SYNOPSIS

Passion, power, politics--intrigue on the frontier. 

   
Steve Elkins, a young Missouri attorney, flees an outlaw guerrilla band into New Mexico. His assignment: write a contract on a mine that divides the proceeds between private investors and the United States government. Competing forces of a general, a Mexican-American colonel, and a former local congressman undermine his mission. His legal expertise and connections are unrivaled and he sees in the territory the opportunity for advancement.

In New Mexico, Steve enters a political mine field which moves through the Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant administrations. As the Civil War ends, New Mexico becomes a cultural battlefield, at once personal and social, in the largest sense, political. A fight for supremacy in the Republican Party and oversight of its objectives emerges. It is also a fight between Democrats and Republicans for dominance in a new territory.  The backdrop is a medieval society, its resistance to democracy and the rise of industrialization.  Steve’s maneuvers demand increasing skill, diligence, and diplomacy. He faces bitter attacks in his aggressive moves against slavery, robbery, assassination, murder, and cattle rustling.

Two court cases arise which shock the nation in their implications and mark the New Mexico Territory as a center of violence and injustice. Two murders of notable officials occur. One results from intrigue, the other appears insoluble.  An attempt is made to end a form of slavery practiced widely in New Mexico. Another incident involves the ownership of land grants versus citizens privileged by the Homestead Act. Two of these events join those of the highest profile cases of the era, and Steve acts as attorney in each of them. He struggles for a private life while the exertions of his public role erode his quest to achieve a business environment, statehood, and a railroad for New Mexico.