William Gilpin

William Gilpin (October 4, 1813–1894) was a 19th century U.S. explorer, politician, land speculator, and futurist writer about the American West. He served as military officer in the United States Army during several wars, accompanied John C. Fremont on his second expedition through the West, and was instrumental in the formation of the government of the Oregon Territory. As a politician and writer, he was an inveterate believer in Manifest Destiny and was a visionary booster of new settlement to the West, helping lay the groundwork in his writings for a modern theory of the succession of civilizations. He served as the first governor of the Colorado Territory, where his administration was consumed largely with the defense of the new territory in the early days of the American Civil War and was brought down after only one year by scandalous financial dealings. After the demise of his political career, he made a large fortune as a land speculator in New Mexico, although his dealings were questionable and possibly illegal. Gilpin County, Colorado is named for him. October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikiquote has quotations relating to: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ... Future studies (also called futurism, futurology, and futures studies) is the study of the medium to long-term future, by extrapolating present technological, economic or social trends, or by attempting to predict future trends. ... This article is for the American West. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813-July 13, 1890), birth name John Charles Fremon [Harvey, p. ... The Oregon Territory is the name applied both to the unorganized Oregon Country claimed by both the United States and Britain, as well as to the organized U.S. territory formed from it that existed between 1848 and 1859. ... Manifest Destiny, meaning obvious (or undeniable) fate, was a belief originally held by Democratic Republicans, specifically Warhawks during the presidency of James Madison, that stated the United States had a divinely-inspired mission to expand itself and its system of government from ocean to ocean and to the western frontier. ... The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. ... The Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico territories in 1860 The Colorado Territory was a historic, organized territory of the United States that existed between 1861 and 1876. ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... State nickname: Land of Enchantment Other U.S. States Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Governor Bill Richardson Official languages English and Spanish Area 315,194 km² (5th)  - Land 314,590 km²  - Water 607 km² (0. ... Gilpin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. ...

Biography

Gilpin was born near Wilmington, Delaware to a wealthy family of Quakers. He was educated by private tutors and studied abroad in England before attending the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1833. He later attended West Point but dropped out after eight months. Despite this, he received a commission as second lieutenant in the United States Army and served in the Seminole Wars. He also served as a recruiter in Missouri. While in Missouri, he became attracted to opportunities on the frontier and to the idea of westward expansion of the nation. After leaving the Army in 1838, he moved to St. Louis where he became a newspaper editor and opened a law practice. After three years in St. Louis, he moved across the state to Independence, where he interacted with emigrants about to embark on the Oregon Trail. City nickname: Location in the state of Delaware Founded County New Castle County Mayor James M. Baker (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 44. ... The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion... The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn, although the former is the preferred and recognized nickname of the University) is a private university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a member of the Ivy League. ... 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Alternate meanings: West Point (disambiguation). ... Osceola, Seminole leader, detail from an 1838 lithograph The Seminole Wars were three wars or conflicts in Florida between the Seminole Native American tribe and the United States. ... Missouri, named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning canoe, is a Midwestern state of the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. ... In the United States and Canada the frontier was the term applied until the end of the 19th century to the zone of unsettled land outside the region of existing settlements of European immigrants and their descendants. ... 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... For other uses of the term, see Oregon Trail (disambiguation) The route of the Oregon Trail is shown in red in the western United States Ruts made by wagons on the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming, at Register Cliff. ...

In 1843 he encountered John C. Fremont along the Santa Fe Trail and embarked westward with Fremont on his expedition to find a route over the continental divide. While passing through the region of present-day Colorado, he encountered evidence of placer gold in the region, but the information would go unused for at least another decade. When the party reached Walla Walla in the Oregon County, Gilpin continue westward on his own while Fremont continued on to California. At the time, the Oregon Country was under joint administration by the United States and the United Kingdom, but in pratical terms it was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. Gilpin settled among the growing community of U.S. settlers in the Willamette Valley and became active in the organization a provisional government. At the landmark convention at Champoeg, he helped draft a petition requesting support for the provisional government from the United States Congress Gilpin himself was charged with carrying the Willamette petition back east. On his way back through Missouri, he helped publicize the Pacific Northwest and stir up "Oregon fever". He delivered the petition to Congress in 1845, then wrote memoirs of his travels in the Pacific Northwest to emphasize its potential for trade and settlement. 1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Continental Divide as it passes through Yellowstone National Park (7988/2436m) The Continental Divide or Great Divide is a ridge of mountains in North America, which separates the watershed area of streams and rivers that flow west into the Pacific Ocean from those that flow east into the Arctic... This is the article on the state. ... A sluice box used in placer mining Placer mining (pronounced plass-er) is a open-pit or open-cast form of mining by which certain valuable minerals are extracted from the earth without tunneling. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 (IB), 6, d Density, Hardness 19300 kg/m3, 2. ... Walla Walla is the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 29,6866. ... Oregon County may refer to: Oregon County, Missouri Oregon Country, a region of the Pacific Northwest This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... The Hudsons Bay Company building in Montreal The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest corporation in Canada and is one of the oldest in the world still in existence. ... Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudsons Bay Company in the Oregon Country. ... The Willamette Valley is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its emergence from mountains near Eugene to its confluence with the Columbia River. ... Champoeg, Oregon Champoeg, pronounced sham_POO_ee (SAMPA /ʃæm. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ... Darker red states are always part of the Pacific Northwest. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

During the Mexican-American War, he received a commission as Major and marched to Chihuahua City in the succesful bloodless campaign to capture New Mexico. He was considered to have served with distinction in the campaign and was later given command of a volunteer force to protect the Santa Fe Trail against attacks by Native Americans. The Mexican-American War was a war fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848. ... This article needs cleanup. ... The Santa Fe Trail was an important route in the western United States, leading from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...

After the end of the war in 1848, he returned to Missouri and resumed his law practice. He made an unsuccessful attempt at a political career while in Missouri as well. In 1859, Gilpin's early intuition about gold in Colorado proved correct, and the region suddenly became the target for thousands of eager and hopeful prospectors in the ensuing Colorado Gold Rush. That year, Gilpin published a futurist history of the region, called The Central Gold Region, in which he wrote, "the destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent". In the book he predicted that the Mississippi River valley would become the center of western civilization with the new settlement of Denver as its capital, based partly on its location near the 40th parallel north. In the book, Gilpin envisioned that all the great cities of the world along that latitude would eventually be linked by railroad lines, and proposed a rail line over the Bering Strait connecting North America and Asia. Throughout his career in politics, Gilpin was a strong believer that the American West would not only be settled, but that it would eventually hold an enormous population. He was a particularly strong advocate of the now-debunked climatological theory of "Rain follows the plow", which held that settlement in the arid lands of the West would actually increase rainfall in the region, making it as fertile and green as the Eastern United States. 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1859 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The Colorado Gold Rush was the boom in the prospecting and mining of gold in present-day Colorado in the United States that began in 1859 and lasted throughout the early 1860s. ... Length 6,270 km Elevation of the source 450 m Average discharge Saint Louis¹: 5,500 m³/s Vicksburg²: 16,800 m³/s Baton Rouge³: 12,800 m³/s Area watershed 2,980,000 km² Origin Lake Itasca Mouth Gulf of Mexico Basin countries United States (98. ... Colorado State Capitol Building Denver is the largest city and capital of the state of Colorado, United States of America. ... Latitude, denoted by the Greek letter φ, gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the Equator. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Satellite photo of the Bering Strait The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, the eastmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of the American continent, about 85 km in width, with a depth of 30–50 m. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Eurasia and Africa. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ... Climatology is the science that studies climates and investigates their phenomena and causes. ... Rain follows the plow is the conventional name for a now-debunked theory of climatology that was popular throughout the American West during the late 19th century. ...

In the early 1860s the crisis in Kansas prompted Gilpin to join the Republican Party, putting him at odds with many citizens of Missouri. He political alignment with the new administration of Abraham Lincoln was rewarded in 1861 when Lincoln appointed him governor of the newly-formed Colorado Territory. His selection over the local favorite William Larimer came as a surprise to many, and was motivated in part by the fact the Gilpin was backed the Governor of Missouri, a State that Lincoln was eager to keep in the Union. Events and trends Italian unification under King Victor Emmanuel II. Wars for expansion and national unity continue until the incorporation of the Papal States (March 17, 1861 - September 20, 1870). ... Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to as Bloody Kansas and/or the Border War, was a sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro- Slavery elements that took place in Kansas Territory between roughly 1854 and 1856. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th (1861–1865) President of the United States, and the first president from the Republican Party. ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... William Larimer, Jr. ... The Union was a name used by many to refer to the northern states during the American Civil War, while the deraugatory name for people in the north was Yankees. Besides the obvious fact that they were the remaining states left in the United States, the name seems also implied...

Gilpin left Missouri and arrived in Colorado in May 1861 to cheering crowds. Despite his warm reception, his administration and governor was plagued with difficulties from the outset. The territory had been organized at the start of the Civil War and faced a complex set of possible threats, including Confederate sympathizers within the territory, the possibility of a Confederate invasion from outside the territory, and the looming tensions with Native Americans (in particular the Arapaho and Cheyenne) in the wake of the withdraw of U.S. Army troops in the region for other duties. National Motto Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God our Vindicator) Official language English de facto nationwide Various European and Native American languages regionally Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans... -1... Scabby Bull, Arapaho 1806 Arapaho camp, ca. ... This article is about the Native American tribe; Cheyenne is also the name of a Colorado mountain and military complex, the capital of Wyoming, a Western television series and a small town in Oklahoma. ...

The imminent threats facing the territory prompted Gilpin to act quickly without receiving authorization from the federal government. He appointmented a territorial military staff and, despite having no funds for military purposes,he began to solicit volunteers for a military regiment. Without funds, he took the daring step of issuing $375,000 in drafts on the federal treasury, with the expectation that the federal government would honor them later. He later claimed that he had received verbal authorization from Lincoln before leaving for Colorado. The government of the United States, established by the United States Constitution, is a federal republic of 50 states, a few territories and some protectorates. ... A regiment is a military unit, larger than a company and smaller than a division. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... The Treasurer of the United States is the only position within the United States Department of the Treasury older than the Department itself. ...

At first, most of the merchants and citizens of the territory were willing to follow Gilpin's campaign, but doubt began to spread through the territory after rumors from Washington, DC confirmed that the federal government did not intend to validate the drafts. By the summer of 1861, many of the citizens of the territory were in uproar, a petitions were circulated calling for Gilpin's removal from office. The campaign against him was fostered by the anger of William N. Byers, the powerful editor of the Rocky Mountain News, whose newspaper had been bypassed in favor of rival in the awarding of the territorial printing contract. Under attack in his own state, Gilpin went to Washington to plead his case for the validation of the drafts. Despite the controversial, the funds already raised from the drafts allowed the creation of the 1st Colorado Volunteers, which were widely derided as "Gilpin's Pet Lambs". The regiment trained in the summer and fall of 1861 at Camp Weld near Denver. Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... A petition is a request to an authority, most commonly a government official or public entity. ... The Rocky Mountain News is a daily morning tabloid-format newspaper published in Denver, Colorado. ... The 1st Colorado Volunteers (officially the 1st Regiment of Colorado Volunteers) was a volunteer infantry regiment of the United States Army formed in the Colorado Territory in 1861 and active in the American West in the late 19th century. ...

The mustering and training of the regiment proved to be highly useful when the Confederates launched an invasion northward through the New Mexico Territory in the spring of 1862. The invasion (now called the New Mexico Campaign to reflect its abortive nature) had as its aim the seizure of the mineral-rich Colorado Territory and eventually California. The volunteer regiment raised by Gilpin's efforts played a critical role in the campaign, routing the Texans at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, which became known as the "Gettysburg of the West". The New Mexico Territory became an organized territory of the United States on September 9, 1850, and it existed until New Mexico became the 47th state on January 6, 1912. ... 1862 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The New Mexico campaign was a military operation in 1862 of the American Civil War in which the Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded the New Mexico Territory in an attempt to control the southwest and the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of California. ... State nickname: Lone Star State Other U.S. States Capital Austin Largest city Houston Governor Rick Perry Official languages None. ... Battle of Glorieta Pass Conflict American Civil War Date March 26-28, 1862 Place Santa Fe County and San Miguel County, New Mexico Result Union victory The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought on March 26–28, 1862, in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico... Battle of Gettysburg Conflict American Civil War Date July 1–3, 1863 Place Adams County Result Union victory The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign, was the largest battle ever conducted in North America...

Despite the enormous success of the regiment, the territory was mired in financial problems caused by the fact that Gilpin's drafts had tied up most of the circulating currency without any resolution regarding their validation. Eventually the federal treasury settled the drafts after being presented with itemized statements by the holders of the drafts. The resolution came too late for Gilpin, however, who was removed from the governship of the territory by Lincoln in April 1862 and replaced by John Evans.

External links

• Colorado.gov: William Gilpin (http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/govs/gilpin.html)

References

• A Colorado History, 8th edition.

External links

• PBS: Wilpin Gilpin (http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/gilpin.htm)
• University of Virginia: Untrasacted Density: William Gilpin (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/chapter3.html)