OF THE SENATE OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA, WHICH ASSEMBLED AT THE CAPITOL, AT DES MOINES, JAN. 8, 1872. DES MOINES: G. W. EDWARDS, STATE PRINTER, Pursuant to law, the Senate of the Fourteenth General Assembly of the State of Iowa, convened at 2 o'clock P. M., and was called to order by Lieutenant-Governor H. C. Bulis, who upon taking the chair addressed the Senate as follows: Gentlemen of the Senate:-In behalf of the people of the State, I extend to you the hand of greeting and welcome you to this chamber wherein you are about to assume the duties and responsibilities attendant upon your admission to a membership in the legislative department of the State government. Permit me to congratulate you upon the peculiarly favorable circumstances under which you are here assembled-our National Government at peace with all the world and the people of the whole country prosperous and happy; there exists no cause for solicitude in regard to the continued welfare and prosperity of our democratic institutions, save only in so far as it is the duty, as it should be the pride and pleasure of every true patriot, to guard with jealous care the priceless boon of freedom and universal equality bequeathed to us by our Revolutionary forefathers, after having been consecrated by the baptism of blood. The unexampled prosperity of our own State is a source of gratification and pride to our people, as it is of wonder and pride to those of other and lest favored States. That our internal affairs have been wisely and honestly administered in the past is proven beyond the possibility of a doubt, by the rapidity with which we have progressed in all that makes a people great and powerful. May it be your good fortune, by the wisdom of your legislative enactments, to perpetuate the fair fame of our noble State and to hasten the time when she shall stand in wealth and meterial prosperity as she now does in patriotism and devotion to freedom, firt and foremost in the galaxy of stars that constitutes that glorious constellation to which the eyes of all nations are directed with longing gaze as the palladium of their hopes, free, united Republican America. Wishing you a pleasant and harmonious session, and in the full confidence that the many important interests of the State will |