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Chapter 25

This webpage reproduces a chapter of
Iowa As It Is in 1856

by
N. Howe Parker

Chicago and Philadelphia, 1856

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
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Chapter 27

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 p238  Chapter XXVI

Policy of Government

Ex-Governor Hempstead, in his Message to the Legislature last winter, remarked:

"In concluding this communication to the General Assembly of Iowa, I may be permitted to refer to the policy of government, under which we have increased in population and wealth, unsurpassed in the history and settlement of Western States; and, it must be conceded, that for the high position which we now occupy, as a sovereign State of the American Republic, we are principally indebted to the Constitution and laws for that prosperity.

"Of the Constitution of this State, it may with justice be said that it is republican in its character, and designed to protect the people against abuses and evils which have crept into the government of other and elder States. It prohibits any association or corporation from exercising the privilege of creating paper to circulate as money. It declares that corporations shall not be established by special laws, except for political or municipal purposes; and for all others, that general laws shall be passed for their organization, reserving to every one the privilege of forming companies for the transaction of all lawful business, and limiting State indebtedness in such a manner as to prevent great  p239 loss or repudiation. These restrictions, it is believed, have done much to build up this State, and to assure citizens that they are not to be oppressed by monopolies, bankruptcy, or extraordinary taxation."

The stand Iowa has taken on the subject of Slavery, may be inferred from the following extract from Gov. Grimes's Inaugural Address last session:

"The removal of that great landmark of freedom, the Missouri Compromise line, when it had been sacredly observed until slavery had acquired every inch of soil south of it, has presented the aggressive character of that system broadly before the country. It has shown that all compromises with slavery, that were designed to favor freedom, are mere ropes of sand, to be broken by the first wave of passion or interest that may roll from South.

"It has forced upon the country an issue between free labor, political equality, and manhood on the one hand; and, on the other, slave labor, political degradation, and wrong. It becomes the people of the free States to meet that issue resolutely, calmly, and with a sense of the momentous consequences that will flow from its decision. To every elector, in view of that issue, might appropriately be applied the injunction anciently addressed to the Jewish King: 'Be strong, and show thyself a man.'

"It becomes the State of Iowa, — the only free child of the Missouri Compromise — to let the world know that she values the blessings that compromise has secured to her and that she will never consent to become a party to the nationalization of slavery."

 p240  The following returns (as far as heard from up to the date we write), will exhibit the present politics of Iowa:

April Election

Counties K. N. Anti-K. N. Prohibitory Law
For Against
Lee 327 644
Des Moines 419 498
Muscatine 108 392
Scott 346 630
Clinton 45 206
Cedar 464 363
Jackson 152 9
Mahaska 266 88
Clayton* 400 100
Linn 352 399
Davis 337 300
Johnson 323 448
Dubuque 660 724
Henry 874 788
Van Buren 181 225
Jefferson 171 315
Jones* 50 250
Washington 277 339
Louisa 323 230
Wapello 29 210
Monroe 22 136
Warren 504 66
Madison 178 175
Jasper 231 35
Black Hawk 28 130
Delaware 145 285
Powashiek 95 37
Story 79 8
Tama 73 57
Winnesheikº 19 112
Lucas 32 143
Marion 285 446
6396 1189 6049 2739
Majority so far for K. N. State Ticket 5207
Majority so far for Prohibitory Law 3310

* Those counties marked with an asterisk are reported, the remainder are official.


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