Constitution of Iowa — Preamble

Publisher edition notice: This collection preserves the publisher's complete codified constitution, including its amendment notes. Later changes beyond the linked publisher compilation have not been independently verified.

Preamble

1857 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF IOWA — CODIFIED PREFACE. Codified Version. This version of the Iowa Constitution incorporates into the original document all amendments adopted and ratified and omits provisions that have been repealed or have failed to be adopted and ratified, that clearly appear to have been superseded, or that were time-limited and are now obsolete. Italics have been applied to language that may have been superseded or may be obsolete. Certain archaic spellings and punctuation have been updated and the general capitalization rules currently used for the Iowa Code have been applied to the resulting text. Latest Amendment Footnoted. A footnote following an amended section that describes amendments made to language contained in the codified version of the section describes the latest action only. See Original Constitution. Refer to the original Constitution for the original text of theIowaConstitutionandforthetextoftheamendmentstotheoriginalConstitution. Internet Access. To access electronic copies of the codified Iowa Constitution and information relating to the 2019 republication of the codified version of the Iowa Constitution in the 2019 Iowa Code, see www.legis.iowa.gov/law/statutory/constitution. Preamble. WE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF IOWA, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa, the boundaries whereof shall be as follows: Boundaries. Beginning in the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River, at a point due east of the middle of the mouth of the main channel of the Des Moines River, thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines River, to a point on said river where the northern boundary line of the state of Missouri — as established by the Constitution of that state — adopted June 12th, 1820 — crosses the said middle of the main channel of the said Des Moines River; thence westwardly along the said northern boundary line of the state of Missouri, as established at the time aforesaid, until an extension of said line intersects the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence up the middle of the main channel of the said Missouri River to a point opposite the middle of the main channel of the Big Sioux River, according to Nicollett’s Map;* thence up the main channel of the said Big Sioux River, according to the said map, until it is intersected by the parallel of forty three degrees and thirty minutes north latitude; thence east along said parallel of forty three degrees and thirty minutes until said parallel intersects the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence down the middle of the main channel of said Mississippi River to the place of beginning. *In the original text, a colon was used, see original Constitution preamble See boundary compromise agreements at the end of the last volume of the Code