riginal report except to make the Northern boundary a
little more definite.

As finally adopted by the Convention and incorporated into the
Constitution of 1844, the boundaries of the State were as follows:
"Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river
opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river; thence up the said river
Des Moines, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point
where it is intersected by the Old Indian Boundary line, or line run
by John C. Sullivan in the year 1816; thence westwardly along said
line to the 'Old Northwest corner of Missouri;' thence due west to the
middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence up in the
middle of the main channel of the river last mentioned to the mouth of
the Sioux or Calumet river; thence in a direct line to the
middle of the main channel of the St. Peters river, where the Watonwan
river (according to Nicollet's map) enters the same; thence down the
middle of the main channel of said river to the middle of the main
channel of the Mississippi river; thence down the middle of the main
channel of said river to the place of beginning."

In accordance with the act of the Legislative Assembly of February 12,
1844, and section six of the "Schedule" it was provided that the new
Constitution, "together with whatever conditions may be made to the
same by Congress, shall be ratified or rejected by a vote of the
qualified electors of this Territory at the Township elections in
April next." And the General Assembly of the State was authorized to
"ratify or reject any conditions Congress may make to this
Constitution after the first Monday in April next."

At the same time it was made the duty of the President of the
Convention to transmit a copy of the Constitution, along with other
documents thereto pertaining, to the Iowa Delegate at Washington, to
be by him presented to Congress as a request for the admission of Iowa
into the Union. For such admission at an early day the Convention, as
memorialists for the people of the Territory, confidently relied upon
"the guarantee in the third article of the treaty between the United
States and France" of the year 1803.

It now remained for Congress and the people of the Territory to pass
judgment upon the Constitution of 1844.

XII

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1844 SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS

The second session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress opened on Monday,
December 2, 1844. On December 9, Sen