In October, 1835, Gen. George W. Jones, in recent years a citizen of Dubuque, was elected a delegate to Congress. April 20, 1836, through the efforts of General Jones, Congress passed a bill creating the Territory of Wisconsin, which went into operation July 4th of the same year. Iowa was then included in the Territory of Wisconsin, of which Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed Governor; John S. Horner, secretary; Charles Dunn, chief justice; David Irwin and William C. Frazer, associate justices. September 9, 1836, a census of the new territory was taken. Des Moines county showed a population of 6,257, and Dubuque county, 4,274.

organization of the territory of iowa

The question of the organization of the Territory of Iowa now began to be agitated and the desires of the people found expression in a convention held November 1st, which memorialized Congress to organize a territory west of the Mississippi river and to settle the boundary line between Wisconsin territory and Missouri. The Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin, then in session in Burlington, joined in the petition. The act was passed dividing the Territory of Wisconsin and providing for the Territorial Government of Iowa. This was approved June 12, 1838, to take effect and be in force on and after July 3, 1838.

The new territory embraced "all that part of the present Territory of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters of sources of the Mississippi river to the territorial line." The organic act provided for a Governor, whose term of office should be three years; a secretary, chief justice, two associate justices, an Attorney-General and marshal, to be appointed by the President. The act also provided for the election, by the white citizens over twenty-one years of age of a House of Representatives, consisting of twenty-six members and a council to consist of thirteen members. It also appropriated $5,000 for a public library and $20,000 for the erection of public buildings. In accordance with this act, President Van Buren appointed ex-Governor Robert Lucas, of Ohio, to be the first Governor of the territory; William B. Conway, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason, of Burlington, chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices; Mr. Van Allen, of New York, attorney; Francis Gehon, of Dubuque, marshal;

Augustus C. Dodge, register of the land office at Burlington; and Thomas C. Knight, receiver of the land office at Dubuque.

On the 1oth of September, 1838, an election was held for members of the Legislature and on the 12th of the following November the first session of that body was held at Burlington. Both branches of this General Assembly had a large democratic majority but notwithstanding that fact, Gen. Jesse B. Brown, a whig, of Lee county, Des Moines and Dubuque counties having been previously divided into other counties, was elected President of the council, and Hon. William H. Wallace, of Henry county, also a whig, Speaker of the House. The first session of the Iowa Territorial Legislature was a stormy and exciting one. By the organic law the Governor was clothed with almost unlimited veto power. Governor Lucas was disposed to make free use of this prerogative and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly submit to arbitrary and absolute rule. The result was an unpleasant controversy between the executive and legislative departments. Congress, however, by act approved March 3, 1839, amended the organic law by restricting the veto power of the Governor to the two-thirds rule and took from him the power to appoint sheriffs and magistrates. Among the first important matters demanding attention was the location of the seat of government and provision for the erection of public buildings, for which Congress had appropriated $20,000. Governor Lucas in his message had recommended the appointment of commissioners with a view to selecting a central location. The extent of the future State of Iowa was not known or thought of. Only a strip of land fifty miles wide, bordering on the Mississippi river, was alienated by the Indians to the general government and a central location meant some central point within the confines of what was known as the "Black Hawk Purchase."

The friends of a central location favored the Governor's suggestion. The southern members were divided between Burlington and Mount Pleasant but finally united on the latter as the proper location for the seat of government. The central and southern parties were very nearly equal and in consequence much excitement prevailed. The central party at last was triumphant and on January 21, 1839, an act was passed appointing commissioners to select a site for a permanent seat of government within the limits of Johnson county. All things considered, the location of the capital in Johnson county was a wise act. Johnson county was from north to south in the geographical center of the future State of Iowa as could then

be made. The site having been determined, 640 acres were laid out by the commissioners into a town and called Iowa City. On a tract of ten acres the capitol was built, the corner-stone of which was laid, with appropriate ceremonies, July 4, 1840. Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth Legislature of Iowa met at the new capital, Iowa City, but the capitol building not being ready for occupancy, a temporary frame house erected for the purpose, was used.

In 1841 John Chambers succeeded Robert Lucas as Governor and in 1845 he gave place to James Clarke. The Territorial Legislature held its eighth and last session at Iowa City in 1845. James Clarke was the same year appointed the successor of Governor Chambers and was the third and last Territorial Governor.

the territory becomes the state of iowa

The Territory of Iowa was growing rapidly in its population and soon began to look for greater things. Her ambition was to take on the dignity and importance of statehood. To the furtherance of this laudable ambition the Territorial Legislature passed an act, which was approved February 12, 1844, providing for the submission to the people of the question of the formation of a state constitution and providing for the election of delegates to a convention to be convened for that purpose. The people voted on this at their township 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 five 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 of 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 twentyseven 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 new commissioners for 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 capitol 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 thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes 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 party 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