Leave it to the Iowa’s 84th General Assembly to come up with another way to miss the point that Iowans need jobs. I am referring to House Joint Resolution 16 which resolved to remove James Harlan’s likeness from Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol and replace it with that of Norman Borlaug. Governor Branstad signed HJR 16 into law on Wednesday. If many people never heard of Borlaug, fewer know Harlan who served as United States Senator from Iowa from 1855 until 1865, first as a member of the Free Soil Party and then as a Republican. Say what?

The Compromise of 1850 gave rise to the Free Soil Party, which sought to keep slavery from expanding into the new Western territories. They argued that “free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery.” Harlan belonged to the Free Soil Party in 1855 when he was appointed as Senator. This appointment was clouded in controversy and in 1857, the U.S. Senate declared his seat vacant due to irregularities in his appointment by the Iowa legislature. Harlan was re-appointed as a Republican and served as Senator until 1865.

While a fierce critic of President Lincoln, Senator Harlan formed a deep friendship with him. Harlan biographer Johnson Brigham said that at Lincoln’s second inaugural, “Senator Harlan was chosen as an escort for Mrs. Lincoln, and Miss Mary Harlan was among the distinguished group surrounding President and Mrs. Lincoln at the inaugural ball.” Harlan was also selected to escort Lincoln’s remains back to Springfield, Illinois after the assassination.

If Harlan is remembered today, it is for his appointment as Secretary of the Interior in 1865. It was long assumed in Iowa and in Washington that President Lincoln would appoint Senator Harlan to the position. A clipping from the Ottumwa Courier was found among Harlan’s papers that said the country would greatly deplore the loss of Harlan’s services as Senator, “until the flag of our country waves in triumph over every foot of our territory, and the last human fetter be fallen, and the crack of the slave whip be no more heard in the land.” A free soiler was also an abolitionist.

Harlan fired poet Walt Whitman from the Department of Interior for failing to show up for work. This incident has been documented by Whitman biographers as a form of censure, that Harlan found Whitman’s manuscript of “Leaves of Grass,” which he was writing while working at the Department of the Interior, to be indecent. In Harlan’s defense, his biographer writes that he “saw no reason that the author of “Leaves of Grass” should be longer pensioned in a department devoted solely to business” and fired Whitman because his work was not deemed necessary to the efficiency of the department. The former version has gained more traction and there continues to be a lack of poetry (and efficiency) in the Interior Department.

When Harlan’s statue is removed, one hopes it is returned to Iowa and displayed where all can see it and learn about him.

A neighbor has recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with Norman Borlaug and hopes to write a book about him. At our local coffee shop we debate the efficacy of his work and discuss his strengths and weaknesses. Borlaug is credited as the father of the Green Revolution which improved food security around the world. He has also played a role in deforesting equatorial rain forests, in reducing biodiversity and in being the stepchild of Monsanto in plant genetics. It is okay to have controversy, but at a time when tens of thousands of Iowans need work, why an image of Borlaug when other more important things require our attention?