SPECIAL MESSAGE.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Constitution requires that I shall state to you the
purpose for which you have been convened in Extraordinary Session.
When, a little more than a year ago, your regular session
closed, the whole country was in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity. At home,
life, liberty and property were secure, and abroad the title of an American
citizen was claimed with pride, and a full assurance that it was a sure
guaranty of respect and protection to all who could make good the claim. To-day
civil war is upon us, and a wide-spread conspiracy against the General
Government, which we now know has been maturing for years, has been developed,
and the whole country is filled with the din of arms. On the one hand, and from
one section of the country, men who should be loyal citizens, if benefits
conferred by a government should make men loyal to it, are mustering in armed
bands with the intent to dissolve the Union and destroy our government, and on
the other hand, partially from the same section, and as one man, from the
other, our loyal people are rallying around our Union and our government, and
pledging for their maintenance what our fathers so freely periled to secure for
them — life, fortune and honor.
In this emergency Iowa must not and does not occupy a
doubtful position. For the Union as our fathers formed it, and for the
government they founded so wisely and so well, the people of Iowa are ready to
pledge every fighting man in the State and every dollar of her money and
credit; and I have called you together in extraordinary session for the purpose
of enabling them to make that pledge formal and effective.
Those who, to gratify their mad ambition, have brought upon
the country this great evil, seek to disguise their true intent, to cover their
true purpose. They say they do not desire to destroy our Government, but that
it has become hostile to them, and they only wish to peacefully withdraw
themselves from it, which they claim the right to do whenever, in their
judgment, their interest or safety may require such action. Many loyal men,
deceived by their professions and not perceiving that “peaceful secession” was
destructive alike of the Constitution and Union, were unwilling that any
coercive measures should be used to bring them back to a sense of their duty.
How are the facts? Our government is based on these great central, controlling
ideas. The people are the only true source of power. In the exercise of their
power, they have created our present form of government, retaining in their own
hands its management and control. They have honesty enough to desire, and
intelligence enough to discern, the right, and if at any time they should, by
reason of excitement or passion, misdirect the action of government and do
wrong to any portion of themselves, their honesty and their intelligence can be
surely relied upon to correct such wrongs. These are the fundamental ideas of
our form of government, and when any section of our country or any portion of
our people, alleging that wrongs have been done them, declare they cannot and
will not rely upon the honesty and intelligence of our people to right such
wrongs, but will right their wrongs in their own way and by their own hands,
they strike a blew which, if not arrested, will crumble the fabric of our
government into ruins.
Has the Government been hostile to them? At the time this
unnatural rebellion commenced there was not on the statute books of the
United States a single law that had not been dictated or assented to by their
Representatives. The recent election, of the result of which they so loudly
complain, had placed in the Presidential chair a person opposed to their policy
upon one important question, but had left them in possession of two other
independent and co-ordinate branches of the Government, so that it was utterly
impossible any injury could result to them from the election of a President who
was not their choice. Under these circumstances, without waiting to see what
would be the disposition of the newly elected President, without trusting to
Congress and the Judiciary yet under their control, without waiting for an
appeal to the honesty and intelligence of the people to right any wrongs that
might be attempted against them, they rebelled against the Government, and sought
to destroy it by arms. They have seized by force the forts, arsenals, ships and
treasure, and have set at defiance the laws and officers of the United States,
and they have sought to set up within the Union another and independent
government. They have for months past been levying troops, building forts and
gathering munitions of war, with intent to make war upon our Government, if it
should attempt to perform its lawful functions, and after months of
preparation, have attacked with overwhelming numbers and captured the troops of
the United States, holding a fort of the United States and have, so far as in
them lies, dishonored that proud flag, which throughout the world is the emblem
of the power, the honor and the glory of our nation.
What in the meantime has been the action of our Government
towards these misguided men? The history of the world cannot show equal
moderation and forbearance by any government towards a portion of its people in
rebellion against its laws. For months some of these men were allowed to hold
high positions in the Cabinet, and used their official power only to betray the
government of which they were the sworn and trusted servants. For months many
of them were allowed to retain their seats in both branches of Congress, and
used their positions to defeat the enactment of wholesome laws necessary for
the protection of the government. For months many of them were permitted to
hold high command in the army and navy, and used their position to betray and
dishonor the flag they had sworn to protect and defend. For months the
government yielded, step by step, and had used only words of kindness and
good-will. But forbearance, moderation and kindness were regarded only as
evidences of weakness, imbecility and cowardice, until at last the crowning
outrage at Fort Sumter convinced all men that further forbearance had indeed
ceased to be a virtue, and would make those charged with the safety of the
government as criminal as those who were seeking to destroy it. At last the
Government has spoken, and has called the loyal men of the country to rally to
its support, and the answer has been such as to show the world the strength of
a government founded on the love of a free people.
On the 15th day of April last the President issued his Proclamation,
calling upon the loyal States for aid to enforce the laws. On the 25th day of
the same month, I received from the Secretary of War a requisition on this
State dated on the 15th, calling for one regiment of troops. Having been before
advised by telegraph that such requisition had been issued, I felt well assured
that I would be carrying out your will and the will of the people of the State,
in responding to the call as promptly as possible. I therefore did not wait the
receipt of the formal requisition, but proceeded at once to take such steps as
seemed to me best adapted to speedily effect that object. I was met at the
outset by two difficulties. There were not any funds under my control to meet
the necessary expenses, nor was there any efficient military law under which to
operate. Your action only could furnish these aids in a legal way, and yet to
await your action would involve great, perhaps dangerous, delay.
The first difficulty was obviated by the patriotic action of
the chartered Banks and citizens of the State, who promptly placed at my
disposal all the money I might need, and I determined, although without
authority of law, to accept their offer, trusting that you would legalize my
acts. One difficulty thus avoided, I trusted, as the result shows, safely, to
the patriotism of the people for the removal of the other, and on the 17th day
of April issued my Proclamation
calling for the requisite number of troops.
The telegraphic dispatch of the Secretary of War informed me
that it would be sufficient if the troops required of this State were in
rendezvous at Keokuk, by the 20th inst. The prompt and patriotic action of the
people enabled me to place them there in uniform on the 8th, twelve days in
advance of the time fixed, and they would have been there a week sooner had not
the action of the mob at Baltimore cut off all communication with the seat of
Government, and left me without any instructions for two weeks. I recommend
that you make suitable appropriations, covering expenses thus incurred.
Tenders of troops were made altogether beyond the amount
required, and learning from the newspapers and other sources, that an other
requisition would probably be made on this State, I took the responsibility of
ordering into quarters, in the respective counties where raised, enough
companies to form a second regiment in anticipation of such requisition, that
they might acquire the necessary discipline and drill. The second requisition
has not yet reached me, but I am expecting it daily, and am prepared to respond
to it promptly when made.
The officers and men composing the first regiment were in
quarters for some time before being mustered into the service of the United
States, and those called out in anticipation of a second requisition, will have
been in quarters a considerable time before they will be called into service,
if at all. It is but just that provision be made for payment-of the men who
have thus promptly and patriotically stepped forth in defense of the country,
for the time lost by them before being actually received by the United States,
and I recommend that you make the necessary appropriations for that purpose.
In addition to the two regiments thus accepted by me, I have
already received tenders of companies enough to make up five regiments more,
and I have been strongly urged by them, and by many other good citizens, to
accept the whole, and place them in quarters at the expense of the State. In
view of the facts that all I had done was without authority of law, and the
further fact that you, the lawmaking power of the State, was so soon to assemble,
I did not feel justified in so doing, but have recommended in all cases that
all such companies should if possible keep up their organization, and should
devote as much of their time as possible to the drill without interfering
materially with their ordinary business, thus keeping in reserve a large
organized and partially drilled force, to meet emergencies.
In several localities patriotic citizens have at their own
expense furnished subsistence for companies thus organized, and not accepted,
and they have been in quarters drilling daily. Whether any of the expenses thus
incurred shall be paid by the State, or whether any compensation shall be made
to the men for the time thus spent in quarters, is peculiarly within your
province to determine.
In addition to the passage of laws legalizing what has thus
far been done, and providing for expenses thus far incurred, it will be your
duty carefully to examine what further the State should do to meet present
necessities, and future contingencies.
In my judgment there are two objects which in your
deliberation your should keep steadily in view, and which I recommend to your
serious consideration, viz: the protection of our State against invasion and
the prompt supply to the General Government of any further aid it may require.
Our State is supposed by many to be exposed to attack, on
two sides — our Southern and Western borders — on the South by reckless men
from Missouri; on the West by Indians. Missouri is unfortunately strongly
infected with the heresy of secession, which is hurrying so many of the
Southern States to ruin. What may be the ultimate result in that State, we do
not know. Should she unfortunately attempt to dissolve her connection with the
Union, serious trouble may, and probably will, spring up along our Southern
border. Even in that event I can hardly anticipate an armed invasion by regular
military forces from that State. Surrounded as she is by Kansas, Illinois and
Iowa such invasion by her would be sheer madness, and it seems to me we are
guarded against such danger if not by her calm judgment and her neighborly good
will, at least by her instinct of self-preservation. But lawless, reckless men
within her limits may take advantage of the unsettled condition of public
affairs to organize a system of border warfare, for the purpose of plunder, and
it is your duty to properly guard against this danger.
The known facts that the troops have wholly or in a great
part been withdrawn from the forts in the territories west of us, and the
restraint of their presence thus removed from the Indian tribes on our border,
that the Indians have received, probably highly-colored statements in regard to
the war now upon us, and that since the massacre at Spirit Lake in our State,
some years since, which went wholly unpunished, they have shown an aggressive
disposition, coupled with the probability that they may be tampered with by bad
men, render it, in my judgment, matter of imperative necessity that proper
measures be taken to guard against danger from that quarter.
I have already done what I could, with the limited means at
my command, to furnish arms on both borders.
Two modes for the protection of the State and furnishing
further aid, if needed, to the General Government, suggest themselves to me.
One is the mustering into the service of the State, arming, equipping and
placing in camp to acquire discipline and drill, a number of regiments of
volunteers. The advantages of this are, that we would have at hand a
disciplined force, ready to meet any emergency, State or National. The
disadvantages are its expense, and its insufficiency, by reason of the great
extent of our border, to protect our frontier against the lawless bands to
which we are exposed. The other plan is to organize along our Southern and
Western frontier, arm and equip but not muster into active service, a
sufficient force of minute men, who may be called upon at any moment to meet
any emergency that may arise at any point. This will be the more effective plan
for home protection, but will not place the State in position to render such
effective aid to the General Government. Which, if either, of these plans, or
whether a combination of both, or whether something wholly distinct from either
shall be adopted, I leave for your wisdom to decide.
It will be necessary that you enact a military law,
authorizing, among other things, the formation of a military staff under which
I can have the assistance and advice of such officers as compose it, in
raising, arming, equipping and supporting such further troops as you may direct
to be raised for the use of the State or as may be required by the United
States.
It will also be necessary to use the credit of the State to
raise means to meet the extraordinary expenses incurred, and to be incurred.
You have the power to do this under that provision of the Constitution which
authorizes without a vote of the people the contracting of a debt “to repel
invasion” or to “defend the State in war.”
In most or all of the counties in which companies have thus
far been accepted, the Board of Supervisors or public spirited citizens have
raised means for the support of the families of volunteers who have left
families dependent on them for support. This action is eminently praiseworthy
and yet its operation is partial and unequal. It is scarcely to be presumed
that companies will be received from all the counties of the State, or equally
from those counties from which they may be received, and it seems to me much
more equitable and just that the expense be borne by the State, and the burden
thus equally distributed among our people.
The procuring of a liberal supply of arms for the use of the
State, is a matter that I earnestly recommend to your early and serious
consideration. The last four weeks have taught us a lesson which I trust we may
never forget, that during peace is the proper time to prepare for war.
I feel assured the State can readily raise the means
necessary to place her in a position consistent alike with her honor and her
safety. Her territory of great extent and unsurpassed fertility, inviting and
constantly receiving a desirable immigration, her population of near three
quarters of a million of intelligent, industrious, energetic and liberty-loving
people, her rapid past, and prospective growth, her present financial condition,
having a debt of only about one quarter of a million of dollars, unite to make
her bonds among the most desirable investments that our country affords.
The people of Iowa, your constituents and mine, remembering
that money is the sinews of war, will consider alike criminal a mistaken
parsimony which stops short of doing whatever is necessary for the honor and
safety of the State and a wild extravagance which would unnecessarily squander
the public treasure.
Our revenue law is, in my judgment, defective in some
particulars, requiring, perhaps, some unnecessary expense and not being
sufficiently stringent to compel the prompt payment of taxes. At all times, and
more especially at a time like this, every good citizen should cheerfully
contribute his share of the public burdens, and those who are not disposed to
do so should feel the force of stringent laws insuring the performance of that
duty. A failure to pay taxes promptly compels the State to use her warrants
instead of cash, to carry on the operations of the government, and adds to the
expense of the State, not only the increased prices she is compelled to pay for
articles purchased for her use over and above the prices at which she could buy
for cash, but also the interest upon the warrants issued until the same are
paid.
I earnestly recommend a careful examination and a full use
of your Constitutional powers to punish the men, if any there be, in our State
who may feel disposed to furnish aid in any way to those who are or may be in
rebellion against the United States or engaged in acts of hostility to this
State.
The great haste in which, amidst the pressure of other
duties, I have been compelled to prepare this message, renders it very probable
that I may have overlooked some subjects that you may deem of importance in the
present emergency. When convened in extra session, your powers of legislation
have the same scope and limit as at your regular sessions, and I feel confident
your wisdom and foresight will supply all such omissions.
Permit me in conclusion to express the hope that what you
do, may be done promptly, calmly and thoroughly. Let us take no counsel from
passion, nor give way to excitement. Let us look our situation boldly and
squarely in the face, and address ourselves to and do our duty like men who
believe that while we hold to our father's faith and tread in our father's
steps, the God of our fathers will stand by us in the time of our trial as He
stood by them in the time of theirs.
SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.
SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of
Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 120-7
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