Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/306



. They failed to redeem the pledge and their enterprising neighbor was financially ruined by the outlay.

The first grist mill in that part of the Territory was erected during this season on Clear Creek by David and Joshua Switzer, taking the place of the hand mills, coffee mills and other pioneer methods of converting corn and wheat into meal and flour. The Iowa Standard, a weekly Whig paper, was started at the Capital by William Cram on the 10th of June, 1841. A Democratic paper, the Iowa Capital Reporter, was also established on the 4th of December of that year.

The Fourth Legislative Assembly convened at Iowa City on the 6th of December, 1841. J. W. Parker, of Scott County, was elected President of the Council and Warner Lewis, of Dubuque, was elected Speaker of the House.

Governor Chambers again recommended the submission of a proposition to the voters for a convention to frame a constitution preparatory to admission as a state. The Legislature passed an act providing that, if at the next election a majority of the votes cast were “for a constitution,” then there should be another election held on the first Tuesday in October for the election of eighty-two delegates, who should meet at the Capital on the first Monday in November for the purpose of framing a constitution. The constitution thus framed was required to be published in all of the newspapers in the Territory and submitted to a vote of the people at the next election. The first proposition was defeated at the election; a majority of the voters after consideration were opposed to assuming the duties and burdens of a state government. Every county in the Territory gave a majority against a convention.

Governor Chambers, who was Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in September, 1842, negotiated a treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians by the terms of which they ceded to the United States all of their remaining lands in Iowa, to