The second session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress opened on Monday,
December 2, 1844. On December 9, Senator Tappan presented to the
Senate the Constitution which had been framed by the Iowa Convention
of 1844. It was referred at once to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Three days later Augustus C. Dodge, Delegate from the Territory of
Iowa, laid before the House of Representatives a copy of the same
instrument together with an ordinance and a memorial from the Iowa
Convention. Here the documents were referred to the Committee on
Territories.
On January 7, 1845, through Mr. Aaron V. Brown, the Committee on
Territories reported a bill for the admission of Iowa and Florida into
the Union. This bill was read twice and referred to the Committee of
the Whole House on the State of the Union, wherein it was considered
on the three days of February 10, 11, and 13. It passed the House of
Representatives on February 13, 1844, by a vote of one hundred and
forty-four to forty-eight.
The day after its passage in the House of Representatives the bill was
reported to the Senate. Here it was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary, from which it was reported back to the Senate without
amendment on February 24. The Senate considered the measure on March
1, and passed the same without alteration by a vote of thirty-six to
nine. On March 3, 1845, the act received the signature of President
Tyler.
The debate on the bill for the admission of Iowa under the
Constitution of 1844 is of more than local interest since it involved
a consideration of the great question of National Politics in its
relation to the growth of the West and the admission of new States.
When Iowa applied for State organization in 1844, Florida had been
waiting and pleading for admission ever since the year 1838. The
reason for this delay was very generally understood and openly avowed.
States should be admitted not singly but in pairs. Florida was waiting
for a companion. And so in 1844 it fell to Iowa to be paired with the
peninsula. The principle involved was not new; but never before
had two States been coupled in the same act of admission. The object
sought was plainly the maintenance of a _balance of power_ between the
North and the South.
But back of the principle of the balance of power, and for the
preservation of which that principle was invoked, stood Slavery. The
institution of free labor in the North must be balanced by the
institution of slave labor in the South, since both must be preserved.
And so the admission of Iowa and Florida had to be determined in
reference to this all-devouring question of National Politics.
Upon examination it was found that the proposed Constitution of
Florida not only sanctioned the institution of Slavery, but it
positively guaranteed its perpetuation by restraining the
General Assembly from ever passing laws under which slaves might be
emancipated. On the other hand the Constitution of Iowa, although it
did not extend the privilege of suffrage to persons of color, provided
that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the
punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State."
Now it so happened that the opposing forces of slave labor and free
labor, of "State Rights" and "Union," came to an issue over the
boundaries of the proposed State of Iowa. In the bill for admission,
as reported by the House Committee on Territories, the boundaries
asked for by the Iowa Convention in the Constitution submitted by them
were retained without alteration. But Mr. Duncan, of Ohio, had
other limits to propose. He would have the new State of Iowa "bounded
by the Mississippi on the East, by a parallel of latitude passing
through the mouth of the Mankato, or Blue Earth river, on the North,
by a meridian line running equidistant from the seventeenth and
eighteenth degrees of longitude West from Washington on the West, and
by the Northern boundary of the Missouri on the South." Mr. Duncan
pointed out that these were the boundaries proposed by Nicollet in the
report which accompanied the publication in January, 1845, of his map
of the basin of the upper Mississippi. He preferred the _Nicollet
boundaries_ because (1) they were "the boundaries of nature" and (2) at
the same time they left sufficient territory for the formation of two
other States in that Western country.
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, who had settled the country, and whose voice should be
listened to in the matter."
Mr. Belser, of Alabama, was opposed to the Duncan amendment since it
"aimed to admit as a State only a portion of Iowa at this time. This
he would have no objection to, provided Florida is treated in the same
way. He was for receiving both into the Confederacy, with like terms
and restrictions. If Iowa is to come in without dismemberment, then
let Florida enter in like manner; but if Iowa is divided, then let
Florida be divided also."
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 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 that 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 would make "a series of
small States" on the West bank of the Mississippi.
Furthermore, Mr. Vinton did not think it politic to curtail the power
of the West in the Senate of the United States by the establishment of
large States, since in his opinion "the power of controlling this
government in all its departments may be more safely intrusted to the
West than in any other hands." The commercial interests of the people
of the West were such as to make them desirous of protecting the
capital and labor both of the North and the South.
Again, he declared that if disunion should ever be attempted "the West
must and will rally to a man under the flag of the Union." "To
preserve this Union, to make its existence immortal, is the high
destiny assigned by Providence itself to this great central power."
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.
In the Senate the bill as reported from the House was hurried through
without much debate. Here the question of boundaries seems to have
received no consideration whatever. There were, however, strong
objections in some quarters to coupling Iowa with Florida in the
matter of admission.
Senator Choate, of Massachusetts, called attention to the fact that
this was the first instance in the history of the admission of States
where it was proposed to admit two States by the same act. Under the
circumstances he could welcome Iowa into the Union, but he could not
give his hand to Florida. It could not be argued that Florida must be
admitted to balance Iowa, since the admission of Texas was already
more than a balance for the northern State. However appropriate it
might have been at an earlier day to pair Florida with Iowa, it ought
not to be thought of at this time. For, since the introduction of the
bill, "we have admitted a territory on the southwest much larger than
Iowa and Florida together--a territory that may be cut up into
forty States larger than our small States, or five or six States as
large as our largest States. Where and how is the balance to be found
by the North and East for Texas? Where is it to be found but in the
steadfast part of America? If not there, it can be found nowhere else.
God grant it may be there! Everything has been changed. An empire in
one region of the country has been added to the Union. Look east,
west, or north, and you can find no balance for that."
Senator Evans touched upon the great issue when he proposed an
amendment which provided that so far as Florida was concerned the bill
should not take effect until the people had removed from their
Constitution certain restrictions on the General Assembly relative to
the emancipation of slaves and the emigration and immigration of free
negroes or other persons of color. He was opposed to discriminations
against free persons of color. Why, then, retorted a Senator from the
South, do you not direct your artillery against the Constitution of
Iowa which does not allow a colored person to vote?
No good reason had been urged showing why Iowa should not be admitted
into the Union. All of the essential qualifications for statehood were
present--a large and homogeneous population, wealth, _morale_, and
republican political institutions. Congress did not pass an adverse
judgment on the Constitution of 1844, since that instrument provided
for a government which was Republican in form and satisfactory
in minor details. Only one change was demanded, and that was in
relation to the proposed boundaries. Here Congress insisted upon the
_Nicollet boundaries_ as incorporated in the act of admission of March
3rd, 1845, in opposition to the _Lucas boundaries_ as provided for in
the Constitution of 1844.