elections the following April. The measure was carried by a large majority and the members elected assembled in convention at Iowa City, October 7, 1844. On the 1st day of November following, the convention completed its work and adopted the first state constitution. By reason of the boundary lines of the proposed state being unsatisfactorily prescribed by Congress, the constitution was rejected at an election held August 4, 1845, by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235. May 4, 1846, a second convention met at Iowa City and on the 18th of the same month another constitution, prescribing the boundaries as they now are, was adopted. This was accepted by the people August 3d, by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036. The new constitution was approved by Congress and Iowa was admitted as a sovereign state in the Union, December 28, 1846, and the people of the territory, anticipating favorable action by Congress, held an election for state officers, October 26, 1846, which resulted in the choice of Ansel Briggs for governor; Elisha Cutler, Jr., secretary; James T. Fales, auditor; Morgan Reno, treasurer; and members of both branches of the Legislature.

The act of Congress which admitted Iowa into the Union as a state gave her the sixteenth section of every township of land in the state, or its equivalent, for the support of schools; also seventy-two sections of land for the purposes of a university; five sections of land for the completion of her public buildings; the salt springs within her limits, not exceeding twelve in number, with sections of land adjoining each; also in consideration that her public lands should be exempt from taxation by the state. The state was given 5 per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands within the state.

The constitutional convention of 1846 was made up largely of democrats and the instrument contains some of the peculiar tenets of the party that day. All banks of issue were prohibited within the state. The state was prohibited from becoming a stockholder in any corporation for pecuniary profit and the General Assembly could only provide for private corporations by general statutes. The constitution also limited the state's indebtedness to $100,000. It required the General Assembly to provide for schools throughout the state for at least three months during the year. Six months' previous residence of any white male citizen of the United States constituted him an elector.

At the time of the organization of the state, Iowa had a population of 116,651, as appears by the census of 1847. There were twenty-seven organized counties and the settlements were being rapidly pushed toward the Missouri River.

The western boundary of the state, as now determined, left Iowa City too far toward the eastern and southern boundary of the state. This was conceded. Congress had appropriated five sections of land for the erection of public buildings and toward the close of the first session of the General Assembly a bill was introduced providing for the relocation of the seat of government, involving to some extent, the location of the state university, which had already been discussed. This bill gave rise to much discussion and parliamentary maneuvering almost purely sectional in its character. February 25, 1847, an act was passed to locate and establish a state university and the unfinished public buildings at Iowa City, together with the ten acres of land on which they were situated, were granted for the use of the university, reserving their use,

however, for the General Assembly and state officers until other provisions were made by law.

Four sections and two half sections of land were selected in Jasper County by the commissioners of the new capital. Here a town was platted and called Monroe City. The commissioners placed town lots on sale in the new location but reported to the Assembly small sales at a cost exceeding the receipts. The Town of Monroe was condemned and failed of becoming the capital. An act was passed repealing the law for the location at Monroe and those who had bought lots there were refunded their money.

By reason of jealousies and bickerings the first General Assembly failed to elect United States senators, but the second did better, and sent to the upper house of Congress Augustus Caesar Dodge and George Jones. The first representatives were S. Clinton Hastings, of Muscatine, and Sheppard Leffler, of Des Moines County.

The question of the permanent seat of government was not settled and in 1851 bills were introduced for its removal to Fort Des Moines. The latter locality seemed to have the support of the majority but was finally lost in the House on the question of ordering it to a third reading. At the next session, in 1853, a bill was again introduced in the Senate for the removal of the capital and the effort was more successful. On January 15, 1855, a bill relocating the capital of the State of Iowa within two miles of the Raccoon fork of the Des Moines River, and for the appointment of commissioners, was approved by Governor Grimes. The site was selected in 1856, in accordance with the provisions of this act, the land being donated to the state by citizens and property holders of Des Moines. An association of citizens erected a temporary building for the capital and leased it to the state at a nominal rent.

THE STATE BECOMES REPUBLICAN

The passage by Congress of the act organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the provision it contained abrogating that portion of the Missouri bill that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude north of 36° 30', was the beginning of a political revolution in the Northern States, and in none was it more marked than in the State of Iowa. Iowa was the "first free child born of the Missouri Compromise." In 1856 the republican part of the state was duly organized, in full sympathy with that of the other free states, and at the ensuing presidential election, the electoral vote of the state was cast for John C. Fremont.

Another constitutional convention assembled in Iowa City in January, 1857. One of the most pressing demands for this convention grew out of the prohibition of banks under the old constitution. The practical result of this prohibition was to flood the state with every species of "wildcat" currency. The circulating medium was made up in part of the free-bank paper of Illinois. and Indiana. In addition to this there was paper issued by Iowa brokers, who had obtained bank charters from the Territorial Legislature of Nebraska, and had had their pretended headquarters at Omaha and Florence. The currency was also variegated with the bills of other states, generally such as had the best reputation where they were least known. This paper was all at 2, and some

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of it from 10 to 15 per cent discount. Every man who was not an expert at detecting counterfeit bills and who was not posted in the methods of banking institutions, did business at his peril. The new constitution adopted at this convention made ample provision for home banks under the supervision of laws of the state, and other changes in the old constitution were made that more nearly met the views of the people.

The permanent seat of government was fixed at Des Moines, and the university at Iowa City. The qualifications of electors remained the same as under the old constitution, but the schedule provided for a vote of the people upon a separate proposition to strike out the word "white" from the suffrage clause. Since the early organization of Iowa there had been upon the statute books a law providing that no negro, mulatto or Indian should be a competent witness in any suit at law or proceeding, to which a white man was a party. The General Assembly of 1856-57 repealed this law and the new constitution contained a clause forbidding such disqualification in the future. It also provided for the education of "all youth of the state" through a system of common schools.

THE STATE CAPITAL REMOVED TO DES MOINES

October 19, 1857, Governor Grimes issued a proclamation declaring the City of Des Moines to be the capital of the State of Iowa. The removal of the archives and offices was commenced at once and continued through the fall. It was an undertaking of no small magnitude. There was not a mile of railroad to facilitate the work and the season was unusually disagreeable. Rain, snow and other accompaniments increased the difficulties and it was not until December that the last of the effects-the safe of the state treasurer, loaded on two large "bob-sleds" drawn by ten yoke of oxen-was deposited in the new capitol. Thus Iowa City ceased to be the capital of the state after four Territorial Legislatures, six State Legislatures, and three constitutional conventions had held their regular sessions there.

In 1870 the General Assembly made an appropriation and provided for a board of commissioners to commence the work of building a new capitol. The corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, November 23, 1871. The estimated cost of the building was two and a half million dollars, and the structure was finished and occupied in 1874, the dedicatory exercises being held in January of that year. Hon. John A. Kasson delivered the principal address. The state capitol is classic in style, with a superstructure of buff limestone. It is 363 feet in length, 247 feet in width, with a central dome rising to the height of 275 feet. At the time of completion it was only surpassed by the capitol building of the State of New York, at Albany.

CLIMATE

In former years considerable objection was made to the prevalence of high winds in Iowa, which is somewhat greater than in the states south and east. But climatic changes have lessened that grievance. The air, in fact, is pure and generally bracing, particularly so during the winter. Thunderstorms are also

more violent in this state than in those of the East and South, but not near so much as toward the mountains. As elsewhere in the Northwestern States, westerly winds bring rain and snow, while easterly ones clear the sky. While the highest temperature occurs in August, the month of July averages the hottest and January the coldest. The mean temperature of April and October nearly corresponds to the mean temperature of the year, as well as to the seasons of spring and fall, while that of summer and winter is best represented by August and December. "Indian summer" is delightful and well prolonged.

TOPOGRAPHY

The state lies wholly within and comprises a part of a vast plain. There are no mountains and scarcely any hilly country within its borders, for the highest point is but 1,200 feet below the lowest point. These two points are nearly three hundred miles apart and the whole state is traversed by gently flowing rivers. We thus find there is a good degree of propriety in regarding the whole state as belonging to a great plain, the lowest point of which within its borders, the southeastern corner of the state, is only 444 feet above the level of the sea. The average height of the whole state above the level of the sea is not far from eight hundred feet, although it is over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. These remarks, of course, are to be understood as only applying to the state at large, or as a whole. On examining its surface in detail we find a great diversity of surface for the formation of valleys out of the general level, which have been evolved by the actions of streams during the unnumbered years of terrace epoch. These river valleys are deepest in the northwestern part of the state and consequently it is there that the country has the greatest diversity of surface and its physical features are most strongly marked.

It is said that 95 per cent of the surface of Iowa is capable of a high state of cultivation. The soil is justly famous for its fertility and there is probably no equal area of the earth's surface that contains so little untillable land or whose soil has so high an average of fertility.

LAKES AND STREAMS

The largest of Iowa's lakes are Spirit and Okoboji, in Dickinson County, Clear Lake, in Cerro Gordo County, and Storm Lake, in Buena Vista County. Its rivers consist of the Mississippi and Missouri, the Chariton, Grand, Platte, One Hundred and Two, Nodaway, Nishnabotna, Boyer, Soldier, Little Sioux, Floyd, Rock, Big Sioux, Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa, Cedar, Wapsipinicon, Turkey and Upper Iowa.

IOWA AND THE CIVIL WAR

Iowa was born a free state. Her people abhorred the "peculiar institution" of slavery and by her record in the war between the states proved herself truly loyal to her institutions and the maintenance of the Union. By joint resolution in the General Assembly of the state in 1857, it was declared

that the State of Iowa was "bound to maintain the union of these states by all the means in her power.' The same year the state furnished a block of marble for the Washington Monument at the national capital and by order of the Legislature there was inscribed on its enduring surface the following: "Iowa-Her affections, like the river of her borders, flow to an inseparable Union. The time was now come when these declarations of fidelity and attachment to the nation were to be put to a practical test. There was no state in the Union more vitally interested in the question of national unity than Iowa. The older states, both North and South, had representatives in her citizenship. Iowans were practically immigrants bound to those older communities by the most sacred ties of blood and most enduring recollections of early days. The position of Iowa as a state-geographically-made the dismemberment of the Union a matter of serious concern. Within her borders were two of the great navigable rivers of the country, and the Mississippi had for years been its highway to the markets of the world. The people could not entertain the thought that its navigation should pass to the control of a foreign nation. But more than this was to be feared-the consequence of introducing and recognizing in our national system the principle of secession and of disintegration of the states from the Union. "That the nation possessed no constitutional power to coerce a seceding state," as uttered by James Buchanan in his last annual message, was received by the people of Iowa with humiliation and distrust. And in the presidential campaign of 1860, when Abraham Lincoln combatted with all the force of his matchless logic and rhetoric this monstrous political heresy, the issue was clearly drawn between the North and the South, and it became manifest to many that in the event of the election of Lincoln to the presidency war would follow between the states. The people of Iowa nursed no hatred toward any section of the country but were determined to hold such opinions upon questions of public interest and vote for such men as to them seemed for the general good, uninfluenced by any threat of violence or civil war. So it was that they anxiously awaited the expiring hours of the Buchanan administration and looked to the incoming President as to an expected deliverer that should rescue the nation from the hands of the traitors and the control of those whose resistance invited her destruction. The firing upon the flag of Fort Sumter aroused the burning indignation throughout the loyal states of the republic, and nowhere was it more intense than in Iowa. And when the proclamation of the President was published April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to "maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government," they were more than willing to respond to the call. Party line gave way and for a while, at least, party spirit was hushed and the cause of our common country was supreme in the affections of the people. Fortunate indeed was the state at this crisis in having a truly representative man as executive of the state. Thoroughly honest and as equally earnest, wholly imbued with the enthusiasm of the hour and fully aroused to the importance of the crisis and the magnitude of the struggle upon which the people were entering, with an indomitable will under the control of a strong common sense, Samuel J. Kirkwood was indeed a worthy chief to organize and direct the energies of the people in what was before them. Within thirty days after the date of the President's call for troops, the first