The Constitution of 1844 as submitted by the Convention to Congress
and to the people of the Territory of Iowa contained thirteen
articles, one hundred and eight sections, and over six thousand words.
Article I. on "Preamble and Boundaries" acknowledges dependence upon
"the Supreme Ruler of the Universe" and purports to "establish a free
and independent government" in order "to establish justice, ensure
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general
welfare, secure to ourselves and our posterity, the rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Article II. as the "Bill of Rights" declares that "all men are by
nature free and independent, and have certain unalienable rights,
among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty,
acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and
obtaining safety and happiness." All political power is "inherent in
the people;" for their "protection, security, and benefit" government
is instituted; and they, the people, have "the right at all times, to
alter, or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it."
Following these classic political dogmas of the American Revolution is
a rather exhaustive enumeration of the fundamental rights of the
individual, which at various times and in various ways had found
expression in the state papers and Constitutions of England and
America, and which together constitute the domain of Anglo-Saxon
liberty and freedom.
Article III. defines the "Right of Suffrage" by limiting the exercise
thereof to white male citizens of the United States, of the age of
twenty-one years, who shall have been residents of the State six
months next preceding the election, and of the county in which they
claim a vote thirty days.
Article IV. proclaims the theory of the separation of powers in
sweeping terms, and prescribes the constitution of the law-making
department. Herein the legislative authority was vested in a General
Assembly, which was organized on the bicameral plan. The members of
the House of Representatives were to be chosen for two years,
those of the Senate for four years. The regular sessions of the
General Assembly were to be held biennially.
Article V. on the "Executive Department" provides that the "Supreme
Executive power shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his
office for two years; and that a Lieutenant Governor shall be chosen
at the same time and for the same term." The Governor must be a
citizen of the United States and have attained the age of thirty
years.
Article VI. organizes the "Judicial Department." It provides for a
Supreme Court consisting of "a Chief Justice and two Associates," to
be chosen by the General Assembly for a term of four years. The
District Court was to "consist of a Judge, who shall reside in
the district assigned him by law," and be elected by the people for
the same term as the Judges of the Supreme Court.
Article VII. provides that the "Militia" shall be composed of "all
able bodied white male persons between the ages of eighteen and
forty-five years," except such persons as are or may be especially
exempted by law. All details relative to organizing, equipping, and
disciplining the militia were left to the General Assembly.
Article VIII. on "Public Debts and Liabilities" prohibited the General
Assembly from contracting debts and obligations which in the aggregate
would exceed one hundred thousand dollars.
Article IX. placed restrictions upon banking and other business
corporations.
Article X. deals with "Education and School Lands." It provides for a
"Superintendent of Public Instruction" who shall be chosen by the
General Assembly. It directs the General Assembly to provide for a
system of common schools. It declares also that the General Assembly
"shall encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of
intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement."
Article XI. outlines a system of local government which includes both
the county and the township organization. The details are left to the
General Assembly.
Article XII. provides for "Amendments to the Constitution." In the
case of partial revision of the Constitution, the specific amendment
must be passed by two successive General Assemblies and ratified by
the people. When it is desired to have a total revision of the
fundamental law, the General Assembly submits the question of a
Constitutional Convention to a direct vote of the people.
Article XIII. provides a "Schedule" for the transition from the
Territorial to the State organization.
From the view-point of subsequent events the most significant
provision of the Constitution of 1844 was the one which defined the
boundaries of the future State. There is, however, no evidence that
the members of the Convention foresaw the probability of a dispute
with Congress on this point, although Governor Chambers in his message
of December, 1843, had pointed out its possibility should the people
of Iowa assume to give boundaries to the State without first
making application to Congress for definite limits. It was on the
question of boundaries that the Constitution of 1844 was wrecked.
In the Convention the regular standing Committee on State Boundaries
reported in favor of certain lines which were in substance the
boundaries recommended by Governor Lucas in his message of November,
1839. Indeed, it is altogether probable that the recommendations of
Robert Lucas were made the basis of the Committee's report. This
inference is strengthened by the fact that the illustrious Ex-Governor
was a member of the Committee. It will be convenient to refer to the
boundaries recommended by the Committee as the _Lucas boundaries_.
The Lucas boundaries were based upon the topography of the country as
determined by rivers. On the East was the great Mississippi, on the
West the Missouri, and on the North the St. Peters. These natural
boundaries were to be connected and made continuous by the artificial
lines of the surveyor. As to the proposed Eastern boundary there could
be no difference of opinion; and it was generally felt that the
Missouri river should determine the Western limit.
On the South the boundary must necessarily be the Northern line of the
State of Missouri. But the exact location of this line had not been
authoritatively determined. During the administration of Lucas it was
the subject of a heated controversy between Missouri and Iowa which at
one time bordered on armed hostility. The purpose of the
Convention in 1844 was not to settle the dispute but to refer to the
line in a way which would neither prejudice nor compromise the claims
of Iowa.
The discussion of the Northern boundary was, in the light of
subsequent events, more significant. As proposed by the Committee the
line was perhaps a little vague and indefinite since the exact
location of certain rivers named was not positively known. Some
thought that the boundary proposed would make the State too large.
Others thought that it would make the State too small. Mr. Hall
proposed the parallel of forty-two and one-half degrees of North
latitude. Mr. Peck suggested the parallel of forty-four. Mr.
Langworthy, of Dubuque, asked that forty-five degrees be made
the Northern limit.
Mr. Langworthy's proposition met with considerable favor among the
people living in the Northern part of the Territory who desired to
increase the size of the State by including a considerable tract North
of the St. Peters. Mr. Chapman suggests the existence of sectional
feeling in the matter of boundaries when he says, in reply to Mr.
Langworthy's argument, that "it was a kind of creeping up on the North
which was not good faith to the South."
On October 14 the report of the regular Committee on State Boundaries
was referred to a Select Committee consisting of representatives from
the twelve electoral districts. But this Committee made no changes in
the original report except to make the Northern boundary a
little more definite.
As finally adopted by the Convention and incorporated into the
Constitution of 1844, the boundaries of the State were as follows:
"Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river
opposite the 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."
In accordance with the act of the Legislative Assembly of February 12,
1844, and section six of the "Schedule" it was provided that the new
Constitution, "together with whatever conditions may be made to the
same by Congress, shall be ratified or rejected by a vote of the
qualified electors of this Territory at the Township elections in
April next." And the General Assembly of the State was authorized to
"ratify or reject any conditions Congress may make to this
Constitution after the first Monday in April next."
At the same time it was made the duty of the President of the
Convention to transmit a copy of the Constitution, along with other
documents thereto pertaining, to the Iowa Delegate at Washington, to
be by him presented to Congress as a request for the admission of Iowa
into the Union. For such admission at an early day the Convention, as
memorialists for the people of the Territory, confidently relied upon
"the guarantee in the third article of the treaty between the United
States and France" of the year 1803.
It now remained for Congress and the people of the Territory to pass
judgment upon the Constitution of 1844.