DES MOINES, March 29, 1862.
Both Houses have agreed upon the 8th of April as the day of adjournment; consequently only eight more days remain.
The House spent nearly the whole day yesterday on the War Claims Bill. It was sufficiently objectionable when it came from the Senate, but was made far more so by amendments, until it didn’t suit any one. It was then voted on and defeated; but afterwards the vote was reconsidered and the bill referred to the military committee. The interests to be considered in this matter are so numerous and so diverse that it will probably be impossible to agree on anything. Those interested in the claims of counties say they won’t vote for the Edwards-Morledge claim unless the corporation provision is attached. On the other hand it is said that if the claims of corporations for clothing are allowed, the amount will be charged by the General Government to the volunteers who received said clothing. If this is the case, the counties interested have the question to answer whether they prefer to tax their citizens for the amount or to charge it to their brave volunteers, who are fighting their battles for them. Since the question has been placed in this light, and I understand that the Governor thus views it, the corporation feature of the claim bill is looked upon with little favor. The disposition of the House now is to act upon the few claims before it, separately, allowing each to rest on its own merits. The committee will probably report upon them Monday.
The Senate Yesterday continued the discussion on the railroad question. The bill providing for the resumption by the state of the lands granted to the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad Company, was discussed by McCrary, of Lee, Brown, Jennings, Dixon, McPherson, Smith and Redfield, in speeches of considerable length, when the bill was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 30 to 10.
Senator Redfield’s bill, providing that the roads shall not encumber the lands more than twenty miles from their western terminations, was discussed for some time, but the Senate adjourned, pending a motion to indefinitely postpone.
I see the Dubuque Herald, in publishing the yeas and nays on the lager beer bill, calls all the yeas Republicans except one “shoddy Democrat.” Rather a joke on certain rank Democrats like Dunlavy and a few others, but a greater joke on the Republicans with whom they are classed. Mahony should keep better posted on Iowa politics. The letters published in said paper in reference to the remarks of some of the Republicans who favored the bill, give – to use a very mild expression – a false impression to any German who might chance to read them. – There were no ‘flings at the Germans,’ and the members who spoke on that subject took the ground that the Germans who were Republicans, were so from principle, and not because they were allowed their lager. One member may have said that if it took lager to buy their votes, he didn’t want them. This is very far from casting flings upon the Germans. It is representing them as acting from principle, and incapable of being swayed by considerations of lager beer. In the Senate the Democrats were about the only ones who voted for the bill. They have tried their best to get a Republican Legislature to pass such a bill, that they might make political capital out of it; but they have failed, and if they attempt now to make any capital out of the vote, the record in both houses will show where they stand.
We are having good boating now. The river is full to overflowing, and still rising. Boats come up regularly.
J. R. C.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 2, 1862, p. 1
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