIES ARE ESTABLISHED
Six Hundred Thousand Acres
Now in Texas Will Be
Brought Back.

New Mexico.
Its boundaries will be those deter
mined by treaty, the statutes at large
of the United States and ratified by
Texas in 1850, thus throwing into the
commonwealth six hundred thousand
acres of valuable land at present
wrongfully held by Texas
This was the result of an extreme
ly interesting session of the constitu-
tional convention in committee of the
whole this forenoon.
The first actual Constitution Max
ing" took place and the constitution
as far as adopted now reads:
Preamble.
We, the people of New Mexico,
grateful to Almighty God for the
blessings of liberty, in order to Sc
cure the advantages of state gov
ernment, do ordain and establish this
Constitution.
ARTICLE 1.
Boundaries.
shall be New Mexico.
Section 2. The boundaries of this
State are and shall be as follows:
Beginning at the point where the
thirty-seventh parallel of north lati
tude intersects the one hundred and
third meridian west from Greenwich;
thence along said one hundred and
third meridian to the thirty-second
parallel of north latitude; thence
along said 32d parallel to the Rio
Grande formerly denominated Rio
Bravo del Norte as it existed Septem-
Der 9th, 1850, thence following
the main channel of said
river, as it existed on the 9th
day of September. 1850, to the parallel
of thirty-one degrees forty-seven min
utes, north latitude; thence west one
hundred miles to a point; thence
south to the parallel of thirty-one de-
grees, twenty minutes, north latitude;
thence along said parallel of thirty
one degrees twenty minutes, to the
tnirty-second meridian of longitude
west from Washington; thence along
said thirty-second meridian to the
thirty-seventh parallel of north lati
tude; thence along said thirty-sev
enth parallel to the point of beginning.
President Charles A. Spiess called
the convention to order at eleven
o'clock. Rev. julius Hartman led in
prayer. Chief Clerk George W. Armi-
jo read the minutes for the past two
sessions and these were adopted as
read.
Petition No. 4 was presented by G.
A. Richardson, from Chaves county,
asking for a Prohibition clause sim
liar to that of the state of Oklahoma.
The convention then went into COM
mittee of the whole over which Jose
D. Sena presided ably
The report of the committee on pre-
amble and boundaries then was taken
up.
The preamble was adopted as re-
ported
In Article 1, upon motion of Mar
garlic Romero, Section /, was insert
ed establishing as the name of the
state, New Mexico" thus putting a
quietus on the effort to have the name
Lin oln or Acoma or something else
than the present one. This action was
unanimous, although there was some
discussion as to the proper form, and
when A. B. Fall cited Mississippi as a
precedent Thomas B. Catron replied
that Mississippi could furnish no pre-
cedent for New Mexico.
The discussion on the boundaries
as described in the report OF the COM
mittee gave rise to an animated dis
cussion, although there was no oppos-
ition to the boundaries as reported.
To the question whether the survey
or general of New Mexico had been
consulted, Chairman Isidoro Armijo
replied, that the surveyor general had
nothing to do with the proposition,
but that the most eminent legal talent,
as well as all the treaties, statutes and
official descriptions had been care
fully consulted and that the boundary
recommended by the committee is
that officially established by treaty
rights and the Congress of the United
States and had been ratified by the
legislature of Texas.
Thomas B. Catron, then carefully
went over the history of the bound7
ary dispute, calculating clearly each
step and point. Within sixty days af-
ter Congress had established the
boundary of New Mexico to be the one
hundred third meridian the legis-
lature of Texas ratified it. There
never has been change in this
boundary. He then explained the So
called Clark survey which was never
completed and which, instead Of TAX
ing the one hundred third meridian
west of Greenwich took the meridian
west from Washington, which threw
the line 27.9 seconds farther west.
Clark also failed to take into con-
sideration the variations of the mag
netic needle, and therefore as his sur
yey proceeded southwark 1t dipped
farther and farther west so that while
only half mile too far west at the
point Of starting, it is from two to
three miles west Of the one hundred