Gilpin County CO Archives History - Books .....Mass Meeting At  Gregory's Diggings 1920
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 August 8, 2009, 10:25 pm

Book Title: Early Records Of Gilpin County, Colorado

MASS MEETING, GREGORY'S DIGGINGS. [1]
        [1] Rocky Mountain News, June 18, 1959, p. 1. Other accounts of the trip
of Greeley and Richardson may be found in Horace Greeley, An overland Journey
from New York to San Francisco, and in Albert D. Richardson, Beyond the
Mississippi.


    The first mass meeting ever held in the Rocky Mountains, assembled at the
Gregory Diggings, on Tuesday evening the 8th inst. [June 8, 1859]. Between two
and three thousand miners were present, although only a few hours verbal notice
of the meeting had been given. Judge H. P. A. Smith was called to the chair.

    Hon. Horace Greeley, the first speaker, was received with three cheers. He
alluded to the cheering indications he had seen during the day, in examining the
mines and sluices. He had always had a suspicion—from which he was not yet
entirely free—that these mines would not prove equal in richness to those of
California; but in view of the great discoveries of the last five weeks, there
was evidently a vast future before this region. It was by no means probable that
all the gold of the Eastern slope was confined to this little area of seven or
eight miles. He advocated the formation of a new State, and trusted that one
might be made and brought into the Union without going through the troublesome
and undemocratic form of a Territorial organization. He spoke at length, of the
peculiar temptations towards drinking, gaming, etc., to which the miners were
subjected, and urged them to steadfastly avoid them; to look to untiring
industry instead of speculation for their accumulations; to maintain good order,
and to live as the loved ones they had left at home—the brothers and sisters,
fathers and mothers, wives and children—would wish; that when they returned they
might carry with them the reward of their labors. If a gambler, after being
warned not to do so, should persist in coming among them, he advised putting him
on a good mule, headed out of the mountains, and asking him if he would not like
to take a ride? (Laughter and applause.) He should in a few days go hence to
Salt Lake and California, and it was one purpose of this trip, to do what he
could to hasten the construction of the Pacific Railroad, which ought to have
been built long ago (loud applause). When Mr. Greeley retired three rousing
cheers were given for him.

    B. D. Williams Esq., acting Superintendent of the Express Company, was
called out and made a few remarks. He stated that he had come through from
Leavenworth to Denver City in six days and twenty-three hours; that Eastern
letters to and from Denver would hereafter be brought by the U. S. Mail at the
legal rates; that a charge of but twenty-five cents would be made by the Company
for taking letters between Denver and the Diggings; that Jones & Russell—whose
names were types of magnanimity throughout the West—bad large supplies of
provisions on the road, which they proposed to sell here at fair, not
extortionate prices (Cheers).

    Judge Smith, in response to the call of the meeting, spoke of the flattering
prospects of the mines, and the rich treasures in the gulches and ravines of the
mountains that were now opening. He advocated, earnestly, the movement for a new
State. We were 700 miles from the Kansas seat of government; a mining region
required laws radically different from an agricultural one; it was impossible,
as at present situated, to secure the prompt and legal administration of
justice. The new State he trusted, without going through the chrysalis condition
of a territory—was to spring fully matured into existence, like Minerva from the
brain of Jove—and here, in its proper position, on the apex of the Rocky
Mountains, was to be the real Keystone State of the Union (vehement applause).
He understood that the Kansas Legislature had appointed Commissioners to lay out
new counties and locate the county seats here, for which they were to receive
each five dollars per day and expenses, not one cent of which was to be paid
from the Territorial Treasury, but by the people here. He thought it would be
well to carry out Mr. Greeley's idea about the gamblers, and when one of these
Commissioners came, to put him on a mule, and give him an invitation to ride out
of the country!   (Laughter and cheers).

    A. D. Richardson Esq., was next introduced. A good deal had been said
tonight about mules and mule-riding; now he was a candidate for one of those
mule-rides. He was one of the Commissioners appointed to organize a county here
and locate the county seat (laughter). Like the last speaker, he had not
objected to coming out under a fat appointment. Five dollars a day and expenses
was a good thing. A mule was a good thing too; he didn't happen to own one, and
if they presented him with one, should not decline it—in fact, would rather like
it (excessive merriment). As for the ride, he could only say: Strike, but hear
him! He reached Denver yesterday; but in a few hours had become satisfied that
here were the elements of a great State, to be developed with wonderful
rapidity. He hoped it might become a State in the Union, and escape the servile
and dependent form of a Territory. Interested here in common with all other
citizens, he could do nothing to retard that event or to complicate the issues.
Therefore, "Montana County" would hardly be organized just yet: and he was
prepared to sell out his emoluments—cheap (applause). But like the ass who
starved between two bundles of hay, he feared he was to lose both the mule and
the five dollars a day—which was really melancholy to contemplate. He
congratulated the hardy pioneers, who had remained through all obstacles, and
now began to be rewarded. He had met many returning emigrants, looking as if
they were under a very deep conviction of sin. The late discoveries promised to
add a new star to the federal constellation, and to locate the great Pacific
Railroad of the future in this central region—away from the deserts of the
South, and the snows of the North. Not many years would elapse before the people
of the sea-board would come, for Summer recreation, to these "mother mountains,"
and at some station not far away, Boston and San Francisco, London and Canton,
would meet and exchange salutations and newspapers, while their respective
trains were stopping for breakfast. (Three cheers were given for Mr. R., and a
unanimous vote of approval for his conduct was passed.)

    Dr. J. Casto was called out, and in a few remarks urged the miners who had
not found paying leads, to push on toward the snowy range, whither an exploring
party was going in a few days.

    The Meeting then adjourned. It was a stirring sight to see so large an
assembly in the Mountains, and was, no doubt, surprising to the grizzly bears,
who held undisputed sway there six weeks ago.


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