IOWA. 



385 



the land, buildings, and appurtenances of 

 White's Manual Labor Institute. The general 

 policy of the Iowa State Eeform School is indi- 

 cated in the following provisions regarding 

 the treatment of delinquents committed to its 

 charge : 



Section 18. No boy or girl shall be committed to 

 said reform school for a longer term than until he or 

 she attains the age of majority, but the said trustees, 

 by their order, may at any time, after one year's ser- 

 vice, discharge a boy or girl from said school, as a 

 reward of good conduct in the school, and upon satis- 

 factory evidence of reformation. 



Sec. 19. Any boy or girl committed to the State 

 Eeform School shall be there kept, disciplined, in- 

 structed, employed, and governed, under the direc- 

 tion of the trustees, until he or she arrives at the age 

 of maturity, or is bound out, reformed, or legally dis- 

 charged. The binding out or discharge of a boy or 

 girl as reformed, or as having arrived at the age of 

 maturity, shall be a complete release from all penal- 

 ties incurred by conviction of the offence for which 

 he or she was committed. 



Another law of the last legislative session, 

 having some general interest, is entitled " an 

 act abolishing distinctions between foreigners 

 and citizens as to the acquisition, enjoyment, 

 and transfer of property," whereby all distinc- 

 tions of the kind indicated, both as to real and 

 personal property, are done away. 



An act for the registration of qualified elec- 

 tors was passed at the end of the session, pro- 

 viding that the assessors shall make a list of 

 resident voters in each township, and that the 

 trustees and clerk of townships, and the mayor, 

 assessor, clerk, and marshal of cities shall con- 

 stitute a Board of Registry, to make, with the 

 aid of these assessors' lists, a thorough regis- 

 tration of the legal voters of their respective 

 townships and cities. A revisal of the registry 

 lists is to be made on the Tuesday next pre- 

 ceding the general election, and no person is 

 to be allowed to vote whose name does not 

 appear on the register on the day of election, 

 " unless the person offering to vote shall fur- 

 nish the judges of election his affidavit, showing 

 that he is a qualified elector, and a proper 

 reason for not appearing before said board on 

 the day for correcting said register, and prove 

 by the affidavit of a person whose name is on 

 said register that he knows such person to be 

 a resident of such township, and, 'if in a city 

 or incorporated village, giving the place of 

 residence in the manner required to be entered 

 on the register, which said affidavits shall be 

 filed in the office of the township clerk." The 

 penalty for fraudulent registration or voting, 

 or causing, aiding, or abetting any such act on 

 the part of another person, is imprisonment in 

 the State prison for not less than one year for 

 each and every offence. 



A provision was made by the last Legislature 

 for an amendment of the constitution of the 

 State, by striking the word " white " from that 

 instrument, and removing all political distinc- 

 tions founded on difference of color. No elec- 

 tion for State officers occurred in 1868, but this 

 amendment was submitted to a vote of the peo- 

 VOL. vm. 25 A 



pie for their ratification at the election in No- 

 vember for members of Congress and presi- 

 dential electors. The political conventions 

 were held in the early part of the year, and 

 were three in number. About the first of Feb- 

 ruary, the colored people held a convention and 

 published an address "to every true, honest, 

 and liberty -loving citizen of Iowa," calling 

 upon such worthy citizens for " sympathy and 

 aid in learning those rights and privileges 

 which belong to us as free men." The ad- 

 dress is simply an appeal for the right of suf- 

 frage, which has hitherto been denied the col- 

 ored people of the State by the constitution. 

 The Democratic State Convention met at Des 

 Moines on the 26th of February, and adopted 

 the following resolutions : 



1. Resolved, By the Democracy of Iowa in conven- 

 tion assembled, that the reconstruction policy of Con- 

 gress is unconstitutional and destructive of, the spirit 

 of American liberty, and, if carried out, will inevita- 

 bly result in a permanent military despotism. 



2. Resolved, That the present depressed condition 

 of the country, with its prostrated business, paralyzed 

 industry, oppressive taxation, and political anarchy, 

 are the direct results of the unwise and unconstitu- 

 tional legislation of the dominant party in Congress. 



3. Resolved, That it is the avowed object of the 

 congressional policy to continue in power the most 

 venal and corrupt political party that ever dishonored 

 any civilization ; a policy vindictively enacted and 

 mercilessly prosecuted, with the unconstitutional 

 purpose of centralizing and perpetuating all the polit- 

 ical power of the Government in the dominant radical 

 party in Congress. 



4. Resolved, That for the maintenance of the na- 

 tional credit we pledge the honor of the Democracy 

 of Iowa, but that we will unalterably oppose that pol- 

 icy which proposes to pay the rich man in gold and 

 the poor man in depreciated currency ; and that we 

 believe that the currency which is good enough to 

 pay the soldier, the widow, and the orphan, is good 

 enough for tho bondholder; and, as the "green- 

 back " note is a legal tender for all debts, public and 

 private, except duties upon imports and interest upon 

 the public debt, and is receivable for all loans made 

 to the United States, we are in favor of paying off the 

 bonded debt of this nation in greenbacks as rapidly 

 as they become due, or the financial safety ot the 

 country will permit. 



Resolved, That the national-bank system, organ- 

 ized in the interest of the bondholders, ought to be 

 abolished, and the United States notes substituted in 

 lieu of a national-bank currency, thus saving to the 



Iowa shall be subject to the same taxes, State and 

 municipal, as other property of the State. 



Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States 

 to protect all citizens, whether native or naturalized, 

 in every right, at home and abroad, without regard to 

 the pretended claim of foreign nations to perpetual 

 allegiance. 



Resol/ced, That we are in favor of the repeal of the 

 prohibitory liquor law, and of the enactment of a judi- 

 cious license law in its stead. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to conferring the 

 the right of suffrage upon the negroes in Iowa, and 

 we deny the right of the General Government to inter- 

 fere with the question of suffrage in any of the States 

 of the Union. 



The following is the Republican platform : 



"We, the delegates and representatives of the Ee- 

 publican party of Iowa, in 'convention assembled, do, 

 for ourselves and party, resolve : 



