USA > Iowa > Chickasaw County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 14
USA > Iowa > Howard County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 14
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Assuming this as her northern boundary line, Missouri attempted to exercise jurisdiction over the disputed territory by assessing taxes, and sending her sheriffs to collect them by distraining the personal property of the settlers. The Iowans were not disposed to quietly submit to this, and the sheriffs of Davis and Van Buren counties arrested the Missouri officials and lodged them in jail. Governor Boggs, of Missouri, called out his militia to enforce the claim and sustain the offi- cers of Missouri in their tax collecting efforts. Governor Lucas, of Iowa, called out the Iowa militia and both parties made active preparation for war. In Iowa about twelve hundred men were enlisted, and 500 were actually armed and equipped, and went into camp in Van Buren County, ready to defend the integrity of the territory. After some time spent in preparation for war, and before actual hostilities had occurred. Gen. A. C. Dodge, of Burlington; General Churchman. of Dubuque, and Doctor Clark, of Fort Madison, were sent to Missouri as envoys plenipotentiaries to effect, if possible, a peaceable adjustment of the difficulty.
Upon the arrival of these envoys they found that the county commissioners of Clark County, Missouri, had rescinded their order for the collection of the taxes, and that Governor Boggs had dispatched messengers to the governor of Iowa, proposing to submit an agreed case to the Supreme Court of the United States for the final settlement of the boundary question. This proposition was declined, but afterward Congress authorized a suit to settle the controversy; a suit of this character was instituted, resulting in a judgment in favor of Iowa's claims. In accordance with this decision, commissioners were appointed to survey and establish the boundary; and thus Iowa secured her claim and came out victorious in the "Border War," and without waste of ammunition or the shedding of blood by her valorous militia. Concerning this settlement. Judge Nourse remarks that "the expenses of the war on the part of Iowa were never paid either by the United States or the territorial government. The patriots who furnished supplies to the troops had to bear the cost and charges of the struggle."
.STATE ORGANIZATION
Jowa remained a territory from 1838 to 1846, during which time the office of governor was held by Robert Lucas, John Chambers and James Clark. During these years of territorial government the pioneers and frontiersmen of Iowa wrought an amazing miracle. by turning the hunting grounds and battlefields · of the Indians into farms and civilized settlements. Progress had been sure
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and steady in all the essentials of government. With only two counties when the territory was organized, the needs of the people in government were met. Eight years later the state was organized with twenty-eight counties, each provided with the necessary functions of government.
On February 12, 1844, the Iowa Territorial Legislature, acting under the authority of the Federal Government, passed an act providing for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention. The delegates elected in pursuance of this act met in convention at Iowa City, October 7, 1844, and completed its work on the first day of November. The constitution adopted by this conven- tion was submitted to Congress for approval, but that body objected to the boundaries described in the proposed constitution, and some radical changes were made. Congress then passed an act admitting Iowa as a state, provided certain prescribed boundaries radically different from those adopted by the con- vention, were adopted by a vote of the people of the territory, These boundaries, had they been accepted, would have placed the northern boundary of the state about thirty miles north of its present location, and would have deprived it of the Missouri slope and the boundary of that river. The western boundary would have been near the west line of what is now Kossuth County. In consequence of this unwelcome and radical change, the people refused to accept the act of Congress. At an election held August 4. 1845. the suggested constitution was rejected by a vote of 7,656 to 7.235.
A second constitutional convention assembled at lowa City, May 4. 1846. and on the 18th of the same month another constitution for the state, with the present boundaries, was adopted and submitted to the people for ratification on the 3d day of the following August, the day of the general election. This constitution was ratified by the people by a vote of 9.492 to 9,036; not a very large majority, but it was sufficient. Congress approved this constitution, and by an act adopted December 28, 1846, Iowa was duly admitted as one of the sovereign states of the American Union.
At the first session of the State Legislature the question of the relocation of the capital was considered. The western boundary of the state, as now deter- mined, left Iowa City too far to the eastern and southern boundary. After much discussion and parliamentary maneuvering, almost purely. sectional, a bill was enacted providing for commissioners who were authorized to make a location for the capital as near the center of the state as a suitable site could be obtained. These commissioners proceeded in the discharge of their duty, but the question of a permanent location for the seat of government was not settled until 1855. when an act was passed and approved by the governor, locating the capital at Des Moines.
A third constitutional convention was held in Iowa City, January 19, 1857. The constitution framed by this convention was submitted to a vote of the people August 3. 1857, and adopted by a vote of 40.311 to 38,881, and on the 3d day of September following was declared by a proclamation of the governor to be the supreme law of the State of Iowa. With several amendments, this is the present constitution of the state. At this time the population of the state, accord- ing to the United States census, was 519.055: in 1838. when it was organized as a territory, the population was 22.589.
PART TWO
CHICKASAW COUNTY
CHAPTER I POLITICAL HISTORY-ELECTION RETURNS
AGITATION REGARDING ADMISSION OF FREE AND SLAVE STATES-IOWA BECAME A STATE AT OPPORTUNE TIME-WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE CONTROVERSY-FIRST VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1848-FIRST STATE ELECTORAL VOTE TO CASS- IOWA CONTRIBUTED TO DEATH BLOW OF WHIGS, IN 1852-THEN ELECTED WHIG GOVERNOR IN 1854-FOR FREMONT IN 1856-FOR LINCOLN IN 1860, AND ALL REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES UNTIL 1912-VOTE OF STATE AND COUNTY IN ALL ELECTIONS SINCE ORGANIZATION
Iowa came into the Union at a time when some of the most important questions as to the principles and policies of government were becoming subjects of serious agitation and controversy, and when the lines between the leading political parties as to settlement of these questions were becoming sharply drawn. One of the most important of these was the slavery question. This question had been grow- ing in importance, fitfully at times, almost from the time of the adoption of the constitution. Some of the great statesmen who had to do with the formation of government recognized that slavery was a blight on this fair land of the free, a distinctive travesty on the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and a menace to the welfare and permanence of the Union. But the institution was here, and had become well established, before the Government was founded. It had come to be regarded as "a divine institution" in a section of the country, and it was left to become a burning issue for future generations to settle.
As a political issue, slavery had been growing in importance since the contest and compromise on the admission of Missouri in 1820. There had been efforts to compromise and conciliate by legislation previous to this, but the "Missouri Compromise," in its effects, was the culminating act that resulted in making the slavery question a distinctive political issue. It dominated the politics of the country in the election of 1844, the year when the Territory of Iowa was engaged in the formal process of becoming a state. From that year the slavery question continued to dominate the politics of the country, until it was finally decided by secession, war and emancipation. At that time, however, parties, statesmen and politicians did not range themselves as advocates or opponents of either slavery as an existing institution, or of the extension of slavery. That was not done until the critical moment of the struggle was near at hand.
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But every great measure, beginning with the annexation of Texas, was con- sidered and decided with chief reference to the extension, the maintenance, the restriction or the overthrow of "the peculiar institution" of the South. The opponents of slavery became bolder and more aggressive; its defenders more vigilant, more resentful of attacks upon it, more rigid in their ostracism of public men of the North who did not accept their principles. They became more reso- lute, in the event of a denial of their "rights," in their purpose to seek those rights by a separation from the Union. As the feeling grew more intense, and the language of extreme partisans increased in violence, well-meaning men tried to prolong the peace by compromises, and by endeavors to turn the current of political thought to other subjects. How vain it was to attempt to reconcile irreconcilable things, to repress the irrepressible conflict, is clearly demonstrated by the subsequent history of tragedy and bloodshed through which the country passed to final settlement.
IOWA NOT INVOLVED
It may be considered a fortunate circumstance that Iowa passed from a terri- torial to a state government without becoming involved in the controversy of the contending factions regarding the admission of free and slave states. This was due to the fact that Iowa came in under the provisions of the Missouri Com- promise, a measure that was designed to maintain the equilibrium between the slave and free states in their representation in the United States Senate. Previous to 1820 this equilibrium had been maintained. Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had been admitted with constitutions permitting slavery ; and Vermont, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois as free states. So the country was evenly divided-eleven free and eleven slave states, up to 1820. In that year Maine was admitted as a free state, and a controversy arose over the admission of Missouri, the advocates of slavery insisting that Missouri should be a slave state, as an offset to the free state of Maine. After an acrimonious debate, that state was admitted without any restrictions as to slavery, under the provisions of a compromise, known as the "Missouri Compromise." This compromise provided that Missouri should be admitted without restrictions, but stipulated that in all the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36° 30', slavery should be forever prohibited.
During the next twenty-five years the slavery question remained comparatively quiet, owing to the admission of free and slave states in equal number. Arkansas, a slave state, came into the Union in 1836; and Michigan, a free state, in 1837. The slave State of Florida, admitted in 1845, was offset by Iowa as a free state, in 1846: and Iowa was the last of the states of that period to secure admission under the reign of comparative peace provided by the Missouri Compromise. As the result of the Mexican war the United States came into possession of a large expanse of territory in the Southwest, to which the advocates of slavery laid claim. and again the question came up as a subject for legislation in Congress, resulting in the compromise act of 1850, known as the "Omnibus Bill." The opponents of slavery took the view that this act was a violation of the provisions of the Missouri Compromise, as it was designed to carry slavery north of the line prescribed in that measure, and was practically a repeal of the Missouri
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Compromise. So the discussion of the slavery question was again revived. Like Banquo's ghost, it would not down. Four years later the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed, which added fresh fuel to the already raging flames. The attempt of the slave power to organize the territory of Kansas as a slave state was strongly resisted by the opponents of that institution; Kansas became a scene of war and bloodshed between the contending factions, and the indignation of the people of the North was aroused as never before. But Iowa was fortunate in escaping this territorial trouble by getting into the Union under a compromise measure.
ELECTION RESULTS
As stated in another chapter, Iowa was admitted as a state, by act of Congress, December 28, 1846, and therefore was not eligible to participate in the exciting presidential election of 1844, when the contest was between James K. Polk, the candidate of the democratic party; and Henry Clay, the candidate of the whig party. Prior to the act of Congress, officially recognizing Iowa as a sovereign state, however, an election for governor was held under the new constitution, and the result of that election shows the drift of sentiment between the two political parties of that time. The candidates were Ansel Briggs, democrat ; and Thomas McKnight, whig. The total number of votes cast was 15,005; of which Briggs received 7,626, and McKnight received 7,379. Another state election was held in 1850, when the candidates were Stephen Hempstead, democrat; James L. Thompson, whig; and William Penn Clark, who does not seem to have had any party label. The total vote of the state in that election was 25,475; of which Hempstead received 13,486; Thompson, 11,403; Clark, 575, with eleven "scatter- ing" votes. The majority of 1,497, which Hempstead received in this election may be regarded as an encouragement to the democratic party of the state.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1848
In 1848 Iowa for the first time participated in a presidential election, being entitled to four electoral votes. The candidates for president in that campaign were : Zachary Taylor, whig; Lewis Cass, democrat ; and Martin Van Buren, can- didate of the free soil party. In the preceding presidential election the whigs had suffered defeat, in the election of Polk over their idolized candidate, Henry Clay. But in 1848 they had rallied their party behind General Taylor, who had gained renown in the Mexican war, and it was upon that renown that the canvass was made. Taylor was an availability candidate, rather than a candidate of pro- nounced whig principles. The canvass on the part of the whigs was spirited and confident, while on the democratic side it was lacking in spirit and enthusiasm, because of the unpopularity of their candidate. The result of the canvass was the election of Taylor. Iowa did not contribute to this result ; her four electoral votes were given to Cass.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1852
Although the whigs had gained a victory, in the election of Taylor, in 1848, the results following that victory were disappointing to many adherents of that
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party. Taylor died before he had completed the second year of his administra- tion, and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore, the vice president. But Taylor was not satisfactory to the northern contingent of the whig party. They gave him their votes with some misgivings, and with the expectation that he would do nothing to resist the aggression of slavery, which that element of the party regarded as a serious question. The northern wing of the whig party was also disappointed in Fillmore, who succeeded Taylor. Fillmore had a consistent record as an anti-slavery man, and was expected to be firm and unyielding in resisting slave power aggressions. But, on his accession, he became the active agent in promoting "compromise" measures which was abhorrent to the anti-slavery men. To say that the slavery question dominated the politics of the country, from the inauguration of Taylor until the outbreak of the Civil war, is to put the case mildly. It substantially excluded all other topics from consideration. The efforts to conciliate and compromise were unavailing and unsatisfactory to both factions.
The presidential campaign of 1852 closed the record of the whig party. Of the two great political parties the whigs were the most effected by the slavery question, because of the opposite views of the northern and southern wings, and because of the disinclination of the element opposed to the extension of slavery to make a decided declaration, for fear of causing disaffection and disruption of party. This hesitation and caution brought about the very thing that they feared. The election of 1852 saw the whig party's finish. They had for their candidate that year Gen. Winfield Scott, another available candidate of Mexican war fame. The other candidates were Franklin Pierce, democrat; and John P. Hale, free soil candidate. In this election Iowa gave her four electoral votes to Pierce. dividing her votes : 17.762 for Pierce ; 15,856 for Scott ; and 1.606 for Hale.
STATE ELECTION, 1854
Although the election of 1852 gave the death-blow to the whig party, as a national party, it appears from the election returns in the Iowa state election of 1854 that the party was quite insensible of its decease. The whigs seem to have been very much in evidence in that election, showing a gain of about 100 per cent over the vote four years previous.
The candidates for governor were James W. Grimes, whig ; Curtis Bates, demo- crat. The total was 44,537, an increase of over 20,000 in the total vote of 1850. Grimes received 23,325; Bates, 21,202; "scattering." 10. James W. Grimes had the distinction of being the first whig elected governor of Iowa ; and the last whig to be elected for any office, anywhere.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1856
The republican party makes its first appearance as a national party in the presidential campaign of 1856. The republican party originated in the West. A mass meeting at Ripon, Wis., followed soon after by a mass state convention at Jackson, Mich .; and state conventions in July, in Vermont, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, brought the party into being, with its present name and with its decided policy of opposition to the extension of slavery as the one issue that united its
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members. A republican organization was not effected in many states of the North in 1854, but the cardinal principles of the party, called the Anti-Nebraska party, and other names, with various forms of fusion, had many successes at the polls.
The first republican national convention was held in Pittsburgh, on Washing- ton's birthday, February 22, 1856, at which there were delegates from twenty- three states. Gen. John C. Fremont was named as the candidate for president. James Buchanan was the democratic candidate; Millard Fillmore was the candi- date of a fusion party convention, composed of the remnant of the whigs with a party known as the know nothing, or American party. For the first time the party lines were clear and definite, as the all-absorbing question of slavery extension in the territories. Buchanan had the support of the slave-holding interests, and of all who were concerned for the maintenance of the political power of the slavery system. Fillmore was supported by a party that was opposed to the agitation and discussion of questions relating to the social and domestic institutions of any state-a kind of a peace-at-any-price party. Fremont was supported by a party that was not inclined to interfere with the "peculiar institution" in the states where it existed, but was decidedly opposed to its extension to the territories under the jurisdiction of Congress. As they expressed it in a resolution, as one article of faith: "That the constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States, for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." By way of parenthesis, the writer would suggest that the republican party, or some other has a duty yet to perform in regard to one of those "twins."
The result of this election gave to Buchanan a majority of the electoral vote. He received 174; Fremont, 114, and Fillmore, 8. Iowa contributed four of Fre- mont's electoral votes. The popular vote of the state was: Fremont. 45,196; Buchanan, 37,663 : Fillmore, 9,669. Total vote of the state, 92,528.
STATE ELECTION, 1857
In the state election for governor in Iowa, in 1857. there were three candidates : Ralph W. Lowe, republican ; Ben M. Samuels, democrat ; W. T. Henry, party distinction not stated. The result of the vote was: Lowe, 38,498; Samuels, 36,088 ; Henry, 1,004; Lowe's majority, 1,406. Total vote of the state, 75,590.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1860
During the whole of Buchanan's administration the country was drifting steadily toward civil war. The issue between slavery and anti-slavery was joined at all points. The Dred Scott decision promulgated by the Supreme Court soon after Buchanan was inaugurated, sustained the slave holder's contention as to their rights of property in slaves so fully as to justify the bitter comment upon the court decision, that it made slavery national, and freedom sectional. The struggle over Kansas, which had begun in the first year of Pierce's administration, con- tinued under his successor until early in 1861, after secession had begun, when
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the state was admitted without slavery. The story of the contest in regard to the admission of Kansas is a record of perfidy and violence, in the attempt to force slavery on an unwilling people. This and other important events, notably the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, which occurred during Buchanan's admin- istration, tended to embitter politics and to forecast the impending civil conflict.
The political conventions of 1860, for nominating candidates for the presi- dency, were the most notable in history. The democratic convention in Charleston resulted in a break between the northern and southern wings of the party. At an adjourned and separate session, the southern faction nominated John C. Breck- enridge, and the northern faction nominated Stephen A. Douglas. The republican party met in national convention in Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln for their standard bearer. Another convention of what was known as the Constitu- tional Union Party, composed of remnants of various political faiths, nominated John Bell as their candidate for president.
The canvass which followed after these several nominations were made was fierce and exciting. On the part of the republicans there was a well-grounded con- fidence that they were to be victorious. The early elections in Maine, Ohio, Indi- ana, Pennsylvania, and in some other states, foreshadowed the certain election of Lincoln. This was confirmed by the result of the November ballot, giving to Lincoln, 180 electoral votes; to Breckenridge, 72; to Douglas, 12; to Bell, 39.
Iowa contributed to this result by giving her four electoral votes to Lincoln. The total vote of the state in that election was 128,205. Of this Lincoln received 70,316; Douglas, 55,091 ; Bell, 1,763; Lincoln's majority over all was 12,427.
The result of the election was hardly known to the people of the country before the South began to carry out the threats which had been only muttered in the preceding campaign; and the new president succeeded to the administra- tion of a government which was to fight for its very existence.
CHICKASAW COUNTY VOTE
Chickasaw County was organized April 3, 1854, and at that time had a popu- lation of 595. The first general election in the county was in 1856, when the county population had increased to 2,651, and the total vote in that election was 296, for state senator. Chickasaw County was eligible to participate in state and national elections in 1856, 1860, and in 1864, but the record of the county vote in state and national elections for those years is incomplete, or not easily accessible. A complete record of all the county elections, from the time of organization, will be given in another chapter, and a record of the county vote, so far as available, in the succeeding account of state and national elections in this chapter.
IOWA STATE ELECTION, 1859
The candidates for governor in the state election of 1859 were Samuel J. Kirkwood, republican ; A. C. Dodge, democrat. The total vote cast in this elec- tion was 109,864, of which Kirkwood received 56,532, and Dodge, 53.332, giving Kirkwood a majority of 3,200.
IOWA STATE ELECTION, 1861
The candidates for governor in this election were Samuel J. Kirkwood, repub- lican ; William H. Merritt, democrat; Ben M. Samuels, democrat; Henry Clay
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