ernor, and Lieutenant Governor, shall be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of government of the State, directed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall open and publish them in the presence of both Houses of the General Assembly.

Sec. 4. The persons respectively having the highest number of votes for Governor, and Lieutenant Governor, shall be declared duly elected; but in case two or more persons shall have an equal, and the highest number of votes for either office, the General Assembly shall, by joint vote, forthwith proceed to elect one of said persons Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, as the case may be.

Sec. 5. Contested elections for Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, shall be determined by the General Assembly in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 6. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, who shall not have been a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the State two years next preceding the election, and attained the age of thirty years at the time of said election.

Sec. 7. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, the army, and navy of this State.

Sec. 8. He shall transact all executive business with the officers of government, civil and military, and may require information in writing from the officers of the Executive Department upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices.

Sec. 9. He shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Sec. 10. When any office shall, from any cause, become vacant, and no mode is provided by the Constitution and laws for filling such vacancy, the Governor shall have power to fill such vacancy, by granting a commission, which shall expire at the end of the next session of the General Assembly, or at the next election by the people.

Sec. 11. He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the General Assembly by proclamation, and shall state to both houses, when assembled, the purpose for which they shall have been convened.

Sec. 12. He shall communicate, by message, to the General Assembly, at every regular session, the condition of the State, and recommend such matters as he shall deem expedient.

Sec. 13. In case of disagreement between the two Houses with respect to the time of adjournment, the Governor shall have power

to adjourn the General Assembly to such time as he may think proper; but no such adjournment shall be beyond the time fixed for the regular meeting of the next General Assembly.

Sec. 14. No person shall, while holding any office under the authority of the United States, or this State, execute the office of Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, except as hereinafter expressly provided.

Sec. 15. The official term of the Governor, and Lieutenant Governor, shall commence on the second Monday of January next after their election, and continue for two years, and until their successors are elected and qualified. The Lieutenant Governor, while acting as Governor, shall receive the same pay as provided for Governor; and while presiding in the Senate, shall receive as compensation therefor, the same mileage and double the per-diem pay provided for a Senator, and none other.

Sec. 16. The Governor shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offences except treason and cases of impeachment, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law. Upon conviction for treason, he shall have power to suspend the execution of the sentence until the case shall be reported to the General Assembly at its next meeting, when the General Assembly shall either grant a pardon, commute the sentence, direct the execution of the sentence, or grant a further reprieve. He shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; and shall report to the General Assembly at its next meeting, each case of reprieve, commutation, or pardon granted, and the reasons therefor; and also all persons in whose favor remission of fines and forfeitures shall have been made, and the several amounts remitted.

Sec. 17. In case of the death, impeachment, resignation, removal from office, or other disability of the Governor, the powers and duties of the office for the residue of the term, or until he shall be acquitted, or the disability removed, shall devolve upon the Lieutenant Governor.

Sec. 18. The Lieutenant Governor shall be President of the Senate, but shall only vote when the Senate is equally divided; and in case of his absence, or impeachment, or when he shall exercise the office of Governor, the Senate shall choose a President pro tempore.

Sec. 19. If the Lieutenant Governor, while acting as Governor, shall be impeached, displaced, resign, or die, or otherwise become incapable of performing the duties of the office, the President pro tempore of the Senate shall act as Governor until the vacancy is filled, or the disability removed; and if the President of the Senate, for any of the above causes, shall be rendered incapable of performing the duties pertaining to the office of Governor, the same shall devolve upon the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Sec. 20. There shall be a seal of this State, which shall be kept by the Governor, and used by him officially, and shall be called the Great Seal of the State of Iowa.

Sec. 21. All grants and commissions shall be in the name and by the authority of the people of the State of Iowa, sealed with the Great Seal of the State, signed by the Governor, and countersigned by the Secretary of State.

Sec. 22. A Secretary of State, Auditor of State, and Treasurer of State, shall be elected by the qualified electors, who shall continue in office two years, and until their successors are elected and qualified; and perform such duties as may be required by law.45

The Constitution drawn up by the Convention of 1857 was submitted to the electorate for approval on Monday, August 3, 1857, at which time it was ratified by the small majority of 1460 votes.46 Since the adoption of the Constitution no change has been made in the Article on the Executive Department.47

IOWA STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE

CEDAR FALLS IOWA

CARL H. ERBE

45 Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Iowa, 1857 (Appendix), pp. 12–14.

46 Erbe's Constitutional Provisions for the Suffrage in Iowa in THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS, Vol. XXII, p. 206.

47 There are a few other provisions of the Constitution directly related to the Executive Department of the government which are no longer effective. The Article on Education provides that the Lieutenant Governor shall be presiding officer of the Board of Education, and that the Governor shall be ex officio a member of that board. Since the Board of Education has been abolished by statute, these provisions no longer affect this department of government.

III

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT AS PROVIDED BY THE CONSTITUTION

OF IOWA

Most State Constitutions provide that the powers of government shall be divided into three separate and distinct branches, namely, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, and that the persons exercising the powers of the one shall not exercise any of the powers belonging to either of the others unless this is expressly provided for in the Constitution. The judicial, the last of these branches, has to do with the interpretation of the law. The creation of a department of government which is neither concerned with the making nor the enforcement of the law has been regarded as an essential safeguard to both the personal and property rights of the citizen.

Although most Constitutions provide that the three branches of government shall be separate and distinct, and that no one branch shall exercise the powers of the others, they are, however, to a more or less degree dependent upon one another. The judicial department is ultimately dependent upon the executive department for the enforcement of its decisions. Likewise it must depend upon the legislative department to raise the funds necessary for its maintenance and to enable it to discharge the functions for which it was created.

The functions of the judicial department of the government are discharged through a system of courts. In the United States, each State has its own judicial system framed according to its own local needs. Ordinarily this would tend to create a wide diversity in the organization

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and operation of the judiciary in the various States, but owing to the fact that the judicial systems of these States have the Common Law as their basis, there is a close similarity among them. In general the courts in the different States are arranged by rank or grade according to the importance of the cases to be handled by each; cases of the highest importance being delegated to the courts of highest rank. In Iowa, as will be seen, the judicial system is very similar to those systems which have been established in the other States.

THE JUDICIARY OF IOWA AS PROVIDED IN THE

ORGANIC ACT OF 1838

The Organic Act of June 12, 1838, under which Iowa was established as an independent Territory, vested the judicial power of the Territorial government in a Supreme Court, district courts, probate courts, and justice of the peace courts. By and with the advice and consent of the Council the Governor of the Territory was empowered to appoint all judicial officers (except justices of the Supreme Court, attorney, and marshal), justices of the peace, sheriffs, and militia officers. All vacancies occurring in these offices during the recess of the Council were to be filled by the Governor, and all persons appointed to fill such vacancies continued in office until the next session of the Legislative Assembly. Under the provisions of the Organic Act both the appellate and original jurisdiction of the courts was to be defined by legislative enactment. The Supreme Court and district courts were given a chancery (equity) as well as a Common Law jurisdiction. Justice of the peace courts were denied original jurisdiction in all controversies where titles or boundaries were in dispute, or in which the amount in question exceeded the sum of fifty dollars.1

The Organic Act also provided for the appointment of an 1 Laws of the Territory of Iowa, 1838-1839, pp. 34-36.