EXCHANGE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY EDITOR'S PREFACE The commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Constitution which was adopted by the people of Iowa in 1857 was in itself a notable event. It has become a part of the history of our Commonwealth. The program, which was presented under the auspices of The State Historical Society of Iowa on the nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second of March, 1907, at Iowa City, Iowa, in the Hall of Liberal Arts, was carried out fully in every detail. It was during the sessions of the Constitutional Convention of 1857 that The State Historical Society of Iowa was organized at Iowa City. And so the Society incidentally commemorated its own fiftieth anniversary in presenting the program for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Constitution of 1857. A brief history of The State Historical Society is given in Appendix B. In Part I of this volume the history of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Constitution of 1857 is given in documentary rather than in narrative form. This plan of presentation was adopted in order to preserve something of the form and spirit as well as the facts of the Anniversary. BENJ. F. SHAMBAUGH OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND EDITOR 1 |