HE colonization of Ulster in the north of Ireland by the people who became known as "ScotchIrish," at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was followed at the beginning of the eighteenth century by a "test act," which drove numbers of that same people to America. Their descendants were among the foremost advocates of American independence. Of this sturdy stock came James Wilson Grimes, who was born at Deering, N. H., October 20th, 1816. In his sixteenth year he entered Dartmouth College. Among his class-mates were Samuel C. Bartlett, late President of the College, John Wentworth, late of Chicago, and Charles Burnham, an early Congregational minister at Brighton, Iowa.

Mr. Grimes read law with James Walker, Esq., of Peterboro, N. H., and came west early in 1836. After spending a brief period in the law-office of George T. M. Davis, Esq.,

1 This article is taken partly from the “Life of James W. Grimes, Governor of Iowa, 1854-58, a Senator of the U. S., 1859-69," by the author; published by D. Appleton & Co., N. Y., 1876. The accompanying portrait is from a photograph taken in 1859.

at Alton, Ill., and visiting Peoria and Monmouth in that State, he came to Burlington, in the "Black Hawk Purchase," which was then attached to Michigan Territory, on the 15th of May, with a letter of introduction to William R. Ross, one of the chief founders of Burlington, its first surveyor and postmaster. Soon afterward the region west of the Mississippi was constituted a part of a new Territory under the name of Wisconsin, with Henry Dodge Governor. Mr. Grimes's earliest public service was as secretary to Governor Dodge at a council held at Rock Island, September 27th and 28th, 1836, in which the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a tract of land lying between the then western boundary of the State of Missouri and the Missouri river, and also ceded the reservation which they had held upon the Iowa river; as was described in the article upon Henry Dodge, in the last number of the RECORD, pp. 309-311.

He was admitted to the bar at Burlington by Judge Irvin, February 24th, 1837, and in April following was appointed city solicitor. He declined the appointment on the ground of nonage, but the President of the Board of Trustees, Hon. David Rorer, insisted upon his acceptance, and he was employed in drawing up the first police laws of the town. Governor Dodge also appointed him one of the justices of the peace for Des Moines county. At this period he served as assistant in charge of the Territorial Library, James Clarke, afterwards third Governor of Iowa Territory, and then editor of the Wisconsin Territorial Gazette, being librarian, and he formed a law-partnership with William W. Chapman, U. S. District Attorney for Wisconsin Territory.

Upon the organization of the Territory of Iowa in 1838, he was chosen one of the representatives of Des Moines county to the Legislative Assembly, and was made chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and all laws passed through his hands. In the conflict which arose between the Assembly and the Governor, Hon. Robert Lucas, as to their respective authority, Mr. Grimes vigorously defended the right of the

Assembly to pursue their legislative duties untrammelled by executive interference. At this time the patronage of the Governor was large, he having in his hands the appointment of sheriffs and justices of the peace. At a Convention of the members of the Council and House of Representatives convened to consider the course of the Governor, December 8th, 1838, Mr. Grimes said:

The Governor supposes he is invested with more power than was ever granted to any governor of the British Colonies. According to his idea, he has not only the restraining, but the advising power; and more, he seems determined to exercise those powers. Bills have been introduced into both houses direct from his office. One required that all future bills should be submitted to him before their final passage in either house. I would ask, gentlemen, if this savors of republicanism; if this is compatible with the spirit of free institutions and independent legislation. I ask them for a precedent to such a course in the legislative history of any state or country.

The question now is, whether we will maintain the dignity and authority of our Assembly, or not; whether we will act under the exclusive direction ofthe Governor, without regard to the rights of our constituents, or our own ideas of right or wrong; whether we will bend the knee before executive patronage and power, or whether we will be of the number of those who, knowing their rights, dare maintain them. For my own part, I know the honorable and high-minded men who placed me upon this floor as their representative never intended I should bow before executive power, or quietly acquiesce in execu tive assumptions. If I did, sir, I should conceive myself unworthy of them, and unworthy of being a descendant of one of those who resisted the tea and the stamp acts.

By act of March 3d, 1839, Congress amended the organic law of the Territory and curtailed the Governor's power. The subject is presented in a light favorable to Governor Lucas by the late Charles Negus in the Annals of Iowa, January, 1870, pp. 3-8.

In this Legislative Assembly a bill to prevent the wearing of concealed weapons was amended on Mr. Grimes's motion to include the "bowie-knife" among prohibited weapons.

The Fourth of July, 1839, was celebrated at Burlington by a patriotic celebration in "Old Zion" church, at which Governor Lucas presided; prayer was offered by the Rev. John Batchelder, the first minister of the Protestant Episcopal church in Iowa, and a graduate of Dartmouth College, 1827,

and of Andover Theological Seminary, 1830; the Declaration of Independence was read by Hon. A. C. Dodge, and an oration was delivered by Mr. Grimes.

In January, 1841, he formed a law-partnership with Henry W. Starr, Esq., a native of the State of Vermont, and for twelve years the firm stood at the front of the legal profession in Iowa. Mr. Grimes was a candidate for the council in 1841, but was defeated by the Hon. Shepherd Leffler. He was elected to the house in the Legislative Assembly of the Territory in 1843, and voted in favor of imprisonment for life in place of capital punishment for the crime of murder.

On the 9th of November, 1846, Mr. Grimes was married to Miss Elizabeth S. Nealley, at Burlington. She was a lady of superior character. A tribute to her worth was given in the RECORD of October, 1891, pp. 180–184.

He had a fine taste for trees and flowers, and adorned his home with the choicest varieties. He took an active part in the cause of public education which he held to be the duty of the State, in the temperance reform, in improving the roads and in building railroads, in the struggle against the extension of slavery, and in establishing charitable institutions. for the insane and for the unfortunate classes. Upon these subjects he represented the most enlightened sentiment of the age, and as such he became a recognized leader in the Fourth General Assembly of the State.

Upon the death of Daniel Webster, October 24th, 1852, Mr. Grimes was appointed, by the bar of Des Moines county, chairman of a committee to draw up an expression of sentiment, which he did as follows:

The Nation is again called to mourn the loss of one of its noblest ornaments.1 The profound lawyer, the philosophic statesman, the logical and conclusive reasoner, the forensic and intellectual giant of America, Daniel Webster, is no more. He has departed ripe in years and full of honors. In his own sentiment, he has gone to join the American constellation, having Washington for its centre, in the clear upper sky. He circles round that centre, and the heavens beam with new light.

1 Henry Clay had died the previous summer.