Mr.
Grant thought that an exclusion clause in the Constitution would
"endanger our admission into the Union."

Although the report was laid on the table, it nevertheless represented
the dominant opinion then prevalent in Iowa. Our pioneer forefathers
believed that the negroes were men entitled to freedom and civil
liberty. But more than a score of years had yet to elapse before there
was in their minds no longer "a doubt that all men [including the
negroes] are created free and equal."

When the delegates were elected to the Convention of 1844 the people
of the Territory were still suffering from the effects of
over-speculation, panic, and general economic depression. Many of them
still felt the sting of recent bank failures and the evils of a
depreciated currency. Hence it is not surprising to learn from the
debates that not a few of the delegates came to the Convention
instructed to oppose all propositions which in any way favored
corporations, especially banking corporations.

The opposition to banks and bank money was not local; it was National.
The bank problem had become a leading party issue. Democrats opposed
and Whigs generally favored the banks. It was so in Iowa, where the
agitation was enlivened by the presence of the "Miners' Bank of
Du Buque." This institution, which was established in 1836 by an act of
Congress, had been the local storm center of the bank question. Prior
to 1844 it had been investigated four times by the Legislative
Assembly of the Territory.

In the Convention a minority as well as a majority report was
submitted from the Committee on Incorporations. The majority report
provided: (1) that one bank may be established with branches, not to
exceed one for every six counties; (2) that the bill establishing such
bank and branches must be (a) passed by a majority of the members
elected to both houses of the General Assembly, (b) approved by the
Governor, and (c) submitted to the people for their approval or
rejection; (3) that "such bank or branches shall not have power to
issue any bank note or bill of a less denomination than ten dollars;"
(4) that "the stockholders shall be liable respectively, for the debts
of said bank, and branches;" and (5) that "the Legislative Assembly
shall have power to alter, amend, or repeal such charter, whenever in
their opinion the public good may require it."

The same majority report provided further: (1) that "the assent of
two-thirds of the members e