capital of Iowa Territory, separated from Wisconsin in 1838, was placed in the hands of a commission by the Legislature of 1838-9, and it was soon known that the Seat of Government would be placed within the limits of the county. Settlers rapidly appeared upon desirable lands to which they laid claim. As yet the lands were not subject to entry although partially surveyed. Claimants of land were too intelligent to trust to chance for securing their claims, whenever public sales should be ordered. The privilege of pre-emption was not granted till a year later. Settlers were too peaceably inclined to make any desperate movement toward securing their claims. Until patents were obtained there could be no legal recording of deeds. The claimants met, organized an association for mutual protection, adopted a constitution and a form of procedure in recording claims, and quit-claims when the rights of claimants were transferred. A complete record was kept, and has remained in the custody of the State Historical Society since the dissolution of the association in 1843. The right of pre-emption granted in 1840, and the first public land sale in the same year, gave settlers an opportunity to secure valid titles to the lands upon which they had laid claim. With the second public sale, all rights had been secured and the association had, after four years' active existence, completed its work. Mr. Shambaugh has reproduced in admirable form, the entire records of the association-the claims recorded the quit claims also recorded. In this work will be found the names of a greater part of the early settlers of Johnson County, with a description of the lands settled upon. The county Records did not give any of this information for some months after the formation of the Claim Association. Examination of title can by this work be made back of the United States patent. The descendants of the first settlers will be able herein to find evidence of the wisdom and foresight of their ancestors. The protection of claimants proved perfect in all cases. cents. THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE VOTE OF THE THIRTEEN STATES ON THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1787-8. The University of Wisconsin issues this monograph as No. I of Vol. I of Bulletins upon Economics, Political Science and History. It is prepared by Orin Grant Libby, M. S., Fellow in History. Edited by Prof. Frederic J. Turner. The writer has evidently made an exhaustive study of his subject, making Elliott's Debates the initial point of study and verifying or correcting the statements therein made by the introduction of a very large number of local authorities, as found in town and county histories, local town records and in the newspapers of the time, under review; as also in the biographies of men prominent in framing, or in securing the adoption of the constitution as well as of men prominent in opposition thereto. More than one hundred authorities are cited. The author shows conclusively that the constitution was favored by the commercial interests and opposed by the agricultural interests of the several states. A large map is given showing in graphic form the location of towns and counties favoring or opposing the ratification of the constitution. Another chapter shows the inter-state groupings of friends and opponents of ratification. Still another chapter presents the Paper Money and Debt relations to the adoption of the constitution with suggestive notes as to present financial conditions. A fourth chapter brings out clearly the results of home in– fluences upon delegates to the various State Conventions, showing close adherence to instructions received from constit uents. Abundant marginal references give to the student of our early political history information of great value as to sources of knowledge in a matter of so great importance as that of our constitutional history. It is much to be regretted that our own State University is not provided with funds for a continuation of monographs of like character so auspiciously begun, under the inspiration of Profs. Perkins and Loos. One monograph has been published by the State Historical Society. Two others are in press. These however, are more local in character, but of marked importance in Iowa history. Iowa should give her University means for carrying forward. this work. J. L. PICKARD. HIGHER EDUCATION IN IOWA, BY LEONARD F. PARKER, Professor of History in Iowa College. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893. This is No. 17, of the Series of Contributions to American Educational History," published by the Bureau of Education. It begins with an outline general history of Iowa from its discovery in 1673 by Marquette and Joliet, to its sale by the Emperor Napoleon to the United States in 1803, as a part of the Louisiana Purchase." The author, rapidly sketching the educational condition of Iowa down to 1838 naturally divides his work into periods cotemporary with the changes in our political government viz: From 1838 to 1846, the Territorial period; from 1846. on the admission of Iowa as a State of the Union, to 1858; and from 1858 upon the adoption of the present constitution, when the history of "Higher Education" in Iowa may be said to have begun, down to the close of his work. Every phase of learning, as it has advanced in the common primary, high and normal schools of the State, through the seminary, academy and college of sectarian origin and support, up to the State Agricultural College and the capsheaf of all, the State University, is faithfully portrayed. A very full chapter it devoted to the University and its de velopment from a preparatory school in 1855-58 to a truly great University institute, with a dozen principal departments and as many ornate buildings in 1893, without a trace of resentment, which might have been apprehended in a writer himself a sacrificial element in its progress. And this chapter enlightens the reader on the cause of the happy disposition of all classes of educators in Iowa, of whatsoever creed, toward a unification of progressive method and purpose in this transcendent cause, and shows that the University authorities should be credited with the origin of the movement. This volume of Prof. Parker, comprising one hundred and ninety octavo pages, is bountifully illustrated with engravings of many educational edifices which adorn Iowa in all directions, and from reading it one gets impressed wilh the belief that our State, already famous for cereal and general productive wealth, from river to river, and from the former slave line of Missouri to the old Indian border of Minnesota, will become classic ground, the favored home of science and learning. EACH Succeeding number of the Midland Monthly, edited by Johnson Brigham, and published at Des Moines, is superior to the preceding one, till now the October number surpasses all before it in excellence. Mrs. Celia A. M. Currier, of Iowa City, has a charming little love story in it. Judge Nourse, of Des Moines, has a philosophical paper on the labor problem, offering a reasonable solution. The first article of the number, The Herald of the Great White Christ," by Verner Z. Reed, of Colorado Springs, and the second, a poem, “To a Butterfly," by Arthur Grissom, of Independence, Missouri, both prize productions, have an original freshness, a charm, an excellence, demanding credence in the impartiality of the awards and the critical discretion of the editor to accept the good and exclude the bad. The Midland Monthly is a "new departure" in Iowa literature, offering encouragement and reward to writers of prose and verse, fiction and history, indeed all classes of authors, which is deserving of the highest commendation and success. SINCE the publication of the biographical sketch of Dr. Hammond in our July number, Hon. Peter A. Dey has called attention to Sir Henry Maine's Early Law and Custom, in which the distinguished author pays a tribute to Dr. Hammond, worthy of record. In a chapter upon "Classification of Legal Rules," Sir Henry Maine says: "The modern fashion of decrying and even reviling the arrangement of the Roman Institutes, threatens to produce some reaction, and I see that a manful attempt to rehabilitate it has been made in America. A book published at Chicago and written by a Law Professor of the State University of Iowa, is not likely, perhaps, to come into the hands of many English readers, but Mr. Hammond's preface to Mr. Sanders's well-known edition of the Institutes of Justinian contains much the best defence I have seen of the classical distribution of law." Later, in discussion of the topic, a short quotation is made from Dr. Hammond's work. MONUMENT TO GOVERNOR KIRKWOOD. SINCE the death of Gov. Kirkwood and the publication of the provisions of his will, by which the State University becomes a residuary legatee, a proposition has been made to place upon the University grounds a suitable monument to his memory. But one suggestion has been made as yet with reference to the nature of this monument. It is proposed to erect a building to be devoted to the promotion of the study of History and Political Science. The proposition has met with decided approval throughout the State. The State Historical Society has an interest in this proposition. For many years our collections formed a part of the library of the University, under whose auspices the Society |