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 fundamental law. To be sure, the Iowa country had had a certain constitutional status ever since the acquisition of the Province of Louisiana in 1803. In 1804, it formed a part of the District of Louisiana, which was placed. under the jurisdiction of the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Indiana; in 1805, it remained a part of that district known henceforth as the Territory of Louisiana; in 1812, it was included within the newly created Territory of Missouri; in 1821, it was reserved for freedom by the Missouri Compromise; and finally, after being without a local constitutional status for more than thirteen years, it was "attached to, and made a part of, the territory of Michigan" for "the purpose of temporary government." Nevertheless, it would be sheer antiquarianism to catalogue the treaty and conventions of 1803 and the several acts of Congress establishing the District of Louisiana, the Territory of Louisiana, the Territory of Missouri, and the Territory of Michigan as Constitutions of Iowa.