but the law of libel still retained all its terrors. Bentham told the
truth when he said “Anything which any man for any reason, chooses to be
offended with is libel.” Lord Mansfield in the case of Henry Sampson
Woodfall, prosecuted for publishing a seditious libel, enunciated the
theory that the work of the jury began and ended with deciding the fact
as to whether the accused was or was not responsible for the publication
of the matter complained of, the crown, through the court, to decide
whether the matter was libellous. For twenty years the question was
fought over, and at last in 1791, Fox having changed his views in the
matter, introduced his famous bill to amend the law of libel, and in
1792 the bill became law. The importance of this act can hardly be
overestimated. After stating that “doubts have risen whether on the
trial of an indictment or information for the making and publishing any
libel, where an issue or issues are joined between the king and the
defendant or defendants, on the plea of not guilty pleaded it be
competent to the jury empanelled to try the same to give their verdict
upon the whole matter in issue.” It goes on to enact that “the jury may
give a general verdict of guilty or not guilty upon the whole matter in
issue, and shall not be required or directed by the court or judge to
find the defendant guilty merely in the proof of the publication by such
defendant of the paper charged to be a libel, and of the sense ascribed
to it in the indictment or information.” In the same spirit Judge
Fitzgerald told a jury[45] “You are the sole judges of the guilt or
innocence of the defendant. The judges are here to give any help they
can; but the jury are the judges of law and fact, and on them rests the
whole responsibility.”
Thus the idea of legal restrictions on the press passes away, and the
law of libel becomes a law of the press in any case where defamation or
false report is charged, and to a jury is committed the task of deciding
whether the statement made was justified and proper. As Prof. Dicey
aptly puts it,[46] “freedom of discussion is, then, in England, little
else than the right to write or say anything which a jury, consisting of
twelve shopkeepers, think it expedient should be said or written....
Whether in any particular case a given individual is to be convicted of
libel depends wholly on their judgment, and they have to determine the
questions of truth, fairness, intention, and the like, which affect the
legal character of a published statement.”
But this point of view, which is the position in England, and to a large
extent in our own land, has not been reached without a struggle, and it
is to that struggle, so far as it was carried on in the American
Colonies, that we must now turn out attention.
LIVINGSTON ROWE SCHUYLER.
NEW YORK CITY.
(_To be continued._)
THE AUTOGRAPH
UNPUBLISHED POEM BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH
[The MS. was sold in New York recently.]
Some hunt the tiger in his jungle deep,
Some chase the altitudinous giraffe,
Some fight the grizzly bear on mountain steep
And all of these their cup of pleasure quaff.
But fiercer rapture theirs who forward leap
To meet the grim, ferocious Autograph.
A terrible brute! but not so dangerous when
The prudent author keeps him in his—pen.
THE THIRTIETH OF MAY.
[Uncle John in the Cemetery, after the Decoration]
These are not all!
Here by the wall
Is the grave of one who died in the war,
Though her body hadn’t a wound nor scar.
Her hope and heart was broken, when
In a mass o’ men
Her lover fell in a pool of gore
With the flag he bore.
Her life and her love together fled
When he was dead.
Any vi’lets left, girls? Let them fall
Here by the wall.
These are not all!
Go back, and call
The boys that carry the evergreen.
Here is a grave you men hain’t seen.
It’s old man Brown’s. His heart clean broke
’Most as if he was women-folk.
He had five sons—his wife was dead—
Nothin’ could keep ’em to home, he said.
An’ every last one o’ that whole lot
Had to get shot!
Th’ old man hadn’t no grit, no pride—
Jest up and died!
Lay the evergreen softly down
Over the grave of old man Brown.
These are not all!
Let lilies fall
Here on this wee small grave in the shade.
I can remember the day we laid
The Captain’s baby in this green spot.
Cap. he was shot.
An’ some fool neighbor made haste to tell
The Captain’s widder the news, and—well,
Down she went in a faint—jest fell!
And it killed the baby. She lived on,
Health and reason forever gone.
Lay lilies here.
Was that a tear?—
I went to the war myself that year.
Put roses here.
This grave is dear—
She was my sister. The truest heart,
Always ready to do her part.
Gave up _her_ son
When the first gun
Thundered at Sumter! She had but one.
An’ _she_ died, when
(With stronger men)
He starved to death in a prison pen.
(The boy she had fed, and clothed, and kissed,
An’ done for, so that he hardly missed
His father—dead when he was a child.)
She never smiled.
She loved red roses when we was small;
Here let them fall.
We honor the soldiers; but they ain’t all!
MRS. E. M. ADAMS.
MOUND CITY, KANSAS.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHWEST AND THEIR PRESERVATION
Those who are studying the history of civilization on the American
Continent realize that the subject presents many and intricate problems
which can not be solved in this generation. Accordingly, to preserve the
material on which this study is based for the use of future generations,
is as important as are present investigations.
The title of this paper suggests two classes of material to be
considered. The historian will be concerned principally with the remains
that mark the advance of the Caucasian race. The remains of the
indigenous tribes interest the ethno-archæologist.
To a country so poor in archives as ours is, the possession of numerous
historic monuments, landmarks and remains of structures where history
has been made is especially fortunate and their preservation doubly
important. For a nation to cherish its own history, live in the heroic
and righteous acts of its past, is to conserve its vitality and
independence.
In the majority of the States we find a moderate degree of enthusiasm
for historic sites; sufficient at least to afford them adequate
protection and insure their preservation. Some far-seeing societies are
alive to the significance of the historic highways that penetrated the
American wilderness and are marking them with permanent milestones. A
notable example of this is the marking of the “Old Santa Fe Trail” by
the people of Kansas—a movement in which Colorado and New Mexico might
well join. The determination of Coronado’s line of march has occupied
the attention of careful students for many years and we may hope at some
future time to see positively determined sites on this historic way
permanently marked and recorded.
The significance of our frontier has not been recognized except in
social science. Fortunately its advance is well marked. The movement of
the military frontier is preserved in monuments and military post
buildings throughout the west. Court-house corner stones record the
advance of law and order, we may say, the legal frontier—its earliest
landmarks in the far west in the form of prominent trees, high bridges,
and projecting beams, being pointed out with modest pride by the early
inhabitants as memorials of Judge Lynch and the Vigilantes. The progress
of education and religion is marked by record stones upon the public
edifices devoted to these uses. The importance of all these records
should be more generally recognized. Whenever a modern structure is to
succeed an antiquated public building, the old record stone should
invariably be preserved and reset in some conspicuous place. Future
students of history and social sciences will see in these the ancient
shore-lines of American social development.
The military-religious frontier of the Spanish-American civilization
moved from south to north. Its limits are marked by the quaint old
mission churches of New Mexico and California. Some of these buildings
are still in the hands of the Church, in use and kept in repair. Some
are on the sites of long-abandoned Pueblo Indian villages, at the mercy
of the elements and the vandals. In California these splendid old
landmarks are being cared for by the organized efforts of thinking
people and we need give ourselves no concern as to their preservation.
Not so in New Mexico. Here we have ruins of five of the oldest historic
structures of which any vestiges remain on the soil of the United
States, all dating from the first half of the 17th century; all
abandoned yet nobly resisting the elements. These are the ruins of the
mission churches at the abandoned pueblos of Pecos in western San Miguel
county; Giusewa in the Jemez valley near Perea; Tabira, popularly known
as “Gran Quivira” in northeastern Socorro county, and Abo and Cuaray in
eastern Valencia county.
A peculiarly interesting class of ruins is that of the pueblo villages
that were occupied at the time of the coming of the Spaniards and
abandoned during the next century. Archæological work in such sites
should yield valuable results by disclosing the first influences of the
exotic civilization upon the indigenous tribes. Noteworthy sites of this
character are those near Zuñi and a number of the Rio Grande Valley.
The Southwest is rich in historic sites, but in prehistoric remains its
wealth is practically limitless. It is with these that we shall deal
principally in this paper.
The distribution of the indigenous tribes of America was determined
primarily by drainage; that is to say, the food quest was the chief
concern of primitive man. First of all, he sought food and water, and we
can readily see that, of these two, water was first in importance. Where
water was, there food was likely to be. Game frequented water courses.
Plant food depended upon moisture. Now in the southwest, water was
scarce, consequently no other portion of the United States was so poor
in game. Hunting tribes, therefore, shunned its desert wastes. Their
frontiers were the Pecos valley in eastern New Mexico, practically the
western limit of the buffalo, and the divide running east and west
across southern Colorado and Utah, separating the San Juan, south of
which lay the arid region, from the splendid hunting ranges on the north
which extended from ocean to ocean except where broken by the Utah and
Nevada deserts. There was thus a tract of country bounded on the east by
the Pecos river, on the north by the San Juan, extending west to the
Colorado and south to the Gila in which aridity was the dominant
climatic condition. Being poor in game, it was not until comparatively
recent times that it was much frequented by nomadic Indians. Comanches,
Utes, Navajos and Apaches had no use for this region until it was
occupied by some one whom they could dispossess of wealth. Primitive
economic systems are not unlike those of civilized men. In both states
of culture, wealth is acquired in two ways, namely, by producing it and
by dispossessing others of it. Savages and civilians naturally divide
into two great classes, the productive and the predatory. It is a far
cry from the murderously straightforward method of the Apache to the
highly specialized up-to-date commercial system, or even the
comparatively direct methods of modern politics, but the difference is
merely in technique. Now in the absence of game and of victims for
robbery, the first settlers of that arid region were driven to produce
their living by agriculture. This could only be successfully done by
irrigation. Accordingly lines of migration followed water ways and
springs. Moreover, this condition was conducive to a comparatively
sedentary life, and this leads to permanent home building.
Now the region under consideration embraces all of New Mexico and
Arizona, southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, and is comprised
within four principal drainage areas, viz: the Rio Grande, the San Juan,
the Little Colorado, and the Gila, the last three being tributary to the
Colorado. Over this area physiographic conditions are quite uniform and
the indigenous tribes now inhabiting it likewise; not as to linguistic
stock, but in general and specific culture. By indigines I mean the
various sedentary tribes generally called Pueblos as distinguished from
the intrusive Utes, Navajos and Apaches, which tribes cames in chiefly
for predatory reasons after the indigenous tribes had acquired
sufficient property to make them desirable prey. This indigenous culture
was doubtless composite as to blood and the uniformity developed was the
natural result of living for a long period of time under definite
uniform environmental conditions. Its primary migration movement was
from south to north, but branching in all directions, and the almost
countless prehistoric ruins following the water-courses of the southwest
are the remains of these early migrations.
The present sedentary Indians of the southwest, called by us Pueblos,
are thus the true indigines of that arid region so far as we can judge
from existing evidences. All presumption of earlier or different races
is purely hypothetical, as yet unsupported by any shadow of evidence.
These primitive agriculturists became builders of more or less permanent
houses, dependent always upon the permanence of the water supply. The
character of their habitations was usually determined by geological
environment. The characteristic style of architecture evolved was the
multiple-chambered stone structure that we call the _pueblo_. The
earliest of these were comparatively small, single-storied dwellings of
an indefinite number of rooms rarely exceeding fifty, scattered about
over the arable areas. The ruins of these to be found in the southwest
are quite uncountable. Later, as predatory neighbors multiplied and the
people crowded together for mutual aid the enormous hives of hundreds of
cells came into existence. These were often carried to a height of five
or six stories. At the same time and for the same reason another style
of habitation came into existence, namely, the cliff-dwelling. Its type
was always determined by geological conditions. If ledges difficult of
access and protected by overhanging cliffs could be found, dwellings
were built upon them, not differing structurally from pueblos. If the
cliffs presented only perpendicular faces, and were of comparatively
soft material, dwellings were excavated in them, single or
multiple-chambered, and thus strongly defensive homes established.
Thus we have in the southwest a most fortunate situation for the
archæologist. The ruins are of such a character and so situated as to
resist the action of the weather, and the climate singularly adapted to
the preservation of not only the buildings, but also the more perishable
remains. So completely did the indigenous culture overspread the area in
question that there is not a waterway of any consequence from the Pecos
to the Colorado and from the San Juan to the Gila that is without
numerous ruins. They are distributed along not less than a hundred
valleys in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. In a paper and map
prepared recently for the use of the Department of the Interior, I have
indicated the distribution of the ruins over the four general
drainage-areas, the Rio Grande, the San Juan, the Little Colorado, the
Gila, and as a tentative scheme have shown how they may be grouped into
twenty archæological districts. (This grouping has no ethnological
significance.)
The districts are grouped as follows:
I. The Rio Grande Basin:
1. Pajarito Park district.
2. Pecos Pueblo district.
3. Gran Quivira district.
4. Jemez district.
5. Acoma district.
II. The San Juan Basin:
1. Aztec district.
2. Mesa Verde district.
3. Chaco Cañon district.
4. Cañon de Chelly district.
5. Bluff district.
III. The Little Colorado Basin:
1. Tusayan district.
2. Flagstaff district.
3. Holbrook district.
4. Zuñi district.
IV. The Gila Basin:
1. Rio Verde district.
2. San Carlos district.
3. Lower Gila district.
4. Middle Gila district.
5. Upper Gila district.
6. San Francisco River district.
Following is a brief memorandum showing the extent of each district:
I. RIO GRANDE BASIN.
This culture area, lying wholly in New Mexico, embraces the Rio Grande
Valley with its tributaries from Ojo Caliente on the north to Socorro on
the south and from Acoma on the west to the plains east of the Manzano
Mountains.
II. SAN JUAN BASIN.
The ruins of the San Juan Basin consist of both large and small communal
houses and true cliff dwellings in great numbers. They are scattered in
numerous, irregular groups over the contiguous portions of New Mexico,
Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. All the ruins of the San Juan and its
tributaries have suffered much from destructive collectors.
III. LITTLE COLORADO BASIN.
This extensive region embraced in the valley of the Little Colorado and
its tributaries is pre-eminently a region of pueblo ruins, though some
cave dwellings are found. It is especially rich in prehistoric pottery.
Because of its wealth of relics this region has suffered more than any
other from the traffic in prehistoric wares. However, we are fortunate
in that Dr. J. Walter Fewkes of the Bureau of American Ethnology has
made the districts of the Little Colorado a subject of research for many
years. His voluminous reports on this region have put us in possession
of a vast amount of information on the archæology and ethnology of the
Southwest. His collections from Sikyatki for the National Museum, made
in 1895, with the assistance of Mr. F. W. Hodge of the Smithsonian
Institution, together with the collections made from the Holbrook
district by Doctors Fewkes and Hough, form, probably, the most valuable
collection of prehistoric pottery in existence. Another extensive
collection of pottery from this region may be seen in the Field
Columbian Museum in Chicago.
IV. GILA BASIN.
This is another region that embraces practically every species of
prehistoric ruins. It is of vast extent and comprises, besides the
valley of the Gila proper, the large valleys of the Salt and Verde
rivers. As a seat of prehistoric culture it was one of the most
extensive and populous. Many ruins of these three great valleys are on
irrigable lands, and, accordingly, have disappeared with the advancement
of agriculture.
It would not be possible within the limits set for this paper to
describe the ruins of each of these twenty districts, but we may point
out briefly the principal features of one district in each drainage
area.
1. PAJARITO PARK DISTRICT.
This district lies between the Rio Grande on the east and the Jemez
Mountains on the west, and extends from Ojo Caliente on the north to
Cochiti on the south. In the northern part are the ruins of Homayo,
Houiri (Ho-we-re), and Pose on Ojo Caliente Creek. Ten miles west,
below El Rito, is the large ruin of Sepawi (Se-paw-we). Near the
village of Abiquiu, on the Rio Chama, is the important ruin of Tsiwari
(Tsi-wa-re). These are all pueblo ruins, and not well preserved.
The central portion of the district is the Pajarito Park proper, the
region that has for some years been under withdrawal by the General
Land Office and favorably reported on for a national park, for which
it has many advantages, being of great scenic beauty, accessible, and
one of the richest in the Southwest in well-preserved prehistoric
remains. It contains innumerable cavate houses, a vast number of small
pueblo ruins, and the ruins of the great communal dwellings of Puye,
Otowi, Tsankiwi (Tsan-ke-we), Navakwi (Nav-a-kwe), and Pajarito or
Tchrega. Vandalism has greatly diminished among these ruins since the
park has been under withdrawal.
In the southern part of this district, between the Rito de los
Frijoles and Cochiti, are the ruins of six pueblos, and a considerable
number of cavate houses, the interesting Cueva Pintada (painted cave),
and the famous shrines known as the “Stone Lions of Potrero de las
Vacas and Potrero de los Idolos.”
2. MESA VERDE DISTRICT.
In this district are the finest specimens of true cliff dwellings.
They are very numerous in the cañons of Mesa Verde and along the
Mancos River. Cliff Palace is justly one of the most famous works of
prehistoric man in existence. Numerous pueblo and cliff ruins are
distributed along the McElmo, the Yellowjacket and the Hovenweep. On
the whole, this is one of the most interesting of all prehistoric
districts. A portion of it is under withdrawal by the General Land
Office, pending the creation of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings National
Park. The intelligent interest of the people of Colorado has done much
toward the preservation of these ruins. However, the entire district
has suffered much from vandalism, a majority of the burial mounds
having been destroyed. A national park in this region would be of
great educational value.
3. ZUÑI DISTRICT.
This region is rich in both historic and prehistoric ruins. On Zuñi
Reservation are the ruins of the historic seven cities of Cibola. El
Morro, or Inscription Rock, is an interesting historic monument east
of Zuñi which is under temporary withdrawal by the General Land
Office. The region south of Zuñi to Quemado is known to be full of
ruins, and traders are securing large collections of pottery therefrom
at the present time. The ruins of Zuñi have been thoroughly made known
to us through the work of the Hemenway expedition, under the direction
of the late Frank Hamilton Cushing, assisted by Mr. F. W Hodge. The
collections of this expedition are now in the Peabody Museum at
Harvard University. Other important researches have been made in the
Zuñi district by Doctor Fewkes.
4. RIO VERDE DISTRICT.
On the northern tributaries of the Rio Verde are many cliff ruins. Of
these, Honanki and Palatki are the most important. They are within the
limits of the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve. There are
numerous cliff ruins along Oak Creek and Beaver Creek and their
tributaries. Near Camp Verde is the ruin known as “Montezuma Castle,”
and a little farther up Beaver Creek, on the Black Mesa Forest
Reserve, is the interesting Montezuma well. Mr. Mindeleff and Doctor
Fewkes have made important studies and reports on the ruins of this
district.
Fortunately not less than nine-tenths of the prehistoric ruins of the
Southwest are on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the
United States; that is, they are on Forest Reserves, on unreserved
public lands and on Indian Reservations.
By virtue of Section 441, U. S. Revised Statutes, the care and custody
of the public lands is vested in the Secretary of the Interior, and
Section 453 declares that the Commissioner of the General Land Office
shall perform under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior all
executive duties in anywise respecting such lands. There can be no
question that this statute lays upon the Department of the Interior and
the General Land Office the obligation to protect the archæological
remains that are upon the public lands as definitely as it does the
timber and other values.
In the exercise of the power thus conferred a policy has grown up in the
Department of the Interior that should be more widely understood. This
policy mobilizes, so to speak, the entire force of forest supervisors,
rangers, special agents, Indian school superintendents and teachers,
Indian agents, farmers and police, and even the Indians themselves, in
the protection of these ruins as one of their regular duties, for the
avowed purpose of preserving them for scientific investigation. It
establishes the liberal policy that any competent scientist who desires
to place the material secured in a public museum will be authorized by
the Department of the Interior to examine ruins, but that no person will
be permitted to excavate them for the purpose of acquiring specimens for
traffic or private gain, and that wilful destruction of historic and
prehistoric landmarks must cease. The most zealous archæologist must
admit that this leaves little to be desired. The main thing, a system of
governmental protection for archæological remains, is an accomplished
fact. All the available forces of the Department are being wisely
utilized. The scientific branch of the Government is lending its aid by
furnishing as called upon the needed information concerning sites that
are of value to science. Especially noteworthy is the emphasis
habitually laid by the Commissioner of the General Land Office on “_the
importance of furthering in every way possible researches with a view to
increasing the knowledge of such objects and aiding in the general
advancement of archæological science_.” This is administrative policy
that every scientific man can uphold with most cordial enthusiasm.