9th Arizona Territorial Legislature
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The 9th Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly was a session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature which convened on January 1, 1877, in Tucson, Arizona Territory. It passed 79 statutes and adopted the Hoyt Code as the basis of the Territory's legal system.


Background

The Indian wars were winding down, with most of
Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona (also known as Arizona Territory) was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of ...
's native population pacified. Following 1877 there would be periodic outbreaks of violence but no widespread conflict. The reduction in violence was allowing the economy to boom. Prospectors had found and were developing a number of mineral deposits. Reduced Indian problems had allowed importation of sheep and cattle. Additionally, the
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
was being built across the territory. Governor
Anson P.K. Safford Anson Pacely Killen SaffordVarious sources give multiple variations for the spelling of Safford's two middle names. Among these are Peasley, Peacely, Keeler, and Killen. (c. February 14, 1830– December 15, 1891) was the third Governor of Arizona ...
's education initiatives were prospering. A May 1876 census showed at least 1,450 of the territory's 2,955 children were literate. Territorial school districts were also preparing to issue bonds to replace makeshift classrooms with larger structures better able to handle the growing demand. The territorial
legal code A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...
was in need of updating. To address this need, Territorial Secretary John Philo Hoyt had been commissioned to create a revised code based upon the "Howell Code" which was adopted by the
1st Arizona Territorial Legislature The 1st Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly was a session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature which began on September 26, 1864, in Prescott, Arizona, and ran for forty-three days. The session was responsible for enacting Arizona's first ...
.


Legislative session

The legislative session began on January 1, 1877.


Governor's address

As with all his previous addresses, Governor Safford discussed the current situation involving the Indian Wars. To this he added his concerns about
outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
s. Declaring highwaymen "are a scourge to civilization, a disgrace to humanity, and should be swept from the face of the earth as remorselessly as the most ferocious wild beast", he recommended highway robbery be made a capital crime. The governor was able to report that the
Yuma Territorial Prison The Yuma Territorial Prison is a former prison located in Yuma, Arizona, United States. Opened on July 1, 1876, and shut down on September 15, 1909. It is one of the Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places ...
was partially open, holding eight prisoners with a capacity for thirty.


Legislation

The ninth session of the Arizona Territorial Legislature was unusually productive, passing 79 new laws. The revised legal code drafted by the Territorial Secretary, dubbed the "Hoyt Code", was adopted as the basis of the territory's legal system. Despite the previous session's permanently fixing the territorial
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
in Tucson, the first action taken by this session was to move the capital to Prescott. Other organizational changes included adjusting the northern boundary of Maricopa County, moving the
seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...
of Mohave County to Mineral Park, and incorporating the City of Tucson. In a related activity, residents of Grant County, New Mexico Territory had voiced a desire to have their county annexed to the Arizona Territory. The legislature responded by petitioning the U.S. Congress to make the requested transfer. To help deal with continuing lawlessness, the session authorized payment of a US$300 reward for the capture of two highwaymen who had robbed a stagecoach and its accompanying United States mail near Skull Valley on January 4, 1877. They also authorized formation of another volunteer force to fight in the
Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexic ...
. Other actions included imposition of a US$50 fine on anyone who allowed their hogs to run wild within a town. Maricopa County was given permission to issue US$15,000 in bonds for a series of four roads radiating from Phoenix: one to Globe City, one to Yuma via Agua Caliente, and two routes to Prescott via Black Canyon and
Wickenburg Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa and Yavapai counties, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 7,474, up from 6,363 in 2010. History The Wickenburg area, along with much of the Southwest, became part of ...
. Finally, the session granted divorces to ten couples.


Members


References

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Further reading

* {{AZ Territorial Legislature 09 09 1877 in Arizona Territory Territorial Legislature