The population having become, by the year 1844, sufficient to justify the formation of a State Government, the Territorial Legislature of Iowa passed an act, approved February 12, that year, submitting to the people the question of the formation of a State Constitution and providing for the election of delegates to a convention to be called together for that purpose. The people voted upon this at their township elections in the following April, giving the measure a large majority. The elected delegates assembled in convention at Iowa City, October 7, 1844, and completed their work by November 1. Hon. Shepherd Leffler, the President of this convention, was instructed to transact a certified copy of the proposed Constitution to the Delegate in Congress, to be submitted by him to that body at the earliest practicable day. It also provided that it should be submitted, together with any conditions or changes that might be made by Congress, to the people of the Territory, for their approval or rejection, at the township election in April, 1845.

     The Constitution, as thus prepared, fixed the boundaries of the State very differently from what were finally agreed upon.

     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 3, 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 American Union, December 28, 1846. The people of the State, anticipating favorable action by Congress, held an election for State officers October 26 which resulted in Ansel Briggs being declared Governor; Elisha Cutler, Jr., Secretary of State; Joseph T. Fales, Auditor; Morgan Reno, Treasurer; and members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

     The act of Congress which admitted Iowa gave her the 16th 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 purpose of a university; also five sections of land for the completion of her public buildings; also 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, she gave to the State five per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands within the State. Thus provided for as a bride with her marriage portion, Iowa commenced “housekeeping” upon her own account.

     A majority of the Constitutional Convention of 1846 were of the Democratic party; and the instrument contains some of the peculiar tenets of the party at 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 public schools throughout the State for at least three months in the year. Six months’ previous residence of any white male citizen of the United States constituted him an elector.

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

     The first General Assembly was composed of nineteen Senators and forty Representatives. It assembled at Iowa City, November 30, 1846, about a month before the State was admitted into the Union.

     The most important business transacted was the passage of a bill authorizing a loan of $50,000 for means to run the State Government and pay the expenses of the Constitutional conventions. The great excitement of the session, however, was the attempt to choose United States Senators. The Whigs had a majority of two in the House, and the Democrats a majority of one in the Senate. After repeated attempts to control these majorities for caucus nominees and frequent sessions of a joint convention for purposes of an election the attempt was abandoned. A school law was passed at this session for the organization of public schools in the State.

     At the first session also arose the question of the re-location of the capital. 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 session a bill was introduced providing for the re-location 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. It provided for the appointment of three commissioners, who were authorized to make a location as near the geographical center of the State as a healthy and eligible site could be obtained; to select the five sections of land donated by Congress; to survey and plat into town lots not exceeding one section of the land so selected, etc. Soon after, by “An act to locate and establish a State University,” approved February 25, 1847, the unfinished public buildings at Iowa City, together with ten acres of land on which they were situated, were granted for the use of the University, reserving their use, however, by the General Assembly and the State officers, until other provisions were made by law.

     When the report of the commissioners, showing their financial operations, had been read in the House of Representatives, at the next session, and while it was under consideration, an indignant member, afterward known as the eccentric Judge McFarland, moved to refer the report to a select committee of five, with instructions to report “how much of said city of Monroe was under water, and how much was burned.” The report was referred without the instructions, but Monroe City never became the seat of Government. By an act approved January 15, 1849, the law by which the location had been made was repealed and the new town was vacated, the money paid by purchasers of lots being refunded to them. This, of course, retained the seat of Government at Iowa City, and precluded for the time the occupation of the building and grounds by the University.

     After the adjournment of the first General Assembly, the Governor appointed Joseph Williams, Chief Justice, and George Green and Jon F. Kinney, Judges of the Supreme Court. They were afterward elected by the second General assembly, and constituted the Supreme Court until 1855, with the exception that Kinney resigned in January, 1854, and J. C. Hall, of Burlington, was appointed in his place.

     At this session Charles Mason, William G. Woodward and Stephen Hempstead were appointed commissioners to prepare a code of laws for the State. Their work was finished in 1850 and was adopted by the General Assembly. This “code” contained among other provisions a code of civil practice, superseding the old common-law forms of actions and writs, and it was admirable for its simplicity and method. It remained in force until 1863, when it was superseded by the more complicated and metaphysical system of the revision of that year.

     The first Representatives in Congress were S. Clinton Hastings, of Muscatine, and Shepherd Leffler, of Des Moines County. The second General Assembly elected to the United States Senate Augustus Caesar Dodge and George W. Jones. The State Government, after the first session, was under the control of Democratic administrations till 1835. The electoral vote of the State was cast for Lewis Cass in 1848, and for Franklin Pierce in 1852. The popular vote shows that the Free-Soil element of the State during this period very nearly held the balance of power, and that up to 1854 it acted in the State elections to some extent with the Democratic party. In 1868 Lewis Cass received 12, 093 votes, Zachary Taylor 11,034, and Martin Van Buren, the Free-Soil candidate, 1,226 votes, being 167 less than a majority for Cass. In 1862 Pierce received 17,762 votes, Scott 15,855, and Hale, Free-Soil, 1,606, being for Pierce 301 votes more than a majority.

     At the next session, in 1853, a bill was introduced in the Senate for the removal of the seat of government to Fort Des Moines, and on first vote was just barely defeated. At the next session, however, the effort was more successful, and January 15, 1855, a bill re-locating the capital within two miles of the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines, 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 building for a temporary capitol, and leased it to the State at a nominal rent.

     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,” and has always resented the destruction of her foster parent.

     The year 1856 marked a new era in the history of Iowa. In 1854 the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad had been completed to the east bank of the Mississippi River, opposite Davenport. In the same year the corner-stone of a railroad bridge that was to be the first to span the “Father of Waters,” was laid with appropriate ceremonies at this point. St. Louis had resolved that the enterprise was unconstitutional, and by writs of injunction made an unsuccessful effort to prevent its completion. Twenty years later in her history, St. Louis repented her folly, and made atonement for her sin by imitating Iowa’s example. January 1, 1856, this railroad was completed to Iowa City. In the meantime, two other railroads had reached the east bank of the Mississippi - one opposite Burlington, and one opposite Dubuque - and these were being extended into the interior of the State. Indeed, four other lines of railroads had been projected across the State from the Mississippi to the Missouri, having eastern connections.

     May 15, 1856, Congress passed an act granting to the State, to aid in the construction of railroads, the public lands in alternate sections, six miles on either side of the proposed lines. An extra session of the General Assembly was called in July of this year, that disposed of the grant to the several companies that proposed to complete these enterprises. The population of Iowa was now 500,000. Public attention had been called to the necessity of a railroad across the continent. The position of Iowa, in the very heart and center of the republic, on the route of this great highway of the continent, began to attract attention. Cities and towns sprang up through the State as if by magic. Capital began to pour into the State, and had it been employed in developing the vast coal measures and establishing manufactories, or if it had been expended in improving the lands, and in building houses and barns, it would have been well. But all were in haste to get rich, and the spirit of speculation ruled the hour.

     In the meantime, every effort was made to help the speedy completion of the railroads. Nearly every county and city on the Mississippi, and many in the interior, voted large corporate subscriptions to the stock of the railroad companies, and issued their negotiable bonds for the amount. Thus enormous county and city debts were incurred, the payment of which these municipalities tried to avoid, upon the plea that they had exceeded the constitutional limitation of their powers. The Supreme Court of the United States held these bonds to be valid, and the courts by mandamus compelled the city and county authorities to levy taxes to pay the judgments recovered upon them. These debts are not all paid, even to this day; but the worst is over, and the incubus is in the course of ultimate extinction. The most valuable lessons are those learned in the school of experience, and accordingly the corporations of Iowa have ever since been noted for economy.

     In 1856 the popular vote was as follows: Fremont, 43,954; Buchanan, 36, 170, and Fillmore, 9,180. This was 1,296 less than a majority for Fremont. The following year an election was held, after an exciting campaign, for State officers, resulting in a majority of 1,406 for Ralph P. Lowe, the Republican nominee. The Legislature was largely Republican in both branches.

     One of the most injurious results to the State, arising from the spirit of speculation prevalent in 1856, was the purchase and entry of great bodies of Government land within the State by non-residents. This land was held for speculation and placed beyond the reach of actual settlers for many years. From no other one cause has Iowa suffered so much as from the short-sighted policy of the Federal Government in selling lands within her borders. The money thus obtained by the Federal Government has been comparatively inconsiderable. The value of this magnificent public domain to the United States was not in the few thousands of dollars she might exact from the hardy settlers, or that she might obtain from the speculator who hoped to profit by the setters’ labors in improving the country. Statesmen would have taken a broader and more comprehensive view of national economy, and a view more in harmony with the divine economy that had prepared these vast fertile plains of the West for the “homes of men and the seats of empire.” It was here that new States were to be builded up, that should be the future strength of the nation against foreign invasion or home revolt. A single regiment of Iowa soldiers during the dark days of the Rebellion was worth more to the nation than all the money she ever exacted form the toil and sweat of Iowa’s early settlers. Could the statesmen of forty years ago have looked forward to this day, when Iowa pays her $1,000,000 annually into the treasury of the nation for the extinction of the national debt, they would have realized that the founding of new States was a greater enterprise than the retailing of public lands.

     In January, 1857, another Constitutional Convention assembled at Iowa City, which framed the present State Constitution. 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 new Constitution made ample provisions for home banks under the supervision of our own laws. The limitation of the State debt was enlarged to $250,000, and the corporate indebtedness of the cities and counties was also limited to 5 per cent upon the valuation of their taxable property. The judges of the Supreme Court were to be elected by popular vote. The permanent seat of government was fixed at Des Moines, and the State University located 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 the word “white” out of the suffrage clause, which, had it prevailed, would have resulted in conferring the right of suffrage without distinction of color. Since the early organization of Iowa there had been upon the statute book a law providing that no negro, mulatto nor Indian should be a competent witness in any suit or proceeding to which a white man was a party. The General Assembly of 1856-‘7 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. This Constitution was adopted at the ensuing election by a vote of 40,411 to 38,681.

     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 yokes of oxen, - was deposited in the new capitol. It is not imprudent now to remark that during this passage over hills and prairies, across rivers, through bottom lands and timber, the safes belonging to the several departments contained large sums of money, mostly individual funds, however. 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 sessions there. By the exchange, the old capitol at Iowa City became the seat of the university, and, except the rooms occupied by the United States District Court, passed under the immediate and direct control of the trustees of that institution. Des Moines was now the permanent seat of government, made so by the fundamental law of the State, and January 11, 1858, the Seventh General Assembly convened at the new capitol. The citizens’ association, which built this temporary building, borrowed the money of James D. Eads, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and leased it to the State. In 1864 the State purchased the building. At the session of the General Assembly in 1858, James W. Grimes was elected United States Senator as successor to George W. Joens.

     During the years 1858-’60, the Sioux Indians became troublesome in the northwestern part of the State. They made frequent raids for the purpose of plunder, and on several occasions murdered whole families of settlers. In 1861 several companies of militia were ordered to that portion of the State, to hunt down and expel the thieves. No battles were fought. The Indians fled as soon as they ascertained that systematic measures had been adopted for their punishment.

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