of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, page 22
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 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 two, and some of it from ten to fifteen 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 provisions for house 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 1856-7 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.
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