ARTICLE XII-SCHEDULE.

Supreme Law. The constitution is declared to be the supreme law of the state, and any law inconsistent with it shall be void. The general assembly was authorized to pass all laws necessary to carry the constitution into effect. All laws that were in force at the time the constitution was adopted, and not inconsistent with it, were to remain in force until they expired or were repealed.

All proceedings of any character pending in the courts at the time the constitution was adopted, were to be prosecuted to final judgment and execution, and all offenses, misdemeanors, and crimes that were committed before the adoption of the constitution were to be subject to indictment, trial, and punishment in the same manner as they would have been, if the constitution had not been adopted.

Fines and Forfeitures.-All fines, penalties, or forfeitures due, or to become due, to the state, or to any county, or to the school fund, were reserved to the fund for which they were intended, in the manner prescribed by law. All bonds executed to the state, or to any officer in his official capacity, were to inure to the use of those to whom they were given.

General Provisions.-Sections six to eleven inclusive, contain provisions for the election of officers under the new constitution, and for the continuance in office of those chosen prior to its adoption. Section twelve authorized the general assembly to divide the state into eleven judicial districts, for district court purposes, and also to provide for the apportionment of members of the general assembly in accordance with the provisions of the new constitution.

Adoption of Constitution.-Section thirteen prescribes the plan to be pursued by the people in voting for or against the adoption of the new constitution. The last clause of the section is, "And if it shall appear that a majority of all the votes cast at such election for and against this constitution are in favor of the same, the governor shall immediately issue his proclamation stating that fact, and such constitution shall be the constitution of the state of Iowa, and shall take effect from and after the publication of said proclamation."

The fourteenth section provides for submitting to the people at the same election that the constitution is submitted, a proposition to amend the same by striking out the word "white" from the article on the right of suffrage.

The election was held August 3, 1857, and a majority of the votes cast was found to be in favor of the adoption of the constitution. The proposed amendment was defeated at this time, but, as stated in another place, it was adopted in 1868. The last section made the county of Mills a part of the sixth judicial district, until otherwise directed by law.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HISTORY OF IOWA.

Discovery. The discovery of Iowa was made by two Freachmen, James Marquette and Louis Joliette, in 1673. Iowa is an Indian name which means "The Beautiful Land," and the state seems to have been properly named. France laid claim to the territory along the Mississippi river, on account of the so-called right of discovery, and, for ninety years, Iowa belonged to France. In 1763 the French king ceded his possessions in the Mississippi valley to Spain, but Napoleon compelled that nation to make a secret cession of this territory to him, in 1801. In 1803, the United States bought from Napoleon the tract of land known as the Louisiana Purchase, for fifteen million dollars. The tract contained about a million square miles, and the purchase price amounted to less than two and one-half cents per acre.

Settlement.-In 1788, Julien Dubuque obtained permission from three chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes to dig for lead ore on the west bank of the Mississippi. The same year, he staked out a claim containing nearly two hundred square miles, and opened several mines which he continued to work for more than twenty years. Dubuque, with his ten associates, formed the first settlement made by the whites in Iowa, and the city and county of Dubuque were named in his honor. Other Frenchmen settled along the Mississippi north of Dubuque, about the beginning of the present century, but the settlements were very feeble.