Reizenstein, Jacob E.

English

Iowa Research Online

The Annals of Iowa 
Volume 29 Number 4 (Spring 1948) pps. 297-298 
Governor Lucas Flayed Sins 
Jacob E. Reizenstein 
ISSN 0003-4827 
No known copyright restrictions. 
Recommended Citation 
Reizenstein, Jacob E. "Governor Lucas Flayed Sins." The Annals of Iowa 29 (1948), 
297-298. 
Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0003-4827.6617 
Hosted by Iowa Research Online 
A SCRAP OF AMERICANA 297
the wooden shoes he wore as a child and his passion to
keep good leather shoes on his children's feet was almost
an obsession.
Came a black-bordered letter from Holland one day
in 1888—Mynheer Mendens was dead; but his Betje
occupied a decent place in American life.
My "simple annals of the poor" can be paralleled in
thousands of mid-western families and homes. America
—God bless her, and guide her that she may continue to
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
GOVERNOR LUCAS FLAYED SINS .
By JACOB E . REIZENSTEIN
"Wets" and "Drys" have clashed in Iowa every year,
every decade, and every generation throughout the last
107 years. Territorial Iowa split as to the advisability
of "total abstinence," "moderate use," "use and abuse,"
"licensed saloons, inns, or taverns," and actual pro-
hibition of the manufacture or sale of liquor, as far
back as 1838.
The same thing is true, in a more limited measure,
as to gambling. Such speculation was condemned, of
course, by vastly more people than the number that
attacked alcoholic beverages as "refreshments."
Nevertheless, when Iowa City was young dicing and
card playing and other forms of gambling were highly
popular amusements among many pioneers. Such pas-
times were not limited to the "rag, tag, and bobtail" of
the community, and the "scum of society." Some of
the foremost citizens of the county indulged in games
of chance-
They were even penalized by the early courts, as
records in the faded and stained-yellow pages of court
298 ANNALS OF IOWA
house books and files of a century and more ago reveal.
Even officials of the county were tried, convicted, and
fined for gambling.
One of the earliest antagonists of both liquor-drinking
and games of chance was the territory's foremost citizen
of 1838, His Excellency Robert Lucas, the first territorial
governor of the new commonwealth carved out of Wis-
consin territory and the Louisiana Purchase. He at-
tacked them in his very first gubernatorial message,
which he read to the Iowa legislature, in Burlington (the
temporary seat of the Hawkeye government), which
opened its first session on the second Monday of Novem-
ber, 1838, that is, the 12th day of the month. The gover-
nor lashed both of the weaknesses of man (and the genus
homo is mentioned generically, rather than specifically,
in this instance, although gambling and "drinking" were
not indulged in by the "fair sex," of the 183O's, in the
new territory, to any extent comparable with the gaming
and cocktailing of the current era.) He progressively
described the two famous (or infamous) pastimes, as
"vices," "sins," and "crimes"—or, at any rate, as crime-
generators.
His address contained these scathing, almost vitrolic
statements : "Most disastrous consequences proceed from
practices that, in some places, are considered only
'fashionable vices'—namely, gambling and intemper-
ance !"
Among his other declarations in the same message,
we find: "These two vices may be considered the foun-
tains from which almost every other crime proceeds, as
penitentiaries conclusively show. They have produced
more murders, robberies, and individual distress than
all other crimes put together. This is evident, when we
consider the many thousands that annually destroy
themselves, and bring their families to beggary and
wretchedness, by pursuing these vices. Surely there can
be no murder of a deeper moral dye than self-murder;
no robbery, more heinous than robbery of our own
families."—Iowa City Press-Citizen.



Governor Lucas Flayed Sins

The Annals of Iowa

Dada/Surrealism

https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6617&amp;context=annals-of-iowa

Governor Lucas Flayed Sins

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The Annals of Iowa

Dada/Surrealism