necessary, whereby the Nation was brought into more perfect harmony with the civilization and humanity of the age. And hence the people have so modified your work as to to say that all men, "without regard to race, color or previous condition of servitude" may vote, form part of the militia of our State, and occupy seats in our assemblies. How long before they will say all persons without regard to sex shall have like privileges, depends of course, largely upon those who represent them in the present and future Assemblies of the State.

"But the excellence of your work is further tested by the prosperity of the State, the harmonious working of our institutions, the general wisdom of our laws, and the uniformity with which your work has been copied into new State constitutions and the revised ones of the older Commonwealths."

JUDGE SPRINGER'S ADDress,

in response to Judge Wright's welcome, at the Opera House, Des Moines, January 19, 1882, on the occasion of the quarter centennial reunion of the surviving members of the Constitutional Convention of 1857.

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1857: On this twenty-fifth anniversary of our convention, and after a long separation, we meet again, but "we are not all here."

We numbered thirty-six in convention. Our ranks are thinned. We have silent responses to our roll call. We observe with feelings of disappointment and regret the places made vacant by the absence of members who are still living. There are seven of them. They are, the senior member from Lee, Mr Patterson, the junior member from Des Moines, Mr. Robinson, the member from Jones, Mr. Marvin, Clarke, of Johnson, Clarke, of Allamakee, and the gallant Col. John Edwards, of Lucas. We regret that all but two of them are kept away by illness and physical infirmity. We observe with other and deeper emotions the places made vacant by the absence of those members whom we did not expect to meet with us here to-day-of these there are eight in number, The member from Cedar, Mr. Gower the member from Mahaska, Mr. Young, the member from Marion, Mr. Gibson, the member from Wapello, Mr. Gillaspy, the senior member from Van Buren, Mr. Ayres, and the senior member from Des Moines, Judge Hall, the member from Clayton, Mr. Scott, and the member from Dubuque, Mr. Emerson, have in recent years gone from among us to that

bourne whence no traveler returns--gone perhaps to become members of that great convention for which all of us may be said to be candidates. These members were all worthy men. Though no more with us here on earth, they live in the hearts and memories they have left behind them. They will continue to live in the example and influence of the good deeds done by them in their time. I differ from the sentiment of Mark Antony. I hold that the good that men do lives after them. The verdict of history with respect to these our departed brethren shall be--and who of us may desire a better-"They did the State some ome service." I would like, if time and information permitted, to make special mention of each. I was more particularly acquainted with Colonel Gillaspy and Judge Hall, having known them from the time they came to Iowa. They were both prominent members of the convention. Both were distinguished by their fine personal appearance and manly traits of character. Both were examples of self made men Both had held official positions acceptably. Colonel Gillaspy as the nominee of his party would have been Governor of the State if our democratic friends had had votes enough to elect him. Judge Hall had been a member of the first constitutional convention held in Iowa and was the only member of our convention that had been a member of either of the previous conventions, and had held with credit a seat on our Supreme Bench. He was an able man among able men. He was endowed by nature with a large heart and a larger brain. As an advocate, lawyer and jurist his place was in the front rank of the Iowa bar. Though not possessed, perhaps, of the culture and scholarly attainments of some of his contemporaries, yet for strength and depth of mind, for logical force and power of argumentation, he was entitled to rank with the foremost men in the State. I am glad of an opportunity to offer this humble tribute to his

memory. But twenty-five years are an important portion of the average duration of human life. When we consider the average of the ages of members of our convention-(it was forty), we have reason to be thankful that so many of us still live-and it is a satisfaction to find that some of our members, the "young America" of our convention are yet in the prime of life, in the full vigor of their faculties, still stepping upward and forward in the service of the State and of the country.

While some of us may not be able to pass inspection that will entitle us to posts of danger and hard service in the ranks of the grand army of life, we yet may claim to be fit for duty in the ranks of the gray beard contingent, and as such assist in holding the fort-holding the fort on the margin of the channel of time, and thus be able to afford some encouragement to our noble ship of State as she sails gallantly along toward the port of her destined greatness, steered in her course by the chart and compass which bears the "trade mark" of the Constitutional Convention of 1857.

Our friend has had the kindness, in his address of welcome, to advert, in terms of commendation, to the Constitutional Convention of 1857. He has our thanks for his kind words. While we know that constitutions do

not constitute a State any more than "high raised battlement or moated gate”—that it is the men behind the constitution, high-minded men, men who their duties know and perform them, and know their rights and dare maintain them, that make the State, it is of course a satisfaction to members to find that their efforts to serve the State are thought to have been successful and worthy of commendation. Now disclaiming any merit for myself, whom I know to have been the humblest member of the convention, I think it may be justly claimed that the Constitutional Convention of 1857 was a distinguished convention-distinguished for its membershipdistinguished for the work it accomplished. The members of that convention were well fitted for the duty assigned them by their practical wisdom, and generally by their sound views of public policy; and how capable they were of presenting their views the two volumes of published debates will show. As to the character of its work we may point, I think, with some pride to "the constitution as it is." It was the result of some seven weeks of faithful labor. In its main features it has been thrice approved by popu lar verdict, once in 1857, again in 1870, and again in 1880, and it promises to still longer stand the crucial test of time.

Our convention was the third Constitutional Convention that had been held in Iowa. Ambition to become a State was quite early developed in our territorial history. Indeed the Territory may be said to have been decidedly precocious on this subject. This ambition began to take practical shape as early as 1840, less than three years after its organization Under an act of the Territorial Legislature of July 21, 1840, a vote was taken in October of that year on the question of a convention to form a constitution. The people showed their good sense by voting it down by a vote of 937 for, and 2,907 against a convention.

The next vote on the subject was taken in April, 1842, under an act of February 16, 1842, with a like result--3,260 for, 5,754 against. The matter now slumbered for two years, when, under an act of February 12, 1844, the question was again submitted to the people, resulting in a vote of 6,719 for, and 3.974 against a convention. Delegates were chosen at the August election, and the convention composed of seventy-three members met at Iowa City on the first Monday in October, and framed a constitution which was submitted to a vote of the people at the April election of 1845, and rejected -rejected not because of any special objection to the constitution itself, but because of a condition attached to it by an act of Congress of March 3, 1845, (entitled, "an act for the admission of the States of Iowa and Florida into the Union") which was not acceptable to our people. The statesmen of that day on both sides of the famous Mason and Dixon line, whose observance as a line of demarcation has since that time, thank God, been abolished by the shot at Fort Sumter, which was "heard round the world," seemed desirous of maintaining the doctrine of the balance of power between the free and the slave States. Texas had just been admitted, with the privilege of subdivision into four additional States. To counterbalance these four States, should they come in as slave States, a sufficient

reserve of territory in the north for free States was considered important by northern statesmen. Hence in the act of Congress referred to it was provided that the western boundary of the State of Iowa must be the meridian of seventeen and a half degrees west longitude from Washington, and that the people must say when they voted upon the constitution whether they accept the boundaries prescribed in that act, their acceptance being a condition precedent to the admission of the State. Our people rejected both the constitution and the condition. They had no idea of consenting to be despoiled of about one-third of their territory. This vote may be re garded as the turning point in our history, so far as respects the rank of our State. A different decision would have been irreversible. It would have been a source of mortifying, stinging regret to us, and to our latest posterity, who, looking back to what might have been under wiser counsels, would be excusable for invoking not many blessings on the fates, or on the men, who, through error of judgment or for personal aggrandizement (if such were the fact), were instrumental in producing it. Not the least among its evil consequences, a different decision would have deprived Iowa of the valuable services of our esteemed friends from the "Slope" and us of the pleasure of their aid and comfort here to-day; and worse yet, as we should all now have the more reason to fear, it would, in all probability, have located the seat of government of the State some miles east of the longitude of this city.

So pushing and persistent were our public men of that day on this subject that, under an act of the Territorial Legislature, at an extra session, held in June, 1845 (called it is presumed for the purpose), the constitution, which had been rejected at the April election was submitted at the August election of that year to the people for their ratification or rejection, but with the proviso that the ratification of the constitution at said August election was not to be construed as an acceptance of the boundaries fixed by Congress.

But the constitution had become tainted by the bad company it had been found in, tainted by its association with the obnoxious boundary, and it was rejected by the same patriotic exertions which caused its defeat at the April election. The vote was 7,235 for, and 7,656 against its ratification. [Here the speaker exhibited a map of Iowa, showing the line of the meridian of seventeen and a half degrees west of Washington conspicuously marked upon it], and said that it would be seen that about the area of thirty counties or near one-third the area of the State, was west of the boundary fixed by Congress as the western boundary of the State of Iowa.

Now for this result, for this vindication of the integrity of our territory, the people of Iowa owe a debt of gratitude to four men who were noted for their influence in the territory at that time. They were E. W. Eastman, of Mahaska, now of Hardin County, F. D. Mills and James W. Woods, of Des Moines County, and Theodore S. Parvin, of Muscatine, now of Johnson County, and now the accomplished Secretary of this meeting.

These men foreseeing how injurious the ratification of the pending constitution might be to the future of Iowa, held a conference on the subject, and agreed among themselves to use their best efforts to defeat it.

The political parties of that day arrayed against each other in the Territory as in the States, were known as Democrats and Whigs. The Democrats were in power, and held the offices; and expected to hold the offices under a State organization. They generally favored the ratification of the constitution, notwithstanding the objectionable boundary connected with it. The Whigs on the other hand, were opposed to it, but they were in a minor. ity and to succeed in rejecting it, must have Democratic help. This was nobly given under the lead of the gentlemen mentioned. Acting upon the principle of country before party, or as expressed in modern phrase, "He serves his party best, who best serves his country," they arranged to stump and canvass the southern and middle judicial districts (which embraced about two-thirds of the territory) against the ratification of the constitu tion. This they did successfully, as the result shows. These men deserve

to be honored.

Professor Parvin is a name familiar to Iowa as a household word. Himself a part of her history, that history would be deficient without a prominent mention of his services as one of her most patriotic citizens. Governor Eastman, one of the best products of the Granite State, has given the country more than one noble example of the triumph of patriotism above party. Woods (now also of Hardin County, I believe), and Mills were prominent members of the Burlington bar. I do not know how the former came by the sobriquet of "Old Timber,”* but we may be sure of one thing -that the timber in his composition was of the live oak variety, sound and unbending, like his patriotism. Mills was brilliant as a meteor, and had a career as bright and almost as brief. On the breaking out of the Mexican war he laid aside his briefs, gave up a lucrative practice and entered the service of his country as a volunteer. In one of the battles before the City of Mexico he either got or took permission to join a troop of horse, and, impetuously charging the routed and retreating Mexican forces, away ahead of his party, up to the very gates of that city, he there "foremost fighting fell," and there fell on that bloody field no nobler spirit than thine young gallant Mills.

The next move toward a State organization was an act by the territorial Legislature passed in January, 1846; under this act delegates to a convention to form a constitution for the future State of Iowa were elected at the township elections in April. The delegates, thirty-two in number, met in convention at Iowa City on the first Monday in May, and formed a constitution which was submitted to a vote of the people at the August election, 1846, and ratified. A proclamation by Governor James Clark, of the Territory, followed, and the first election under it for State officers and members

*Note by Dr. Parvin: "The sobriquet was given him by Judge McFarland, a talented but eccentric Judge of that District.