Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/74

42 investigation to ascertain the velocity of the circular motion of the wind which wrought such fearful destruction, that it was at the rate of about three hundred miles an hour, or something more than that of a cannon ball fired with a full charge of powder. Among the incidents of the passage of the tornado, which led to this belief, were the following: scores of live hickory and oak trees were found in the path with the bark entirely peeled off, even including that on the small limbs; hundreds of chickens were found stripped of every feather. Sills of houses were found driven endwise into the side of ravines so far that it took two or three teams to pull them out. Oak shingles were driven through the sides of houses and barns fast in to the trunks of trees. Spokes were torn from wagon wheels and driven into the bodies of people and animals with fatal effects.

The Republican National Convention assembled at Chicago, on the 16th of May, 1860, for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President. Unusual interest was aroused throughout the North over the meeting of this convention, for there was a belief widespread that if the action was wise and harmonious, it was possible to elect a Republican President. So great was the desire of politicians to become members of the convention that Iowa Republicans sent thirty-two delegates, while entitled to but eight votes. Among these delegates were John A. Kasson, William Penn Clark, Henry O’Connor, James F. Wilson, William B. Allison, Alvin Saunders, C. F. Clarkson, J. B. Grinnell, William M. Stone, C. C. Nourse, Reuben Noble, H. M. Hoxie, N. J. Rusch, William P. Hepburn, Jacob Butler and William Smyth, all of whom have since attained prominence in Iowa and the Nation. John A. Kasson was the Iowa member of the Committee on Resolutions, and he, with Horace Greeley, formed the subcommittee which drafted the platform of that famous convention. Iowa divided its vote between William H. Seward, the great Antislavery leader and