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Permanent LinkIowa Constitution - Conventions
Iowa has held three constitutional conventions, in 1844, 1846, and 1857, all held in Iowa City, with the first proposed constitution rejected by the voters and the second and third constitutions ratified by the voters. The document proposed by the 1857 convention is the current, original Constitution of the State of Iowa.
Choose year of convention to access that convention's information.
Iowa’s third proposed constitution was adopted in convention on March 5, 1857, and adopted by the voters on August 3, 1857, by a vote of 40,311 to 38,681. The constitution was declared by Governor James W. Grimes by proclamation issued on September 3, 1857, to be the supreme law of the State of Iowa.
Convention Members
- Squire Ayers (D)
- David Bunker (R)
- John Clark (R)
- William Clark (R)
- Rufus L. B. Clarke (R)
- Aylett R. Cotton (D)
- Timothy Day (R)
- John Edwards (R)
- George Ells (R)
- John Emerson (D)
- Hiram D. Gibson (D)
- George Gillaspy (D)
- Robert Gower (R)
- Hosea Gray (R)
- Jonathan Chapin Hall (D)
- Amos Harris (D)
- Jeremiah Hollingsworth (R)
- Edward Johnstone (D)
- Albert Marvin (R)
- David Palmer (D)
- John Abbott Parvin (R)
- William Patterson (D)
- John Peters (D)
- Daniel Price (D)
- Moses Wallace Robinson (D)
- Alpheus Scott (R)
- Thomas Seeley (R)
- Harvey Skiff (R)
- Daniel Solomon (D)
- Francis Springer (R)
- Lewis Todhunter (R)
- James Traer (R)
- William Warren (R)
- James Falconer Wilson (R)
- Sheldon Winchester (R)
- James Addison Young (R)