USA > Iowa > An illustrated history of the state of Iowa, being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875; > Part 14
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During the session of the legislature, acts were passed defining the boundaries of Ringgold, Taylor, Fremont, Marion, Clayton, Fayette, Allamakee, and Winneshiek counties, and organizing Dallas county : and also an act providing that all that tract of country on the Missouri river, purchased from the Pottawatomie Indians might be temporarily organized into a county to be called Pottawattomie, whenever in the opinion of the judge of the fourth judicial district, the public good should require it.
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The legislature having adjourned without electing United States senators and judges, the state was without representation in the senate. The old territorial judges resigned, and it became the duty of the governor to appoint others to fill their places, who were entitled to hold their offices until the adjournment of the next legislature, if others were not elected previous to that time. Joseph Williams, associate justice under the territorial govern- ment, was appointed chief justice ; and George Green, of Dubuque county, and John F. Kinney, of Lee county, associate justices. The legislature having divided the state into four judicial districts, at the April election of 1847, Geo. W. Williams, James Grant, Cyrus Olney and J. P. Carleton were elected judges.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. BRIGGS.
Commissioners on Permanent Seat of Government -Extra Session of the Legislature - The School Laws - Railroads -School Officers Disquali- fied - The Mormon Vote - Election.
ON THE 22d of February, 1847, there was an act passed mak- ing provisions for the location of the permanent seat of govern- ment of the state ; and John Brown of Lee county, Joseph D. Hoag, of Henry county, and John Taylor, of Jones county, were appointed commissioners. The law, appointing commissioners, provided that they should meet on or before the first day of the next May, and should proceed to examine the state, or so much of it, as they might think expedident, for the purpose of deter- mining upon a judicious site for the permanent seat of govern- ment of the state. The commissioners, when they had located the site, were to lay off a portion of the lands so selected, not exceed- ing one section, into lots, and, when laid off, they were authorized to make a sale of lots, not exceeding two lots in any one block for the first two years after the town should be laid out. Under the provisions of this law, the commissioners, after traveling over a great portion of the state, selected, as a site for the new seat of government sections, four, five, eight and nine, and the west half of sections three and ten, in township seventy-eight north, in range twenty west of the fifth principal meridian, and called it Monroe City. The commissioners then proceeded to lay off a por- tion of it into lots, and on the 8th of October of that year, had a sale, and sold, to different individuals, between three and four hundred lots, the proceeds amounting to $6,189.72, one fourth of which was paid at the time of purchase, and the balance was to be paid in two, four and six years. The money realized by the (189)
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commissioners was not enough to pay the expenses of selecting the site and laying it off into lots, as most of them were sold at very low prices; some selling as low as one dollar. The commis- sioners, though they received from the proceeds but a small compen- sation for their services, supposed they had amply remunerated themselves by securing large interests in and about the proposed capital town. Monroe City, for a while, attracted considerable atten- tion and there were great efforts made to secure property in that section of the state, speculators anticipating that fortunes would be made in the future by the increase of the value of real estate ; but these anticipated fortunes soon vanished, for at the next election the changing of the seat of government became a political ques- tion, and a majority of the new members of the legislature were opposed to the contemplated change, and the act was repealed. Monroe City was vacated, and an appropriation was made, and the treasurer was directed to refund the money to all who had pur- chased lots, except the commissioners themselves. Hoag had be- come a large purchaser, and by the vacation of the town, he was left with but a very small compensation for his labors, and his pe- tition for relief was before the legislature for several years before he was remunerated for his services in locating and laying out Monroe City. The doubt concerning the right of the officers elected at the April election of 1847, to discharge the duties of their offices, had in a great measure, rendered ineffectual the school law, and there seemed to be some occasion for a special session of the legislature and the governor was induced to issue his proclama- tion convening the legislature in an extra session on the 1st Mon- day, the third of January, 1848. The principal reasons assigned by the governor for convening the legislature were to remedy the defects in school laws, occasioned by the law not taking effect at the time it was designed to have it ; of this session Jesse B. Brown was speaker of assembly and J. Scott Richman, clerk. The legis- lature passed no law which materially affected the school interest, or made the condition of things much, if any, better than they would have been, had there been no session. The whigs intro- duced a bill to legalize the acts of Harlan, authorizing him to hold the office for three years, the time for which he was supposed to have been elected ; but the democrats opposed the bill and it
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CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHILA.
James Grant EBSgrants
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was defeated. The real cause for convening the legislature ap- pears to have been the election of United States senators and su- preme court judges, but the whigs, with the vote of a Mr. Clifton, prevented a joint convention, and these offices were not filled. There was an act passed at this session providing for a revision of the laws of the state ; and Charles Mason, of Des Moines county Wm. G. Woodward, of Muscatine county and Stephen Hempstead, of Dubuque county, were appointed commissioners to revise and prepare a code of laws.
During the winter of 1848, the propriety of taking some meas- ures for the construction of railroads in the state was agitated in the northern part of the state, and interest enough taken to have a convention called, which was held at Iowa City, and was very fully attended. The projects were conceived of building two roads-one from Davenport via Iowa City to Des Moines, and thence to some point on the Missouri river near Council Bluffs; and another running north and south from Dubuque, via Iowa City to Keokuk. To aid in these enterprises, it was determined to ask help of the general government, and the legislature was re- quested to memorialize congress for a grant of lands, consisting of every alternate section for a distance of five miles on each side of the projected roads. Those who first moved in this matter were actuated more by the hopes of making some political capital out of it, than by any idea that it would ever amount to anything real ; but the labors of this convention attracted considerable at- tention, and the public mind soon began to regard the proposed projects as practical undertakings, and the future proved that this convention was not without beneficial results.
The supreme court having decided that the school officers elected at the previous April election had no authority to dis- charge the various trusts for which they were elected, and no law authorizing them to discharge the duties of their several offices having been passed at the called session, it became necessary to have another election for superintendent and other officers. The democratic candidate, Thos. H. Benton, was elected by a majority of seventeen over his competitor, Mr. Harlan. After the adjourn- inent of the legislature, which took place January 25, 1848, the commissions of the supreme judges expired, and it became the
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duty of the governor to make other appointments. Judges Kin- ney and Greene were reappointed associate judges, and S. Clinton Hastings, of Muscatine, received the appointment of chief justice in place of Williams.
In 1848 there were two elections - one in August, at which there were to be elected two members of congress, the state offi- cers and members of the legislature-and in November, for the first time, the electors of Iowa had an opportunity to take a part in the presedential election. Lewis Cass was the democratic, and Zachary Taylor the whig candidate; and from the importance of the election greater exertions were made than there ever had been before in Iowa. For the August election, the democrats renomi- nated all the old state officers with the exception of Cutler, the secretary of state, who had for some reason become unpopular with the people, and Josiah Bonney, of Van Buren county, was nominated in his place. A. C. Dodge, Lincoln Clark, John Sel- mon and Joseph Williams were nominated for presidential elect- ors by the democrats ; and Fitz Henry Warren, Wm. H. Wallace, Jesse Bowen and Thos. J. Mckean were the whig electors. The Mormons who had settled on the western slope of the state, had become so numerous that their votes were a matter of great con- sideration to both political parties. When in Illinois, they nearly all voted the same way, and generally with the democrats ; but in voting they were mostly governed by their leader, and their votes were cast for those persons who they thought would be most likely to favor the Mormon interest. Orson Hyde, who was the presiding elder over the Mormons in Iowa, and had the superin- tendence of this part of the church, visited Burlington early in the season, had a long interview with Mr. F. H. Warren, one of the presidential electors, and it was currently circulated that he had received some personal favor from him, and had pledged him- self to Warren that the Mormon vote should be cast for the whigs at the coming election, if they were permitted to vote ; at this time it was supposed there were from eight to ten thousand Mor- mons in the western part of the state, and that they would at least cast eight hundred or a thousand votes if they were all brought to the polls, a vote which would probably carry the election in the first congressional district, if not the state, and elect the whig candidates
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in the western districts to the legislature. When it became un- derstood that the Mormons at the coming election would vote with the whigs, there was great anxiety on the part of the leading democrats to counteract the influence of this vote. Judge Carleton, whose duty it had been by law to appoint a sheriff for the pur- pose of organizing Pottawattomie county, whenever he should think the public good required it, had appointed Wmn. S. Town- send, a democrat, organizing sheriff, and had ordered that an elec- tion should take place on the first Monday of April, 1848; but when it was ascertained that the Mormons would probably vote with the whigs, Townsend declined to act, and consequently the county was not organized, and without an organization of some kind they could not vote at the coming election. After the Mor- mons found out that Townsend was not going to organize the county, they petitioned the county commissioners of Monroe county to "grant them a township for the purpose of electing two justices of the peace and constables, as they labored under much disadvantage for the want of legal authority among them, and that the election might be held at the council house in Kanes- ville " (now Council Bluffs city). On the third of July the board of commissioners of Monroe county ordered "that that portion of the country called Pottawattomie county, which lies directly west of Monroe county (at that time it was supposed that Kanesville was due west of Monroe county) be organized into a township, aud that the boundaries of said township extend east as far as East Nishnabonta ; " and they also ordered " that that portion of the country called Clarke county, lying immediately west of Lucas county, to what is called East Nishnabonta, be organized into a precinct for election and judicial purposes."
The organization of these precincts became a matter of much concern to the democrats; and the securing or defeating the Mor- mon vote was a matter of much interest to both parties. After the election was over, about the time it was supposed the poll books would be returned to the clerk's office in Monroe county from the Kanesville precinct, quite a number of active politicians from both parties assembled at Albia, the county seat of Monroe county. The poll books were brought to Albia, when there arose quite a spirited discussion about the clerk's receiving those from
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Kanesville. It was contended on one side that they ought to be received and counted by the clerk, and was opposed by those on the other side. The clerk decided to refuse receiving the Kanes- ville poll book, on the ground that the county commissioners of Monroe county had no right to organize the township, and conse- quently the Mormon vote was not counted in canvassing the votes. Of the votes that were counted and officially returned for congressman in the first congressional district, Wm. Thomp- son, the democratic candidate, received six thousand, four hun- dred and seventy-seven votes; and Daniel F. Miller, the whig candidate, received six thousand and ninety-one votes. In the Kanesville precinct, Miller received four hundred and ninety- three votes, while Thompson only received thirty votes. The votes for the other candidates were about the same. If the Mor- mon vote had been counted, Miller would have received the cer- tificate of election.
When the whigs ascertained how the Mormons voted at the August clection, they thought if all he settlements on the west- ern slope were organized into precincts, so that all could get to the polls, that with the Mormon vote. they would be able to carry the state at the November election, and there was a great anxiety on the part of the whigs to have Pottawattomie county organized, and efforts were made to accomplish this end. The law, however, authorizing the appointment of an organizing sher- iff, required that the person appointed, before he should be quali- fied to enter upon the discharge of the duties of his office, should file his bond and oath of office in the clerk's office of the district court of Polk county, and in order to circumvent the plans of the whigs who were engaged in having the county of Pottawatto- mie organized, the democrats succeeded in getting the clerk of the district to resign, so that the appointed organizing sheriff could not qualify. In consequence of this action, the sheriff could find no qualified person to receive his bond and administer the oath of office, and by this maneuver, Pottawattomie county was not organized in time for those settlers on the western slope to vote at the presidential election.
It will be seen by what has been written, that the politicians of the state of Iowa were wide awake in their endeavors to defeat
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their political opponents, and will compare favorably with the politicians of the present time. The democrats seemed to have had the advantage in the early history of the state in the politi- cal contests against their whig opponents.
The democrats this year were triumphant, both at the August and November elections, and elected the congressional, state and electoral ticket by a decided majority, and also had the ascend- ancy in both branches of the legislature, and on joint ballot a majority of nineteen. It was thus known that the democrats could elect United States senators and supreme judges, and those offices elicited much interest among the politicians; and at the convening of the legislature, December 4, 1848, there were a great number of the leading democrats from all parts of the state assembled at Iowa City, each using his best exertions to get him- self or his particular friend elected United States senator or su- preme court judge.
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHIL A.
Dr. E. L. Mansfield.
CHAPTER XXIV.
BRIGGS' ADMINISTRATION.
Election of United States Senators - Second Meeting of the State Legislature - Aid to Railroads - Legislation - State University - Hungarian Set- tlement.
THE SECOND general assembly of the state convened on the fourth day of December, 1848. John H. Selman was elected president of the senate, and Smiley H. Bonham, speaker of the house. Soon after the organization of the legislature, the demo- crats held a caucus and nominated candidates for senators, and adjourned till the next night to nominate candidates for supreme court judges. At this caucus Augustus C. Dodge and Geo. W. Jones were nominated for senators ; Joseph Williams, chief jus- tice ; George Greene and John F. Kinney, associate judges. The caucus having selected the candidates, the contest for places was over, and the legislature only had to go through with the form of an election to complete the work.
The memorials sent to congress by the previous legislature, asking for a grant of land to aid in the building of railroads in Iowa, were referred to the appropriate committee, but the com- mittee reported against the prayer of the memorials, on the ground that the proposed routes had not been surveyed, and there were no data before the committee by which they could judge of the distance or practicability of the proposed routes. When these objections were ascertained, the friends of the Dubuque and Keo- kuk route immediately went to work to get stock taken in their proposed road, and to organize a company ; and the organizing of the company was completed in the month of December, 1848, at Iowa City. A cursory survey of the road was made, and was laid before the legislature, which was accepted and adopted by that body ; and another memorial, asking for a grant of land, was (198)
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passed and, with the engineer's report, sent to the senators and representatives from Iowa. for them to present to congress. There was also another memorial passed by the legislature, asking for a grant of lands to aid in constructing a road " from Davenport by Muscatine, Iowa City, and Fort Des Moines, to some suitable point near Council Bluffs on the Missouri river." These proposed routes now begun to assume a character of ;importance, particu- larly the one from Dubuque to Keokuk, and there appeared to be a fair prospect of those roads being built at an early date.
The prospect of congress making a grant of lands for railroad purposes stirred up much feeling along the proposed routes, and there arose a spirited contest between the different towns and counties about the location of the proposed roads. Davenport and Iowa City wished to have a road run on a straight line, and not towards Muscatine, and this created much ill feeling and pro- duced many harsh words between the citizens of the two places. On the Dubuque and Keokuk line, in the north, Cedar and Lino were rivals, and in the south Henry and Jefferson counties spirit- edly contended for the location of this road through their county seats.
Among the bills passed at this session were : an act to create the office of state printer, and define his duties ; an act concerning claimants on the half-breed tract in Lee county ; to complete work on the state penitentiary ; to establish normal schools ; to estab- lish a system of common schools; for the reorganization of the board of public works ; to provide for the instruction of the deaf, dumb and blind ; to reapportion the state into senate and repre- sentative districts ; to exempt a homestead from a forced sale ; and a large number of bills relative to state and plank roads, fer- ries, bridges, etc.
Soon after the meeting of the legislature in 1850, the Dubuque and Keokuk road attracted special attention, and a large number of prominent men from along the line of this road assembled at the capital and effected a new organization, with two sets of offi- cers ; one set were to control the business south and the other north of Iowa city, and were known as the north and south divisions. In the articles of incorporation, and in the memorial passed by the legislature that winter, asking for a grant of land,
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the towns of Cascade, Anamosa, Marion, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Washington, Fairfield, Glasgow, Salem and West Point were made points on the road ; at that time this had every appear- ance of being the first road that would be built in Iowa, and if the proper efforts had been made, probably would have been. Along the line of the road, and particularly in Jefferson county, there were liberal subscriptions made and sanguine hopes were entertained of obtaining a grant of land at the next congress. At that time there had not any railroad reached the Mississippi from the east, and nearly all the trade from Iowa sought an eastern outlet by going down the river. The citizens of Keokuk who, as a matter of fact, were to be benefited the most by the under- taking, thinking they were by their location "The Gate " through which most of the trade of the back country must pass, whether the road was built or not, took very little interest in the enterprise, and without the aid of those at Keokuk, where the road was to commence, those places at the north did not feel like engaging in the undertaking, and in consequence of their unwillingness to assist in the matter, a great change in the public sentiment took place, and all those who lived in the vicinity of Fairfield, turned their whole attention to the opening up of a thoroughfare to Bur- lington. Congress refused the grant of land to this company, and all hopes of building the proposed road were given up for the time. There is every reason to think that if Keokuk had exerted herself, as she might, at the proper time, the necessary grant of land might have been obtained from the general government, and that this would have been the first road built in the state, which in all probability would have made Keokuk the largest town in the state. Sometimes, as in this case, small things are attended with great results.
In January, 1849, the fifth judicial district was established, and William McKay was elected judge.
The question of establishing a state university and of disposing of the two townships of land given by congress for that purpose, came up before the legislature at this session ; and acts were passed establishing the main institution at Iowa City, one branch at Dubuque, and another at Fairfield: and also providing for normal schools at Andrew, Oskaloosa and Mount Pleasant ; and
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for the purpose of getting these institutions in operation at an early period, the citizens in some of these localities expended large sums of money in erecting buildings for educational pur- poses; but the state authorities subsequently changed their pol- icy in relation to the state university, and those acts establishing the several branches were repealed, and all the funds were ap- plied to the institution at Iowa City.
At this session of the legislature, laws were passed for organiz- ing the counties of Allamakee and Lucas, which made provisions for locating their county seats.
When senators Dodge and Jones took their seats in the United States senate, it became incumbent on them to be classified, and in their drawing for terms, the former fell into that class of sena- tors whose terms of office expired the coming March. When this result was made known at Iowa City, the legislature immedi- ately met in joint convention, and Gen. Dodge was reelected for another term, without any opposition in his own party.
Previous to 1849, there had been a civil war within the juris- diction of the Austrian government in Europe, in the province of Hungary, headed by Louis Kossuth. As is well known, Austria, with the aid of Russia, succeeded in subduing their rebellious subjects, and many of the Hungarians were compelled to flee from that country. Among the prominent refugees was Gov- Uzhzy, who, at the time of the breaking out of the rebellion, was governor of one of the provinces of Hungary. In order to save himself from the vengeance of the Austrian government, the gov- ernor fled from his country, and with a large number of his countrymen settled in Iowa, on Grand river, in the southern part of Decatur county. From the number who stopped here, it was supposed they would build up a large town at this point, and have around it an extensive settlement of Hungarians. To show the good feeling which existed towards these emigrants, who were compelled to leave their native country, the legislature passed a memorial to congress in which they instructed the senators and requested the representatives to use their influence to secure to the Hungarian settlement in Iowa, a donation of the pub- lic lands. The influence which was brought to bear in their behalf was such that the president did not have the lands on
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