History

"The collectivization of labor during recent centuries has now been duplicated by the collectivization of thought. Industrialization collectivized labor by forcing workers to gather in large units and to specialize and simplify the functions of each worker. Similarly, the rise of the intellectual factory, the modern university, which has been indentured to the service of industry and even more so to that of technology, forces a concentration and a specialization of thought. The search for human truth has become the search for productively useful knowledge. ... Thinker is servant to thought, thought is servant to product, product is servant to consumer, and the consumer is enslaved by beliefs and thoughts that are either traditional or are produced mechanically by the demands of an abstract system purged of all human will."

"We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us."

"The central tenet of Communist economic change was industrialization. The pattern again was taken from the Soviet Union. Only by industrializing fast could a country become socialist and modern. The policy had an obvious appeal: in countries on the European periphery, where there was a profound sense of having fallen behind, and in countries outside of Europe, such as China, Korea, and Vietnam, rapid industrialization seemed indeed to be the way forward. Everyone was bewitched by the extraordinary role of Soviet industrial production in destroying Nazi Germany. The emphasis was always on heavy industry: steel, machinery, shipyards, and on the mining and drilling that served such industries. Big enterprises had the priority, and almost all investment went to capital projects. Consumer goods were lacking, and for those that were available, shortages and queuing were the rules from the very beginning of Communist governments."

"Gaia's main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia's main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the worldcentric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence."

"System theories have been applied to a wide spectrum of empirical cases and policy issues. Parsons and his followers, in particular, applied their systems theory to diverse empirical phenomena in sociology as well as in other disciplines: modernization, economics, politics, social order, industrialization and development, Fascism and McCarthyism, international relations, social change and evolution, complex organizations, health care, universities, religion, professions, small groups, and family as well as abstract questions such as the place of norms in maintaining social order both historically and cross-nationally. Marxian theory and dynamic system theories have also been applied to a spectrum of diverse empirical and policy subjects."

"Now the United States of America, in consideration of the premises and in conformity with the act of Congress aforesaid, does give and grant unto unto the said Pueblo of Pecos, in the county of San Miguel aforesaid, and to the successors and assigns of the said Pueblo of Pecos, the tract of land above described and embraced in said survey but with the stipulation and as expressed in said act of Congress "That this act of confirmation shall only be construed as a relinquishment of all title and claim of the United States to any of said lands and shall not affect any adverse valid rights, should such exist. ...""

"Las Vegas, N.M. Feb 24, 1973: We, Juan Antonio Tolla, Jose Miguel Vigil, Juan Pedro Vigil and Pablo Toya, the eldest of the Pueblo of Pecos, and as their agents, state and confess, that we came to Las Vegas and to Mr. F. Chapman with the view to sell our interest in the Pecos grant and the interest of our constituents. Not having received any benefit of [sic] said lands and seeing that people are taking up tracts of our grant, we consider it proper and as our own benefit to sell said grant. We, the Pueblo of Pecos, are reduced to a small number and most of us are old, and have never received any benefit from our grant since it has been confirmed to us by Congress. We, therefore, took the step to see whether we could sell said land grant as according to our patent, we believe we have such right and privilage..."

"On his way home from the dance, at age forty [Dec. 31, 1879], he [Frank Chapman] collapsed and died of gastritis. ...Only six days after his death, Andres Dold returned to Las Vegas from New York. He immediately began... discovering and arranging Chapman's estate. ...Two days after Chapman's sudden death and three days before Dold arrived, Marcus Brunswick, a long time associate of Dold, and Chapman's nephew, John, petitioned the San Miguel County Court for appointment as administrators of Frank Chapman's estate. ...Five days later, one day after Dold's return, there appeared in the county courthouse for the first time two partnership agreements between Chapman and Dold, one dated 22 November 1873, and the other dated sometime in February 1879, but both filed 8 January, 1980. The 1873 agreement provided simply that Frank Chapman would continue Andres Dold's previous business under his own name. The two men would share equally the profits and the losses... The 1879 agreement... added that the two men would share as "equal partners and joint owners all real estate held and possessed by said Chapman..." including the Pecos grant."

"In one instance, that of the Pueblo of Pecos, which was a grant from the King of Spain, (A.D. 1689), nothing now remains but the stone ruins of the pueblo houses and the old Pecos church with its fallen towers and crumbling walls. Repeated incursions and attacks from warlike Comanches, reduced the Pecos Indians to a feeble band. The United States confirmed their grant, nevertheless, and a patent, bearing the President's signature assures to "The Pueblo of Pecos 18,763 acres of land with a magnificent river through the tract. But the remnant of these people, in whose midst Montezuma is said to have been born, in the fear of total extinction, carried their sacred fire from its underground altar up into the sunlight, and fled to the larger Pueblo of Jemez; and now their identity, like that of the mysterious flame which they had for ages so well kept, is forever lost in that of the larger commune. But the question is, who now owns the 18,763 acres of land patented to the extinct "Pueblo of Pecos?" With the public domain nearly gone, it has become a burning question as to what Congress is going to do in New Mexico. Settlers on the Cimaron and the Canadian are now in open rebellion against the curse of fraudulent land grants, and are demanding a general expose of the steals, and such legislation as will segregate rightfully confirmed tracts from the public lands, and provide a date after which all land grant claims shall be forever barred. President Cleveland has struck several sturdy blows at the Santa Fe land ring, smiting thieves who wear the Democratic as well as the Republican party label. He has appointed an honest man, Hon. George W. Julian, as Surveyor General, who has in a few short months unearthed a hundred stupendous land steals. Mr. Julian cannot be bribed or diverted from his duty, and if the power of the ring cannot tie his hands, it is more than likely he will fall at his post, a victim to its wrath and revenge."

"In the U.S. Land Off. Rept. '56 p. 307-26 is printed a series of doc. from the arch., with translations, which are regarded as the original titles to the pueblo lands of several pueblos, the others having lost their papers. The papers are dated Sept. 20-5, '89. Each one consists of the formal statement under oath of Bartolomé Ojeda, one of the Ind. captured at Cia, and who had taken a prominent part in the fight, to the effect that the natives of Jemes—also S. Juan, Picuríes, S. Felipe, Pecos, Cochití, and Sto. Domingo—were so terrified by the event of 'last year,' [1688 or 1689] that is, the defeat at Cia, that they would not revolt again or refuse to render allegiance; whereupon the gov. proceeds to assign the pueblo boundaries, generally 4 sq. l. [4 square leagues, approx. 18,000 acres], with the church in the centre, but sometimes by fixed landmarks. In the case of Acoma and Laguna, Ojeda's testimony is as to the bounds of the pueblos, and the reasons why Acoma has moved to the peñol (from which it had been removed in 1599), and why Laguna had moved near to Acoma. It also is implied that the gov. had in his entrada visited other pueblos besides Cia. I confess that these doc. are very mysterious to me; and I cannot imagine why the gov. on such an occasion at El Paso, on the testimony of a captive that the rebels were disposed to submit, should have troubled himself to fix the town limits."

"In one of the river villages Coronado found an Indian slave who said he was a native of Quivira, which he described as a rich and populous place far away in the east. Acting upon this information, with the Indian as a guide, Coronado started on April 23d, 1541, with his whole army to march to Quivira. From Cicuye or Pecos, whose ruins can still be seen by the traveller from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé trains, the guide seems to have led the white men down the Pecos River until they were out of the mountains, and on to the vast plains where they soon met the countless herds of bison or "humpbacked oxen." For five weeks the Europeans plodded onward across what is now known as the "Staked Plains," following a generally easterly direction."

"In the U. S. Land Office Reports of 1856, p. 307-26, is printed a series of documents from the Santa Fé Archives, with translations. These are regarded as the original titles to the pueblo lands of several of the pueblo tribes. The papers are dated September 20-5, 1689. Each one consists of the formal statement under oath of Bartolomé Ojeda, one of the Indians captured at Cia, and who had taken a prominent part in the battle, to the effect that the natives of Jemez, San Juan, Picuriés, San Felipe, Pecos, Cochití, and Santo Domingo were so terrified by the event of "last year," that is, the defeat at Cia, that they would not revolt again or refuse to render allegiance. The governor then assigns the boundaries, four square leagues, measuring from the church, but sometimes by fixed landmarks."

"The rule of Governor Otermín ended in 1683 and he was succeeded by Don Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate, who in turn was succeeded by Don Pedro Reneros de Posada. Under one or the other of these governors an entrada was made at least as far north as the pueblos of Santa Ana and Cia, at which last named pueblo a battle was fought resulting in the killing of 600 Indians and the capture of 70, all of whom, with the exception of a few old men who were shot by order of the general in command, were sold into slavery. The forged titles (?) under which several of the present pueblos received their patent of confirmation from the congress of the United States purport to have been issued by Cruzate. [footnote:] On the subject of these pueblo Indian titles Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, p. 194, note 35, must have had an inkling of their spurious character. In 1689 Cruzate was not governor. Beneros de Posada held that position, or may have been replaced by Cruzate, we cannot say."

"The ruins of Cicúique are still to be seen at the site where Alvarado visited it, close by the modern town of Pecos. This is one of the most historic spots in the Southwest, for in every era since it was first seen by Alvarado as the guest of Bigotes, it has occupied a distinctive position in all the major developments of the region. It was the gateway for Pueblo Indians when they went buffalo hunting on the Plains; a two-way pass for barter and war between Pueblos and Plains tribes; a portal through the mountains for Spanish explorers, traders, and buffalo hunters; for the St. Louis caravan traders with Santa Fe; for pioneer Anglo-American settlers; for Spanish and Saxon Indian fighters; for Civil War armies; and for a transcontinental railroad passing through the Southwest. Pecos deserves an historian."

"Anza worked to secure Ecueracapa's [Leather Cape's] preeminent position as captain general of the entire Comanche nation. And he succeeded. By April 1787, he had in hand a final treaty with all three branches. Ecueracapa had gone after Apaches and sent in tally sheets of his kills. His people had come again to trade at Pecos. Despite the replacement of Anza in 1787 and the death of Ecueracapa in 1793, despite the utter failure of the Jupes to settle down in the pueblo they asked the Spaniards to build for them on the Arkansas, despite troublesome hostilities of Utes, Navajos, and Jicarillas with Comanches, the alliance of Comanches and Spaniards embarked upon at Pecos in 1786 stood unbroken for a generation."

"The famous "pueblo league was a legal fiction. Before the eighteenth century, the Pueblo Indians seem to have been entitled to whatever lands they habitually occupied or used. Sometime after 1700, however, they evolved the doctrine... a sort of recognized minimum right of the Pueblos. In the case of Pecos, it was a minimum indeed... In Spanish law, current use was the key. No matter that the Pecos had farmed or otherwise used more land historically, they were no longer using it in the nineteenth century."

"Four Leagues of Pecos... treats the careers of the principle land speculators who began to have an impact on New Mexico land grants during the Mexican Period. ...Of equal significance is the treatment of the colossal confusion in land administration that reigned throughout the United States territorial period and the untangling of financial debts by a group of early New Mexico figures who were able to profit personally from this disgraceful state of affairs. Operating during the 1850s and 1860s, this group might be called the "early Santa Fe land grant ring," for it preceded Thomas B. Catron and his cronies..."

"The Pecos Pueblo grant provides a key to New Mexico history precisely because the grant was so vulnerable... To understand Pecos is to understand New Mexico during these chaotic but critical years."

"February 16, 1825. Leaf 41, page 2. There was taken up for consideration a petition by Miguel Rivera and others [all of whom were members of the Pecos tribe], in regard to lands on the Pecos river which had been partitioned to them by the alcalde of El Bado (Vado) by order of the jefe politico and from which they had been subsequently ejected. It was decided that the parties must be governed by the decision of the Deputation of February 16, 1824. In discussing this matter the question was raised whether the Pecos Indians could sell their lands or prevent the Deputation from making donations of those lands which they claimed to own but were not cultivating. Reference is made to such donations having been rejected in accordance with section 5 of the law of November 9, 1812. November 17, 1825. Leaf 70, page 2. After considering a petition of the Pecos Indians, asking that they be declared to be the owners of one league of land on each course, which amount of land had been considered to belong to each pueblo of the Territory, it was decided to refer the matter to the Federal government for interpretation of section 5, of the law of November 9, 1812."

"Alcalde Rafael Aguilar, his lieutenant Juan Domingo Vigil, and "General" José Manuel Armenta, all Pecos Indians, appealed to the Diputación to halt the unlawful alienation of their lands. Some recipients of these grants were speculating. Without having acquired any legal rights to the land or having occupied it the required five years, they had begun selling it off. ..."It is not nor has it been our desire," the Pecos insisted, "that they give them our lands." What the Indians had not planted, they used as pasture for their livestock. Had they no rights under God and the nation? "Well we know that since the conquest we have earned more merits than all the pueblos of this province." If grants were to be made, they should be of land truly vacant, "as it is at Lo de Mora, at Las Candelarias, at El Coyote, at El Sapelló, on the plains of the lower Río Pecos, as it is on the lower Río Salado and the Río Colorado [the Canadian].""

"How great must be the pain in our hearts on seeing ourselves violently despoiled of our rightful ownership, all the more when this violent despoilment was executed while they threatened us with the illegal pretext of removing us from our pueblo and distributing us among the others of the Territory. Please, Your Excellency, see if by chance the natives of our pueblo for whom we speak are denied property and the shelter of the laws of our liberal system. Indeed, Sir, has the right of ownership and security that every citizen enjoys in his possession been abolished?"

"Each Pueblo generally had its particular uniform dress and its particular dance. The men of one village would sometimes disguise themselves as elks, with horns on their heads, moving on all fours, and mimicking the animal they were attempting to personate. Others would appear in the garb of a turkey, with large heavy wings, and strut about in imitation of that bird. But the Pecos tribe, already reduced to seven men, always occasioned most diversion. Their favorite exploit was, each to put on the skin of a buffalo, horns, tail, and all, and thus accoutred scamper about through the crowd, to the real or affected terror of all the ladies present, and to the great delight of the boys."

"Pecos was situated twenty-five miles South of East from Santa Fé on a small tributary of the river of the same name. In the time of Vargas it contained a population of about fifteen hundred, but now is entirely in ruins. A few years ago the remnant of the Pecos Indians left their pueblo and joined the people of Jemez who speak the same language. There houses and lands were given them. Many curious tales are related of the superstitious customs of the Pueblos, among which is the following told of the Pecos Indians. It is said that Montezuma kindled a sacred fire in the eatufa of that pueblo and commanded that it should be kept burning until he came back to deliver them from the Spaniards. He was expected to appear with the rising sun, and every morning the Indians ascended to the house tops and strained their eyes looking to the East for the appearance of their deliverer and king. The task of watching the sacred fire was assigned to the warriors, who served, by turns, for a period of two days and two nights without eating or drinking, and some say that they remained upon duty until death or exhaustion relieved them. The remains of those who died from the effect of watching are said to have been carried to the den of a great serpent, which appears to have lived upon such delicacies. The tradition, that the sacred fire was kept burning until the village was abandoned, is generally believed by both Indians and Mexicans; but their great deliverer never came, and when the fire went out, from what cause is not known, the survivors of Pecos found new homes West of the Rio Grande."

"Some Indians came to Cibola from a village which was 70 leagues east of this province, called Cicuye. Among them was a captain who was called Bigotes (Whiskers) by our men, because he wore a long mustache. He was a tall, well-built, young fellow, with a fine figure. He told the general that they had come in response to the notice which had been given, to offer themselves as friends, and that if we wanted to go through their country they would consider us as their friends. They brought a present of tanned hides and shields and head-pieces, which were very gladly received, and the general gave them some glass dishes and a number of pearls and little bells which they prized highly, because these were things they had never seen. They described some cows which, from a picture that one of them had painted on his skin, seemed to be cows, although from the hides this did not seem possible, because the hair was woolly and snarled so that we could not tell what sort of skins they had. The general ordered Hernando de Alvarado to take 20 companions and go with them, and gave him a commission for eighty days, after which he should return to give an account of what he had found. Captain Alvarado started on this journey and in five days reached a village which was on a rock called Acuco [Acoma] having a population of about 200 men. These people were robbers, feared by the whole country round about. The village was very strong, because it was up on a rock out of reach, having steep sides in every direction, and so high that it was a very good musket that could throw a ball as high. There was only one entrance by a stairway built by hand... They made a present of a large number of [turkey-] cocks with very big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, pine [piñon] nuts, flour [corn meal], and corn.thumb|upright=1.3|Pecos Pueblo flageolets (flutes) made from bird bone. Sketch after figures in John L. Kessell, Kiva, Cross and Crown p.13 & Alfred Vincent Kidder, The Artifacts of Pecos (1932) From here they went to a province called Triguex Tiguex], three days distant. The people all came out peacefully, seeing that Whiskers was with them. These men are feared throughout all those provinces. Alvarado sent messengers back from here to advise the general to come and winter in this country. ...Five days from here he came to Cicuye, a very strong village four stories high. The people came out from the village with signs of joy to welcome Hernando de Alvarado and their captain, and brought them into the town with drums and pipes something like flutes, of which they have a great many. They made many presents of cloth and turquoises, of which there are quantities in that region. The Spaniards enjoyed themselves here for several days and talked with an Indian slave, a native of the country toward Florida, which is the region Don Fernando de Soto discovered. This fellow said that there were large settlements in the farther part of that country. Hernando de Alvarado took him to guide them to the cows: but he told them so many and such great things about the wealth of gold and silver in his country that they did not care about looking for cows, but returned after they had seen some few, to report the rich news to the general. They called the Indian "Turk," because he looked like one."

"Cicuye is a village of nearly five hundred warriors, who are feared throughout that country. It is square, situated on a rock, with a large court or yard in the middle, containing the estufas. The houses are all alike, four stories high. One can go over the top of the whole village without there being a street [crossway] to hinder. There are corridors going all around it at the first two stories, by which one can go around the whole village. These are like outside balconies, and they are able to protect themselves under these. The houses do not have doors below, but they use ladders, which can be lifted up like a drawbridge, and so go up to the corridors which are on the inside of the village. As the doors of the houses open on the corridor of that story, the corridor serves as a street. The houses that open on the plain are right back of those that open on the court, and in time of war they go through those behind them. The village is inclosed by a low wall of stone. There is a spring of water inside, which they are able to divert. The people of this village boast that no one has been able to conquer them and that they conquer whatever villages they wish. The people and their customs are like those of the other villages. Their virgins also go nude until they take husbands, because they say that if they do anything wrong then it will be seen, and so they do not do it. They do not need to be ashamed because they go around as they were born. ... The villages are guarded by sentinels with trumpets who call to one another just as in the fortresses of Spain. There are seven other villages along this route, toward the snowy mountains, one of which has been half destroyed... These were under the rule of Cicuye. Cicuye is in a little valley between mountain chains and mountains covered with large pine forests. There is a little stream which contains very good trout and otters, and there are very large bears and good falcons hereabouts."

"I have not heard that in the twenty years the Comanche nation has been at peace with this province they have carried on their trading at any other place than the Pueblo of Pecos, eight leagues from this capital..."

"An official Protector de Indios was again appointed in 1810 at the request of Cochiti Pueblo, whose representative, Juan José Quintana, journeyed all the way to Chihuahua to get action. Quintana recommended Felipe Sandoval for the job and the audiencia accepted his recommendation. ...If the protectors had been more vigorous, the pueblos may not have suffered the loss of land they did starting around 1815. In that year Felipe Sandoval represented Pecos Pueblo in the face of a concerted attack on the Pecos Pueblo league by several prominent Santa Fe residents who petitioned for land on both sides of the Pecos River. When asked by governor Manrique whether the proposed grant would encroach... Sandoval notified the governor that the requested land was "independent of the league and farmland of the Natives." Sandoval distorted the measurement of the league by starting well to the south of the Pueblo complex at the cross in the cemetery. Normally, the cemetery was at the church in the pueblo complex, and the Pecos Indians protested the measurement. Nevertheless, in reliance on Felipe Sandoval's assurances, Governor Manrique made the first grant to encroach on the Pecos Pueblo league on 29 March 1815, which later became known as the Alexander Valle grant. ...Felipe Sandoval ...was a member of the ayutamiento of Santa Fe, which during his tenure approved the Alexander Valle grant and the Los Trigos grant, both of which encroached on the Pecos Pueblo league. ...Felipe Sandoval was a rather lackluster advocate for the Pueblo Indians, but at least, with the exception of the Pecos encroachment in 1815, he did not personally acquire Pueblo land or advocate against the pueblos."

"Juan de Aguilar. August 17, 1818. Question of boundaries with the Pueblo of the Pecos. Before Don Facundo Melgares, Governor. Vicente Villanueva, Alcalde. Pueblo of Pecos; measurements made from the church and the location of the latter with respect to the end of the pueblo at that time (1818) occupied by the Indians. ...This is a petition of Juan de Aguilar [land owner in the Allejandro Valle land grant bordering the north side of the Pecos Pueblo grant] to the governor of New Mexico complaining that the alcalde of El Vado, Don Vincente Villanueva, had made certain measurements from the pueblo of Pecos in defiance of the accepted rules for such operations, in that he had begun them at the edge of the town, instead of at the cross in the cemetery, and with a cord one hundred varas in length instead of only fifty, which alleged errors had resulted in extending the boundaries of the league of the Indians so as to embrace land belonging to the petitioner, and also lands belonging to other citizens. The petitioner asks the governor to decide the two questions raised by him as to the correct manner of making the measurements. On August 19, 1818, Governor Melgares called upon the alcalde to report on the matter, which he did on the same day. He says that no injury had resulted to anyone from the use of the hundred vara cord, because he had dampened it and stretched it out by two stakes, to offset what shrinkage it may have suffered while it had been coiled; that he had presented it to the petitioner, his son and others, who had again stretched it until they broke it; that with this cord he had made the measurement, with which they were satisfied; that the statement that other lands than those of the petitioner were embraced in the league was false; that if he had used a shorter cord it would have been to the injury of the Indians, on account of the irregular and broken character of the ground; etc. etc. In regard to his beginning at the edge of the pueblo he states that he knew it was the custom (but not a fixed rule) to begin at the cross in the cemetery; that the reason for this was that in all the pueblos, except Pecos, the church was approximately in the center of the pueblo; that in addition to the pueblo of Pecos being long, the church was more than a hundred varas distant from one of its extremities, which extremity was opposite to the one then occupied by the Indians; that he had made two other measurements which were favorable to the citizens; etc. No action appears to have been taken on this report by the governor."

"The next town on our route was San Miguel, fifteen miles from the last, an old Spanish town of about a hundred houses, a large church and two miserably constructed flour mills. Here was the best water power for mills, and the country in the vicinity abounded in the finest pine timber I had ever seen. But no attempt is made to improve the immense advantages which nature offers. Everything that the inhabitants were connected with seemed going to decay. We left San Miguel on the following morning with the Alcalde and a company of Spaniards bound for Santa Fé. We stopped at night at the ancient Indian village of Peccas about fifteen miles from San Miguel. I slept in the fort, which encloses two or three acres in an oblong, the sides of which are bounded by brick houses three stories high, and without any entrances in front. The window frames were five feet long and three fourths of a foot in width being made thus narrow to prevent all ingress through them. The lights were made of izing-glass and each story was supplied with similar windows. A balcony surmounted the first and second stories and movable ladders were used in ascending to them on the front. We entered the fort by a gate which led into a large square. On the roofs, which, like those of all the houses in Mexico, are flat, were large heaps of stones for annoying an enemy. I noticed that the timbers which extended out from the walls about six feet and supported the balconies, were all hewn with stone hatchets. The floors were of brick, laid on poles, bark and mortar. The brick was burned in the sun and made much larger than ours, being about two feet by one. The walls were covered with plaster made of lime and izing-glass. I was informed by the Spaniards and Indians that this town and fort are of unknown antiquity, and stood there in considerable splendor in the time of the Conquerors. The climate being dry and equable and the wood in the buildings the best of pine and cedar, the towns here suffer but little by natural decay. The Indians have lost all tradition of the settlement of the town of Peccas. It stood a remarkable proof of the advance made by them in the arts of civilization before the Spaniards came among them. All the houses are well built and showed marks of comfort and refinement. The inhabitants, who were all Indians, treated us with great kindness and hospitality. In the evening I employed an Indian to take my horses to pasture, and in the morning when he brought them up I asked him what I should pay him. He asked for powder and I was about to give him some, when the Spanish officer forbade me, saying it was against the law to supply the Indians with ammunition. Arms are kept out of their hands by their masters, who prohibit all trade in those articles with any of the tribes around them. On the next day in the evening, we came in sight of Santa Fé, which presented a fine appearance in the distance."

"Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

"Freedom is a powerful force, but it does not advance on the wheels of historical inevitability."

"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph and there's purpose and worth to each and every life."

"Many historians are strongly opposed to the so-called “Whig interpretation” of history, in which you look at the past and try to pick out the threads that lead to the present. They feel it’s much more important to get into the frame of mind of the people who lived at the time you’re writing about. And they have a point. But I would argue that, when it comes to the history of science, a Whig interpretation is much more justifiable. The reason is that science, unlike, say, politics or religion, is a cumulative branch of knowledge. You can say, not merely as a matter of taste, but with sober judgment, that Newton knew more about the world than Aristotle did, and Einstein knew more than Newton did. There really has been progress. And to trace that progress, it makes sense to look at the science of the past and try to pick out modes of thought that either led to progress, or impeded progress."

"We start from scratch, every generation. History does not bend inevitably toward justice, or freedom, or decency, or even stability. History doesn't do that in Hong Kong, or in Moscow, or in Washington or New York City or Los Angeles. History goes where we push it. And if we don’t push, someone else will."

"When once the flat-nosed Ethiopian, like the camel, gets his proboscis under the tent, he will overthrow the established order of our Saxon civilization."

"It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smart-ass."

"During the first Intifada, before the PA was established, hundreds of alleged collaborators were lynched, tortured or killed, at times with the implied support of the PLO. Street killings of alleged collaborators continue in the current Intifada ... but so far in much fewer numbers."

"Lynching is an absolute evil; it represents the survival of an obsolete civilization, the perpetuation of a struggle of races which has to disappear; it is a fault without justification or excuse."

"The artifacts that persist in my memory are the photographs of lynchings. But it’s not the burned, mutilated bodies that stick with me. It’s the faces of the white men in the crowd. There’s the photo of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana in 1930, in which a white man can be seen grinning at the camera as he tenderly holds the hand of his wife or girlfriend...Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another... Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump."

"Paris ... On this side of the ocean it is difficult to understand the susceptibility of American citizens on the subject and precisely why they should so stubbornly cling to the biblical version. It is said in Genesis the first man came from mud and mud is not anything very clean. In any case if the Darwinian hypothesis should irritate any one it should only be the monkey. The monkey is an innocent animal—a vegetarian by birth. He never placed God on a cross, knows nothing of the art of war, does not practice lynch law and never dreams of assassinating his fellow beings. The day when science definitely recognizes him as the father of the human race the monkey will have no occasion to be proud of his descendants. That is why it must be concluded that the American Association which is prosecuting the teacher of evolution can be no other than the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals."

"For lynching was also a woman's issue: it had as much to do with ideas of gender as it had with race."

"My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped."

"Central High School was where I first learned about the power of circumstances, about economics. I learned about what people of color were like through my neighborhood relationships, and also that there was racist hatred because there was a lynching in our neighborhood...I still have a recurring nightmare--the smell of burning flesh and a boy about my age whose father is trying to put this open pocketknife in his hand, pushing him, and telling him to go up [to the hanged man] and bring back part of his ear."

"A picture in a book, a lynching. The bland faces of men who watch a Christ go up in flames, smiling, as if he were a hooked fish, a felled antelope, some wild thing tied to boards and burned. His charred body gives off light--a halo burns out of him. His face is scorched featureless; the hair matted to the scalp like feathers. One man stands with his hand on his hip, another with his arm slung over the shoulder of a friend, as if this moment were large enough to hold affection."

"No reporter of my generation, whatever his genius, ever really rated spats and a walking stick until he had covered both a lynching and revolution."

"Not only is democracy mystical nonsense, it is also immoral. If one man has no right to impose his wishes on another, then ten million men have no right to impose their wishes on the one, since the initiation of force is wrong (and the assent of even the most overwhelming majority can never make it morally permissible). Opinions—even majority opinions—neither create truth nor alter facts. A lynch mob is democracy in action. So much for mob rule."

"For a quarter of a century, in the Congress of the United States, we tried to get passed an anti-lynching bill. A simple law to protect the lives of black citizens below the Mason-Dixon line. This was not legislation, as our protesting brethren so often take us to task for—the legislation of brotherly love with they say is impossible. It was a law making it a federal offense to hang a human being from a tree, cover him with kerosene and cremate him. But the loudest cheerleaders of our current law and order rallies—the Eastlands and the Strom Thurmonds—were the very gentlemen who fought against that legislation until it was ultimately passed."

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

"This civil rights program about which you have heard so much is a farce and a sham; an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I fought it in the Congress. It is the province of the state to run its own elections. I am opposed to the anti-lynching bill because the federal government has no business enacting a law against one kind of murder than another ... If a man can tell you who you must hire, he can tell you who not to employ. I have met this head on."

"I am ready to wage the most strenuous fight of my life to defeat the Fair Employment Practices Commission, the anti-poll tax bill, the anti-lynching bill, and the $4 billion loan to England...If you draft Negro boys into the army, give them three good meals a day, a good uniform and let them shoot craps and drink liquor around the barracks for a year, they won’t be worth a tinker’s damn thereafter."