Chapter III: Iowa Historically

We take the liberty of quoting here a chapter from "The Louisiana Purchase," by C. M. Geer, in _The History of North America_, Vol. VIII, edited by Guy Carleton Lee, and published by George Barrie & Sons, Philadelphia, 1904. It gives in brief space the more important historical facts connected with the formation of the State.

"The governmental experiences of Iowa before its admission
into the Union as a State were many and varied. Its
discoverers were the missionary priest Jacques Marquette and
the explorer Louis Joliet, who were living at St. Mary's,
the oldest settlement in the present State of Michigan. On
May 13, 1673, with five Canadian boatmen, these two men left
on an exploring expedition, and on June 25, 1673, landed
near the mouth of Des Moines River.[B] By right of discovery
France claimed jurisdiction over the country thus visited
until 1763, when the Territory was ceded to Spain. On
October 1, 1800, it was ceded with the rest of Louisiana
Territory from Spain back to France. On the 30th of April,
1803, it was in turn ceded to the United States by France as
a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

"These changes of government had little effect upon what was
to constitute the future State of Iowa, because the Indians
remained in almost undisputed possession. Although
discovered and claimed by France in 1673, no attempt at
settlement was made until 1788, when Julian Dubuque, a
Canadian, obtained from Blondeau and two other Indian chiefs
a grant of lands. This claim was twenty-one miles long and
extended from the Mississippi westward nine miles. The grant
was confirmed, in a qualified way, by Carondelet, Spanish
governor at New Orleans. Dubuque engaged in mining and
trading with the Indians, making his headquarters at the
place which now bears his name. The question of the validity
of his claim to this great tract of land came before the
United States Supreme Court in 1854, and the decision of
that body was that his grant was only a temporary license to
dig ore.

"In 1799, a trading post was established on the Mississippi
within the present territory of Iowa. This settlement and
the one at Dubuque were abandoned, so that Iowa was
practically an unknown and undesired country at the time
when it came under the control of the United States in 1803.
It was at that time Indian territory, occupied by the Sacs,
Foxes, and Iowas, with the still more warlike Sioux on the
north and east.

"On the 31st of October, 1803, a temporary government was
authorized for the recently acquired territory. By Act of
Congress, approved March 26, 1803, Louisiana was erected
into two Territories and provision made for the
administration of each. The upper part was known as the
District of Louisiana and included Arkansas, Missouri, and
Iowa. This was placed temporarily under the jurisdiction of
the Territory of Indiana. On July 4, 1805, all this northern
district became the Territory of Louisiana, with a separate
Territorial government. The legislative power was vested in
the governor and three judges to be appointed by the
President and Senate. This condition continued until
December 7, 1812, when the Territory of Louisiana became the
Territory of Missouri. In 1821, Missouri was admitted into
the Union, and this admission of Missouri carried with it
the abolition of the government of Missouri Territory, so
that for a time Iowa was without any government. It is a
question how much law remained in force in Iowa after the
admission of Missouri. It is probable that the only civil
law in force was the proviso of the Missouri bill, which
prohibited slavery north of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes north latitude. No provision was made for that
portion of the Territory of Missouri until June 28, 1834,
when Congress attached the present State of Iowa, together
with other territory, to the Territory of Michigan.

"On July 3, 1836, it was included in the newly organized
Territory of Wisconsin. On June 12, 1838, the Territory of
Iowa was constituted by Act of Congress. This Territory
included 'all that part of the present Territory of
Wisconsin which lies west of Mississippi River and west of a
line due north from the sources or headwaters of the
Mississippi to the territorial line.'

"From the time of the purchase in 1803 up to the date of the
organization of the Territory in 1838 there had been a
gradual increase in the knowledge of this land and a growing
appreciation of its value. There had been parties of hunters
and trappers who made temporary settlements on the banks of
the Mississippi in the period from 1820 to 1830. It was not
till steam navigation was established on the Mississippi
that there grew up a demand for Iowa lands. Southeastern
Illinois and northwestern Missouri were settled and the
pioneers naturally looked to the equally desirable lands in
Iowa. Various exploring expeditions also contributed to a
desire to settle in the territory. Lewis and Clark added to
the knowledge of its western borders by their expedition in
1805. Pike in the same year traversed another part of the
Territory, and these explorers brought back accounts of its
great fertility and of its desirability for settlement.

"The government established a broad strip of neutral ground
between the Sioux in the north and the Sacs and Foxes in the
south to keep these tribes at peace, and in 1830 acquired
lands on the Missouri to be used as Indian reservations.
Here and there in the Iowa Territory were white men who had
gained the friendship of the Indians and lived with them.
There were trading posts of the American Fur Company and
miners at Dubuque, who were licensed by the government to
work at that point. Iowa remained the home of the Indians
until the close of the Black Hawk War, when General Winfield
Scott, on September 15, 1832, concluded a treaty of peace
with the Sacs and Foxes, by which the Indian title was
extinguished to that part of land known as the Black Hawk
Purchase. This was the eastern part of Iowa and extended
along the Mississippi, from Missouri on the south to the
'Neutral Grounds' on the north, and westward a distance of
fifty miles. It contained about six million acres and was to
be surrendered by the Indians on June 1, 1833. This gave the
first opportunity for the legal settlement of Iowa by
citizens of the United States.

"June 1, 1833, was fixed as the day on which the Indians
were to be removed from the Black Hawk Purchase and the
lands opened for settlement. The would-be settlers came in
large numbers to the banks of the Mississippi, ready to
cross and get the choice of the land. United States troops
kept guard on the western shore of the river and prevented
any persons from entering the Purchase before the appointed
time. At precisely twelve o'clock, midnight, June 1st, there
was a wild rush of settlers from East and South and the
settlement of Iowa was begun.

"There was a rapid increase in population until the separate
Territorial government was established, June 12, 1838. The
first capital was Burlington, and the place of meeting of
the legislature was in a church. Robert Lucas was appointed
Territorial Governor, and William B. Conway, Secretary. The
Territorial Legislature met on November 12, 1838.
Burlington continued to be the seat of Territorial
government till 1841, when Iowa City became the capital.

"The Territory of Iowa had a heated dispute with the State
of Missouri over the boundary line between the two.
Missouri's northern boundary was the parallel of latitude
passing through the rapids of the river Des Moines. There
were two rapids, eight or ten miles apart, and the dispute
was as to which of these was meant, Missouri insisting upon
the northern and Iowa on the southern one. Each government
tried to enforce its authority. In the attempt to do this,
Governor Boggs, of Missouri, called out the militia; then
Governor Lucas, of Iowa, called out his soldiers. Five
hundred men were under arms. On the petitions of Iowa and
Missouri, Congress authorized a suit to settle the
controversy, which resulted in a decision favorable to Iowa.

"Further treaties were made with the Indians by which
additional land was gained for settlement. A large tract of
land was opened to settlers on May 1, 1843, and on the
preceding night there was a rush of land seekers similar to
that which had occurred ten years before; over a thousand
families settled in the newly opened lands within twelve
hours.

"The very rapid increase in population led to a demand for
statehood. On July 31, 1840, the Territorial Legislature
passed an Act by which it called for a vote of the people on
the question of assembling a constitutional convention. In
August the vote was taken, resulting in the defeat of the
proposition by a vote of two thousand nine hundred and seven
to nine hundred and thirty-seven. Another vote was taken in
1842, resulting in the same way, but on February 12, 1844,
the suggestion of a constitutional convention met the
approval of the majority of the electors, and without
waiting for a Federal Enabling Act a Constitution was
adopted by a convention which met at Iowa City, October 7,
1844, and finished its work November 1st of the same year.
This Constitution was submitted to Congress by the
Territorial delegate.

"Here again there was the effort to balance a northern and
southern State. Maine had been admitted into the Union in
1820, and Missouri in 1821; Arkansas in 1836, and Michigan
in the next year. Now, it was proposed to admit Florida with
Iowa. At this time Florida was much below the required
population. The Congressional debate on the subject was a
long and interesting one and brought out clearly the growing
jealousy between North and South. This feeling was
especially strong at this time because of the probability
that several southern slaveholding States might be formed
from Texas.

"There was furthermore a dispute of considerable importance
over the general boundary of Iowa. The Constitution
submitted to Congress by the Territorial delegate provided
that the boundary should be as follows: 'Beginning in the
middle of the main channel of Mississippi River opposite the
mouth of Des Moines River; thence up the said River Des
Moines in the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point
where it is intersected by the old Indian boundary line, or
line run by John C. Sullivan in the year 1816; thence
westwardly along said line to the old northwest corner of
Missouri; thence due west to the middle of the main channel
of Missouri River; thence up in the middle of the main
channel of the river last mentioned to the mouth of Sioux or
Calumet River; thence in a direct line to the middle of the
main channel of St. Peter's River, where Watonwan River
(according to Nicollet's map) enters the same; thence down
the middle of the main channel of said river to the middle
to the main channel of Mississippi River; thence down the
middle of the main channel of said river to the place of
beginning.'

"An amendment was proposed in Congress which substituted the
following in place of the boundary as given above:
'Beginning in the middle of St. Peter's River, at the
junction of Watonwan or Blue Earth River; with the said
River St. Peter's running thence due east to the boundary
line of the Territory of Wisconsin in the middle of
Mississippi River; thence down the middle of the last-named
river with the boundary line of the Territory of Wisconsin
and state of Illinois to the northeast corner of the state
of Missouri in the said River Mississippi; thence westwardly
with the boundary line of said State of Missouri to a point
due south from the place of beginning; thence due north to
the place of beginning in said St. Peter's River.'

"Of especial interest was the attitude taken by Samuel F.
Vinton, representative from Ohio, in regard to the admission
of Iowa. He believed that the Western States should be small
in area in order that the West might not be deprived of its
share in the government of the nation. It seemed to him that
the policy so far pursued in the West had been wrong because
the States were so large that they were sure to contain two
or three times as large a population as the Atlantic States.
There was at the time a provision under consideration that
Florida might be divided, when either East or West Florida
should contain a population of thirty-five thousand. Vinton
contended that if Florida was to be divided, there should be
a provision for dividing Iowa, because it was safer to give
political power to the West than to the Atlantic States, for
the West was the great conservative power of the Union. He
stated that though the spirit of disunion might exist in the
North and in the South, it could not live in the West,
because the interests of the West were inseparably connected
with both, and it would hold the two sections together,
because it had no prejudice against either North or South
and, what was of greater importance, the West was a grain
growing country, and so must look equally to the
manufacturing North and the cotton growing South for its
market. Therefore the West must be conservative whether it
wished to be or not. Vinton believed that instead of five
there should have been at least twelve States in the old
Northwest, and that to partly offset this injustice, small
States should be formed west of the Mississippi. After
considerable debate in the House, the bill for the admission
of Iowa passed that body and was transmitted to the Senate,
which it passed March 3, 1845.

"After a vote for admission, the constitution was submitted
to the people of Iowa, who made serious objections to it.
One objection was directed against the small salaries to be
paid, which, it was feared, would result in getting only
inferior men for official positions. The restrictions on
banks and corporations proved an unpopular feature. The
limitation placed upon the extent of territory claimed by
Iowa was unsatisfactory to many, though the State would
still have an area of forty-four thousand three hundred
square miles. This reduction of area was the greatest
objection, so that when the vote was taken many who were in
favor of statehood voted against forming a state of such
reduced area, and the Constitution was rejected by a vote of
seven thousand and nineteen to six thousand and
twenty-three.

"The governor called a special session of the legislature,
and a bill for the re-submission of the constitution was
passed over his veto. This was defeated by the people in
August, 1845. On January 17, 1846, an Act was passed which
provided for a new constitutional convention. This body came
together in May and adopted a new constitution which did not
differ greatly from the earlier instrument. The boundaries
given in it were a compromise between those originally asked
by the people and those granted by Congress. The matter was
actively discussed in Congress when the new constitution
with the changed boundaries came before that body, but the
arguments were essentially the same as those previously
advanced. An exciting campaign followed in Iowa, and the
constitution was adopted, August 3, 1846, by a small
majority. On the 4th of August the president signed the bill
which settled the boundary question in accordance with the
second constitution, and an Act was passed December 28,
1846, by which Iowa was admitted into the Union."