Ashley of Ohio was chairman of the Committee on Territories in the House, and readily agreed to favor the organization of a territorial government.  In a few days President Lincoln appointed an evening, to hear the Delegation in favor of Arizona from 8 to 12.  The chairmen of the committees on Territories attended, and General Heintzelman and some other friends were present.  I presented the maps, historical data, some specimens of minerals and Indian relics, and after a long conference and some interesting stories by the President, the organization of a territorial government for Arizona was agreed upon.

The country was at that time under martial law,—­General Carlton.  If any system of government is repellent to Americans it is martial law.  Whatever may be the expense of juries, lawyers, witnesses, and courts, they form the only means civilized society has yet devised for the settlement of disputes.  It is true that a territorial form of government was never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, as no provision was made for such a form of government; but this omission is covered by the general welfare clause, which gives Congress the power to “provide for the general welfare.”

The formula adopted in an Act of Congress organizing a Territory, is “An Act to provide a provisional government, etc., etc., etc.”  In course of time, no doubt, all the Territories will be admitted as States, as the territorial form of government is not provided for as a permanency by the Constitution, and is moreover anomalous in the American system.  The people residing in the Territories are to a considerable extent disfranchised politically, and are not, in fact, full-fledged American citizens.  The idea of taxation without representation is irritating to their sense of justice, and for many other cogent reasons Congress will be forced by public opinion to admit the Territories to all the rights of sovereign States.

The delegate from New Mexico and myself sat at a table, and drew up a bill dividing New Mexico into nearly equal parts by the hundred and eleventh degree of longitude west; and providing for the organization of “The Territory of Arizona” from the western half.  The bill soon became an Act of Congress, and was approved by President Lincoln on the twenty-third of February, 1863.

The offices were divided out among the supporters of the measure at an oyster supper, and as I was apparently to get nothing but the shells, I fortified myself with a drink, and exclaimed, “Well, gentlemen, what is to become of me?”

They seemed not to have thought about that, and the Governor-elect said: 

“O, we will give you charge of the Indians, you are acquainted with them.”

So I was appointed “Superintendent of Indian Affairs.”  The salary of the office was two thousand dollars a year, payable in greenbacks worth about thirty-three cents on the dollar in the currency of Arizona.