of married women, which made property belonging to a wife personally separate from that of her husband. A second reason was the article on exemptions, which excepted forty acres of land, or the homestead not exceeding in value. $1,000, when there was an execution or forced sale. There were some persons who strongly objected to the article prohibiting banks of issue. Others thought that the number of representatives in the legislature was too large. Another objection was that the judiciary was made elective.

The contest was spirited and resulted in the rejection of the proposed constitution and a new convention was ordered. The chief objection to this first constitution was its prohibition of banks and banking. With the continued increase in population there was a growing need of State organization, therefore a special session of the legislature was called in October, 1847. This provided for the election of delegates to a new constitutional convention, which came together at Madison, December 15, 1847. Giving

the right of voting to negroes had been so decidedly disapproved by the people that that article required special attention, and in connection with that was linked the question of allowing the franchise to unnaturalized foreigners. The Article on suffrage was as follows:

"Section 1. All free white male persons, of the age of twenty-one years, or upwards, belonging to any of the following class of persons, shall constitute the qualified electors at any election authorized by this constitution or by any law:

"Ist. Citizens of the United States, who at the time of the adoption of this constitution by the people of Wisconsin were actual residents of the State.

"2d. Citizens of the United States, having become residents of the State of Wisconsin after the adoption of this constitution, and who shall have resided within this State for six months.

"3d. Persons not citizens of the United States, who at the time of the adoption of this constitution by the people were actual residents of Wisconsin, and had declared their

intention to become citizens of the United States in conformity with the laws of Congress for the naturalization of aliens, and who shall have actually resided within this State for six months.

"Section 3. No person under guardianship, or non compos mentis, insane, or convicted of treason or felony, shall be permitted to vote at any election, unless restored to civil rights by law, or by removal of natural or other inability.”

There was a long discussion in the convention of this question of negro and alien suffrage. The majority believed that it was soon enough to give the power of voting to the foreigner after he had been in the country five years. On the question of negro suffrage, the New England element was in favor of giving the vote to free blacks. An amendment was carried which provided that the legislature should have power to admit colored persons to the right of suffrage on such terms and under such restrictions as might be determined by law. This amendment was not essentially changed.

The convention adjourned February 1, 1848. On March 13, 1848, the new constitution was submitted to the people, and was adopted by a vote of sixteen thousand four hundred and forty-two to six thousand one hundred and forty-nine.

On the 29th of the following May, an Act of Congress admitted Wisconsin to the Union. The great increase in population continued and it accelerated by the admission. The increase in population from 1840 to 1850 was from thirty thousand nine hundred and forty-five to three hundred and five thousand three hundred and ninety-one; and its unlimited water power, fertile fields, rich mines, and timber have continued to attract large numbers of immigrants since that time.

The early immigration to Wisconsin differed from that to its neighbor, Michigan. The latter State was the most thoroughly northern of any of those formed from the Northwest Territory. The easiest way of access to Wisconsin

was by following up the Mississippi, so that its earliest settlers from the older States came from the south. This had its effect on the attitude of the State toward the slavery question, a question which was now becoming more prominent in national politics. As in other parts of the Northwest Territory where public sentiment favored such a course slavery was openly allowed. This condition continued unchanged until about the year 1840, when emigrants from the East and from Europe began to arrive in considerable numbers. The eastern men brought their views on the slavery problem as did the emigrants from northern Europe. The Germans and Scandinavians, who began to arrive about this time and who have made up such an important element in the population of Wisconsin, were strongly opposed to slavery. The settlements of the southern men were along the Mississippi. The eastern men and the emigrants settled in the central and eastern parts of the State. In these northern States a peculiar state of feeling showed itself. In Wisconsin, and later in Minnesota, the people were opposed to slavery but did not care to give the free negro the franchise; possibly because of the fear of making their States too attractive to the black man. These northern States were anxious to attract the best class of European emigrants and felt that a large negro element might repel the desirable emigrants from Germany and Scandinavia. As we have seen, when the question was submitted to popular vote, the southern element, as was expected, was overwhelmingly against it and a large majority of the whole population unhesitatingly opposed the granting of suffrage to the negro.

CHAPTER XVIII

ADMISSION OF IOWA, MINNESOTA, AND NEBRASKA

THE governmental experiences of Iowa before its admission into the Union as a State were many and varied. Its discoverers were the missionary priest Jacques Marquette and the explorer Louis Joliet, who were living at St. Mary's, the oldest settlement in the present State of Michigan. On May 13, 1673, with five Canadian boatmen, these two men left on an exploring expedition, and on June 25, 1673, landed near the mouth of Des Moines River. By right of discovery France claimed jurisdiction over the country thus visited until 1763, when the Territory was ceded to Spain. On October 1, 1800, it was ceded with the rest of Louisiana Territory from Spain back to France. On the 30th of April, 1803, it was in turn ceded to the United States by France as a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

These changes of government had little effect upon what was to constitute the future State of Iowa, because the Indians remained in almost undisputed possession. Although discovered and claimed by France in 1673, no attempt at settlement was made until 1788, when Julian Dubuque, a Canadian, obtained from Blondeau and two other Indian chiefs a grant of lands. This claim was twenty-one miles long and extended from the Mississippi westward nine miles. The grant was confirmed, in a qualified way, by Carondelet, Spanish governor at New Orleans. Dubuque engaged in mining and trading with the Indians, making his