DES MOINES, March 20, 1862
As the session draws towards a close, the bills before the legislature are hurried forward to a passage. Most of them have been before committees, and are so well matured as to require little if any amending. Of course, when the important bills are bought up, no matter how near perfect they are, considerable time is spent upon them. Each member has his peculiar views upon the subject, and must have an opportunity to express them.
Yesterday Stanton’s lager beer bill was killed in the Senate. The Democrats voted for it, as some of them did in the house.
Today the Senate passed a bill authorizing the Governor to procure passes of the proper agents, for out sick and wounded soldiers who desire to return home. He is to pay for them out of the contingent fund, and is to arrange it so that none are to be paid for that are not used.
Many other bills of local or minor interest were passed.
A bill has passed the House, providing that counties and incorporated towns shall adopt and use copies of the standard of weights and measures furnished the State by the General Government and now at Iowa city. – A member of the College Faculty is to be appointed by the Governor to [superintend] them, and a copy of all is to be made and kept on hand for use, so that the originals may receive no damage, and always be an accurate standard by which to test the copy when through use it chances to receive any damage. Some of the members speak of great frauds practiced upon the farmers in some sections by the use of incorrect scales, and there seems to be a demand for some provision of the kind.
The revenue bill, is as amended a few days since, passed the House to-day. It is very stringent, and so it should be. A few members tried to make it appear very oppressive to the poor. But the majority admitted that the large property-holders are the men whose taxes are not paid up. One land agent spoke of a Baltimorean who owned a great many thousand acres of land in Town. He said this [illegible] old Quaker, for whom he paid some taxes, wrote him not to pay them until the land was likely to be sold. That is the policy pursued by many of the land speculators. This bid will trouble them more than the poor men. It will make it for their interest to pay up promptly.
A bill has also passed the House, providing that the Board of Education shall hold its next session in June, 1864. This is after the next General Assembly, and hence no appropriation need be made at present, and besides it is hoped by a great many, and such seems to have been the expectation of the ways and means committee, that the next Legislature will abolish the Board entirely.
Mr. Martin’s bill for the encouragement of domestic manufactures, which was fully discussed early in the session, was to-day voted on and defeated.
The Governor to-day transmitted to the Legislature a communication from Judge Hamilton, of Dubuque, asking that the land grant railroads be permitted to use the flat rail for the present. By the terms of the grant they are obliged to use the first class T rail, which costs about four times as much as the flat rail. The governor recommends the communication to the favorable attention of the Legislature. It is to be hoped that, in these times of financial embarrassment, the companies will be treated with such leniency as will enable them to complete their lines at the earliest possible period – Iowa has suffered enough for want of railroad communication. The railroad committee have this communication before them, and will probably report very soon.
J. R. C.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 25, 1862, p. 4
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