Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/62

 American Republic by the legions of Grant and Sheridan. Victor Hugo’s prophecy was fulfilled and among the names of the most conspicuous leaders of the war against human slavery will forever stand that of the man who perished on the scaffold at Charlestown, for striking that institution one of its most deadly blows.

One of the last utterances of the hero of Ossawattomie was: “I do not now reproach myself for my failure. I did what I could. I think I cannot better serve the cause I love so much than to die for it.”

As a leader he inspired his followers with the same abhorrence of human slavery that he had entertained during all the mature years of his life. Every man of his Harper’s Ferry band was willing to give his life, if need be, for the overthrow of slavery. No one was more impressed with this conviction than Governor Wise. Manly fortitude under sentence of death and upon the scaffold impressed the court, the Governor and the Southern people with the unwelcome conviction that slavery was in peril, when men would die for the liberation of its helpless victims. From that hour the most sagacious of its defenders realized that the institution was doomed unless the South united under a separate government for its preservation. Secession, Civil War and Emancipation followed.

The most important work of the Eighth General Assembly was the consideration of the report of a commission selected by the previous Legislature to revise and codify the laws of the State. Their elaborate work was carefully reviewed, and, with some amendments, enacted and published as the “Revision of 1860.” W. H. F. Gurley, of Scott County, chairman of the committee of ways and means, in the House, framed new revenue laws which with few changes, remained on the statue books for more than a quarter of a century, working a great reform in the collection of taxes.

Under the provisions of the law for the establishment of the State Bank of Iowa there had been twelve branches