Sep 29, 2022 - Sale 2615

Sale 2615 - Lot 289

Price Realized: $ 2,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(WEST--NEW MEXICO.) Edmund G. Ross. Archive of "Special Message" broadside slips issued as governor of New Mexico Territory. 16 slips, various sizes ranging from about 6 x 3 inches to 12 x 6 inches; minimal wear and light toning, most with two pinholes in upper margin. Santa Fe, NM, 11 January to 28 February 1889
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Edmund Gibson Ross (1826-1907) served as territorial governor of New Mexico from 1885 to 1889. He had earlier gained fame as a Senator from Kansas, when as a Republican he broke from his party and cast the deciding vote against convicting President Andrew Johnson in the 1868 impeachment trial. For this, Ross would be featured in John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. As New Mexico governor, Ross was a reformer who advocated for public schools, a university, and an asylum. He was usually on the losing end in a perpetual battle with the territorial legislature and its "Santa Fe Ring." Most of the legislation passed in his final year was accomplished either without his approval, or over his veto. See Howard R. Lamar, "Edmund G. Ross as Governor of New Mexico Territory: A Reappraisal," New Mexico Historical Review 36:3 (July 1961).

Offered here are 16 of his "Special Messages" to the 28th Legislative Assembly issued over a two-month period toward the end of his term. In them, he advocates futilely for his chosen causes, and explains the reasoning behind his vetoes at length. Topics include a proposed port on the Gulf of Mexico; "An act to prevent the overstocking of cattle ranges"; an act "prohibiting alien investments in real estates in the territories" (decades before the Roswell Incident); irrigation; and much more.

Yale University holds a similar set of these Special Messages, but we trace no others in OCLC or at auction. A detailed list is available upon request.