of the people of the county of Des Moines for an
Iowa District convention, delegates from seven organized counties west
of the Mississippi met at the Capitol in Burlington on Monday, November
6, 1837, and organized themselves into a "Territorial Convention."
As such they continued in session for three successive days. On the
second day a resolution was adopted inviting the Governor, members of
the Legislative Council, Judges, and members of the bar of Burlington
"to take seats within the bar." Committees were then appointed to
prepare memorials on the several subjects before the delegates for
consideration. On the third day three separate memorials to Congress
were unanimously adopted. These related to (1) pre-emptions, (2) the
northern boundary line of Missouri, and (3) the division of the
Territory.

In the memorial relative to the proposed division of the Territory, it
was represented, "That the citizens of that part of the Territory west
of the Mississippi River, taking into consideration their remote and
isolated position, and the vast extent of country included within
the limits of the present Territory, and the utter impracticability of
the same being governed as an entire whole, by the wisest and best
administration of our municipal affairs, in such manner as to fully
secure individual right and the rights of property, as well as to
maintain domestic tranquillity, and the good order of society, have by
their respective Representatives, convened in general convention as
aforesaid, for the purpose of availing themselves of their right of
petition as free citizens, by representing their situation and wishes to
your honorable body, and asking for the organization of a separate
Territorial Government over that part of the Territory west of the
Mississippi River.

"Without, in the least, designing to question the official conduct of
those in whose hands the fate of our infant Territory has been
confided, and in whose patriotism and wisdom we have the utmost
confidence, your memorialists cannot refrain from the frank expression
of their belief that, taking into consideration the geographical
extent of her country, in connection with the probable population of
western Wisconsin, perhaps no Territory of the United States has been
so much neglected by the parent Government, so illy protected in the
political and individual rights of her citizens . . . . It will appear
that we have existed as a portion of an organized T