THE VOTE IN AUGUST, 1846, ON THE CONSTITUTION OF 1846.

Abstract of votes given for and against the Constitution in the different Counties in the Territory of Iowa on the first Monday to-wit on the 3rd day of August. A. D. 1846.

I certify that this abstract of votes from the different above named counties, has this day been carefully compared with the several returns from said counties made to the Secretary of the Territory and found to be a correct exhibit of the same. Executive Office,

Burlington, Iowa Territory, September 8th, A. D. 1846. JAMES CLARKe. -Printed from the original manuscript as preserved in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Iowa.

THE GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION.

PROCLAMATION.

Returns having been received at the office of the Secretary of the Territory of the votes taken for and against the Constitution, at the general election held on the third day of August last, in all the organized counties thereof except Delaware and Buchanan, in conformity to the provisions of "An act to provide for the election of Delegates to a Convention to form a Constitution and State Government," approved January 17, 1846; and the said votes so returned having been counted in the presence of the undersigned, Governor of the said Territory, and examined and compared as contemplated by law; It is hereby declared and made known, (in compliance with the spirit and intention of the provisions of said act,) that there were given, in the counties from which returns have been received, nine thousand, four hundred and ninetytwo votes for the Constitution, and nine thousand and thirtysix votes against it, making a majority of four hundred and fifty-six votes in favor of the Constitution:

And Whereas, said majority exceeds by three hundred and seventy-nine votes the aggregate vote cast at the election held in August, 1845, for Delegate to Congress, in the counties not returned, thus making it manifest, in the absence of com

plete returns, that a majority of the votes have been cast in favor of the adoption of the Constitution. It is therefore, conformably to the provisions of the statute, hereby proclaimed, that the Constitution for the State of Iowa, adopted in Convention on the eighteenth day of May, 1846, has been formally ratified and adopted by the people.

And Whereas, under the Constitution thus adopted, it is made the duty of the Governor of the Territory to designate, by proclamation, a day for the holding of the first general election for the selection of State officers, and members of the first State Legislature. Be it therefore known, that MoNDAY, THE 26TH DAY OF OCTOBER NEXT, is the day fixed upon for the holding of said State election, at which time the qualified electors of Iowa will elect one Governor, two Representatives in Congress of the United States, one Secretary of State, one State Auditor, one State Treasurer, and such number of members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State as are designated and provided for in article thirteen of said Constitution. Said elections, under said Constitution, are to be conducted in all respects according to the existing laws of the Territory, except only in such cases as the same may be found to conflict with the Constitution under which the election will be held.

In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed L. S. my name, and caused the Seal of the Territory to be affixed.

Done at Burlington, this ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, and of the Independence of the United States the seventy-first. JAMES CLARKE.

By the Governor,

JESSE WILLIAMS,

Secretary of the Territory.

-Reprinted from the Bloomington Herald, New Series, Vol.

I. No. 22, September 11th, 1846.

NUMBER VIII.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Constitution1 which became the supreme law of the Commonwealth on the 28th day of December, 1846,2 contained the following provision: "No corporate body shall hereafter be created, renewed, or extended, with the privilege of making, issuing, or putting in circulation, any bill, check, ticket, certificate, promissory note, or other paper, or the paper of any bank, to circulate as money. The General Assembly of this State shall prohibit, by law, any person or persons, association, company or corporation, from exercising the privileges of banking, or creating paper to circulate as money. ." This prohibition aimed to insure the people of the Commonwealth against the evils and abuses which at that time pervaded American banking operations. But the effect of the prohibition was to deny the people the benefits of banks without preventing the evils and abuses. For the Commonwealth was constantly flooded with bank notes, scrip, and shinplasters from the neighboring Commonwealths.1

1 See No. VII. of this series, p. 190. See No. V. of this series, p. 130.

3 See No. VII. of this series, p. 205.

↑ Cf. “Some Iowa Bank History," by H. W. Lathrop in Iowa Historical· Record, Vol. XIII., p. 54. Also "Wildcat Banks," by A. G. Warner in Transactions of the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol. II., p. 22.