ms of authority were
maintained, although, meanwhile, there was actual administrative
impotence. Striking evidence of the existence of such a situation is
found in President Arthur's messages to Congress.

In his message of December 6, 1881, the President mentioned the fact
that in the West "a band of armed desperadoes known as 'Cowboys,'
probably numbering fifty to one hundred men, have been engaged for
months in committing acts of lawlessness and brutality which the local
authorities have been unable to repress." He observed that "with every
disposition to meet the exigencies of the case, I am embarrassed by lack
of authority to deal with them effectually." The center of disturbance
was in Arizona, and the punishment of crime there was ordinarily the
business of the local authorities. But even if they called for aid,
said the President, "this Government would be powerless to render
assistance," for the laws had been altered by Congress so that States
but not Territories could demand the protection of the national
Government against "domestic violence." He recommended legislation
extending to the Territories "the protection which is accorded the
States by the Constitution." On April 26, 1882, the President sent a
special message to Congress on conditions in Arizona, announcing that
"robbery, murder, and resistance to laws have become so common as to
cease causing surprise, and that the people are greatly intimidated
and losing confidence in the protection of the law." He also advised
Congress that the "Cowboys" were making raids into Mexico, and again
begged for legal authority to act. On the 3rd of May, he issued a
proclamation calling upon the outlaws "to disperse and retire peaceably
to their respective abodes." In his regular annual message on December
4, 1882, he again called attention "to the prevalent lawlessness upon
the borders, and to the necessity of legislation for its suppression."

Such vast agitation from the operations of a band of ruffians, estimated
at from fifty to one hundred in number, and such floundering incapacity
for prompt action by public authority seem more like events from a
chronicle of the Middle Ages than from the public records of a modern
nation. Of like tenor, was a famous career which came to an end in this
period. Jesse W. James, the son of a Baptist minister in Clay County,
Missouri, for some years carried on a bandit business, specializing
in the robbery of banks and railroad tra