Before Colorado became a state, "law and order" came down to vigilantism, or a criminal code with three punishments: whipping, banishment, or death. Then Hiram Pitt Bennet came to Denver — with higher ideals and a small law library. He helped establish a People's Court, became the first public prosecutor, won the first seat in Congress for the territory, became a judge. But his role as toastmaster at a banquet the winter of 1876 may best summarize Hiram Bennet’s vision for a more civilized soon-to-be Centennial State. To those gathered that night, then writing the Colorado constitution, Bennet said: “[May it] contain all the good … found in the organic laws of … sister states, and none of the defects." And he toasted the press: “be animated by a spirit which shall love justice and uphold it … hate iniquity and scourge it."
