Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/279



their proceedings might tend toward prompt adjustment of cases in controversy by the simplest and most direct methods; the enactment of a general road system; laws to supress gambling and intemperance; the organization of the militia; the selection of commissioners to locate the seat of government; a system of common schools; the laying out of the surveyed portion of the Territory into counties of uniform size as nearly as practicable; the prohibition of the subdivision or change of county boundaries and the location of county-seats by impartial commissioners.

He strongly urged the appointment of commissioners to prepare a code of civil and criminal laws and practice, to be reported at the next session of the Legislature. The Governor expressed a determination to appoint no man to a public office who was intemperate or a gambler.

The Legislature had a most important work to perform in providing an entire system of laws for the government of the new Territory; and it must be conceded, in view of the absence of legislative experience on the part of most of its members, the work was remarkably well done. Its acts fill a book of nearly five hundred pages, embracing a system of civil and criminal practice, probate courts, organization of the militia, revenue laws, location of the capital and penitentiary, provision for a board of county commissioners and establishment of a common school system. The only discreditable act was one prohibiting free negroes from settling in the Territory, unless able to give a bond of $500 as security for good behavior, and prohibiting such negroes from becoming a charge upon the county. This act provided that any negro who should settle in the Territory without giving such a bond should be arrested and forcibly hired out to the highest bidder for cash, to serve six months. Any citizen who sheltered or employed a colored man who had failed to give a bond was subject to a fine of one hundred dollars. Any slave holder was authorized to come into the Territory to procure the arrest