GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. STATE OF IOWA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: } As the chosen representatives of the people, you are convened in obedience to the requirements of the Constitution, to discharge the important duties which devolve upon the Legislative branch of the State Government, and I heartily congratulate you upon the encouraging auspices under which we meet. From a condition of disastrous and protracted war, existing at the close of your last session, the country has triumphantly passed to a period of repose which, through wise counsels and the continued blessing of Providence, we fondly hope may become perpetual. In communicating to you the condition of the State, as required by the Constitution, I deem it expedient for your information to present, in connection with the financial statement, an exhibit of our military expenditures from the beginning of the war to the present time. And I may be allowed to anticipate this exhibit with the remark that, considering the sparseness of our settlements, the absence of steamboat and railroad facilities, largely supplied by wagon transportation, and that, in proportion to our population, we have furnished a larger number of troops than any other State, promptly filling all our quotas, our record presents through the entire period an economy of expenditure equalled by no other State in the Union. There was expended for military purposes from May, 1861, to Nov. 4, 1861... Nov. 4, 1861, to Nov. 2, 1863. Nov. 2, 1863, to Nov. 4, 1865. Nov. 4, 1865, to Jan. 1, 1866.... $233,568 43 639,163 85 169,231 00 4,047 71 These dates express the periods within which the above sums were paid, but not when they were actually incurred. The amount incurred from Jan. 14, 1864, to Jan. 1, 1866, is $44,931.32. Total military expenditures for all purposes up to January 1, 1866, are $1,046,735.99. It will be observed that most of these expenditures were incurred during the period beginning with the war and closing with the fiscal year 1863. This was caused by our being compelled, in order to facilitate the military operations of the General Government, to defray a large portion of the expenses incurred in enlisting, transporting, subsisting, quartering and paying the volunteer forces or ganized in this State. The sums thus expended were regarded merely as money advanced to the United States, for which, under the Acts of Congress approved respectively July 17th and 27th, 1861, we are entitled to reimbursement. Although we have filled four several requisitions of the Presi dent for troops, and organized four regiments and one battalion, during the last two years, yet the entire cost to the State will not exceed one thousand dollars. While I was anxious that our State should promptly discharge its entire duty in contributing to the national defense, in the way of furnishing men, I refused to defray the expense involved in recruiting and forwarding our quotas from the State Treasury; and accordingly the expenditures thus made, were paid by disbursing officers assigned by the War Department. The residue of the expenditure of these two years was incurred in organizing the State Militia, under Act of the General Assembly approved March 26, 1864, transporting arms and ammunition, expense of the Adjutant General's Office, detail of men for protecting Southern border counties from threatened raids in the fall of 1864 and the winter of 1865, and for all other military purposes except the Sanitary Department. CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. I desire in this connection, as briefly as I can, to present the condition of our claims against the United States for reimbursement under the Acts of Congress above referred to. The sums embraced in these claims were mostly expended during the first and second years of the war from the War and Defense Fund appropriated by Act of the Special Session, May, 1861. The history of our military transactions during this period is too well known to the members of your honorable body to require explanation here. The evidence is perfectly clear that these claims are for money unavoidably expended for legitimate military purposes; and also that they were allowed, audited and paid by the account ing and disbursing officers of the State, in strict conformity with the laws of the General Assembly. Upon this point there has never been any room for controversy, as the accounting officers of the United States Treasury freely concede. But the real difficulty between us arises from the fact, that, after a large share of these claims had been paid by the State in the utmost good faith, the Secretary of the U. S. Treasury adopted a set of regulations exceedingly technical and unreasonable in their character, by which the accounting officers of that department were required to be governed in examining the military claims of the several States. In the biennial message of my predecessor, under whose administration these transactions occurred, this conflict is fully explained as follows: "There is due this State, from the United States, for expenses incurred by the State in raising and equipping troops, and sending them to the field, and for other purposes growing out of the rebellion, the estimated amount of $300.000. There is much difficulty in procuring an adjustment of this claim at Washington. When these moneys were expended by the State, there was no law of Congress, or regulation of the Federal Government, prescribing the form in which proof of the expenditure should be taken; and the General Assembly of this State provided, by law, for such proofs and vouchers as were deemed sufficient, both for the protection of the State and the United States. Upon presentation of these proofs and vouchers to the proper Department at Washington, they are found not to comply, in form, with regulations since adopted by that Department; and it is doubtful whether they will be allowed without some legislation by Congress. Some portions of these expenditures, thus made, are also objected to as not coming within the letter of existing laws of the United States. Among these are the sums paid by the State for the subsistence and pay of the troops that went from this State to Missouri, at the request of the United States officers, under the command of Colonels EDWARDS and MORLEDGE. "There is, also, an unsettled claim against the United States, for expenditures by the State, for the protection of our people during the two winters following the massacre on our north-western frontier, by Ink-pa-du-tah and his band. The United States are also, in my judgment, justly liable for the amounts expended by this State in protecting our people on the north-western and southern borders since the commencement of the rebellion. I recommend the appointment of an agent of the State to proceed to Washington to press the adjustment of these claims, and to secure, if necessary, additional legislation by Congress for that purpose." I fully concur in the opinion that the United States is under obligation to reimburse this State for money expended in defending our frontiers from Indian depredations. The General Government having assumed exclusive jurisdiction over the Indian tribes, and, being therefore responsible for their conduct, should willingly refund all money necessarily expended by this State in protecting its borders against their savage incursions. The claim for money expended in maintaining the Northern Border Brigade rests upon this ground. The organization of the Southern Brigade was rendered necessary, in the opinion of the General Assembly, to protect the border counties from the depredations of guerrilla bands existing in the adjacent State of Missouri. These expenditures, though constituting just claims against the United States, in the absence of any general law covering the case, will not probably be secured to us without further legislation by Congress. This matter is respectfully referred to your consideration. In compliance with the provisions of Chapter 61, Acts of the last session, I visited Washington and found the military claims of the State in a very unsatisfactory condition. But little progress had been made in their examination, and, under the regulations above referred to, most of them were necessarily suspended as the examination advanced. I pointed out the gross hardship of these regulations to the Secretary of the Treasury, and repeatedly solicited their modification, so as to make them conform to the laws of this State, under which our claims were allowed and paid. Failing in this, I presented the matter to the President, who readily perceived their injustice, and gave his opinion to the Third Auditor of the Treasury, that, under the circumstances, they should not be rigorously applied in the examination of the Iowa Claims. Although this opinion was freely expressed by the President, yet he declined to make any positive order for the modification of these rules, on the ground that the subject was within the peculiar province of the Secretary of the Treasury. Repeated efforts have been made by myself and others for a suspension or change of the regulations mentioned, so as to procure a favorable examination of our claims, but so far the labor has been unavailing. On the 1st of October last I was advised by the Third Auditor that the preliminary examination of the Iowa claims had been concluded, and a "statement of differences" forwarded. From this statement, now in the Executive office, it appears that the total amount of Iowa claims on file in the Treasury Department is about $616,739.07. Of this amount, $20,825.00 have been allowed; $430,326.70 suspended, and $165,589.23 disallowed. To have a full understanding of the subject, it will be necessary to bear in mind that this total of $616,739.07 embraces the entire amount of our Military expenditures for a given period, including expenses of the Adjutant-General's Office, Governor's Aids, interest on money borrowed, State Agents, duplicate payments to troops, &c., which do not come within the provisions of the Acts of Congress, and for which we cannot reasonably expect reimbursment. This class of claims amounts in the aggregate to $165,589.23, stated as disallowed. The sum of $430,326.70, stated as suspended, is money legitimately paid on behalf of the United States in recruiting and getting troops into the field. This sum has been merely suspended for want of the technical proofs required by the Treasury regulations above referred to, and is subject to re-examination and allowance. This is the entire amount in dispute between the State and the General Government under the Acts of July, 1861. Upon this claim the United States is entitled to credit for $384,274.80, being the quota of the direct Federal tax apportioned for the year 1861, to this State by the Act of Congress approved Angust 5, 1861, the assessment and collection of which the State assumed by Act of the General Assembly, approved January 31, 1862, and also to the further sum of $100,000.00 paid the State from the United States Treasury, in advance of settlement on our miliiary disbursements specified above-making a total credit of $484,274.80. |