feited before this, in 1845, and it had also stated its intention to continue in business.

The persons in both Territories actively opposed to these two banks circulated petitions and forwarded them to Congress, and on February 17, 1846, the Delegate from Wisconsin, M. L. Martin, introduced the following resolution:1

66

Resolved, That the Committee on Territories inquire into the expediency of disaffirming and annulling every act now in force in either of the Territories of Wisconsin or Iowa, under which individuals or companies claim to have banking privileges." It was referred to the Committee and on May 11, 1846, its chairman, Stephen A. Douglas, reported3 a bill disaffirming and annulling these charters. It was read and referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and reported from it and passed the House of Representatives on June 9th.4 In the Senate it was referred s to the Committee on Territories and reported back on July 9th, with the recommendation that it do not pass." It was taken up for consideration on August 7th, and after a considerable time spent in debate upon it, was, after several ineffectual attempts, laid upon the table by the close vote of 26 to 24. The reason for this action is found that it was near the close of the session. During the consideration of the bill strong opposition to the principle of the bill had been shown to be held by many of the Senators, and any attempt to force its passage through the Senate would cause a loss of much time, through debate, that was necessary for the transaction of more important business. So the disposal of it was settled by the question of expediency. This was the last attempt by Congress to interfere with the banking question of these Territories, as both of them soon after became States.

1 Journal of House, 1st Sess. 29th Cong., p. 421.

2 Ibid, p. 782.

3 Ibid, p. 930.

4 Ibid, p. 1123.

5 Journal of Senate, 1st Sess. 29th Cong., p. 341.

6 Ibid, p. 396.

7. The Closing of the Bank.

On the 16th day of August, 1845, Judge Wilson appointed Benjamin Rupert and John G. Shields trustees to settle up the affairs of the Miners' Bank of Dubuque ; and approved their bonds.' The trustees sought to obtain possession of the bank but the directors refused to turn it over; and at the November term of court a suit was brought in the name of the United States by James Grant, relator, which raised the question of the constitutionality of the act that repealed the charter of the Miners' Bank of Dubuque. This case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa' from the ruling of Judge Wilson in not sustaining the demurrer of the defendants; the ruling of the lower court was sustained.

The case was then tried upon its merits in the lower court and the act repealing the charter of the Miners' Bank was decided to be constitutional. The directors appealed the case to the Supreme Court. It was tried at the July term of 1848 and the decision of the lower court was sustained.3

The results of these decisions was to legally put the affairs of the bank in the possession of the Trustees; but in the three years intervening between the passage of the act repealing the charter and the final trial, the affairs of the bank had been settled and it had passed out of existence.

On February 25, 1849, a meeting of the directors was called to close up their connection with the affairs of the bank.

8. Constitutional Convention of 1846.

(a) Shall the Delegates be Elected by a Party Vote? The act providing for the Constitutional Convention of 1846 was passed on January 17th, 1846. Immediately after its passage the question of whether the delegates to it should

1 Docket B, 3d Judicial District (Dubuque County) p. 444.

2 Morris Reports, p. 482.

3 Green's Reports, Vol. I, p. 553.

4 Chapter 37, Laws of the 8th Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa, p. 31.

be elected as political partisans was agitated. The Whig press was opposed to a Constitutional Convention to which the delegates had been elected by a party vote. As a typical statement' of the Whig position, the following from a prominent Whig paper of the times may be taken: "They cling to a party Constitution-and why? Because they think they are in a majority and can carry out their views. If we are right in this assertion, and we believe that we are, they are tyrants. What is tyranny? It is the exercise of authority of the strong against the weak. We draw our inferences and call the actions of our opponents tyranny."

The Whig party claimed that they were not contending for a bank in Iowa, and that they did not demand a Constitution providing for one; but they wished to have this question left open for the consideration of the people that they might determine it later for themselves. They believed that the people had good sense enough to act upon this subject without the necessity of any constitutional restraint to prevent them from doing mischief. Whig conventions, held for the nomination of delegates, did not adopt resolutions in favor of banks.

On the other hand, the larger portion of the Democratic nominating conventions for delegates adopted resolutions instructing the delegates, if elected, to provide a prohibiting clause against banks, and in all cases denouncing them as intolerable nuisances.

(b) Resolutions of the Democratic Nominating Con

ventions.

As a typical example of one of these is a resolution3 passed by the Democratic mass meeting, held at Fairfield on February 21, 1846; it was: "No bank or other institution is ever to be erected by the Legislature with the power of issuing its own

I Iowa Standard, January 26, 1846.

2 Bloomington Herald, January 31, 1846.

3 Resolutions upon this subject are found in the Capital Reporter, March 11, 1846, and succeeding issues.

notes, or the notes of any other bank, public institution or private individual; and a further prohibition against issuing by any individual, or individuals, of bills, checks or promissory notes, or other paper to circulate as money."

If this resolution had been followed it would have kept out of the state much of the "wild cat" banking that abounded in Iowa in the "Fifties," as it would have prevented the circulation of the "Nebraska Bank” money, the issues of the broken Agricultural Bank of Tennessee and of the defunct Talledegah Bank of Georgia.

Two of the resolutions passed at Marion, March 1846, throw light upon the opinion held as to the effect of a circulation of bank paper; they were:

Resolved, that this meeting is opposed to banks and chartered monopolies, believing such institutions to be detrimental to the great mass of the community, by creating a fictitious value upon property, and corrupting to the moral tone of society, by causing men to depend more and more upon loans and discounts than upon industry.

Resolved, that we are opposed to the circulation amongst us of bank notes of other states, believing it to be an evil from which we have suffered much, knowing that where such bills are circulated, specie disappears.

Johnson County, as the seat of government, having within its confines the leading politicians of the party in the Territory, at its convention held on March 14th, 1846, passed the most elaborate and withal the most radical protests against banks, of any of the counties. The three resolutions' devoted to banks follow:

7. Resolved, that believing, as we do, that there is gold and silver enough in the world to answer the purposes of a circulating medium, we utterly repudiate the doctrine advanced by our opponents that banks are necessary institutions and promote the public prosperity; and further, that we regard them as the most deadly enemies to the true interests of the laboring and producing classes, and as tending to sap the foundations of our liberties, as vipers warmed in the bosom of

1 Capital Reporter, March 18, 1846.

the body politic, to sting it to death, as splendid schools for bribery and corruption and as stalking horses for vice and demoralization.

8. Resolved, that a State can not delegate that power to individuals which it does not possess itself; and that, therefore, no bank charter can be granted without a violation of that clause of the Constitution of the United States, which declares that no State shall have power to emit bills of credit or make anything but gold and silver a legal tender for the payment of debts.

9. Resolved, that experience having taught us, that when corrupting money power enters the field against the people's rights and the federal constitution, the latter forms no adequate safeguard to the former, but is trampled under foot with impunity, we are in favor of the incorporation into our constitution of a provision expressly prohibiting the incorporation of banks and other institutions with the power of issuing its own, or the notes of any other institution or individual to circulate as money."

The election of delegates was fought out on party lines.

(c) The Constitutional Convention.

The Constitutional Convention of 1846 met at Iowa City on May 4th and continued in session until May 19th. There were thirty-two delegates; of these ten were Whigs and twenty-two were Democrats.

The Committee on Incorporations consisted of Bates, Dible, Grant, Olmstead and Ross, all Democrats. As the result of their labors they made their report' upon Incorporations on May 7th; it was as follows:

I. No corporate body shall be hereafter created, renewed or extended, with banking or discounting privileges.

The stockholders in all private corporations, except corporations for the purposes of education, charity or religion, shall be responsible in their individual and private capacity for all debts and liabilities of every kind, incurred by such corporation.

3, The Legislature shall have the power to amend, alter or repeal all laws creating private incorporations.

I Journal of Convention, p. 38.