Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/22

 of Education. Colonel Van Anda was a Republican who had been a member of the Legislature. Colonel Trimble was a prominent Democrat who had served in the State Senate and was a District Judge, Captain J. W. Sennett was a well-known Republican.

Of the Republican candidates, Governor Stone had formerly been a Democrat, B. F. Gue an Abolitionist, while Judge Wright and Oran Faville had been Whigs. The Republican candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor made a general canvass of the State and in all of their speeches advocated and defended the proposed amendment to the Constitution to grant suffrage to the colored race, while their competitors as strongly opposed and denounced the measure. The result of the election was a heavy loss to the Republicans from the year before, equal to about 16,500 votes. The candidates however were elected by the following majorities: Wm. M. Stone, 16,375; B. F. Gue, 19,370; G. G, Wright, 19,076; Oran Faville, 19,280. As the previous election had been for President, when usually a much larger vote is polled than at an ordinary State election, it is difficult to estimate how many Republicans voted the “Anti-Negro Suffrage” ticket and how many refrained from voting to show their disapproval of negro suffrage. The opposition ticket received an average vote of about 54,100, while at the previous election the Democratic vote was about 49,500.

It was during this year that the Directors of the State Bank of Iowa determined to discontinue business and retire from the field. The new National Banking Act, by requiring the purchase and deposit of Government bonds to secure the circulation of the banks established under its provisions, was powerful aid to the Government in establishing a home market for bonds at a period when there was most vital need of such a market. During the war foreign capitalists held aloof from purchase of our bonds at fair prices, cautiously waiting to see how the Civil War