ks
of States in good credit and standing." (_b_) Records shall be kept of
the names of stockholders and of the stock held by each. (_c_) Every
stockholder shall be individually liable for an amount equal to twice
the amount of his stock. (_d_) In cases of insolvency bill-holders
shall have a preference over other creditors. (_e_) The suspension of
specie payments shall never be permitted or sanctioned. (5) By a vote
of two thirds of each branch of the General Assembly all laws for the
organization or creation of Corporations could be amended or repealed.
(6) The State shall not become a stockholder in any Corporation.

Next in importance to the question of Corporations was the Negro
problem. Shall the public schools of the State be open to
persons of color? Shall the Constitution guarantee to all persons,
irrespective of color, the right to acquire, hold, and transmit
property? Shall the testimony of Negroes be accepted in the courts?
Was the militia to be composed exclusively of "able-bodied white male
citizens?" Shall the right of suffrage be extended to Negroes? It was
in respect to these vital questions of the hour that the Republican
majority in the Convention was compelled to declare and defend its
attitude.

The fact that the Republican party of Iowa was thus being put on trial
for the first time makes the debates of the Convention of 1857
memorable in the political annals of the State. But these Iowa
Republicans were at the same time defining and defending the
attitude of their party on National issues; and so the debates of the
Iowa Convention are a source-book also in the broader history of
America.

No one can read the pages of these debates without feeling that Iowa
was making a decided contribution to National Politics. Nearly four
years before the "Divided House Speech" was delivered at Springfield,
Illinois, Governor Grimes had said in his inaugural address: "It
becomes the State of Iowa--the only free child of the Missouri
Compromise--to let the world know that she values the blessings that
Compromise has secured her, and that she will never consent to become
a party to the nationalization of slavery." And full two years before
Lincoln defined the attitude of his party in the Lincoln-Douglas
debates, it had gone forth from the Iowa Convention, (1) that the
Republican party was not a sectional party; (2) that Abolition was not
a part of the Republican creed; and (3) that, while they would arrest
the