Ma-ghe-ga-bo, a Chippewa warrior, highly painted in red, hair hanging down his shoulders, a coronet of feathers of the bald eagle placed by the chiefs on his head, medals around his neck, advanced towards the Governor with a map before him, and, pointing with his finger, said: My father, this is the country which is the home of your children. When we first met, we smoked, and shook hands together. Four times we have gone through the same ceremony. I stand here to represent the chiefs of the different bands of my nation, and to tell you that we agree to sell you the land you want. My father, in all the country we sell you, we wish to hold on to that which gives us life, the streams and lakes where we fish and the tree from which we make sugar. I have but a few words to say; but they are the words of the chiefs, and very important. The Being who created us made us naked. He gave you and your people knowledge and power to live well. Not so with us; we have to cover ourselves with moss and rotten wood, and you must show your generosity towards us. The chiefs will now show you the tree we wish to preserve. Here is a branch of it. Every time the leaf falls from it we will count as one winter passed. If you offer us money and goods, we will take both. You see me count my fingers. Every finger counts ten. For so many years we wish you to pay us an annuity; after that our grand-children who will have grown up can speak for themselves. My father, take the lands you ask from us. Our chiefs have good hearts. Our women have brought their half-breeds among us. They are poor, and we wish them provided for, and their children. We wish you to select a place for them on this river, where they may live and raise their children, and have the joys of life. Once more, we recommend our half-breeds to your kindness. (Taking the Governor by the hand) I will not let go your hand until I have counted the number of our villages. The Great Spirit first made the earth thin and light; It has now become heavier. We do not wish to disappoint you and our great father beyond the mountains in the object you had in coming here. We therefore grant you the land you want from us. While Governor Dodge was thus engaged in securing new cessions of land from the Indians, the settlement and improvement of those portions of the Territory which were open to the white people went forward with a rapidity unprecedented in western history. The rich and fertile soil, the salubrity of the climate, and the facilities for reaching the Territory by Lake Michigan on the east and by the Mississippi river which intersected it, attracted emigration from every part of the United States and from Europe. Before township or section lines were fixed by Government surveys, the settlers held their claims under rules and regulations which themselves made, and they adjudicated disputes and contentions as to claims and boundary lines fairly and justly to the general satisfaction. The Hon. Alfred Hebard, a venerable pioneer of 1837, says, after the lapse of half a century: We took our land by a club law of which I am proud, as I was a judge of that law myself, and the results were as good and as near justice as any that have ever been enforced in the State. We organized courts and tried cases without lawyers, and the decisions were final, fatal, and eternal. Camping in the groves that fringed the water-courses, our pioneers lived in cabins made of logs, uncleaned of their bark, with doors made of split clap-boards, and greased paper for windows. Nothing daunted they saw promise ahead, and willing hearts and working hands wasted no time. Kindred circumstances begat kindly, social relations, and no new comer, when ready to raise his rude cabin home, failed to find strong hands ready and willing to give him the needful lift. Then followed the simple spread of coffee and good cheer, more enjoyable than any royal banquet or any fashionable luncheon that modern society contrives.1 The settlers relied upon the extension of the pre-emption laws to the public lands of the Territory, to make them secure in their claims and in their homes, and save them from the grasp of speculators. The Legislative Assembly in a petition to Congress joined with Governor Dodge in deprecating the relation of landlord and tenant, and an unlimited moneyed aristocracy, as "dangerous to civil liberty.” The second session of the Assembly convened at Burlington, November 6th, 1837, in a building that was erected for the purpose by an enterprising citizen, the Hon. Jeremiah Smith, a member from Des Moines County. He had given an assurance to the Assembly at its first session in Belmont that he would provide a suitable building for the next session. The building stood on Front street, facing the Mississippi river, and was occupied by the Assembly until destroyed by fire on a bitter cold night, December 13th, 1837. Accommodations were afterwards provided in small buildings that 1 Pioneer Law-Makers Association Re-union, 18S6, 1890; pp. 33, 59. stood on the southeast and northwest corners of Main and Columbia streets, opposite the present court house of Des Moines County. The presiding officers of both Houses were members from Des Moines County, Arthur B. Inghram being President of the Council, and Isaac Leffler, Speaker of the House. Governor Dodge delivered his message in person to the two Houses assembled in the Representatives Hall. Recommending a memorial to Congress for a pre-emption law, he said: Land was the immediate gift of God to man, and was designed for cultivation and improvement, and should cease to be an object of speculation. The just and proper policy of the Government would be to reduce the price of the public lands, and sell them to the actual settler alone. At this session the original County of Dubuque was divided and the following counties, which now remain as thus constituted, were established, viz: Dubuque, Clayton, Jackson, Benton, Linn, Jones, Clinton, Johnson, Scott, Delaware, Buchanan, Cedar, Fayette, Keokuk. An act was passed incorporating a bank at Prairie du Chien, which was disapproved by Congress. Six divorces were granted. The University of the Territory of Wisconsin was established at Madison, and charters were given for six other institutions of learning in places east of the Mississippi, and for ten in places west of that river. "The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company" was incorporated for the construction of a canal connecting Lake Michigan with Rock river. Imprisonment for debt, which had existed under the laws of Michigan Territory, was abolished. A memorial to Congress was adopted asking for a separate territorial government west of the Mississippi river. It stated that "the Territory of Wisconsin now contains fifty thousand inhabitants, one-half of which, at least, reside on the west side of that river." An act was adopted providing for another census, which was taken in May, 1838, and showed a population of 22,859 west of the Mississippi, and 18,149 east of that river. The Assembly adjourned on the 20th of January, 1838, and convened again in Burlington, in special session, on the 11th of June. Meanwhile an act was pending in Congress to provide a separate territorial government, on the 4th of July, 1838, by the name of Iowa, which became a law June 12th, 1838. The special session passed an act incorporating the M. E. church of Burlington, and made a new apportionment of members of the House of Representatives; twelve for the counties east, and fourteen for those west of the Mississippi, contingent however upon the division of the Territory, in which case the Governor was to make an apportionment. When the news of the division of the Territory reached Burlington, the Legislative Assembly adjourned sine die on the 25th of June, 1838. The faithful and energetic administration of Governor Dodge had won universal approbation. Nowhere was he more highly esteemed than by the pioneers west of the Mississippi. James G. Edwards, the founder of the Burlington Hawk-Eye, voiced their sentiment: "If the division of the Territory takes place, we hope Governor Dodge will be transferred to the gubernatorial office in Iowa. It would be more agreeable to the settlers of Iowa to have him for Governor than any other man."-(Fort Madison Patriot, May 2d, 1838). The executive office in Burlington was in a building still standing, now known as the Harris House, No. 615 North Main street. Burlington. WILLIAM SALTER. GOVERNOR KIRKWOOD AS A POET. |T our earnest request Gov. Kirkwood permits the publication in the RECORD of the verses which follow, written in the fervor of youth. As the Chartist movement, in its day as formidable and threatening to the British Monarchy as Fenianism in its time, has now been forgotten, we append a short notice of it, taken from Johnson's Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 888. Chartism [so called from "the people's charter," noticed below], a political movement in Great Britain between 1835 and 1850, in which attempts were made to secure universal male suffrage, equal representation, the vote by ballot, annual parliaments, the abolition of property qualification for officeholders, and the payment of salaries to members of Parliament. These changes were demanded in "the people's charter" of 1838. The movement was primarily caused by the sufferings of the working-classes; and as a whole, the demands of the Chartists were reasonable, moderate, and just; but they excited the greatest alarm in England, and the movement was opposed by force, some of their meetings being fired upon by the troops, prominent Chartists being imprisoned, and Parliament refusing to entertain their petitions. But various parliamentary reforms and the repeal of the corn laws in 1846, having in a measure relieved the distress of the workingclasses, Chartism gradually declined. ON READING THE PETITION OF THE CHARTISTS OF ENGLAND. What sound comes over the mighty deep? Do the fierce wild winds its bosom sweep? Is the demon of death from his whirlwind car Scattering woe and death afar? Whence that deep sound? Does the earthquake's shock, Shiver and scatter the mountain and rock, The castle of noble and cottage of swain, Louder and clearer it comes again. Hark! 'tis the deep strong shout of men, Rising and pealing and swelling around, Like the "deep toned thunder's bellowing sound." What can it be? Can earth's tyrants dare, Once more with their banners taint the air? Have the masters again led the slaves forth to die, And is it the fearful battle cry? Hark! Once more on the startled ear It rises again distinct and clear; But 'tis not the wild tumult of deadly strife, Thrilling the hearts of maiden and wife. |