bigotry and intolerance, from pride and hatred, from anarchy and civil strife, from immorality and crime of every grade.

But above all, let us be thankful for the Christian religion, which has raised man from a state of barbarism, given him the means of intelligent happiness in this life, and the hope of glory in that which is to come.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Iowa.

Done at Iowa City, this 20th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1855, of the Independence of the United States the eightieth, and the State of Iowa the ninth.

By the Governor :

GEORGE W. MCCLEARY, Secretary of Stale.

JAMES W. GRIMES.

37.-To Hon. S. P. Chase, Cincinnati, Ohio.

BURLINGTON, October 14, 1855.

Allow me to congratulate you upon your glorious triumph. I had been all along fearful of the result of your election in Ohio, and the first returns received at Chicago (where I was, for the purpose principally of learning the result) indicated your defeat. But, happily, Know-Nothing and Nebraska news seems to travel very much as Whig election news used to, somewhat in advance of the mails and telegraphs. But Friday morning satisfied us how strong was the principle of free soil in the hearts of the people of Ohio. For surely that must be a strong and active principle that could cause such a glorious majority of the people of your State to forget all their past political proclivities and prejudices, and rally them around you. Your election has given to good men throughout the country new hope, and will inspire them to renewed and still more vigorous effort.

38.-To Hon. S. P. Chase.

BURLINGTON, November 2, 1855.

I am sorry that I am so poorly qualified to respond to your inquiries as to our future course and prospects. I am not properly informed of the condition of things in the States east of us, and cannot say what the prospects for the Republican organization may be; but I feel justified in saying that Iowa will be erect in any conflict that may come. I think that there can be no difficulty in combin

ing all the opposition to the Nebraska swindle in this State, and arraying it under the Republican banner. I fear that this cannot be done in Illinois. I am satisfied that there is a large majority of the people of that State opposed to the Administration, and to Douglas, but there will be very great difficulty, if not an entire impossibility, to unite them so as to insure their defeat. From what I hear, such is the case, too, in Pennsylvania and Indiana. With these three States secured to us, the Republican cause would, I conceive, be certain of a triumph next year in the presidential canvass. they be secured?

Can

I have heard (I have seen nothing of it) that one of the Cleveland papers has placed my name in its columns as a candidate for Vice-President, with yours for President. I am convinced that I can add nothing to your strength, nor to the strength of any man who may be a candidate-that I am not qualified for the position even if elected that a political life is uncongenial with my habits of life and modes of thought; in a word, that the office is unfit for me, and I am unfit for the office. I am a Governor by accident. Nothing could have induced me to accept a nomination but a desire to expose to the people of the State the infamous exactions and encroachments of the slave-power. Being elected, I endeavored to play the Governor as well as possible; but I do not want another office, nor do I wish to be put in the attitude of a seeker for one. I beg you, therefore, if an opportunity presents, to dissuade our friend at Cleveland and all others, if there are any so foolish, or so blindly partial to me, from mentioning my name in connection with any office. I assure you that I would esteem it the highest honor of my life to have my name connected with yours in any way, but I conceive that the use of my name in connection with yours would only injure you in this instance. That I wish to avoid.

39.-To Hon. S. P. Chase.

BURLINGTON, March 28, 1856.

The difficulty with the Germans, if it can be called a difficulty, arose from the fact that the Republican Convention of the 22d February declined to say that they abided by the present naturalization laws. I was at Iowa City at the time, and favored the insertion of the clause, but the Know-Nothings opposed it, and then there were some, not of the order, who were opposed to saying anything on

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any subject save that of slavery. The latter policy prevailed, and our State platform looks to no other question.

I have never had any conversation with any of the delegates to the National Convention, except Mr. Seward's "administrator" in this State, and his preferences are for him. In a conversation a few days ago, I told him that I had not the remotest idea that Mr. Seward could be elected, that there were too many old chronic prejudices to be overcome to allow him to make a respectable poll; and he seemed to coincide in that opinion.

It is impossible to say how the Germans in this State will vote in November. They will be greatly influenced by Remelin, and the Germans in Cincinnati and New York. They will act with many of the Republican county parties, where the platforms and candidates suit them.

The Fillmore nomination will damage us considerably in this State, and I fear will render the result doubtful. I think it will affect us as much here as in any State in the Union, especially in the Southern part, where the people are mostly Southern by birth.

Mr. Grimes presided over a public meeting in Burlington, May 31st, called to consider the assault-upon Senator Sumner in the Capitol, May 22d, and the outrages in Kansas. Upon taking the chair he remarked that "we had assembled together, as was our privilege, to express our feelings and opinions in reference to recent and most important occurrences. We had indeed fallen upon perilous times, when our legislators, for words spoken in debate, were attacked with murderous weapons in the Senate of the United States. It was not Senator Sumner and the State of Massachusetts alone that suffered by this violation of the Constitution. We were all interested. The State of Iowa might next be stricken down in the persons of her Senators or Representatives. It was a blow at the foundation of our liberties, the freedom of our legislators. Mr. Sumner was a ripe scholar, a statesman, and an orator-a credit to Massachusetts and to the deliberative body of which he was a member. What had he said to justify the cowardly and murderous assault that had been made upon him? IIis speech fell short in invective of the philippics of Randolph, Calhoun, McDuffie, Hayne, Prentiss,

and Henry A. Wise. It was diluted when compared to Daniel Webster's onslaught upon Charles J. Ingersoll. But what Mr. Sumner may have said in debate was of no consequence-was no palliation or excuse for the outrage that had been committed." Governor Grimes spoke also of affairs in Kansas, of the legalized robberies, burnings, and murders, in that unfortunate Territory; of its conquest by citizens of the adjoining State of Missouri and of distant States, with the complicity of the President of the United States, and said that any man or set of men who would palliate, excuse, or justify the assault upon Mr. Sumner, or the state of affairs in Kansas, were fit for slaves, and deserved to be enslaved.

More than seventeen years after Mr. Grimes had introduced a memorial to Congress, in the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory, asking an appropriation of lands for the construction of a railroad in Iowa, a grant of lands was made to the State, by act of Congress, approved May 15, 1856, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of four different lines of railroads, viz., from Burlington, from Davenport, from Lyons, and from Dubuque, across the State to the Missouri River. The grant was hailed with high satisfaction and hope by the people of Iowa. The Governor, deeming immediate legislative action demanded, issued his proclamation, June 3d, for a special session of the General Assembly, which met at Iowa City on the 2d of July. The following extracts are from his message to the Assembly:

THE RAILROAD GRANT.

I have convened you, gentlemen, in special session, that you may determine

1. Whether or not the State shall accept the grant made under the act of the 15th of May last; and, if so—

2. Whether the lands granted shall be transferred to any specific railroad companies; and, if so, to what companies they shall be transferred; and

3. Upon what terms shall the transfer be made.

My experience in matters of this kind has been so limited, that I am not prepared to submit to you any plan for the proper disposal of these lands. Your wisdom will doubtless mature a system which,

while it promotes the present material interests of the State by developing its resources and advancing its settlement by the construction of lines of intercommunication, will protect the people against the sometimes oppressive monopolizing tendencies of powerful corporations.

THE RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND LIABILITIES, OF RAILWAY COMPANIES. The introduction of railroads within the State has rendered necessary an act more clearly defining the rights, duties, and liabilities, of railway companies. The law should declare that, where death is caused through negligence or misconduct of the agents or servants of such companies, the same remedies shall be open in a suit at law, as for like injuries to the person resulting in disability and not in death. Among other things, the speed of trains passing through cities, and villages, and across highways, should be regulated by law; and the disasters that have occurred in a neighboring State have admonished us of the necessity for a law prohibiting a company from carrying passengers over a new road until it has first been examined and pronounced safe by a competent and disinterested Board of Engineers. It is evidently as much the duty of the State to protect the lives and safety of the citizens from accidents, resulting from carelessness, misconduct, or cupidity, as from open and premeditated violence.

THE PARDONING POWER.

The constitution confers upon the Governor of the State "the power to grant reprieves and pardons and commute punishments after convictions," for offenses against the laws. In a large proportion of cases, the friends of the persons convicted endeavor to procure the exercise of this power; and as few, if any, of the judges preserve minutes of the testimony taken on the trial of criminal causes, these efforts are, for the most part, based upon ex-parte statements, made without the sanction of an oath, and obtained without notice to the prosecuting attorney, or other person representing the government. It is frequently alleged that there was error in the trial; that the judge mistook the law; that there was a mistake of fact by the jury; that there is newly-discovered evidence, showing the sentence to be unjust; or that the case, although within the letter of the law, was not within the spirit of it.