446 



IOWA. 



cept such contracts as by their terms are ex- 

 pressly payable in gold," and then approved. 

 The third declared "that there should be no 

 further retirement or contraction of the Unit- 

 ed States legal-tender notes under any pre- 

 tense or for any purpose whatever, except all 

 bills under the denomination of five dollars. 

 It was amended by adding, after the words 

 "five dollars," "until such contraction shall be 

 justified by the commercial interests and finan- 

 cial prosperity of the nation," and striking out 

 the words " under any pretense or for any 

 purpose whatever," and then approved. The 

 fourth, " that the resumption act should not at 

 present be repealed," was approved. Subse- 

 quently the report of the Committee of the 

 Whole was amended by the adoption of the 

 following substitute yeas 62, nays 28. 



Be it resolved ly the General Assembly of the State of 

 Iowa, That the public credit should be sacredly main- 

 tained, and all the obligations of the Government 

 honestly discharged ; we favor the early attainment 

 of a currency convertible with coin, and therefore 

 advocate the gradual resumption of specie payments 

 by continuous and steady steps in that direction. 



The silver dollar having been the legal unit of 

 value from the foundation of the Federal Govern- 

 ment until 1873, the law under which its coinage 

 was suspended should be repealed at the earliest 

 possible day, and silver made, with gold, a legal ten- 

 der for the payment of all debts, both public and 

 private. 



That we believe the present volume of the legal- 

 tender currency should be maintained until the wants 

 of trade and commerce demand its further contrac- 

 tion. 



That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to 

 our Senators and ^Representatives in Congress. 



A bill was considered in the Senate to re- 

 store capital punishment for murder in the first 

 degree. It was urged in its favor that crime 

 had increased from year to year, and that it 

 was increasing more and more rapidly each 

 year. There was also a great increase of mob 

 law during the last few years, since the abo- 

 lition of the death penalty. Senator Stone- 

 man said he believed that if the question had 

 come up before the General Assembly in its* 

 cooler moments, when no feelings of sym- 

 pathy could have been brought to bear, the 

 death penalty would never have been repealed. 

 The death penalty is a simple act of justice to- 

 ward the criminal and of safety to society. 

 Senator Nichols, of Guthrie, the author of the 

 bill, thought that with a cold-blooded mur- 

 derer there was no hope of reformation. This 

 bill provides for the intervention of one year's 

 time after conviction, and gives the Governor 

 the power to reprieve for a longer time if cir- 

 cumstances seem to require. The crime of mur- 

 der is the greatest in the calendar of crime, and 

 should be visited with the severest punishment. 

 He thought the people of the State demanded 

 that something should be done, because crime 

 is on the increase. After considerable oppo- 

 sition, the bill passed the Senate yeas 28, nays 

 19. Near the close of the session the bill was 

 passed in the House by a small majority. It 



leaves with the jury the power to hang the 

 murderer or to send him to the penitentiary 

 for life. 



A bill was passed in the Senate to allow de- 

 fendants in criminal actions to become wit- 

 nesses in their own behalf yeas 37, nays 7. 

 The bill provides that " defendants in all crim- 

 inal proceedings shall be competent witnesses 

 in their own behalf, but can not be called as 

 witnesses by the State ; and should a defen- 

 dant not elect to become a witness, that fact 

 shall not have any weight against him on the 

 trial, nor shall the attorney or attorneys for 

 the State, during the trial, refer to the fact 

 that the defendant did not testify in his own 

 behalf; and should he do so, such attorney or 

 attorneys will be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 defendant shall for that cause alone be entitled 

 to a new trial." 



A resolution was passed authorizing the 

 Governor to appoint three Commissioners of 

 Emigration, to serve without expense to the 

 State. 



A joint resolution to amend the State Con- 

 stitution, so as to allow a trial in all courts 

 with a jury of less than twelve men, was 

 passed in the House yeas 77, nays 3. Another 

 joint resolution to amend the Constitution, so 

 as to provide for the rendering of verdicts by 

 less than the whole number of jurymen, was 

 amended so as to apply only to civil cases, and 

 adopted yeas 56, nays 23. 



In the House a bill was passed making good 

 conduct a source of diminution of sentence in 

 the penitentiary at Anamosa. It provides that 

 any convict who shall have no ill behavior re- 

 corded against him for the first month shall 

 have his sentence diminished one day ; for the 

 second month of good behavior, two addition- 

 al days ; for the third month, three additional 

 days; for the fourth month, four additional 

 days ; and five days for each month thereafter. 

 It failed to pass in the Senate. 



A bill was also passed providing for the as- 

 sessment and taxation of telegraph lines in the 

 State. 



The dissatisfaction in the State at the opera- 

 tion of the railroad tariff law had increased to 

 such a degree that a bill was brought before 

 the House for the appointment of Railroad 

 Commissioners and a modification or practical 

 repeal of the tariff rates. In the House, while 

 the bill was under consideration, Mr. Gleason 

 said that the railroad law was passed under a 

 demand from the people during the Granger 

 excitement, when the war against all classes of 

 capital raged strong and bitter. The whole 

 railroad legislation is directed against the local 

 rates, and the deficit, therefore, is made up on 

 the through rates. The law, then, is for the. 

 benefit of a few wholesale merchants and manu- 

 facturers. He then proceeded to contrast the 

 value of St. Louis and Chicago as markets for 

 the grain and live stock of Iowa. He favored 

 the bill, first, because he believed it was to the 

 interest of his people locally, and second, be- 



