While the people of the Territory of Iowa were preparing for and
holding a second Constitutional Convention, and while they were
debating the provisions of the new Constitution of 1846, Congress was
reconsidering the boundaries of the proposed State. The matter had
been called up early in the session by the Iowa Delegate.
Mr. Dodge, having been re-elected, returned to Washington with the
determination of carrying out his instructions so far as the boundary
question was concerned. And so, on December 19, 1845, he asked leave
to introduce "A Bill to define the boundaries of the State of
Iowa, and to repeal so much of the act of the 3rd of March, 1845, as
relates to the boundaries of Iowa." The original copy of this bill,
which has been preserved in the office of the Clerk of the House of
Representatives, bears testimony to Mr. Dodge's fidelity to promises
made to the people; for the description of boundaries therein is a
clipping from the Preamble of the printed pamphlet edition of the
Constitution of 1844. In discussing the question later in the session
he referred to his pledges as follows: "I know, Mr. Chairman, what are
the wishes and sentiments of the people of Iowa upon this subject. It
is but lately, sir, that I have undergone the popular ordeal upon this
question; and I tell you, in all candor and sincerity, that I
would not be in this Hall to-day if I had not made them the most
solemn assurances that all my energies and whatever influence I
possessed would be exerted to procure for them the fifty-seven
thousand square miles included within the limits designated in their
original constitution. It was in conformity with pledges that I had
given them personally, with instructions which I knew I had received
from them at the ballot-box, that I introduced, at an early day of the
present session, the bill imbodying the boundaries of their choice."
It was not, however, until March 27, 1846, that Mr. Stephen A.
Douglas, from the Committee on the Territories to whom Mr. Dodge's
bill had been referred, reported an "amendatory bill." This
bill, which was introduced to take the place of the original bill,
rejected the boundaries of the Constitution of 1844 and proposed the
parallel of forty-three degrees and thirty minutes as the Northern
boundary line of the new State. It was committed to the Committee of
the Whole House on the State of the Union, wherein it was discussed on
the eighth of June and reported back to the House. On the ninth of
June the amendatory bill was taken up by the House and passed. It was
reported to the Senate without delay, but was not passed by that body
until the first day of August. On the fourth day of August the act
received the approval of President Polk.
The most important discussion of the bill was in the House of
Representatives on the eighth day of June. An attempt was made
to reduce the State on the North. Mr. Rockwell, of Massachusetts,
moved to amend by striking out the words "forty-three and thirty
minutes" where they occur and inserting in lieu thereof "forty-two
degrees." He understood from a memorial which had been presented to
the House that the people in the Northern part of the Territory did
not wish to be included within the proposed boundaries.
Mr. Douglas said that he was now in favor of the new boundaries as
proposed by the Committee on the Territories. He declared that the
boundaries of the act of March 3, 1845, "would be the worst that could
be agreed upon; the most unnatural; the most inconvenient for the
State itself, and leaving the balance of the territory in the
worst shape for the formation of other new States." As to the memorial
from Dubuque recommending the parallel of forty-two degrees, Mr.
Douglas said that he was aware of the influences which produced it.
The people of Dubuque "wished either for such an arrangement as should
cause Dubuque to be the largest town in a little State, or else to
make it the central town of a large State."
Mr. Rathburn, of New York, was opposed to the lines laid down in the
bill. He favored less extensive boundaries because he desired to
preserve "the balance of power" in the Union by the creation of small
States in the West. He "was against making Empires; he preferred that
we should have States in this Union."
Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, said that in the last session of Congress
"no question except that of Texas had excited more interest in the
House." He did not think that the people of the Territory should
decide the question of boundaries; and he asserted that "if Congress
was willing to let the people of Iowa cut and carve for themselves, he
did not doubt that they would have their State extend to the mouth of
the Columbia."
The strongest speech, perhaps, in the whole debate was that of the
Iowa Delegate. Mr. Dodge reviewed the history of the boundary dispute
and pointed out that both he and the people of Iowa had pursued a firm
and honorable course. He showed that many of the States were as large
as or even larger than the proposed State of Iowa. Referring to the
boundary proposed in the act of March 3, 1845, he said: "It will
never be accepted by the people of Iowa." But he produced letters to
show that the Iowa Convention of 1846 were willing to accept the
compromise boundary proposed in the bill under discussion. "Thus, sir,
it is now apparent that, if the House will pass the bill reported by
the Committee on Territories, it will put an end to this question.
The convention of Iowa have met the advances of the Committee on
Territories of this House."
Mr. Vinton then "moved an amendment, fixing the 43d parallel as the
northern boundary." This was a tempting proposition. But Mr. Dodge
stood firmly for the parallel of forty-three degrees _and thirty
minutes_, and closed his remarks with these words: "I admonish the
majority of this House that if the amendment of the gentleman from
Ohio is to prevail, they might as well pass an act for our perpetual
exclusion from the Union. Sir, the people of Iowa will never acquiesce
in it."
From the Journal of the Iowa Convention of 1846, it appears that when
the Committee on Preamble and Boundaries made their report on the
morning of the second day of the Convention they recommended the
compromise boundaries which had already been proposed by the Committee
on the Territories in the National House of Representatives. But when
the report was taken up for consideration several days later an
amendment was offered which proposed to substitute the boundaries as
described in the Constitution of 1844. On a test ballot the vote of
the Convention stood twenty-two to eight in favor of the amendment.
This was on the eighth of May. Six days later a resolution instructing
the Committee on Revision to amend the article on boundaries so as to
read as follows was adopted by a vote of eighteen to thirteen:
"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 12th, 1820, 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 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 the middle of the main channel of the Big
Sioux river, according to Nicollet's map; thence up the main channel
of the said Big Sioux river, according to said map, until it is
intersected by the parallel of forty-three degrees and thirty minutes
north latitude; thence east, along said parallel of forty-three
degrees and thirty minutes, until said parallel intersects the middle
of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence down the
middle of the main channel of said Mississippi river to the place of
beginning."
These were in substance the compromise boundaries which were first
proposed in Congress by the Committee on the Territories on March 27,
1846. Their precise description, however, was the work of the Iowa
Convention. Congress promptly adopted this description in the Act of
August 4, 1846, by striking out the words of the bill then pending and
inserting the language of the Iowa Convention as used in the Preamble
to their Constitution.