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Religion and the Writing of the Colorado Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Donald W. Hensel
Donald W. Hensel
Affiliation:
California State Polytechnic College
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Extract

Religion has been a potent social force throughout American history. The reverberations of the Protestant Revolt and the Catholic Reformation have been experienced many times in many American communities since the 17th century, in varying degrees of intensity. Colorado, in the last quarter of the 19th century, was typical of this tradition. Colorado had been part of a vast Spanish domain and, therefore, many of its citizens, particularly in the southern half, were both Spanish-speaking and Catholic in faith. On the other hand, a preponderance of the adventurers and fortune-hunters who came after the gold discoveries of 1858 and 1859 and who tended to settle around and north of Denver, were Protestants. This, then, was the religious setting as convention delegates met in Denver in the winter of 1875-1876 to write a constitution for the state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 1961 , pp. 349 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1961

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References

1. Denver Daily Tribune, 03 2, 1876.Google Scholar

2. Richardson, James D., ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1902 (11 vols., Washington, 1900–1909), VI, 4288.Google Scholar

3. Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention (Denver, 1907) 83Google ScholarGoodykoontz, Cohn B, “Some Controversial Questions before the Colorado Constitutional Convention of 1876,” Colorado Magazine, XVII (01, 1940), 6–7.Google Scholar

4. Denver Daily Times, January 18, 1876.

5. Ibid., January 20, 1876.

6. Proceedings, 01 19, 1876, 148–149.Google Scholar

7. Denver Weekly Times, January 12, 1876.

8. Ibid., February 23, 1876.

9. Denver Daily Tribune, March 1, 2, 1876.

10. Ibid March 1876.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid

13. Ibid.

14. Proceedings, 03 3, 1876, 547Google Scholar. Those voting against exempting private schools from taxation were Bromwell, Beck, Carr, Cushman, Clark, Elder, Ebert, Felton, James, Plumb, Pease, Wells, and Yount. Only Felton represented a district with a high Spanish population, mostly Catholic. Apparently the common bond of Masonry was immaterial. Six Masons approved and five disapproved exempting parochial schools. The most heated exchange occurred between two Masons, Carr and Quillian.

15. Denver Daily Tribune, January 20, 1876.

16. Ibid., January 14, 1876; John Evans to Margaret Evans, January 16, 1876, John Evans Collection, (Microfilm), Colorado State Archives, Denver.

17. Ibid., March 4, 1876.

18. Proceedings, 03 3, 1876, 547.Google Scholar

19. Colorado Constitution, Article X, Sec. 5.

20. Denver Daily Times, January 25, 1876.

21. John Evans to Margaret Evans, January 9, 1876, John Evans Collection, Colorado State Archives.

22. Sunshine Courier, January 22, 1876.

23. Bromwell, H. P. H., “The Constitutional Convention,” Chapter XIV, Frank Hall, History of the State of Colorado, II, 305.Google Scholar

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25. Proceedings, 02 4, 1876, 235.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., 330–331.

27. Denver Daily Tribune, February 21, 1876.

28. Ibid., January 29, 1870.

29. Denver Weekly Times, February 16, 1876.

30. John Evans to Margaret Evans, February 8, 1876, John Evans Collection, Colorado State Archives.

31. Boulder County News, February 21, 1876.

32. Scribners Monthly, no date, quoted in the Boulder County News, 28, 1876.

33. Denver Daily Times, February 6, 1876.

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35. Proceedings, 43; Denver Daily Tribune, January 6, 1876.

36. Daniel Hurd, chairman of the Education Committee, reported that the petitions on division of the school fund contained an equal number, pro and con. Denver Daily Tribune, February 14, 1876. He either meant an equality in number of signatures (both between 1100 and 1600) or his committee received many more petitions than the public records acknowledge.

37. Proceedings, 186.

38. Denver Daily Tribune, February 14, 1876.

39. Ibid., February 21, 1876.

40. With one very minor exception the Colorado provision, Article IX, Section 7, is identical to the provision the Colorado teachers favored: Illinois Constitution of 1870, Article VIII, Section 3.

41. Of the sixteen Masons, twelve voted. Ten favored the prohibition while Head and Hough sought to delete it. Cushman, James, Webster and White did not vote.

42. Denver Daily Tribune, February 14, 1876.

43. Las Animas Colorado Leader, November 5, 1875. There were several petitions identified as being Catholic, which called for prohibiting a division of the sehool fund. Denver Daily Tribune, February 10, 21, 1876.

44. Boulder County News, January 21, 1876.

45. Ibid., Desember 17, 1875.

46. Ibid., February 18, 1876.

47. Denver Daily Times, Desember 29, 1875. One petitioner questioned the validity of the translations of the Old and New Testaments. The Federal Relations Committee reported that, unfortunately, the members could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and since the original manuscript was unavailable the petitioner would have to seek guidance elsewhere. Denver Daily Tribune, February 2, 1876.

48. Colorado Miner (Georgetown), February 12, 1876.

49. Colorado Constitution, Article IX, See. 8; Colorado Weekly Chieftain (Pueblo), 06 22, 1876.Google Scholar

50. Boulder County News, May 12, 1876.

51. Denver Daily Tribune, June 21, 1876.

52. Proceedings, 01 5, 1876, 43.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., January 8, 1876, 83–84; Denver Daily Tribune, January 10, 1876.

54. Daily Rocky Mountain News, January 11, 1876.

55. Denver Daily Tribune, January 12, 1876.

56. Silver World (Lake City), 15, 1876.Google Scholar

57. Denver Daily Tribune, January 11, 1876. When this “anti-clerical” preamble was offered, John Wheeler of Weld County, “dispatched one of his shepherd dogs in search of Bromwell, and the animal succeeded in cutting him out of a crowd dowfl at Carl Von Pretzel's lunch room.” Colorado Weekly Chieftain (Pueblo), 01 27, 1876.Google Scholar

58. Denver Daily Tribune, January 22, 1876.

59. Ibid., January 14, 1876.

60. Ibid., January 13, 1876.

61. Both the abortive Jefferson constitutions of 1859 (State and Territory) used the expression, “Supreme Ruler of the Universe,” and Governor Robert Steele of Jefferson Territory appointed December 29, 1859, as a day of thanks-giving to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Smiley, Jerome C., History of Denver (Denver, 1901), 318.Google Scholar There is no evidence that the delegates reviewed the Jefferson constitutions, but because the Missouri draft furnished most of the Colorado bill of rights, it is probable that this particular phrasing of the preamble also came from that source.

62. Denver Daily Tribune, March 13, 1876.

63. This compilation was made by Goodykoontz, Colin B., “Controversial Questions before the Constitutional Convention,” Colorado Magaeine, XVII, 6.Google Scholar