On The Fringes Of Power: The Life And Turbulent Career Of Stephen Wallace Dorsey

Touted in his time as one of the 'great men of the West,' Stephen Wallace Dorsey was a Reconstruction carpetbagger who went to Arkansas where he finagled and bribed his way into getting elected to the US Senate after living only two years in the state. From there, he headed west to seek his fortune by acquiring a fraudulent New Mexico land claim and taking up mining claims and real estate in Southern California. Dorsey was a major presence in early New Mexico--which was replete with no-holds-barred frontier corruption--and used sheer cunning and guile to manipulate the excesses of the Gilded Age to his own ends. His flair for excess was evident in everything he did, from his manipulative 600,000-acre landgrab and political shenanigans to his excessive drinking and profligate lifestyle. In his fraudulent dealings he eventually was ferreted out not by the law, but by those more conniving than he was. His extravagant mansion in the middle of what is still empty prairie in northeastern New Mexico was of statewide historical importance before even the state could no longer afford to keep it--From publisher's website.

• • Author: Mari Grana
• • Publisher: Twodot
• • Publication Date: Sep 01, 2015
• • Number of Pages: 144 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1442247355
• • ISBN-13: 9781442247352