Map II

Map III

 Map IV

(See Map III for the Lucas Boundaries).

Congress however, did not favor the Lucas Boundaries and proposed instead to admit Iowa into the Union with the so-called Nicollet Boundaries which were 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 latitudes passing through the mouth of the Mankato, or Blue-Earth river, thence went along the said parallel of latitude to a point where it is intersected by a meridan of Washington City, thence due south to the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri, thence eastwardly following that boundary to the point at which the same intersects the Des Moines river, thence bu the middle of the channel of that river to the place of beginning.²

It will be interesting to note briefly the discussion in the House of Representatives which led to the adoption of the Nicollet Boundaries.

In the bill for admission, as reported by the House Com--   (continued on page 12)

¹ Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1844, p. 187

² U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. p. 712

On the other hand, Mr. Brown, Chairman of the Committee on Territories, said that the question of boundaries had been carefully investigated by his Committee, "and the conclusion to which they had come was to adhere to the boundary asked for by the people of Iowa, who were there, and who had settled the country, and whose voice should be listened to in the matter."

Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, was the most vigorous champion of the Duncan amendment. He stood out firmly for a reduction of the boundaries proposed by the Iowa Convention because the country to the North and West of the new State, :from which two other States ought to be formed," would be left in a very inconvenient shape, and because of the formation of such large States would deprive the West of "its due share of power in the Senate of the United States."

Mr. Vinton was "particularly anxious that a State of unsuitable extent should not be made in the part of the Western country, in consequence of the unwise and mistaken policy towards that section of the Union which has hitherto prevailed in forming Western States, by which the great valley of the Mississippi has been deprived, and irrevocably so, of its due share in the legislation of the country." As an equitable compensation to the West for this injustice he  (continued on page 13)

The arguments for restriction prevailed, and the Duncan amendment, which proposed to substitute the Nicollet Boundaries for the Lucas Boundaries, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of ninety-one to forty.

(See Map IV for the Nicollet Boundaries)

Unwilling to accept the Nicollet Boundaries which were proposed by Congress, the people of Iowa twice rejected the Constitution of 1844.¹  In 1846 a second Constitutional Convention met at Iowa City. The members at first resolved to stand by the Lucas Boundaries as defined in the Constitution of 1844.²   Congress was inclined to make concessions. Finally the Committee on Territories in the House of Representatives proposed the following compromise boundaries³ which were accepted by the Constitutional Convention of 1846: --

Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, at a point due east of the middle of the mouth of the main channel of the Des Moines River; thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines River, to a point on said river where the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri, as established by the constitution of that state, adopted June twelfth, eighteen hundred and twenty, crosses the said middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines River; thence, westwardly, along the said northern boundary line of the State of Missouri, as established at the time aforesaid, until an extension of said line intersects at the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Missouri River, to a point opposite (continued on page 14)

¹ Shambaugh's History of the Constitution of Iowa, pp. 256-284

² Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1846, p. 28

³ Shambaugh's History of the Constitution of Iowa, pp. 306-317

These are the present boundaries of the State of Iowa. Their precise definition is the work of the Constitutional Convention of 1846, although they were originally suggested by the Committee on Territories in the House of Representatives.²

The original maps from which the accompanying cuts are taken, were made by Bertha H. Shambaugh for the Department of Political Science of the State University of Iowa, the two maps illustrative of the Lucas Boundaries and the Nicollet Boundaries, respectively, were copied from Nicollett's map which was the one generally used and referred to at the time. for a full treatment of the boundary dispute of 1844-1846 the reader is referred to chapters XIII, XIV, and XVII of the writer's History of the Constitutions of Iowa.  

¹ U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 52

² Stephen A. Douglas was chairman of the committee at this time.