A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STATE There are times and circumstances which seem to inspire a larger interest in matters historical-times especially when the human mind cherishes what has been, times when the past touches the human imagination even to sympathy. The discovery of new scientific truths, for example, provokes curiosity in the history of scientific truth discovery; the elevation of men to high positions of trust, honor, or power among their fellows stimulates biography; while a people aroused by formative events, dramatic episodes, or by anniversaries to a consciousness of change, progress, or political unity, invariably turn with no little pride to the annals of their social and political evolution. In our own Commonwealth of Iowa the revision of the Constitution in 1857 seems to have been the event which occasioned the first formal expression of the conviction that the history of this State was worthy of preservation. And yet this conviction itself had surely been born of earlier days. That it had been maturing gradually for more than two decades was natural and could hardly have been otherwise. The courageous pioneers, who in the thirties and forties of the last century crossed half a continent to make permanent homes in Iowa, must have realized as they blazed their names on primæval oaks or drove their stakes deep into the prairie land that their 1 This Brief History of the State Historical Society of Iowa is printed from the souvenir pamphlet of the same title as issued in February, 1907, in commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of The State Historical Society of Iowa.-See above p. 26. lives were indeed part of a great movement which would some day become truly historic. Many rare and inspiring experiences were in store for those who crossed the Mississippi prior to 1857. The beauties of nature untouched were theirs; and theirs, too, was the freedom of opportunity. During the lifetime of a single generation the pioneers beheld the evolution of a community of men and women from a few simple families to a complex society; and as participants in that social and political transformation they successfully established and maintained law and order on the frontier. These early settlers founded social and political institutions. They participated in the organization and administration of the highest form of Territorial government which the genius of our people has yet devised. Earnestly they mingled their labors with the virgin soil of the richest prairies of all America. Beneath their eyes a thousand hills were stripped of forests and more than a million acres of prairie land were turned into corn fields. The hardships and privations which they endured remain largely untold. During the early forties the pioneers took part in an agitation for a State government. In 1845 they twice rejected the boundaries prescribed by Congress. In 1846 they formed the Constitution under the provisions of which Iowa was organized as a State and admitted into the Union. Having witnessed the birth of "the only free child of the Missouri Compromise," these Iowa pioneers enthusiastically applauded their Governor when in 1854 he declared that it was fitting that this State of Iowa should let the world know "that she values the blessings which that Compromise has secured her, and that she will never consent to become a party to the nationalization of slavery." In 1856 they made preparations for a third |