Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to the Legislature of Iowa, May 24, 1861

Executive Chamber.
Des Moines, May 24, 1861.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: — Since the commencement of your session, I have been engaged, as fully as my other duties would permit, in collecting and comparing information from the different parts of our exposed frontier, as to what is necessary for the protection of that portion of our State, and in making estimates of the sums necessary, in my opinion, for that and other purposes connected with the present and possibly future emergency.

The pressing need upon our border is for arms and ammunition. The people are willing and confident of their ability to defend themselves from what they most fear, the depredations of Indians and plunderers, provided they are promptly furnished with good arms and ammunition, and until this shall be done they will be in a state of uneasiness and alarm to a greater or less degree, as the various localities are more or less exposed. I consider it a matter of primary importance that your action on this matter be as speedy as may in your judgment be consistent with proper deliberation. I would have sent an agent to find and contract for arms for this purpose in anticipation of your action, but for the fact that the provisions of the bill for that purpose pending before you, require that said agent shall be nominated to and confirmed by the Senate. The appointment by me of an agent for that purpose, and the sending him on his mission in advance of the passage of the law, under the circumstances, would have been improper and highly censurable.

I fear that the present great demand for arms by the United States and the different States, will cause considerable delay in procuring arms after I have authority to act, and I therefore again respectfully recommend that your action on this subject be as speedy as possible. I am distinctly of the opinion that in view of our present condition, and the uncertainty of the future, it is highly desirable with reference both to our duty to our State and to the General Government, that you make provision for the organization, encampment and drilling for a limited time, of not less than three skeleton regiments at the expense of the State. With a liberal provision for the purchase of arms and ammunition for the use of mounted men, for the defense of the border, and a provision for three regiments for a limited time at the expense of the State, I think Iowa will be placed in a position consistent alike with her honor and safety.

But to do this, and at the same time make prudent provision for the uncertain future will in my judgment require that you make provision for the loan of at least a million of dollars. The best estimates I can make are that the expenses already incurred, and that must be incurred in case that the measures above recommended be adopted, will amount to half a million, and it seems to me very clear that to leave me with all this machinery on hand for the purposes above indicated, and without leaving under my control the means necessary for the purposes for which it was provided, will not be either safe or prudent.

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD

SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 132-3

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