USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > Burlington > The semi-centennial of Iowa. A record of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Iowa held at Burlington, June 1, 1883 > Part 3
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June 12, 1838, next in importance to our people, after the territo-
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rial government of Ia,, was the establishment of the two U. S. Land Offices "west of the Mississippi" within the territory of Wisconsin. At the office here, Verplank Van Antwerp was appointed Receiver, (succeeded by Jos. C. Hawkins), and Augustus C. Dodge, Register, was followed by Enos Lowe and Wm. Ross.
Our first election under Iowa Territory, was held the roth of Sep- tember 1838. The candidates for Congress were Wm. W. Chapman, Peter Hill Engle, Benjamin Franklin Wallace, David Rorer, William Creighton, and Major B. F. Taliaferro, U. S. Indian agent at Fort Snelling, voted for in the order named. Chapman was elected Del- egate.
The first legislature of Iowa, assembled at Burlington, Nov. 12, 1838. Arthur Inghram, Robert Ralston and George Hepner were elected to the council; James W. Grimes, George Temple, Van B. Delasmutt, Thomas Blair and George H. Beeler, were chosen mem- bers of the House Representatives from Des Moines county.
Wm. H. Wallace of Henry county, was elected speaker of the House, and General Jesse B. Brown of Lee county, president of the Council. All the sessions of the Iowa Legislature while Burlington was the seat of government, were held in "Old Zion" church.
On the 26th of October; 1846, two months anterior to admission into the union, Iowa held her first state election. Ansel Briggs of Jackson county, was chosen Governor over Thos. Mc Knight, (whig) and Elisha Cutler Jr. of Van Buren county, Secretary of state. (We then had no Lieutenant Governor.)
Shepherd Leffler, and S. Clinton Hastings, (Democrats) were elect- ed to Congress beating G C. R. Mitchell, and Jos. Hedrick (whigs).
November 30, 1846, the first State Legislature whose members had been chosen the preceding October, assembled at Iowa City, but owing to the condition of political parties, failed to elect Senators or Judges.
December 28th 1846, the act of Congress admitting Iowa into the sisterhood of States was passed.
December 7th, 1848 at the meeting of the second General Assem- bly, George W. Jones, and Augustus C. Dodge were chosen U. S. Senators, and Joseph Williams, (Chief Justice), George Green and John F. Kinney were elected associate Justices of the Supreme Court.
Thus it will be seen that thirty-seven years ago, the State of Iowa was admitted into the Union, having but two members of Congress and less than one hundred thousand inhabitants, (97,588). It was not however, until the spring of 1855, that the "Iron Horse" first slaked his thirst in the waters of the Mississippi opposite her eastern border. To-day there are within those limits, two millions of peo- ·ple. Iowa has eleven members of Congress, and upwards of seven thousand miles of railway. While her corn crop alone for the year 1880 exceeds in amount the value of all the gold and silver mined in the United States for the same year as is shown by reliable statistics.
Hon. John Scott, late Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, in his ad-
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dress at the ninth annual meeting of the Iowa Stock Breeders' Asso- ciation, December 14, 1882, says: "There are probably not less than 1,000,000 horses, 2,000,000 of horned cattle and 6,000,000 of swine, of all ages, of a total value of more than $100,000,000, now owned in Iowa. This gives an average value of more than one mil- lion dollars worth of live stock in each county. The natural in- crease of these animals will more than double their numbers every ten years upon the soil where they subsist and furnish an increasing surplus for the market of not less than thirty per cent of their total value each and every year. At this rate we have an annual interest of not less than forty million of dollars at stake, exclusive of dairy products of not less than $25,000,000."
In the value of her products, Iowa stands No. 2 in the sister- hood of America. She is only surpassed by our great neighbor, Ill- inois, whose occupation and settlement as a Territory dates anterior to the termination of the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, while as a state she is twenty eight years the senior of Iowa.
In no invidious spirit of contrast or boasting, I may mention that our present territory of New Mexico about to celebrate her 333d birthday, (and I trust she will be honored with a magnificent celebration,) only contains one hundred and thirty one thousand sev . en hundred (131,700) inhabitants, as shown by the census of 18So.
In illustration of the extraordinary energy and progress of the An- glo Saxon and mixed races, now peopling the western states and ter- ritories. I refer to the fact that when Iowa was admitted (Dec. 28, 1846), excluding Missouri and Texas, there was west of the Mississippi river a population of perhaps less than two hundred thousand souls, (they were in Iowa and Oregon), and not a mile of railway. Now there are six millions of people residing within those limits, and 32,- ooo miles of railroad in daily operation.
"Wide shall our own free race increase, And wide extend the elastic chain, That binds in everlasting peace, State after state, a mighty train."
The Orator of the Day, Hon. John H. Craig, of Keokuk, being in- troduced by the President, was received with enthusiastic and pro- longed applause, and delivered the following
ORATION.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Fellow Citizens of Iowa :- Let me express my profound appreciation of this honor, and also my thanks for this kind introduction and greeting.
This is an event that can come but once in our lives. It appeals to all our state pride. It recalls the traditions of the past. It presents the realizations of the present. It suggests the prospects of the fu- ture -- Iowa as it was, Iowa as it is, and Iowa as it will be. There is inspiration in the occasion and the theme, but they demand loftier
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thoughts and more eloquent words than these lips of mine can utter, a strong and vital eloquence worthy to be remembered through the fifty years to come, and not the hasty product of a few brief hours, snatched from the importunate demands of professional duties, which I am compelled to submit to your indulgence.
According to the "eternal fitness of things" this place does not belong to me. I am not an old settler; I do not belong to the first generation of noble men, who, severing the ties of early life, and leav- ing the scenes of their early homes, crossed this great river, and here in the midst of hardships, privations and sacrifices, laid the first foun- dations of the state. Nor do I belong to the latest generation, "to the manor born," from whose ranks will be chosen that future un- known orator, whose lips, touched with fire, will speak to the people of his native state, on that day, which we can see in a vision-that day when Iowa will keep her first centennial. But I belong to that middle generation, that followed in the track of those who went ahead and blazed the way-who came when the days of privation and sacrifice were past, to enjoy the labors of those who went before, and to assist and carry on the work; and although we feel a just pride and claim a share in the splendid realizations which surround us to-day, yet the chief place belongs to those who came to Iowa in territorial times and made the state.
To have been the worthy founders of a state like this, is a prouder boast and a better title of nobility than to have "come over with the Conquerer." The Normans came to England as invaders, with hos- tile arms, to subjugate and reduce to serfdom a nation of Anglo-Saxon blood. But the settlers of Iowa belonged to the new order of nobil- ity-the nobility of labor. They came with the peaceful implements of husbandry, to till the virgin soil, and subjugate it to the uses of man. They came bearing with them their household gods, under these genial skies, to build their homes, to light their firesides, to set up their altars, and rear their children. They came to make farms, to create mechanical industries, to found cities, to build school houses and churches, to establish free government, and thus to lay the foun- dation and rear the grand and noble structure of a free common- wealth. We now enjoy the fruits of their labors, and rejoice in the progress of the great work which they began. Many of them are not here; they crossed this mighty river then. But now they have cross- ed another-the silent river-whose other shore is unseen by mortal vision, and from which there is no return; their work remains, and their names are held in honored remembrance. Many of them are with us still. Some whose names are a part of the history of the state are sitting here, where I ought to sit with silence on my lips. I can- not speak to you as they could, of scenes which their eyes beheld, of events in which they were prominent actors, and of traditions ot which they formed a part.
One of the most distinguished of these-I had almost said "the noblest Roman of them all" -- in earnest, hearty, eloquent words, has just expressed what needs no words to give us assurance of the gen-
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erous, open-hearted, splendid welcome which the people of Burling- ton give us all to-day. Let me say in your behalf, that hereafter, when we shall remember this scene and this semi-centennial celebra- tion, we will also remember how here to-day, the citizens of Bur- lington opened to us, not only their homes, but their hearts. They must have learned the habit in early times. The hospitality which was always found in the humble abodes of the settlers, has not lost its place in their elegant homes. There is not a citizen of Iowa here to-day who does not feel the warmth and heartiness of this welcome, and who does not hope that the growth and prosperity of Burlington may still keep pace with the growth and prosperity of the state.
The place of celebration is well chosen. The spot is appropriate to the occasion. The seat of Burlington was first known to the whites as the "Flint Hills." The Indians called it Shokokon. Here in the pure salubrious air of these bluffs, Black Hawk often col- lected his band and held his councils. The officer who first came to assert the sovereignty of the United States over this territory west of the Mississippi with a view to its possession, noted in his report this point as one of the prominent places for occupation. When Iowa was first organized into a territory bearing its own name, this was its capital, and here, its government first found "a local habitation and a name." This city has always been the county seat of Des Moines county, the mother of all the counties in the southern half of all the Black Hawk purchase. The hope of discovering a route to the Pacific ocean, was one of the motives which caused the French governor of Canada to send on their perilous journey of exploration the two white men who first discovered Iowa. One of their purposes was to ascertain whether the waters of the great river, of which they had heard from the red man, flowed westward into the Pacific Ocean. That hope, disappointed then, has been realized now in a different and better sense, in the great railroad which runs through the heart of this city, and which forms one of the links in the great chain of trade and travel which now girdles the globe.
From the earliest dawn of history the nations have coveted the commerce of eastern Asia and the Indies, and have tried to discover or make new routes to reach it. Wherever that trade flowed, it was like a Pactolean stream. The caravans from the east built ancient Damascus in the desert. The commerce of the Orient enthroned an- cient Tyre on her rocky isles, queen of the Levant. It made Venice "the spouse of the Adriatic," the bulwark of Christendom against the Mohammedan invasion. It enriched the republics of Italy, and under their patronage letters revived, and the dawn of modern civ- ilization followed the dark ages. Portugal and Holland, one after another, secured and lost it; and when England gained it, London be- came the commercial metropolis of the world. Columbus was in search of a new route to Asia when he stumbled on this western hemisphere, and "gave a new world to the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon." And ever since, the nations of Europe have been trying to surmount the great obstacle which he found in his path, by flanking both ends
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of the continent in search of a southwestern and northwestern pass- age. The southern passage was found around the Horn, but the cape lies far beyond the southern cross, and the voyage around it is over Antarctic seas, vexed by wintry storms. At the northern end, after the sacrifice of heroic lives, barriers of eternal ice hold the way, and still bar the passage. One bold Frenchman seems yet determin- ed to cut the continent in two, by digging through the Isthmus. But the new road to Asia has been found. When Americans cannot find what they want, they make it. A vast system of railroads, all built within the last fifty years, extending from the Atlantic, including great trunk lines across the state of Iowa connecting with the central line across the mountains to the Golden Gate of the Pacific, forms a splendid "Portage" across the continent, and places Iowa in direct communication with the oldest and most populous nations of the globe; so that now the locomotive, with its "breath of flame and nerves of steel," speedier than the swiftest winged ship, brings the commerce of the Orient to your doors and drops its treasures into your laps.
A popular address like this, is not the place for an abridged his- tory, nor a census report, but a few prominent events, which mark important eras in the history of the state, and a few figures which measure its growth and progresss, cannot be omitted.
The St. Lawrence and the great lakes reach nearly half way across this continent. These waters furnished an easy route to the white men who first explored the great central portions of North America. Along these waters they made their speediest and farthest advance, more than a century before the revolution was fought. When they had reached and explored the western shores of Lake Michigan, they heard from the natives marvelous accounts of a great river farther to the west. As they had moved up the St. Lawrence and over the lakes, such a vast distance from the Atlantic Ocean, it was reasonable for them to conclude that this great river of which they heard was a part of the western watershed of the continent, and that it was prob- able that its waters flowed to the Pacific. To verify this reasonable conjecture, as well as to extend the dominion of France, and carry the gospel to the tribes which might be found on its banks, they de- termined to reach and explore this unknown river of which the red man told them; and James Marquette and Louis Jolliette undertook the perilous journey. The one was the envoy of the King of France, the other was the Embassador of the King of Kings. They went, each to assert the sovereignty and extend the dominion of his Master. Thus it has ever been, and thus it will ever be. Into every unknown savage land, wherever the feet of explorers may tread, "the feet of those who bring good tidings" will move with equal pace. The messengers and envoys of kings will never outstrip the heralds to whom was given the great mission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." When his Indian friends tried to dissuade Marquette, by warning him of the unknown perils of the journey, the Christian hero calmly said: "I am ready to risk and
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even lay down my life to carry the religion of the cross to any of God's children." Like Paul's, this was "a courage tempered in a holy fire."
The bold adventurers passed over Green Bay, up Fox river, across to the Wisconsin river, and on the 17th of June, two hundred and ten years ago, as their frail canoes floated out on the broad current, the majestic river and its western shore burst on their view, and Iowa was discovered by the white man. They saw no signs of human life. The fair vision slept in the sublime silence of na- ture. It was the month of June, and the summer sun was shining on the river and shores. What a panorama of silent, glorious beauty must have passed before their eyes as they floated down the mighty curves of this majestic river, past bold bluffs, wooded heights and headlands, and opening vistas of far reaching mead- ow-like prairies, all "dressed in living green," and forming one vast solitude. They must have thought of the possibilities of such a land; but did they have a vision of the realities which surround us now, and of the greatness which the future will yet reveal? The voyagers, on the fifth day of their passage down the river, discovered the track of human feet on the sand near where the village of Sandusky now stands. They followed the trail across the prairie and found three Indian villages on the Des Moines river, a few miles above the site of Keokuk, and there for the first time the white and the red man stood face to face on the soil of Iowa. But they met in peace, and the good missionary set up a cross among them and spoke to them the words of Peace. Marquette and Jolliette remained at these villages five or six days, and were treated with kindness and great respect, and when they left, five hundred Indians accompanied them to the shore and waved them a friendly adieu.
This discovery was one of the claims which France made to the do- minion of the whole Mississippi valley. She established the Prov- ince of Louisiana, which extended from the Gulf, including Texas, to the sources of the Mississippi and its tributaries. She was resolved to assert and maintain her sovereignty over the vast territory which her missionaries and explorers had discovered and revealed to the world. "That But the course of events justifies the words of Bancroft: France had obtained, under Providence, the guardianship of this in- mense district of country, not for her own benefit, but as trustee for the infant nation by which one day it was to be inherited." France resisted the attempt of the English to extend their settlements west of the Alleghany mountains. In the collision of arms which followed, Washington learned the art of war, and the triumph of England was crowned by the heroic death of Wolfe on the heights of Quebec. By the treaty of Paris, signed 1763, France yielded to England the un- disputed possession of the eastern half of the Mississippi valley, ex- cept a small portion of Louisiana, and at the same time, by secret treaty, France ceded to Spain all her territory west of the Mississippi river, including the whole of Louisiana. Thus it happened that when the revolution was fought, the territory now comprising the
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state of Iowa was under Spanish dominion. The recession by Spain to France of the territory of Louisiana by treaty signed in 1800, and ratified early in 1801, offered to the statesmen then at the head of the government of the United States, a great opportunity, which they were too wise to let slip. They were beginning to comprehend the grand destiny of the future, and were wise enough to make it sure. The time had come for us to secure exclusive control of the Missis- sippi river to its mouth, and to extend our jurisdiction across it to the Pacific Ocean. France was our friend. She had come to our aid in the Revolution. The great Napoleon, whose fame was then be- ginning to fill the world, was at her head. His eyes were turned not to the west, but to the east, dazzled by visions of conquest and pow- er. The gigantic plans which his great ambition was then maturing, furnished work enough for France, without the burden of defending a vast unpeopled territory across the Atlantic, while England held the supremacy of the seas. Hence, Napoleon, willing to rid himself of an incumbrance, and to do the United States a favor, ceded to us the "Louisiana Purchase"-a territory sufficient for the seat of a vast empire-at a price so small as hardly to equal the annual income of some of our private citizens.
By this great acquisition the nation forever secured the exclusive control and navigation of the Mississippi River from its source to its mouth. Its dominion was extended from the Gulf to the British possessions, and the north Pacific Ocean; and this fair land, now call- ed the state of Iowa, where we have built our homes, and where our children will live when we are sleeping in its bosom, passed under its benign sway, and became a part of the American Union.
There is no more important event in all our political history. Our country never made a more gigantic stride towards its great destiny. In the phrase of the red man it opened "a broad trail" for the ad- vance of civilization and free institutions. In its importance and its consequences, it is worthy to stand recorded in our national history, with the signing of the declaration of independence, the adoption of the constitution, and the abolition of slavery.
After this purchase all the territory secured by it, north of the thirty-third parallel of latitude, including what is now Iowa, was or- ganized as the District of Louisiana, and was temporarily under au- thority of the officers of the Territory of Indiana. The name was subsequently changed to the Territory of Louisiana. In 1807 it was joined to the Territory of Illinois. In 1812 it became the Territory of Missouri, except the southern part, which was organized as the Ter- ritory of Arkansas. In 1821, when the state of Missouri was admit- ted into the Union, the huge fragments of the territory, which were left, seemed to have been overlooked by the Federal government. They were left without any civil authority-"a vast region where wild beasts and savages contended for their mastery over nature."
I have before me an atlas containing a map of the United States published in 1822. It pictures, better than any speech, the marvel- ous changes from then till now. There is on it no state west of the
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Mississippi, except Missouri, and a part of Louisiana. In the north we miss the great states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The spot where the marvelous city of Chicago now stands, is marked as a fort and Indian trading post. In Iowa we look in vain for the site of Burlington, Davenport, Dubuque, Des Moines, Ottumwa and Keokuk. In all the bounds now comprising the state, there is scarce a mark or trace to indicate that the foot of the white man had ever rested upon it. Now it is a state with more than one million six hundred thousand people, and more than eleven thousand schools, where the geography of the state is taught to four hundred and twenty-four thousand chil- dren from an enlarged and later edition of the atlas.
When Missouri was admitted into the Union Iowa was still the home of the red man. The Indians that Marquette found here had disappeared. The most powerful tribes were the two united tribes of the Sacs and Foxes. They had driven out or exterminated the tribes that had lived here before them. The Indians exhibited some noble traits of character. This thought casts an air of mournful romance over their sad fate. But they were fierce, cruel, bloody and relent- less; their highest glory was to destroy and scalp their enemy. They resisted civilization and despised labor. It is these that subdue and transform the earth. In the cycle of human history Darwin's law of "the survival of the fittest" is the law of Heaven. Man was design- ed by his Creator to be not only free, but a civilized and enlightened being, and the working out of this design is the law of human prog-
ress. It was in obedience to this inexorable law, sometimes harsh in its applications, but always beneficent in its results, that the red man retired from this "Beautitul Land," and left room for labor, free- dom and civilization to enter.
Although our government had bought the territory from France, it recognized and respected the title of the Indians, and would suffer no white man to settle upon it without their consent. Prior to 1833 the government had purchased from the Indians no lands in Iowa for immediate settlement by the whites. It then held the "Half Breed Tract" in trust for the Half Breeds. It had established and held the "Neutral Ground" as a broad neutral boundary between the Sioux on the north, and the confederated tribes of the Sacs and Foxes on the south, to keep these hostile tribes at peace. In 1830 the government had acquired the Indian title to a large portion of the Missouri slope, but it was understood that this was to be held for the benefit of the Indians, to constitute reservations for the different tribes. Up to 1833 there was no place in all the bounds of Iowa open to settlement. The miners at Dubuque were there by license only. Here and there a trading post or agency of the American Fur company had been es- tablished like that at the "Foot of the Rapids," and here at "Flint Hills." A few white men who had gained the friendship and won the confidence of the Indians lived among them with their consent. These were but the outposts and scouts on the frontiers of civiliza- tion. When the squatters came without orders, the soldiers of the 3
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