shes of the people and in harmony with the peculiar
conditions, social and economic, of the community, (_b_) by giving
security alike to all bona fide settlers, (_c_) by limiting the amount
of land any one settler could rightfully hold, (_d_) by requiring all
disputes to be settled in regularly constituted courts, and (_e_) by
conducting all public affairs in and through mass meetings, with the
full knowledge and consent of all the people.

In their Constitutions and Resolutions the squatters suggested, and in a
measure definitely determined, the manner of disposing of the public
lands. The principles of the most important legislation of Congress
relative to the public domain came from the frontier. A comparison of
the customs of the squatters with the provisions of the pre-emption and
homestead acts reveals the truth that the latter are largely
compilations of the former. These American principles of agrarian polity
are products of frontier experience.

One is even justified in suggesting that herein we have, perhaps, come
across the origin of the American principle of homestead exemptions. Is
it not reasonable to suggest that the emphasis which frontier life and
customs placed upon the importance and value of the homestead gave birth
to the laws that are "based upon the idea that as a matter of public
policy for the promotion of the property of the State and to render
independent and above want each citizen of the Government, it is
proper he should have a home--a homestead--where his family may be
sheltered and live beyond the reach of financial misfortune?"

The Squatter Constitutions stand for the beginnings of local political
institutions in Iowa. They were the fundamental law of the first
governments of the pioneers. They were the fullest embodiment of the
theory of "Squatter Sovereignty." They were, indeed, fountains of that
spirit of Western Democracy which permeated the social and political
life of America during the 19th century. But above all they expressed
and, in places and under conditions where temptations to recklessness
and lawlessness were greatest, they effectively upheld the foremost
civilizing principle of Anglo-Saxon polity--the Rule of Law.

V

THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN

The year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six is memorable in the
constitutional annals of Iowa, since it marks the beginning of the
Territorial epoch and the advent of our first general code or text of
fundam