A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Research Collections in American Legal History General Editor: Kermit Hall LETTERS RECEIVED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, 1809–1870 WESTERN LAW AND ORDER Editor: Frederick S. Calhoun Associate Editor and Guide Compiled by: Martin Schipper A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Letters received by the Attorney General, 1809–1870 [microform] : western law and order / editor, Frederick S. Calhoun. microfilm reels ; 35 mm. — (Research collections in American legal history) Accompanied by a printed guide compiled by Martin P. Schipper with title: A guide to the microfilm edition of Letters received by the Attorney General, 1809–1870. ISBN 1-55655-634-9 1. United States marshals—History—19th century—Sources. 2. Law enforcement—West (U.S.)—History—19th century—Sources. 3. Criminal justice, Administration of—West (U.S.)—History—19th century—Sources. 4. United States. Attorney-General— Correspondence. 5. West (U.S.) I. Calhoun, Frederick S. II. Schipper, Martin Paul. III. University Publications of America (Firm) IV. Title: Guide to the microfilm edition of Letters received by the Attorney General, 1809–1870. V. Series. HV8144.M37 363.2'82'0973—dc20 96-32874 CIP Copyright © 1996 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-634-9. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..........................................................................................................................v Note on Sources....................................................................................................................xv Editorial Note.......................................................................................................................xvii Reel Index Reel 1 RG60, Entry 9A Arizona Territory, Box 1.................................................................................................1 Arkansas, Box 1...............................................................................................................3 Reel 2 RG60, Entry 9A cont. California, Box 1..............................................................................................................4 Colorado Territory, Box 1................................................................................................6 Reel 3 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Dakota Territory, Box 1..................................................................................................7 Idaho Territory, Box 1.....................................................................................................8 Iowa, Box 1.......................................................................................................................9 Reel 4 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Kansas, Box 1..................................................................................................................10 Louisiana, Box 1.............................................................................................................12 Reel 5 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Louisiana cont., Box 1 cont.–Box 3................................................................................12 Reel 6 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Louisiana cont., Box 3 cont............................................................................................15 Minnesota, Box 1............................................................................................................16 Reel 7 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Missouri, Box 1–Box 2.....................................................................................................17 iii Reel 8 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Montana Territory, Box 1..............................................................................................20 Nebraska, Box 1..............................................................................................................21 Nevada, Box 1.................................................................................................................22 Reel 9 RG60, Entry 9A cont. New Mexico, Box 1–Box 2..............................................................................................22 Reel 10 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Oregon, Box 1..................................................................................................................24 Texas, Box 1....................................................................................................................25 Utah Territory, Box 1.....................................................................................................26 Reel 11 RG60, Entry 9A cont. Washington Territory, Box 1.........................................................................................27 Wyoming Territory, Box 1..............................................................................................28 RG60, Entry 9B U.S. Marshal, Box 1........................................................................................................29 Materials Extracted from 5W, Box 6.............................................................................29 Re: A. Lincoln; Sarratt Case; J. W. Booth, Box 7.........................................................29 Principal Correspondents Index.....................................................................................31 Subject Index........................................................................................................................59 iv INTRODUCTION Westering Westering, John Steinbeck called it. The term captured that irresistible urge to conquer the North American continent and its native peoples. “It wasn’t Indians that were important, nor adventures, nor even getting out here,” Grandfather explained to Jody in The Red Pony. “It was a whole bunch of people made into one big crawling beast.…It was westering and westering. Every man wanted something for himself, but the big beast that was all of them wanted only westering.” They westered until they reached the ocean and the waters stopped them. “But it wasn’t getting here that mattered,” the old man added, “it was movement and westering.” Westering was more than simple wanderlust, more than Daniel Boone searching for elbow room. “We carried life out here and set it down the way those ants carry eggs,” Grandfather remembered. From that life grew a continental nation. Never just the wandering or the crossing, westering meant conquering and the chance to create, to build, to begin anew with fresh opportunities and the faith that things could always be better. Westering balanced hope with struggle, challenge with despair and hardship and triumph. The big beast settled a continent. It stopped at the water’s edge because it had nowhere left to go. The beast had run out of room.1 The law—and its lawmen—came behind, caught in the slipstream of the westering. First came the explorers, then the hunters and the miners, followed by the settlers. The law trailed them all. Yet, when the law came, it conquered. It defined the settlements and guided their growth from sod houses to villages, then communities, territories, and ultimately states. The law meant civilization and order, process and regulation. It was the ultimate legacy of the westering, the indelible mark of the conquering. Letters Received by the Attorney General, 1809–1870 University Publications of America is making the record of that legacy readily available. Through Western Law and Order, it has taken on the daunting task of microfilming the documents preserved at the National Archives related to the law’s westering. The initial microfilm collection contains the documents stored in the Records of the Attorney General’s Office: Letters Received, 1809–1870, which is part of Record Group 60, General Records of the Department of Justice. These records, of course, v compose but half the story. They are the requests, pleadings, worries, gripes, and grumblings of the U.S. attorneys, marshals, judges, governors, territorial officials, and private citizens writing to the attorney general. They describe the problems and tribulations, the pettiness and the strivings of those who westered. Grouped by territory or state of origin, the letters are organized chronologically by author’s office or position. Hence, the correspondence of the U.S. attorney for Arizona comprises one file, that from the several justices of the territorial court make up another. The complaints, concerns, and opinions of private citizens seeking justice, or sometimes just solace, comprise yet another file. “We are on a volcano here and expect to have lively times,” U.S. Marshal Henry Barrows of Southern California warned Attorney General Edward Bates in 1861 about the divided loyalties brought on by the Civil War.2 Those times—and all the other times—in all their liveliness, are faithfully recorded here. The Letters Received offer the earliest record of the expansion of federal law westward. They document the history of the growth of federal justice, geographically and administratively. The correspondence describes more than the problems of setting up territorial governments; it also details the difficulties encountered by federal officials abutting a people proudly independent. In March 1855, for example, U.S. Attorney Joseph Hallman of Utah fretted about Governor Brigham Young’s interference in a federal case. Hallman saw it as one of Young’s “attempts to stretch his power and connect church and state.” It seemed clear evidence of the