Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, April 16, 1864

Had a long telegram at midnight from Cairo, respecting Rebel movements in western Kentucky, — at Paducah, Columbus, Fort Pillow, etc. Strange that an army of 6000 Rebels should be moving unmolested within our lines. But for the gunboats, they would repossess themselves of the defenses, yet General Halleck wants the magnanimity and justice to acknowledge or even mention the service.

There is still much excitement and uneasy feeling on the gold and currency question. Not a day but that I am spoken to on the subject. It is unpleasant, because my views are wholly dissimilar from the policy of the Treasury Department, and Chase is sensitive and tender — touchy, I may say — if others do not agree with him and adopt his expedients. Mr. Chase is now in New York. He has directed the payment of the May interest, anticipating that throwing out so much gold will affect the market favorably. It will be likely to have that effect for a few days but is no cure for the evil. The volume of irredeemable paper must be reduced before there can be permanent relief. He attributes to speculators the rise in gold! As well charge the manufacturers with affecting the depth of water in the rivers, because they erect dams across the tributaries! Yet one cannot reason with our great financier on the subject. He will consider it a reflection on himself personally and claims he cannot get along successfully if opposed.

I remarked to Senator Trumbull, whom I met when taking my evening walk last Thursday, and was inquired of, that I could hardly answer or discuss his inquiry in regard to the gold excitement, because in a conversation which we had a year or two since, when one of the bills was pending, —  the first, I believe, — I had said to him I was a hard-money man and could indorse no standards but gold and silver as the measure of value and regretted and distrusted the scheme of legal paper tenders. Chase heard of that conversation and claims I was embarrassing the Treasury.

This sensitiveness indicates what I fear and have said, viz. Chase has no system on which he relies, but is seeking expedients which tumble down more rapidly than he can construct them. He cannot stop what he and others call “the rise of gold,” but which is really the depreciation of paper, by the contrivances he is throwing out. The gold dollar, the customs certificates, the interest-bearing Treasury notes, etc., etc., are all failures and harmful and will prove so. The Secretary of the Treasury found a great and rich country filled with enthusiasm in a noble cause and full of wealth, with which they responded to his call, but their recourses and sacrifices were no evidence of financial talent on the part of the Secretary who used them. The Secretary is not always bold, and has not enforced taxation; he is not wise beyond others, and has not maintained the true measure of value; he resorts to expedients instead of abiding by fixed principles. By multiplying irredeemable paper and general inflation, his “ten forty” five-per-cents may be taken, but at what cost to the country! He is in New York and may negotiate a loan; but if he does, it will be with the banks and, I presume, at six per cent. If so, the banks will not be able to help the speculators, and they, being cramped, will suffer, and perhaps fail. The fancy stocks will be likely to fall under this operation, and the surplus money may seek government securities, but under the inflation how expensive to the country!

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 12-4

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 11, 1863

Gen. Fitzhugh Lee has made a dash into Fairfax (near Washington) a day or two ago, and captured the Federal Gen. Slaughter and other officers, in their beds.

Last night one of the government warehouses in this city was burnt. It is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary traitor; perhaps in retaliation for the recent impressment of flour. Yesterday the lower house of Congress passed a resolution restricting impressments. This has a bad aspect.

The Bureau of Conscription, to-day, under the direction of Col. Lay, decided that all clerks in the departments, appointed subsequent to the eleventh of October last, are liable to be enrolled for service. Yet the colonel himself has a clerk appointed in January last.

Gold sells at $5 in Confederate States notes for one; U. S. Treasury notes are at a premium here of $2.50. Even the notes of our State banks are at 60 per cent, premium over Confederate notes. This is bad for Mr. Memminger. An abler financier would have worked out a different result.

All the patriotism is in the army; out of it the demon avarice rages supreme. Every one seems mad with speculation; and the extortioners prey upon every victim that falls within their power. Nearly all who sell are extortioners. We have at the same time, and in the same community, spectacles of the most exalted virtue and of the most degrading vice.

Col. Mattel, the former commandant of conscripts for North Carolina, who was wounded at Kinston, and yet was superseded by Col. Lay's friend, Col. August, is now to be restored, and Col. A. relieved. Upon this Col. L. has fallen sick.

Mr. Duffield, whom Col. Lay and Mr. Jacques had appointed A. A. G. over me, has not yet, for some cause, got his commission. The Secretary or some one else may have “intervened.”

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 272

Diary of John Hay: Sunday, October 18, 1863

I arrived in Washington to-day after an absence of a little more than two weeks.

On presenting myself to the President this morning . . . . I gave him my impression of the conduct of Mr. C. in trying to cut under in way he k doing, instancing what Denison of New York had related. He said “it was very bad taste, but that he had determined to shut his eyes to all these performances; that Chase made a good Secretary, and that he would keep him where he is: — if he becomes President, all right! I hope we may never have a worse man. I have all along clearly seen his plan of strengthening himself. Whenever he sees that an important matter is troubling me, if I am compelled to decide it in a way to give offence to a man of some influence, he always ranges himself in opposition to me, and persuades the victim that he (C.) would have arranged it very differently. It was so with Gen'l Frémont, — with Gen'l Hunter, when I annulled his hasty proclamation — with Gen'l Butler, when he was recalled from New Orleans, — with the Missouri people when they called the other day. I am entirely indifferent as to his success or failure in these schemes, so long as he does his duty as the head of the Treasury Department.”

He talked of the Missouri matter, and read to me the letter he had written Drake for the Committee. As it will probably be published, I forbear synopsis. It is a superb affair, perfectly just and frank, courteous but immoveable. He will not be bullied even by his friends. He tries to reason with these infuriated people. The world will hear him, if they do not. He read to me a letter which he has to-day written to Gov. Gamble, who, it seems, is anxious to have the President espouse his side of the quarrel, and to recognise him as the State Government, and use the federal authority to crush out the radicals, who, he says, meditate revolution and civil war in Missouri. The President answering says he will be at all times ready to extend to Missouri the protection guaranteed by the Constitution against domestic violence, whenever he (the President) shall see cause to suspect such violence as imminent. He does not so regard it at present. He thinks the instructions given to Gen'l Schofield cover the case.

We got into this vein of talk through my telling him what Joe Gillespie says, and what I myself observed, of the tendency of public opinion in the West, almost universally, in favor of the radicals as against the conservatives in Missouri.

Talking of the military situation, he says Lee probably came up the other day thinking our army weaker than it is, and finding his mistake from the fight at Bristow, is holding off at present. Rosecrans is all right, though somewhat bothered about his supplies.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 108-10; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 100-2.

William Cullen Bryant to Miss Christiana Gibson, of Edinburgh, August 18, 1864

roslyn, August 18th.

I wish I could write you a letter as bright and beautiful as this morning, and as full of freshness and life. A long and severe drought, in which all the vegetable world drooped and languished, has just closed, and the earth has been moistened with abundant showers. For a sultry atmosphere, a blood-red sun, and a sky filled with smoke from our great forests on fire, we have a golden sunshine flowing down through a transparent air, and a grateful breeze from the cool chambers of the northwest. Our usual fruits, meantime, with the exception of the raspberry, have not failed us; we have plenty of excellent pears, and I have just come in from gathering melons in the garden. This afternoon the school-children of the neighborhood are to have their annual feast of cake and pears on the green under the trees by my house, and I am glad they are to have so fine a day for it.

Julia has told you where the mistress of the mansion is at present — in a place where, for her at least,

“—good digestion waits on appetite,”

and some measure of health on both. In September I hope to have her back again, looking and feeling “amaist as weel's the new.” From the place where she has already passed several weeks — a sandy vale lying in the lap of the grand Adirondack Mountains, about ten miles west of Lake Champlain — she is seized with an adventurous desire to push her explorations to Saranac and its sister lakes—very picturesque, it is said—and this she will do, I suppose, next week. I do not go, for I am not a gregarious animal. I cannot travel, like the locusts, in clouds, at least with any degree of contentment. Yet, as my wife makes no objection, and reports her health improved, I encourage her to proceed. Meanwhile, I employ myself in reading Taine on “La Littérature Anglaise.” M. Taine has studied English literature thoroughly and carefully, and is almost always brilliant, but sometimes too elaborately so. He looks at everything through French spectacles, but his book is none the worse for that. He often exaggerates, but I have been much interested in his work. Look at it if it comes in your way.

How this dreadful Civil War lingers! We are now also making wry faces over the bitter fruits of that great folly against which I protested so vehemently, and almost alone as a conductor of the Republican press — of making paper a legal tender.

SOURCE: Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, Volume 1, p. 211-2

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Thursday, April 3, 1862

Raleigh, Virginia. — The rain last night was merely an April shower. It has cleared off bright and warm. The grass looks fresh and green. I have one hundred and fifty dollars in treasury notes. Last night Lieutenant Hastings with Company I started for the Marshes of Cool to protect the election and if possible catch the Trumps

Election day for West Virginia. One hundred and eight votes polled here, all for the new Constitution. I doubt its success. Congress will be slow to admit another slave State into the Union. The West Virginians are blind to interest as well as duty, or they would abolish slavery instantly. They would make freedom the distinguishing feature of West Virginia. With slavery abolished the State would rapidly fill up with an industrious, enterprising population. As a slave State, slaveholders will not come into it and antislavery and free-labor people will keep away.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 222

Brigadier-General John Sedgwick to his Sister, July 12, 1862

Camp James River, July 12, 1862.

My dear sister:

Everything remains very much as when I last wrote. No reinforcements have arrived since. The enemy have withdrawn and returned to the vicinity of Richmond. What our future movements are to be is quite uncertain. The President rode through the camps when here, and expressed himself pleased and disappointed in the appearance of the troops. He had supposed that we were all desponding, when he found every one joyful. General McClellan paid me and my division a high compliment in presenting us to the President. I believe he has recommended me for a Brevet Brigadier in the regular army. I know General Sumner has. I would value this more than a Brigadier of Volunteers.

Write often. Have you purchased the Treasury notes and have you paid off all our debts? I hope so, and have something left to keep the machine running. You must not break in upon what we have salted away. I believe I wrote you that I lost my old horse in one of the actions. My servant, who has been with me as long as the horse, had gone on, and I did not see him for two days. When I told him about Tom, he cried like a child, and said, “Bless God, General, I am glad they did not get you. Next to old Tom” (the horse), “I had rather see you safe than any man living.” I owe him about one hundred dollars. With much love to all,

I am, very affectionately,

J. S.

SOURCES: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 74-5

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, October 15, 1861

Near Gauley Bridge, October 15, 1861.

Dear Uncle: — I am practicing law on the circuit, going from camp to camp. Great fun I find it. I am now in General Rosecrans' headquarters, eight miles from my regiment. This is the spot for grand mountain scenery. New River and Gauley unite here to form the Kanawha. Nothing on the Connecticut anywhere equals the views here.

Glad Ohio is sound on the goose. Sandusky County for once is right. We shall beat the Rebels if the people will only be patient. We are learning war. The teaching is expensive and the progress slow, but I see the advance. Our army here is safe and holds the key to all that is worth having in western Virginia. . . .

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

P. S. — Send letters, etc., care of General Rosecrans as heretofore. How about Treasury notes? Patriotism requires us to take and circulate them, but is there not a chance of their sharing, sooner or later, in a limited degree, the fate of the Continental money of Revolutionary times?

S. BlRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 115

Senator James W. Grimes to Senator William P. Fessenden, September 19, 1861

Burlington, September 19, 1861.

Of course, you are so terribly oppressed with the great affairs of the finance department of this Government as to be wholly unable to write a letter to one of the outside barbarians in Iowa. I would not disturb your labors or your repose, if I did not deem it important to glorify myself a little over the result of the “circulation Treasury-notes” measures, about the success of which those learned-financial pundits, Fessenden and Chase, expressed so many doubts. You learn, of course, as I do, that at least one hundred thousand dollars of them can be floated to the manifest advantage of the Government, and to the immense advantage of this poor and benighted region. If that pure patriot and model of a public officer, whom you feel called on to defend when aspersed, would call some Pennsylvanians into the field, instead of keeping them all at home to fill army contracts, and let some of the army contracts and supplies be furnished here, business would once more assume a hopeful condition in the West. But we ought not to complain. We ought to console ourselves with the reflection that Pennsylvania furnishes one-third of all the officers to the army, and of course this draw upon her resources must impair her ability to furnish privates.

When it was reported that Fremont was suspended, cold chills began to run up and down people's backs, they bit their lips, said nothing, but refused to enlist. I know nothing of the merits of the controversy, but it is as evident as the noonday sun that the people are all with Fremont, and will uphold him “through thick and thin.” My wife says, and I regard her as a sort of moral thermometer for my guidance, that the only real noble and true thing done during this war has been his proclamation. Everybody of every sect, party, sex, and color, approves it in the Northwest, and it will not do for the Administration to causelessly tamper with the man who had the sublime moral courage to issue it.

I wish you to understand that I do not intend by this letter to impose upon you the labor of answering it. I had nothing to write about, but I had not heard from you, and the spirit said, “write,” and I have written as the spirit moved. If my wife knew that I was writing, she would send her love; as it is, you must content yourself with mine.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 152-3

Court Decision

OTTAWA, May 19.

The Court reversed the judgment in the Wright case, deciding the law requiring the revenue to be collected and paid out in gold and silver alone, as obligatory now as it was previous to the passage of the act of Congress making treasury notes legal tender in payment of debts.  This is a subject exclusively within the control of our Legislature, and with which Congress as nothing to do.  The Legislature might require all revenues to be paid in gold alone or in silver, or corn or cattle, although gold and silver have always been legal tender in the payment of debts.  An opinion at length will be hereafter written.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Salmon P. Chase, Friday, September 12, 1862

Breakfasted alone. After breakfast went to Department, putting carelessly in my pocket a roll of papers, consisting, in part, of some sheets of an Account of McClellan's Course till the junction of the Army of the Potomac with that of Virginia, and of others containing the first draft of my journal of the 10th., and in part of the 11th. On reaching the Treasury, I was a little alarmed on missing a roll; and still more annoyed when, on sending Thomas and Mr. Plant to look along the street and at the house, nothing could be found of it. What if it should fall into the hands of somebody who will make public what is not designed for publication, but simply in memoriam?

Fortunately the roll was picked up in the street and brought to me.

Little of interest occurred at the Department to-day. Expenses are enormous, increasing instead of diminishing; and the ill succesess in the field have so affected Government Stocks that it is impossible to obtain money except on temporary deposit, and these deposits very little exceed.

We are forced, therefore, to rely on the increased issue of U. S. Notes, which hurts almost as much as it helps; for the omission of Congress to take any measures to restrict bank-note circulation, makes the issue of these notes a stimulant to its increase so that the augmentation of the currency proceeds by a double action and prices rise proportionably. It is a bad state of things, but neither the President, his counsellors nor his commanding general seem to care. They rush on from expense to expense and from defeat to defeat, heedless of the abyss of bankruptcy and ruin which yawns before us — so easily shunned yet seemingly so sure to engulf us. May God open the eyes of those who control, before it is too late!

Went over to the War Department about two. Found that no important intelligence of rebel movements had been received. The Secretary informed me that he had heard from Genl. H. that the President is going out to see Genl. McClellan; and commented with some severity, on his humiliating submissiveness to that officer. It is, indeed humiliating; but prompted, I believe, by a sincere desire to serve the country, and a fear that, should he supersede McClellan by any other commander, no advantage would be gained in leadership, but much harm in the disaffection of officers and troops. The truth is, I think, that the President with the most honest intentions in the world, and a naturally clear judgment and a true, unselfish patriotism, has yielded so much to Border State and negrophobic counsels that he now finds it difficult to arrest his own descent towards the most fatal concessions. He has already separated himself from the great body of the party which elected him; distrusts most those who most represent its spirit; and waits — For What?

Before I left the Department, the Secretary kindly promised me a Paymastership for W. D. Bickham; which will, when given, be a great satisfaction to a very worthy friend. We talked also of Port Royal and matters there. I advised the removal of Brannan, who is hostile to the plans of the Department and the measures of Seaton. He said he would be ordered to the North; but did not seem inclined to talk much about it.

Speaking of the number of rebels, he said he thought it could not exceed 100,000 men; but that his judgment was founded upon possibilities of supplies and transportation — not on reports.

Called at President's, and spoke to him of leave of absence to Cameron. He referred me to Seward, to whom I went, and was informed that leave was sent by last steamer. We talked on many things — Barney's appointments, conduct of the war, etc, etc, — Engaged to go together tomorrow, and urge expedition to Cn. — He said some one had proposed that the President should issue a Proclamation, on the invasion of Pennsylvania, freeing all of the Apprentices of that State, or with some similar object. I thought the jest ill-timed.

Judge Adams (6th. Auditor), Mr. Burnan (of Kentucky Legislature, now a refugee from his home) and Mr. Case, (formerly of Patriot, la., now of Portland, Me.) dined with me. The Kentucky Slaveholders were more against Slavery than the Northern Conservatives. Strange, yet not strange!

In the evening, Maj. D. Taylor, Mr. O'Harra, and Mr. Cooke called. — later Mr. Cummings. General talk and not very profitable. Cooke and O'Harra want introduction to Genl. Mitchell for Pitt, Cooke and O'Harra, who want to buy cotton at Port Royal. — Col. Kane called and left note about McDowell. — Mr. Cummings talked about “Bulletin” — about the removal of one of the Editors from Custom House — about support to himself for Assembly — about distribution of stamps etc. — I got tired.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 76-8

Local Matters

FOR cheap and good boots, gaiters, and slippers, go to Dow & Co.’s.

STEEL spring hoop skirts, the latest patent, are now selling at New York prices at Whisler’s, in LeClaire Row.

R. KRAUSE has a large stock of ready made clothing, of his own manufacture, which he offers at the very lowest prices.

GENTS Hats of all shapes, and every price, from the cheap palm, to the expensive beaver; Misses’ and infants’ straw goods, in great variety.  If you want a hat what is a hat, and want to by it cheap, cal on Farrand, corner of 2d and Main streets.

PERSONAL. – We were favored last evening with a Call from Mr. Chas. F. Aldrich, Chief Clerk of the House, and the editor of the Hamilton Freeman, one of the best and liveliest county papers in the State.  Mr. A. is on his way to Chicago.

THE peach crop hits hear is again a failure in Iowa.  We have not seen a blossom, while the severity of the winter has killed many trees.  Fruit raisers should persevere, however; if they get one good crop in ten years it will repay them for the trouble.

THE WEATHER yesterday was very much mixed, but managed to keep uncomfortably war through the whole day.  A couple of slight showers fell during the early part of the day, sufficient to lay the dust.  Clouds heavily charged with electricity floated about the sky all day, and there was sufficient lightning in the air to prevent the easy working of the telegraph wires.

HON. JO. KNOX. – The Chicago Journal announces the appointment, by Gov. Yates, of Hon. Jo. Knox, formerly of Rock Island, as prosecuting attorney for the Chicago district, in place of Carlos Haven, deceased.  The Journal truly says of him:  “Mr. Knox brings to the office a ripe experience, having been for very many ears one of the brightest ornaments of the bar in our State, and the public will feel satisfied that the Governor has entrusted his office to one who will do honor to the position.”

PEORIA MARINE AND FIRE INSURANCE CO. – We take pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to the advertisement of the Peoria Marine and Fire Insurance Company in this paper.  This company has been doing business in our city many years, and we have watched its progress, with an ardent desire that it might prove successful, from the fact that it is purely a Western Company, although managed by experienced insurance men from New England, and we are so proud to state that its foundation is as firm as a rock, that it has done and is doing a very prosperous business, and we bespeak for the old Peoria a full share of the great business of our city.

EASTERN WILD-CAT. – The financial article of the Chicago Tribune of the 14th, earnestly urges upon Western people the propriety and necessity of receiving only treasury notes and bills of good Western banks in payment for their produce.  Good advice.  The treasury notes are better than any other bank money, because they are based on the credit of the whole nation; while our own bank notes are better than any from the East which are likely to be circulated here.  Another consideration is, that many Eastern bills are now being shoved out with the signatures engraved.  These bills are worthless, if the banks are disposed to act dishonest about it.  This fact should make us very careful how we handle any Eastern money, unless it be that of well-known and responsible institutions, and of their issues very little comes here.  Let us, therefore, avoid being caught by banks where are hardly visible to the naked eye in their own ostensible localities and who do such a big business that their officers haven’t time to write their own signatures on their issues.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUMS. – In our columns this morning will be found an advertisement of S. C. Griggs & Co., of Chicago, of Photographic Albums.  The Christian Advocate says: “About four months ago, Mr. Griggs brought on the first assortment of photographic Albums we had ever seen.  Their beauty and utility at once attracted public attention, and he enlarged his supply, securing all varieties from the cheapest up to the most elegant styles.  They at once became fashionable, and deservedly so, and we doubt if the business of the firm in that one article will fall short of $10,000 by the first of May!  Let our friends from the country call at Nos. 39 and 41 Lake street, and see them.  There is nothing more pleasant for the centre-table.

Insurance against fire and the perils of inland transportation, and life insurance, can be had of W. F. ROSS, general insurance agent, Metropolitan building, who will not represent any but the most reliable companies.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 1

Small Demand Notes

Secretary Chase has recommended to Congress the issuing of treasury notes under the denomination of five dollars, to the extent of $25,000,000.  We like the idea, and believe it will have a tendency, if properly encouraged by the people, to drive out a great deal of the rag money in circulation.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 2

People should bear in mind . . .

. . . that mutilated U. S. Treasury Notes are not redeemable at their full value.  A ten dollar note with a corner torn off is only worth nine dollars.  The counterfeiters are making quite a business of mutilating notes and pasting the pieces together to form a new one.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 2, 1862, p. 2

Mutilated Treasury Notes

TREASURY DEPARTMENT

WASHINGTON, May 18, 1862

To guard against frauds upon the Government and to secure the just rights of holders, the following rules, for the redemption of mutilated United States Notes, are hereby established.

FIRST – Mutilated notes, which have been torn no matter how much, but of which it is evident that all the fragments are returned or defaced no matter how badly, but certainly satisfactorily genuine, will be redeemed to their full face value on presentation.

SECOND – Fragments of notes will be redeemed in full only when accompanied by an affidavit stating the cause and manner of mutilation, and that the missing part of the note is totally destroyed.  The good character of the affiant must also be fully vouched by the officer before whom the affidavit is taken.

THIRD – In the absence of such affidavit, fragments of notes will not be paid in full, but the parts presented will be redeemed in their proportion to the whole note, reckoning, as a general rule, by twentieths.

FOURTH – Less than half of a note will not be redeemed, except by payment of the full value of the note under the second rule, or by payment of the proportional value of the missing part, when presented under the fifth rule.

FIFTH – Fragments of notes, for which less than the full face value has been paid, will be retained for a year, to an end that the owners who have received less than the value of the full note, may have opportunity to return the missing part and receive the amount previously withheld.

SIXTH – Until further order, mutilated notes and fragments will be redeemed only at the Treasury of the United States at Washington, whither they can be sent, addressed to the “Treasurer of the United States,” by mail, free of postage.  A draft on the Assistant Treasurer at New York, for the amount allowed will be returned in the same way, to the address of the person remitting the same.

S. P. CHASE,

Secretary of the Treasury

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 1

XXXVIIth Congress – First Session

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.

SENATE. – Mr. Wade presented a joint resolution from the Legislature of Ohio, instructing members of Congress to use their efforts to secure such amendment of the naturalization laws as well grant naturalization to those of foreign birth who serve during the war.

Mr. Wade also introduced a resolution for a national armory in Ohio.  Passed.

Mr. Chandler presented resolutions from the Legislature of Michigan, re-affirming loyalty to the government and hatred of traitors, and asking the government to speedily put down the insurrection; favoring the confiscation of the property of rebels, and asking that as slavery is the cause of the war it be swept from the land.

Mr. Harris presented a petition from citizens of New York, asking that Congress take speedy measures to repeal the present reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States.

Mr. Harris also presented resolutions from the Legislature of New York, asking a modification of the law for raising revenue so that any amount may be raised by any State, by any mode of taxation except duties on imports; that each State be allowed to assume the amount of tax and assess for the payment and the collection of the same, according to its own laws and by its own officers.  Referred.

Mr. Pomeroy offered a resolution asking the Secretary of War for all orders relative to the force in the military command of Kansas, and whether the same be commanded by Gen. Lane, and whether any change has been made in the military orders since Gen. Lane left the Senate and took charge of the force, and whether Gen. Hunter’s order already published is in accordance with the orders of the War Dept.  Laid over.

Mr. Chandler offered a resolution that the committee on commerce inquire in the expediency of immediately notifying Great Britain that the reciprocity treaty is not reciprocal, and that it be terminated at the earliest possible moment.  Laid over.

Mr. Simmons, from the committee on patents, reported back the joint resolution appropriating $3,000 for the purchase of cotton seed for general distribution, with an amendment appropriating $1,000 for the purchase of tobacco seed.  Amendment adopted, and the resolution passed.

Mr. Anthony offered a resolution that the [committee] on patents inquire into the expediency of making an appropriation to aid in the experiment of manufacturing flax as a substitute for cotton.  Adopted.

Mr. Johnson moved to take up the bill providing for the construction of a military RR through the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.  Disagreed to.

Mr. Cowan offered a joint resolution relative to the lake and river defences of Pa.  Referred.

After executive session adjourned.

HOUSE. – Mr. Lovejoy offered the following:

Whereas, It has been learned by this House that five Illinois regiments did, on learning the contents of the report of Sec. Cameron, lay down their arms in token of their refusal to fight for the same; therefore

Resolved, That the committee on the conduct of the war inquire into the alleged fact, and report the same to Congress.

Mr. Fouke desiring to discuss the subject, it went over under the rules.

On motion of Mr. Baker, it was resolved that the committee on Post Offices and post roads be requested to inquire into the propriety of establishing, by law, a system for the free receipt and delivery, by postmen, of all mail matter in cities containing upwards of 10,000 inhabitants, in conformity with the admirable and economical Post Office system of the principal cities of Europe.

The House then proceeded to act on the Senate’s amendment to the House bill making appropriation for completing the defences of Washington, which amendment provides that no volunteers or militia in any State shall be mustered into service on any ground or condition and confined within the limits of any State or vicinity; and if any volunteers or militia have thus been mustered into service, they shall be discharged.

Running discussions followed, in which it was maintained on one side that Home Guards were necessary in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, official provision having already been made to that end; and on the other, that no troops had a right to ask for special privileges, but all should be placed on the same footing.  The House finally disagreed to the above Senate amendment by a vote of 55 against 86.

The House then went into committee of the whole on the Treasury note bill.

Mr. Vallandigham made a speech on the subject.

Adjourned.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport Iowa, Tuesday Morning, February 4, 1862, p. 1

Washington News

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29. – The Secretary of War orders that no further contracts be made by his department for any article of foreign manufacture that can be had at home.  This includes arms.

2.  All orders for the purchase of arms, clothing, &ct., in foreign countries are annulled.

3.  All persons claiming to have contracts or agreements for furnishing anything to the United States, are required within 15 days to give a statement in writing of its character, and file a copy with the Secretary of war.

4.  All contracts &c., for any supplies should be in writing and signed by the contracting parties, and if these terms are not complied with, said contracts, &c., shall be deemed fraudulent and void, and no claim thereon be allowed.

A dispatch from Heintzelman says that nine rebels were killed last night instead of twenty-nine, as previously telegraphed.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30. – The Ways and Means Committee find that they cannot report the tax bills for some time yet.

The opinion here to-day is that the legal tender clause of the Treasury note bill will not pass the House.

Postmaster General Blair has written a letter to a member of Congress in Defense of Secretary Welles.

Gen. Butler leaves Washington this evening for New England.  He declares that his expedition has not been given up.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

First Session -- 37th Congress

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. – SENATE. – Mr. TRUMBULL modified the amendment so as to confine the bill to any State or District in which the laws of the Sate are opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed by insurgents or rebels against the U. S. too powerful to be suppressed by ordinary courses of judicial proceedings, which was agreed to, yeas 19 nays 17.  The bill was then passed, yeas 23 nays12 as following – Messrs. Browning, Cowan, Davis, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Harris, McDougal, Powell, Trumbull, Salsbury and Powell.  Adjourned.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29. – HOUSE. – The House passed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial appropriation bill.  Among the provisions are the following, viz.

That nothing in this act shall prevent hereafter a reduction of salaries, and mileage now due by law, shall be paid as soon as certified by the presiding officer of each House, but there shall be no construction for mileage beyond what is allowed by law, to whit.  Mileage for each regular session only, the bill makes appropriations merely for objects authorized by existing statutes.

Mr. LOVEJOY, form the committee on Agriculture, reported a bill appropriating $3,000 to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, for purchasing up-land cotton seed for general distribution, through the Patent office.  Passed.

The House passed the bill providing in all cases that where a volunteer regiment has been or shall be raised to the minimum standard, the Colonel and other field officers who shall have been commissioned as such, shall be entitled to receive the pay and allowance established by law for their respective grades from the time they were severally authorized in writing by the President, Secretary of War, or Governor of their State to raise such regiment; provided however, that in no case shall such pay date back more than three months prior to such regiment being organized to the minimum standard.

The provisions of the bill are also to apply to Captains, excepting their pay shall extend back only two months.

Mr. BLAIR of Missouri, urged the passage of the Senate bill authorizing the President in certain cases to take possession of the Railroad and Telegraph lines, when in his judgment to the public safety may require it.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29. – SENATE. – Mr. WILSON, of Missouri, presented the credentials of Mr. Henderson.

The resolution was adopted providing for the distribution of documents belonging to seceded Senators among the members present.

The joint resolution on secret session was taken up, and after some amendments, passed.

Mr. BRIGHT’s case resumed – no action after extra session.

HOUSE. – The bill passed giving the President authority to take possession of railroads, telegraphs, &c. by 113 to 28.

The Consideration of the Treasury note bill resumed – no action.

The Army bill was taken up.

Mr. GURLEY made an attack on the inactivity of leading Generals.

The joint resolution on secret session was taken up and passed.  Adjourned.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 – SENATE. – Several resolutions were adopted.  A debate ensued on the want of proper management at the Hospitals.

Mr. JOHNSTON, from the special committee on that part of the President’s message relating to the construction of a Military Railroad from Kentucky to Tennessee, reported a bill for that purpose.

The case of Mr. Bright was then taken up.

Mr. HOWE proceeded to speak at length on the subject.  He thought it was a very poor apology for the Senator to say that he had forgotten that he had ever written that letter or that Mr. Lincoln was his friend.  Adjourned.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

Iowa Legislature

(Special to Burlington Hawk-Eye)

DES MOINES, Man, 29, 1862

SENATE. – Mr. McCRARY, of Van Buren, introduced a resolution instructing the Committee on Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of reducing the salary of the Governor’s Aids.

The Committee on Ways and means reported a substitute for the House bill assuming the Federal tax.

The Military Committee reported a Joint resolution instructing the Governor to procure the balance of the State quota of arms for 1861-2 in long range rifles, instead of ordering muskets.

Mr. WOOLSON reported back from the committee of Ways and Means an act authorizing warrants issued by the Auditor on the War and Defence Fund to be receivable in payment of State taxes.  Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.  Also, a bill providing for the taxation of railroads.

The Senate bill making Iowa money and U. S. Treasury notes receivable for taxes was made the special order for to-morrow.  They spent the balance of the day in Committee of the Whole on Court of quarter sessions bill.

HOUSE. – Mr. FARRELL, of Johnson, introduced a bill exempting young orchards from taxation 10 years.

Mr. LANE, of Scott, introduced a bill authorizing an increase in the number of meetings of boards of supervisors in counties over 20,000 inhabitants.

Mr. ROTHROCK, of Cedar, offered a resolution giving all the foreigners now in our army full naturalization papers on their receiving an honorable discharge from such service.  Referred to the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. McPHERSON, of the Senate, and EATON, of the House, were appointed a committee of Conference to-day on the division of the State into Congressional Districts.

DES MOINES, Jan. 30

HOUSE. – The military committee reported a joint resolution asking the attention of the War Department to the fact that the Eighth Iowa Regiment are without proper tents, have insufficient arms, and no ambulances or hospital stores, and urges that something should be done for their relief.  Also, a joint resolution asking the General Government to pay Col. Edward’s troops for service in Missouri last fall.

Mr. FLINT of Wapello, introduced an infamous bill providing that no negro or mulatto shall come into, or reside in the State without filing his free papers and giving bond in five hundred dollars, for good behavior, and a violation renders him liable to be taken up and hired out to the highest bidder, to the board of supervisors.  Also, granting the right of transit to masters with slaves, through this state.  The vote to indefinitely postpone was 74 to 15.

The House adopted the Senate bill assuming the direct tax of $452,000 annually, and authorizing the Government to notify the Secretary of the Treasury immediately.

SENATE. – The Senate adopted the bill giving jurors $1.50 per day and ten cents mileage, also passed the bill from the Committee of Ways and Means authorizing county Treasurers to receive U. S. Treasury notes and the issues of the State Bank of Iowa in payment of interest and principal of school fund.

PROMOTIONS. – Second Sergeant G. W. Harlan to First Lieut., Co. C, 4th Infantry; Sergeant Major F. Earle [sic], to First Lieut., Co. I, 8th Infantry; First Lieut. E. J. Weiser to Captaincy, Co. D, 3d Infantry; Capt. Stiver[s], 14th Infantry resigned.

Col. Noyes of the Governor’s staff, goes to Davenport to-morrow to superintend the shipment of clothing and hospital stores to Iowa troops in accordance with the resolution of the General Assembly, also if possible to consolidate the German regiment with the Sixteenth Regiment.

T. H. S.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

Our Financial Policy

Thomas H. Benton at the commencement of the Mexican war, condensed the method of sound national financiering into a single phrase: “Taxes first, loans next, and treasury paper last.”  Congress began at the second step last summer, and is now urged to take the third with perfect recklessness.  It is so much easier to stamp paper with showy pictures and delusive promises and call it money, than it is to draw real money by direct taxation from the pockets of the people, that our legislators have strong temptations to pursue the former course.  Debtors, who wish to pay off their obligations in a depreciated currency, speculators, who have stocks or goods to sell, and seek to obtain high prices under an inflated currency, foreign bankers, who wished to raise the rate of exchange and cause a flow of gold to Europe, and government contractors who, in the general unsettling of values, can charge the most exorbitant rates for supplies – all these classes desire an excessive issue of irredeemable paper money.  But there are strong symptoms that Congress will shut down on “demand notes” after $50,000,000 are issued, and will leave no article untaxed which is capable of yielding a revenue.  The House committee of ways and means are diligently at work adjusting the details of new internal tax bills which will produce, it is thought, at least $200,000,000 per annum, with the tariff duties already levied on imports.  This is beginning at the right end.  The beneficial effects of such rumored action is seen in the decline of the premium on gold from 5 to 1½@2 per cent. during last week.  Loans can be easily obtained at fair rates of interest, if securely anchored on stiff taxes.  Treasury paper can be resorted to as a temporary expedient, while waiting for taxes or loans to come in.  But there should be no humbug about it, no leaning upon it exclusively.  Broken promises and worthless pledges should form no part of the currency of a rich and intelligent people.  Irredeemable paper money is “played out” as a financial resource.  It has ruined more people that war for the last 150 years and has disgraced governments more deeply that defeat.  Experiments with it have always ended in one way, and burned the fingers of both rulers and subjects.  Are we to learn nothing from history?  No matter if the “demand notes” should be ultimately redeemed, as we all believe the will be.  They have depreciated already, so that 5 per cent discount has been charged upon them at Washington, even for “drinks.”  Increase the quantity, expand the general circulation with these notes, and they depreciate still further by a law as inexorable as that which melts snow and ice in a warm day.  For they are not money, calling them money will not make them so, acts of Congress and official autographs will not hold them up.  Alchemy of lead and iron is an exploded old fogy idea, but alchemy of paper, though just as ridiculous and impossible has many advocates.  Gold and silver are the only recognized money of the world.  Paper currency, however well secured will not pass in our trade with other nations.  A huge volume of “demand notes” will assuredly drain us of gold to be sent abroad, for we cannot stop trading with the rest of mankind, and must pay them balances in gold, and see balances rapidly accumulate against us from the withdrawal of orders for produce, which an inflated currency will carry up to a pitch making it unprofitable to buy of us, in comparison with countries enjoying a stable currency.  It may be tiresome to repeat so many truisms, but the great importance of the subject, and the fanciful bubbles that are blown by serious journals and admired by dashing operators of the John Law and Jules Isaac Mires class will justify the continued discussion. – {Springfield Republican.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 1

Another Fight Expected in Arkansas

ST. LOUIS, April 10. – The Republican’s correspondent with Gen. Curtis says: From facts learned in camp, another battle between the Federal and Rebel armies in that direction is not at all improbable, and that within a short period.

Two hauls of counterfeits were made here yesterday, and $100,000 in bogus U. S. Treasury notes and $10,000 on the State Bank of Indiana, together will a complete set of engraver’s tools, plates, presses, &c., have been captured.  The guilty parties were also arrested.  The bills are well executed and calculated to deceive the best judges.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862, p. 3