dition. The country beyond had been thoroughly explored, but the United States military authorities had prevented any settlement, or even the making out of claims by any monuments whatever.

To aid them in making out their claims when the honr should arrive, the settlers had placed piles of dry wood on the rising ground, at convenient distances, and a short time before twelve o'clock on the night of the 30th of April, these were lighted, and when the midnight hour arrived it was anounced by the discharge of firearms. The night was dark, but this army of occupation pressed forward, torch in hand, with axe and hatchet, blazing lines with all manner of curves and angles. When daylight came and revealed the confusion of these wonderful surveys, numerous disputes arose, settled generally by compromise, but sometimes by violence. Between midnight of the 30th of April and sundown of the 1st of May, over one thousand families had settled on their new purchase.

While this scene was transpiring, the retreating Indians were enacting one more impressive and melancholy. The winter of 1842-43 was one of unusual severity, and the Indian prophet, who had disapproved of the treaty, attributed the severity of the winter to the anger of the Great Spirit, because they had sold their country. Many religious rites were performed to atone for the crime. When the time for leaving Ot-tum-wa-no arrived, a solemn silence pervaded the Indian camp, and the faces of their stoutest men were bathed in tears; and when their cavalcade was put in motion, toward the setting sun, there was a spontaneous outburst of frantic grief from the entire procession.

The Indians remained the appointed time beyond the line running north and south through Redrock. The Government established a trading post and military encampment at the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines River, then and for many years known as Fort Des Moines. Here the red men lingered until the 11th of October, 1845, when the same scene that we have before described was re-enacted, and the wave of immigration swept over the remainder of the "New Purchase. The lands thus occupied and claimed ly the settlers still belonged in fee to the General Government. The surveys were not completed until some time after the Indian title was extinguished. After their survey, the lands were publicly proclaimed or advertised for sale at public auction. Under the laws of the United States, a pre-emption or exclusive right to purchase public lands could not be acquired until after the lands had thus been publicly offered and not sold for want of bidders. Then, and not until then, an occupant making improvements in good faith might acquire a right over others to enter the land at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre. The "claim laws" were unknown to the United States statutes. They originated in the "eternal fitness of things," and were enforced, probably, as belonging to that class of natural · rights not enumerated in the constitution, and not impaired or disparaged by its enumeration.

The settlers organized in every settlement prior to the public land sales, appointed officers, and adopted their own rules and regulations. Each man's claim was duly ascertained and recorded by the Secretary. It was the duty of all to attend the sales. The Secretary bid off the lands of each settler at $1.25 per acre. The others were there to see, first, that he did his duty and bid in the land, and, secondly, to see that no one else bid. This, of courss, sometimes led to trouble, but it saved the excitement of competition, and gave a formality and degree of order and regularity to the proceedings they would not otherwise have attained. As far as practicable, the Territorial Legislature recognized the validity of these "claims" upon the public lands, and in 1839 passed an act legalizing their sale and making their transfer a valid consideration to support a promise to pay for the same. (Acts of 1843, p. 456.) The Supreme Territorial Court held this law to be valid. (See Hill v. Smith, 1st Morris Rep, 70.) The opinion not only contains a decision of the question involved, but also contains much valuable erudition upon that "spirit of Anglo-Saxon liberty" which the Iowa settlers unquestionably inherited in a direct line of descent from the said "Anglo-Saxons. But the early settler was not always able to pay even this dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for his land.

Many of the settlers had nothing to begin with, save their hands, health and courage and their family jewels, "the pledges of love," and the "consumers of bread." It was not so easy to accummulate money in the early days of the State, and the "beautiful prairies," the "noble streams," and all that sort of poetic imagery, did not prevent the early settlers from becoming discouraged.

An old settler, in speaking of the privations and trials of those early days, says:

Well do the "old settlers" of Iowa remember the days from the first settlement to 1840. Those were days of sadness and distress. The endearments of home in another land had been broken up; and all that was hallowed on earth, the home of childhood, and the scenes of youth, were severed; and we sat by the gentle waters of our noble river, and, often "hung our harps on the willows.

Another, from another part of the State, testifies:

I

There was no such thing as getting money for any kind of labor. I laid brick at $3.00 per thousand, and took my pay in anything I could eat or wear. built the first Methodist Church at Keokuk, 42x60 feet, of brick, for $600, and took my pay in a subscription paper, part of which I never collected, and upon which I only received $50 00 in money. Wheat was hauled 100 miles from the interior, and sold for 371⁄2 cents per bushel.

Another old settler, in speaking of a later period, 1843, says: Land and everything had gone down in value to almost nominal prices. Corn and oats could be bought for six or ten cents a bushel; pork, $1.00 per hundred, and the best horse a man could raise sold for $50.00. Nearly all were in debt, and the Sheriff and Constable, with legal processes, were common visitors at almost every man's door. These were indeed "the times that tried men's souls."

"A few," says Mr. Nourse, "who were not equal to the trial, returned to their old homes, but such as had courage and faith to be the worthy founders of a great State remained, to more than realize the fruition of their hopes, and the reward of their selfdenial."

Or Monday, December 6, 1841, the fourth Legislative Assembly met, at the new capital, Iowa City, but the capitol building could not be used, and the Legislature occupied a temporary frame house, that had been erected for that purpose, during the session of 1841-2. At this session, the Superintendent of Public Buildings (who, with the Territorial Agent, had superseded the Commissioners first appointed), estimated the expense of completing the building at $33,330, and that rooms for the use of the Legislature could be completed for $15,600.

During 1842, the Superintendent commenced obtaining stone from a new quarry, about ten miles northeast of the city. This is now known as the "Old Captain Quarry," and contains, it is thought, an immense quantity of exellent building stone. Here all the stone for completing the building was obtained, and it was so far completed that on the 5th day of December, 1842, the Legislature assembled in the new capitol. At this session, the Superintendent estimated that it would cost $39,143 to finish the build

ing. This was nearly $6,000 higher than the estimate of the previous year, notwithstanding a large sum had been expended in the meantime. This rather discouraging discrepancy was accounted for by the fact that the officers in charge of the work were constantly short of funds. Except the Congressional appropriation of $20,000 and the loan of $5,500, obtained from the Miners' Bank, of Dubuque, all the funds for the prosecution of the work were derived from the sale of the city lots (which did not sell very rapidly), from the certificates of indebtedness, and from scrip, based upon unsold lots, which was to be received in payment for such when they were sold. At one time the Superintendent made a requisition for bills of iron and glass, which could not be obtained nearer than St. Louis. To meet this, the Agent sold some lots for a draft, payable at Pittsburgh, Pa., for which he was compelled to pay twenty-five per cent. exchange. This draft, amounting to $507, that officer reported to be more than one-half the cash actually handled by him during the entire season, when the disbursement amounted to very nearly $24,000.

With such uncertainty it could not be expected that estimates could be very accurate. With all these disadvantages, however, the work appears to have been prudently prosecuted, and as rapidly as circumstances would permit.

Iowa remained a territory from 1838 to 1846, during which the office of Governor was held by Robert Lucas, John Chambers and James Clark.

STATE ORGANIZATION.

By an act of the Territorial Legislature of Iowa, approved February 12, 1844, the question of the formation of a State Constitution and providing for the election of delegates to a convention to he convened for that purpose was submitted to the people, to be voted upon at their township elections in April following. The vote was largely in favor of the measure, and the delegates elected assembled in convention at Iowa city on the 7th of October, 1844. On the first day of November following the convention completed its work and adopted the first State constitution.

The President of the convention, Hon. Shepherd Leffler, was instructed to transmit a certified copy of this constitution to the delegate in Congress, to be by him submitted to that body at the earliest practicable day. It was also provided that it should be submitted, together with any conditions or changes that might be made by Congress, to the people of the Territory for their approval or rejection, at the township election in April, 1845.

The boundaries of the State, as defined by the constitution, were as follows:

Beginning in the middle of the channel of the Mississippi river, opposite mouth of the Des Moines river, thence up the said river Des Moines, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point where it is intersected by the

old Indian boundary line, or line run by John C. Sullivan in the year 1816; thence westwardly along said line to the "old" northwest corner of Missouri; thence due west to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence up in the middle of the main channel of the river last mentioned to the mouth of the Sioux or Calumet river; thence in a direct line to the middle of the main channel of the St. Peters river, where the Watonwan river-according to Nicollet's map-enters the same; thence down the middle of the main channel of said river to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence down the middle of the main channel of said river to the place of beginning.

These boundaries were rejected by Congress, but by act approved March 3, 1845, a State called Iowa was admitted into the Union, provided the people adopted the act, bounded as follows:

Beginning at the mouth of the Des Moines river, at the middle of the Mississippi, thence by the middle of the channel of that river to a parallel of latitude passing through the mouth of the Mankato or Blue Earth river; thence west, along said parallel of latitude to a point where it is intersected by a meridian line seventeen degrees and thirty minutes west of the meridian of Washington City; thence due south to the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri; thence easterly following that boundary line to the point at which the same intersects the Des Moines river; thence by the middle of the channel of that river to the place of beginning.

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. But it was not so to be. In consequence of this radical and unwelcome change in the boundaries, the people refused to accept the act of Congress and rejected the constitution at the election, held August 4, 1845, by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235.

A second constitutional convention assembled at Iowa City on the 4th day of May, 1846, and on the 18th of the same month another Constitution for the new State with the present boundarieswas adopted and submitted to the people for ratification on the 3d day of August following, when it was accepted; 9,492 votes were cast "for the Constitution," and 9,036 "against the Constitution."

The Constitution was approved by Congress, and by act of Congress approved December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted as a sovereign State in the American Union.

Prior to this action of Congress, however, the people of the new State held an election under the new Constitution on the 26th day of October, and elected Oresel Briggs, Governor; Elisha Cutler, Jr., Secretary of State; Joseph T. Fales. Auditor; Morgan Reno, Treasurer, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

At this time there were twenty-seven organized counties in the State, with a population of nearly 100,000, and the frontier settlements were rapidly pushing toward the Missouri river. The Mormons had already reached there.

The first General Assembly of the State of Iowa was composed of nineteen Senators and forty Representatives. It assembled at Iowa City November 30, 1840, about a month before the State was admitted into the Union.

At the first session of the State Legislature, the Treasurer of State reported that the capitol building was in a very exposed condition, liable to injury from storms, and expressed the hope that some provision would be made to complete it, at least sufficiently to protect it from the weather. The General Assembly responded by appropriating $2,500 for the completion of the public buildings. At the first session also arose the question of the re-location of the capital. The western boundary of the State, as now determined, left Iowa City too far toward the eastern and southern boundary of the State; this was conceded. Congress had appropriated five sections of land for the erection of public buildings, and toward the close of the session a bill was introduced providing for the re-location of the seat of government, involving to some extent the location of the State University, which had already been discussed. This bill gave rise to a deal of discussion and parliamentary maneuvering, almost purely sectional in its character. It provided for the appointment of three Commissioners, who were authorized to make a location as near the geographical center of the State as a healthy and eligible site could be obtained; to select the five sections of land donated by Congress; to survey and plat into town lots not exceeding one section of the land so selected; to sell lots at public sale, not to exceed two in each block. Having done this, they were then required to suspend further operations, and make a report of their proceedings to the Governor. The bill passed both Houses by decisive votes, received the signature of the Governor and became a law. Soon after, by "An act to locate and establish a State University," proved February 25th, 1847, the unfinished public buildings at Iowa City, together with the ten acres of land on which they were situated, were granted for the use of the University, reserving their use, however, by the General assembly and the State officers, until other provisions were made by law.

The commissioners forthwith entered upon their duties, and selected four sections and two half sections in Jasper county. Two of these sections are in what is now Des Moines Township, and the others in Fairview township, in the southern part of that county. These lands are situated between Prairie City and Monroe, on the Keokuk & Des Moines Railroad, which runs diagonally through them. Here a town was platted, called Monroe City, and a sale of lots took place. Four hundred and fifteen lots were sold at prices that were not considered remarkably remunerative. The cash payments (one-fourth) amounted to $1,797.43, while the expenses of the sale and the claims of the Commissioners for ser