Therefore, I hardly want to put it in the form of a motion; I will put it in the form of a suggestion, that there might be an adoption of the report so far as it affects any matters outside of Rule IX.

MR. D. D. MURPHY: I think I am speaking the mind of a good many here, when I say, we really don't know just what is before this house. It is an important matter and it should have a little more thought and time. If we should vote on this now, we would be voting without any intelligence.

I move you that the whole matter be referred to some appropriate committee to make a formal report and send it to the members, and let the whole matter be disposed of at the next meeting. We are in no great danger at the present. (The motion was duly seconded.)

SENATOR SAUNDERS: I move as an amendment that the report be printed in full in the proceedings of this meeting, so that every member can have a copy of it and an opportunity to study it.

MR. MURPHY: I accept that amendment.

MR. COOPER: May I add to that motion, that it will be referred to the Committee on Constitution and By-Laws?

THE PRESIDENT: That will follow, as a matter of course.

JUDGE J. J. CLARK: It seems to me, if the committee having this thing in hand has investigated it, made a formal report, and are agreed on everything except one article, this report should be adopted. I think the reason we do not understand it is because we have not listened to it. There is a good deal of noise and conversation, and we have not paid attention to it. If we refer this to some other committee, it will come up in the same form and be referred again, and we will have another instance of the law's delay. I think we ought to attend to a matter like this promptly. I do not see any reason why this report should not be adopted, with the exception of the article the committee disagrees on, and that can be left for further discussion and refer

ence.

A MEMBER: I was about to make the same suggestion Judge Clark made. As long as the Committee has agreed on all of these propositions, except one, there seems to be no reason why this matter should go over. I make the same motion the first gentleman made, that all these proposed amendments except the one applying to Rule IX, be now adopted by the Association.

THE PRESIDENT: The Chair has already recognized the motion to postpone and re-commit.

The motion to postpone and recommit was duly carried.

SENATOR C. G. SAUNDERS: I move you, that the committee that is hereafter appointed on Constitution and By-Laws be directed to print this report in pamphlet form, along with their report, and cause it to be mailed to each member of the Association not less than ten days before the next annual meeting. (The motion was duly seconded.) My reason for this is: this report will be printed in the proceedings; we will not have accessible the report of the new committee. Now then, if we put it in pamphlet form, we have the report of the old committee, in addition we will have the report of the new committee, and thus every member can make his own comparisons.

THE PRESIDENT: The motion is, that the report of this new committee on Constitution and By-Laws be printed and sent out to the members ten days in advance of the next meeting.

The motion was declared carried.

THE PRESIDENT: There was a special committee appointed at the last meeting, to consider the matter of reprinting the early Iowa Bar Association Proceedings. The Secretary will present the report of this special committee.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER FURTHER REPRINTING OF EARLY BAR ASSOCIATION PROCEEDINGS

To the Iowa State Bar Association:

Your committee appointed to consider the advisability of securing further reprints of the early Bar Association Proceedings

desires to report that it has not seemed advisable to secure further reprints. First, for the reason that the expense of so doing would have been considerable, and, secondly, that there is a fair supply on hand to meet our needs for a considerable time to come, if carefully guarded. These Proceedings have already been placed in practically all of the public libraries of the State and a large number distributed to the members of the Association, leaving a fair supply remaining for exchange with other libraries and for private collections.

Respectfully submitted,

H. E. DEEMER,
H. C. HORACK,
A. J. SMALL,

Committee.

THE PRESIDENT: Unless some action is desired on this report it will follow the usual course, be received and placed on file.

This is the time when we should have petitions, memorials and resolutions, if any are to be offered.

MR. N. D. ELY: I have two resolutions here with reference to disbarment proceedings I would like to have referred to the Committee on Grievances. (It was so ordered.)

THE PRESIDENT: This completes the business of the morning. The first address is to be made by a gentleman who needs no introduction to the bar of Iowa. I mean, of course, Judge Smith, of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, who will read to us a paper upon "The Life and Public Services of James Wilson." I have the honor of introducing to you Judge Walter I. Smith.

THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES WILSON

Honorable James Wilson was born in Scotland, near St. Andrews, September 14, 1742. He early attended school at St. Andrews, the metropolis of the ancient Pictish Kingdom and noted for its university founded in 1411. He afterwards attended the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. His education was largely classical but included, with other studies, rhetoric and logic under distinguished professors of his time.

About 1765, when close to twenty-three years of age, he came to America and located in New York. Various authors have given the date of his migration to America as 1763, 1764, 1765, and 1766. In any event he reached Philadelphia in 1766 where he obtained employment through Dr. Richard Peters as an usher in the Philadelphia College and Academy. He was pronounced by one who examined him the best classical scholar who had offered as a tutor in the Latin department of the College. He only held this place for a few months when he entered the office of John Dickinson to study law. He was afterwards to sit as the colleague of his preceptor in the Continental Congress. He studied law for two years and then established himself in the practice at Reading but soon moved to Carlisle and continued to reside there until after his election to the Continental Congress. Early in his practice he acquired considerable reputation by his argument in a suit between the proprietors of the colony and Samuel Wallace.

As the time approached for the American Revolution he was conspicuous as an advocate of the patriot cause. He was a member of the Provincial Convention of Pennsylvania, which met in the summer of 1774, and the same summer published a treatise on the legislative authority of the British Parliament which had been prepared by him considerably prior thereto. The colonists had largely conceded the power of Parliament to enact navigation laws and laws imposing duties upon articles imported into the colonies but disputed its authority to legislate upon their internal affairs. Mr. Wilson took the position that Parliament had no power to bind the colonies in any manner whatsoever, even if it specifically mentioned them in the act. He cited numerous English decisions tending to sustain this position, the decisions having been rendered in reference to Ireland, Jamaica, and Virginia. He contended that the colonies owed allegiance to the crown but not obedience to the Parliament of England.

He was chosen colonel of a regiment of militia raised in Cumberland County and was in charge of the public stores and magazines in Carlisle but he never rendered any substantial military service. He was elected by the Assembly of Pennsylvania as a member of the Continental Congress on May 6, 1775,

and was reëlected November 3, 1775, July 20, 1776, and March 10, 1777.

The State of Pennsylvania had adopted a new Constitution on September 28, 1776 which provided that the new Assembly should be chosen on the first Tuesday of November of that year and on the second Tuesday of October annually thereafter. It was thus the first Assembly which was in session on September 14, 1777. The Constitution of 1776 also provided:

Sec. 11. Delegates to represent this state in congress shall be chosen by ballot by the future general assembly at their first meeting, and annually forever afterwards, as long as such representation shall be necessary. Any delegate may be superseded at any time, by the general assembly appointing another in his stead.

Mr. Wilson had been elected by this Assembly on March 10, 1777, and would normally have held until the meeting of the next Assembly and its action but on September 14, 1777, he and George Clymer were, under the provision of the Constitution quoted, superseded by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, thus making them conspicuous among the early victims of the recall. The reason for this is found in the issues which arose in Pennsylvania on the Constitution of 1776. Its friends were known as Constitutionalists, its enemies as Republicans. Wilson associated with the latter party and upon the complete temporary ascendency of the Constitutionalists he was superseded as a member of Congress.

Mr.

His activity and prominence in the Continental Congress is illustrated by his appointment, in less than two and a half years, on sixty-four committees. Pennsylvania had at first not authorized its members to vote for independence but finally did so and Mr. Wilson spoke, voted for, and signed the Declaration of Independence. After his removal from Congress he located for a year at Annapolis, Maryland, at the end of which time he took up his residence permanently in Philadelphia. He did not return to Congress until the war was practically ended. He was reelected November 12, 1782, and took his seat January 2, 1783, was again chosen a member April 7, 1785, attending April 26th, and finally was elected and took his seat March 22, 1786.

It is not unworthy of note that his later elections were after the