INTRODUCTION.

Self-government is the fundamental principle of a Republic; pre-eminently of the American Republic.

It is the keynote of the Declaration of Independence, and the foundation of the Constitution.

"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

"We, the people of the United States....do ordain and establish this Constitution."

Yet, in New Mexico, American citizens have been deprived of self-government for over sixty years; and that, against their repeated remonstrances; and for at least a quarter of a century without a vestige of right or reason.

Now, when this strange anomaly is about to disappear, and this long period of un-American bondage to end, it seems proper to review the history of those years, and of the Struggle for Statehood which has continued through their whole duration.

Again, there are few who appreciate the remarkable record which New Mexico has achieved as a constitutionmaker. No Territory ever framed so many constitutions; no Territory ever framed them so well.

The three that are in print, those of 1850, 1872 and 1890, are all models of excellence, instruments of which any people may be proud.

It seems well, just as the final constitution is to be formulated, that the excellences of these should be realized and perhaps in some respects followed.

That of 1850, especially, is a marvel. When we remember that it was written less than four years after the American occupation; by a convention, over nine-tenths of whose membership was of Spanish descent and very brief experience in the American governmental system, it is not simply creditable, it is almost a miracle of excellence; and its courageous declaration as to human slavery,

under the peculiar circumtances, and in view of the sacrifice which it involved, is beyond all praise.

There is another reason which seems to render such a retrospect timely. Perhaps nowhere in history is there. such a series of failures, in what at the time seemed almost certainty, through unlooked for and often insignificant causes.

Statehood was almost attained in 1850; it was lost by a handshake in 1875, by a sudden impetuous word in 1889, by a shiver of malaria and a miscalculation of time in 1894.

At least a dozen times the passage of an Enabling Act has been considered certain, and its failure has come from some unimportant cause. Today, the fruition of long effort, the victorious end of the protracted struggle, seems at hand. But this retrospect may teach the value of extreme care and tactful consideration, that the chalice may not again be dashed from the thirsty lips, and American citizens be longer consigned to political bondage.