History of the Constitutions of Iowa

This text is derived from a raw txt file in the Internet Archive. Obvious misspellings have been corrected but quotations and contemporary spellings are unchanged. The St. Peters river is mentioned as a proposed northern border for the new state of Iowa. It is now named the Minnesota river; it runs from western Minnesota (about 120 miles north of the final Iowa border at 43.5 degrees North) southeast to Mankato (about 45 miles north of the Iowa border), then to the Twin Cities (about 120 miles north of the Iowa border). Had the St. Peters been adopted about 15,000 square miles of what is now Minnesota would have been Iowa. Another proposal to extend the border to the 45th parallel would have put most of the Twin Cities in Iowa.
HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF IOWA BY BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PUBLISHED BY THE HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA DES MOINES, IOWA 1902 TO HIS FRIEND CHARLES ALDRICH FOUNDER AND CURATOR OF THE HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
To recur occasionally to the history and ideals of our pioneer forefathers will give us a more generous appreciation of the worth of our Commonwealth and a firmer faith in our own provincial character. It is believed that a more intimate knowledge of the political history of our own Commonwealth will not only inspire local patriotism, but give us a better perspective of the political life of the Nation.
This little volume was written for publication by the Historical Department of Iowa upon the request of Mr. Charles Aldrich. Since the work is intended as a narrative essay, it has been thought best to omit all foot-note citations to authorities. For the original sources upon which the essay is largely based the reader is referred to the author's collections of documentary materials which have been published by the Iowa State Historical Society. Quotations used in the body of the text have been reprinted literatim without editing.