Necessity for government

     Government is necessary to promote industry, transportation, education, and good morals and also to protect people and property against evil-doers. Among the Indians there were unwritten laws that they usually followed, and the chiefs and their advisers had some power to restrain and lead. When the miners rushed to the lead mines near Dubuque, there was not civil government in that part of the country, but the miners made laws that they promised to obey. They hanged the man who had killed a fellow miner. The man was guilty of the crime for which he suffered, but those who hanged him had no lawful right to punish him. Only a lawfully made government has such authority.

Iowa becomes Iowa Territory

     The Iowa country had no such government in 1833, though the first settlers began to arrive in that year. In 1834 Congress made Iowa a part of the Territory of Michigan. Two counties were or....

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.... ganized, both extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri. The northern county was name Du Buque and the southern De Moine. Each county also constituted a township.

    When Michigan became a state in 1836, the Territory of Wisconsin was formed out of the remainder of the former Michigan Territory. From 1836 to 1838, Iowa was a part of the Territory of Wisconsin, and Burlington in 1837 became the Territorial capital.

Uncle Sam, a kind brother

     The next year there were 22, 859 people in that part of the territory which was west of the Mississippi. They asked Congress to organize this into a new Territory to be called the Territory of Iowa. Congress did this in 1838.

The Territory of Iowa

The Territory of Iowa included not only all of what is now the state of Iowa, but also that part of Minnesota west of the Mississippi and those parts of North and South Dakota east of the Missouri and the White Earth rivers. Congress gave the President of the United States the power to appoint officers for the new Territory. He appointed Robert Lucas of Ohio governor and the other Territorial officers and judges. Since these officers were appointed by the President of the United States, they were Federal officers and their salaries were paid by the United States. The governor appointed some of the county and township officials, and the rest were elected by the people. Congress also gave the people a right to elect a legislature, a group of men to make laws for the Territory. But the law had to be acceptable....

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.... to Congress, and might be vetoed by the governor. Certain things the Territorial government was forbidden to do. It could not, for instance, pass a law taxing the land of non-residents higher than that of residents, and the property of the United States could not be taxed at all.

    Like a kind brother, Congress helped the young Territory in many ways, giving it $20,000 and a section of land for public buildings, $5,000 for a library chiefly for the use of the lawmakers, besides building the first roads. A delegate represented Iowa in Congress, but he did not have the right to vote.

    The Legislative Assembly - the Territorial lawmaking body - was made up of two houses, a council and a house of representatives, the council consisting of 13 members and the house of 26. From 1838 to 1841 the Legislative Assembly met in Burlington and made laws concerning the punishment of offenders, schools, roads, protection of claims of squatters, and many other subjects.

The "Honey War"

     The Territory of Iowa inherited a quarrel between the State of Missouri and the Territory of Wisconsin, concerning the southern border of the Territory. The disputed area was a strip of land extending from the Missouri to the Mississippi about fourteen and a half-miles wide. Some of the people who settled on this land believed they were in Iowa, but in 1839 the officials of the northeastern county in Missouri tried to collect taxes in Van Buren County of Iowa. The settlers refused to pay and threats of an appeal to arms were made on both sides. The governor of Missouri called out 1,000 militia to aid the tax collectors and an equal number of Iowans were soon in readiness to drive out the Missourian invaders. The outlook for a peaceful settlement seemed dark. The Iowans even arrested a Missourian sheriff and brought him to Burlington, Iowa. Luckily, better counsels then prevailed, and the troops were sent home. Iowa and Missouri agreed to let Congress decide where the true boundary should be. Unable to do this satisfactorily to both parties, the matter was turned over to the United States Supreme Court, which fixed the present southern boundary of Iowa, giving her most of the disputed land.

    When the danger was past, many were disposed to laugh at the whole matter. Some called it the "Honey War", because there were bee-trees on the disputed tract. But the dispute was really serious. Such border controversies have often been the cause of bloody wars.

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Iowa and Missouri led in the better way of adjusting such a controversy.

A new capital

     In 1839 the Legislative Assembly appointed three commissioners to select a site for a new capital to be named Iowa City on the Iowa River in Johnson County. The surveyors began work in the first day of July, 1839. The sale of lots brought in $22,871, which was used for building the new Territorial capital, finished at a cost of $123,000. The street leading east from the capital was named Iowa Avenue. It became the finest boulevard in the city. The street to the right of the capitol was named Washington, and the one to the left Jefferson.

Ralph gains his freedom

     The Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa consisted of three men. The Chief Justice was Charles Mason. He made a notable decision in the case of Ralph, a Negro slave,whose master in Missouri had permitted him to leave the state to earn $550 to buy his freedom. Ralph went to Iowa and worked there awhile, When his master tried to bring him back to Missouri by force, Ralph brought his case to the attention of the courts in Iowa, and Chief Justice Mason held that since Ralph was not a fugitive slave his master could not force him to return.

    Robert Lucas was succeeded in 1841 by John Chambers of Kentucky as Territorial governor of Iowa. His term lasted until 1845. He was followed by James Clarke, a native of Pennsylvania, whose term ran out in 1846 when Iowa became a state. When you remember the home states of the three Territorial governors, you will also know the home states of a large number of early pioneers of Iowa.

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Questions and Exercises: What is the purpose of government? What were the lower governmental units on the Territorial Iowa? Were the highest Territorial officers elected or appointed? What was the Territory forbidden to do? How was the boundary dispute with Missouri finally adjusted? Who paid for the new capital? How did Ralph become a free man? Distinguish between capitol and capital.