of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 117-119
AN ARBITRARY MEMBER FROM MUSCATINE. (Hawkins Taylor was a member of the first Iowa territorial legislature from Lee county and afterward became a man of note and influence. Prior to his death he spent several years in Washington City and in 1884 contributed the article given here to the State Register:.......)
"Frierson, a member from Muscatine, was probably more the cause of the continued trouble than all others. He assumed to speak for the governor and would threaten all measures before the legislature that he did not like with the governor's veto; and the governor's veto was then absolute. The legislature, by more than two-thirds majority, passed a memorial to the president of the United States for the removal of the governor. The memorial was prepared by a committee of which J. W. Grimes was chairman, and drawn mainly by Grimes. It was very nearly a copy of the Declaration of Independence, in the following words:
"He has declared to members of the legislative assembly his determination to veto all laws for which he would not vote as a member of the assembly, thereby placing his isolated opinion in opposition to that of the representatives of the people, as well as possible in matters of more expediency. He has appointed and nominated to office persons from abroad who were neither domiciled among nor had they any interest in common with the people of Iowa, and some of the persons thus nominated or appointed were connected with his excellency by intimate ties. He has manifested such a total want of abilities, not only to govern in time of peace but more especially to command in time of war, as are justly calculated to inspire your memorialists and their constituents with alarm for the security of their country, bordering as it does on the very confines of savage, warlike tribes.
"Wherefore, and in consideration of the above recited facts, your memorialists are driven to the unpleasant alternative of appealing to the constitutional guardian of this people, who has, they firmly believe, the best interests of the people at heart, although in the language of your Excellency, the appointing power cannot always be well advised in its selections and the experience of every county has shown that public officers are not always proof against temptation, and of declaring, your Excellency, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, their firm conviction that Robert Lucas is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
"They therefore, impelled by facts alone, and in nowise influenced by party or political motives, most respectfully and earnestly pray, that his excellency be forthwith recalled from the further discharge of the executive duties of the territory, under the full conviction that the grievances of the people, whom they have the honor to represent, will not be heard and remain unredressed and that the misrule that otherwise might terminate in the ruin of the fairest and hitherto most prosperous and quiet portion of our common country will be practically and constitutionally arrested.
"The governor was not removed and no one expected that he would be when they voted for the memorial, but congress did change the law creating the territory by allowing the legislature to pass a measure over the veto of the governor by a two-thirds vote.
"There had been no politics in the electiop of the members to either house of the legislature. Every single member had been elected on a local issue, either the county boundary or county seat question, and mainly on the county seat question. The people then had heard of railroads but no person then expected that they would carry produce to market. They might take people and light baggage but never flour and meats. The water courses alone were relied upon for the transportation of produce. The Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa and Cedar rivers were all relied upon as navigable streams, especially the Des Moines. That river was to be the Muskingum of Iowa, with its banks lined with thriving towns. Farmington had been made the county seat of Van Buren county, by the Wisconsin legislature, and then changed to Keosawqua, but Bonaparte, Bentonsport, Columbus, Farmington and Rising Sun were all ready to take their Bible oath that their town was the proper place for the county seat. Each of these towns had one or more candidates for the legislature and each elected a member of one or the other house except Columbus. In Lee county the contest was between Fort Madison and the town of West Point. Fort Madison got the council and West Point the house members. In Henry the contest was between Mt. Pleasant and Trenton. Mt. Pleasant elected the two members of the council and two of the house. In Des Moines, it was Burlington and Franklin and Burlington got all but one member. In Louisa it was Wapello and Columbus City. Wapello got all. In Muscatine it was Muscatine and Moscow. All the members lived in or near Muscatine but Moscow elected Hastings. In Scott, it was Davenport and Rockingham. Davenport got the members, as did Bellevue and Dubuque in Jackson and Dubuque counties."
The writer then gives in detail a description of the personality of each member of this first territorial legislature of Iowa and his method of handling the subject is more than interesting. But space forbids the inclusion of any of them save and except the men who were sent from Muscatine and Louisa counties, which formed this district at that time. An exception will be made, however, in that of General Jesse B. Brown, of Lee county. The narrative, among other things had this to say of him:
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. "From Lee, came Jesse B. Brown, the president of the council. Brown was six feet seven inches in height and straight as an arrow. He has had no duplicate in Iowa or elsewhere. Sam Houston, of Texas, is the only man that had similar traits and the same capacity to attachments warm. But for dissipation Brown would have been the great leader of the people of Iowa and would have commanded any position desired. He never forgot a face or name, and his polished politeness when sober is a lost art at the present day. He was never beaten for any office in Lee County. The people would declare, after his troubled sprees, that they would never again 'support General Brown,' but they would forget their promises the next time he wanted their votes. But he had one remarkable trait. He never excused himself or made any excuses for his sprees; he made free confessions of his unfortunate habits and evil acts and begged the forgiveness of his friends and he was forgiven. It is the man who denies when guilty and excuses himself that is not forgiven. Brown was the speaker of the house of the first Iowa State assembly, known as the 'Pappoose' legislature.
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