DES MOINES, Jan. 30.
Do you know what winter weather is down on the river? If not, come to Des Moines. Our winter came late, but now it is here we
find it severe enough. For some weeks we
have had capital sleighing, and the snow it now quite deep, and the weather
very cold.
The Senate have again been considering the bill in relation
to receiving the bank notes for taxes.
They went into committee of the whole upon it, but made no report. They are to sit again. The passage of the mill is confidently
predicted.
The House, to-day, without any premeditation or formal
resolution, resolved itself into an indignation meeting. Mr. Flint, of Wapello, threw in a firebrand,
which roused the ire of certain members.
He introduced a bill to regulate the settlement of negroes and mulattoes
in this State. The title is well enough
perhaps, but when you examine the provisions of the bill, its hideous features
astonish you, and your indignation instinctively rises. You feel that such a bill at this time, is a
public insult, and you lose all respect for the grey hairs of its author. It provides that all colored people desiring
to settle in the State must bring certificates of their freedom, and file a
bond of $500 to keep the peace. If they
are found in the State without having complied with these requisitions, they
are to be hired out to the highest bidder, and any person harboring them is
liable to heavy penalties. It also
grants to slaveholders the right to pass through our State with their slaves
unmolested. Where you aware we had a man
in the popular branch of the Legislature that would think of proposing such a
measure? Such a man sits in the
Represenative Hall, and Wapello has the dishonor of being represented or
misrepresented by him. Mr. Curtis said
the bill was an insult to the House, and moved its indefinite
postponement. Messrs. Lake, Lane and
others hoped it would not be postponed.
They wanted it voted upon. They
wished to know, and they desired the people to know, and they desired the
people in the House who were in favor of making Iowa practically a slave
State. Mr. Lane said if he had it in his
power he would postpone it henceforth and forever, so that such a proposition
should never again come up before any legislative body; but, as he could not,
he would like to have the members put on record on this bill.
Mr. Flint said a provision similar to his was in the old law
of this State, and he saw no reason why gentlemen should feel themselves
insulted by the introduction of this bill.
Mr. Van Anda said something of the kind might be in the old
law, but this is a progressive age. The
State was governed by different men then.
The party in power then were not in power now, and we did not propose to
follow in their footsteps.
Messrs. Young, Milburn and others could hardly find words to
express their indignation. Their
countenances expressed it more fully than their words could.
Several gentlemen express a desire that some bill in
relation to this subject should be brought forward, but less revolting in its
character.
The bill was finally postponed indefinitely, several of the
above named gentlemen voting for its postponement when they saw they could not
accomplish the object they desired.
Still I think the record of that vote is not a true test of the feeling
in relation to the bill; but it is the only vote we shall have on it, and let
us hope it is the last vote that will ever be recorded in our Legislative
Journals upon a bill so revolting to justice and humanity.
The postage matter has been up again. The Concurrent resolution of the senate,
providing that the members shall be furnished with a certain number of stamps,
and that they shall put these in their mail matter themselves, was slightly
amended by the House and then the Senate made a slight alteration, and it was
to-day brought before the House once more.
The members of the old House and some others tried hard to kill it
outright, but there was no use. The new
members come here with the idea that there has been corruption in the
Legislature heretofore, and they intend to remedy it. Hence, when they see an opportunity to save a
few hundred dollars to the state, they set vigorously to work to accomplish the
desirable object, even though by doing so they expend as many thousands. The postal arrangement has heretofore been
the most convenient, and the best that can be adopted under the
circumstances. It is also as little
liable for corruption and abuse as any. – The old members know this and hence
they are all in favor of that system which has upon trial been found
satisfactory, but the new members must have a chance. They will not do as the old House did any
way. – They are bound to save the State $1,000 by this change, when they have
already spent time to the value of $3,000 quarreling over it. This is the kind of economy and retrenchment
practiced by those who are most bitter in their denunciations of the
extravagance. This postal arrangement is
now settled, if they don’t in a week or so concluded to resort again to the old
system. Once in a while the House fails
into a fit of desperate economy. When it
does it generally spends in buncombe more than the amount of the denounced
extravagance. To-day some of the members
were for discontinuing all papers, paper-folders, and postmasters, and paying
their own postage. To-morrow they will
be over this fit and quite willing to accept the proffered postage stamps and
papers.
J. R. C.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport
Iowa, Monday Morning, February 3, 1862, p. 1
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