PROCLAMATION BY THE
GOVERNOR.
Executive Office Of Iowa,
Iowa City, March 23, 1863.
To the People Of Iowa:
There is reason to believe that a very considerable number
of men, some of whom have been in the Rebel army, and others of whom have, as
guerrillas, been engaged in plundering and murdering Union men in the State of
Missouri, have taken refuge in this State to escape the punishment due to their
crimes, and that instead of seeking to merit a pardon of past offences by
living peaceably and quietly among us, as becomes good citizens, many of them
are endeavoring to array a portion of our people in armed resistance to the
laws. And I very deeply regret to say there is reason to believe that some of
our people have been found weak enough to aid them in their mischievous
designs.
These men, by bold and fierce denunciations of certain acts
of the President and of the Congress of the United States as
unconstitutional, and by industriously teaching that the citizen may lawfully
resist by force what he deems an unconstitutional act or law, and in other ways
are seeking to array such as may be duped and deceived by their artful and
wicked machinations into armed resistance to the General Government, and to
inaugurate civil war within our limits, thus exposing their dupes to the
punishment due to traitors, and our State to the storm of war, which has swept
as with fire the State of Missouri. These men are endeavoring to induce our
soldiers in the field to desert their colors, thus exposing them to the penalty
of desertion, which is death, and are endeavoring to induce our citizens to
violate the law by resisting the arrest of deserters, and a conscription in
this State, if ordered, thereby exposing themselves to the punishment due such
criminal acts.
It is my duty to, and I therefore do, warn these men that
their courses are fraught with peril to themselves and the peace and good order
of the State, and if persisted in to the extremity they intend will certainly
bring punishment; and I also warn all the good people of the State, as they value
peace and good order, and would avoid the horrors of civil war, not to be
misled by these wicked and designing men, who, having nothing to lose, hope for
plunder and profit in the license of civil war. The laws of the General
Government will be enforced among us at any cost and at all hazards, and
the men who array themselves in armed resistance to the laws will certainly be
overpowered and punished. As long as those who have sought shelter in Iowa from
other States behave as quiet and peaceable citizens, I have no disposition to
interfere with or molest them; but it cannot be tolerated that these men who
have been compelled to flee from their own State for fear of punishment for
crimes committed against, the laws of their own State, or of the United States,
should, while enjoying the protection of our laws, be permitted to bring among
our peaceful homes, and upon our peaceful people, all the horrors they have
brought upon the State from which they have fled. We owe it not only to
ourselves and our families, but much more to the families of those who have
left us to defend on the battlefield the life of our country that we preserve
peace and good order at home. It must be a bitter reflection to our gallant
soldiers that while they are enduring the hardships and dangers of a soldier's
life in defense of their country, bad men at home are plotting to bring on
their unprotected families the dangers of civil war.
Moved by these considerations, I have this day notified the
proper authorities of the United States and of the State of Missouri that many
criminals against their laws are in Iowa engaged, as I believe, in inciting
rebellion, and that I shall insist on their arrest and removal when necessary,
and their trial for their crime if their conduct shall continue to be such as
is dangerous to the peace and safety of the State; and I enjoin upon all good
citizens who know that such men are among them that they especially notice
their demeanor and conduct, and if it be seditious and dangerous that they
furnish the United States District Attorney or the United States Marshal, or
either of the Congressional District Provost Marshals, to be appointed, or
myself, with their names and affidavits, showing their criminality before their
coming to this State, and their conduct since, to the end that our State may be
relieved of the danger of their presence.
Samuel J. Kirkwood.
SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of
Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 238-40
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