USA > Iowa > An illustrated history of the state of Iowa, being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875; > Part 19
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On the second of April, 1855, Wm. Mckay, of Polk county,
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DES MOINES RIVER IMPROVEMENT.
was elected commissioner, and John C. Lockwood, of Louisa county, register ; but in November, 1856, Mckay resigned and Edward Manning, of Van Buren county, was appointed by the governor to fill his place. Manning bore the name of a good busi- ness man and close financier, and he was not willing to audit the claims for incidental expenses as one for which the company were entitled to receive land. This became a matter of dispute between the company and the commissioner, and, in order to have the matter adjusted, the president proposed to make an abatement of seventy-two thousand dollars, but Manning did not feel disposed to settle the matter himself, and referred the whole claim to the legislature.
Manning, in his report to the legislature, showed that there had been sold by the state, through the board of public works, during the six years the state prosecuted the work, about four hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars worth of land, and for this sum, only "three stone masonry locks and two dams had been completed ; " and there had been certified to the Des Moines navigation and railroad company, by Bonney and Gillaspy, eighty-eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-three and nineteen- hundredths acres of land, and by Mckay and Lockwood, one hundred and sixteen thousand six hundred and thirty-six and four-hundredths acres, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, making two hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred and sixty-one dollars and fifty-three cents worth of land which had been disposed of to the present company, or part of which amount was for old debts]which they had paid.
The report of the committee and commissioner having been made to the legislature, that body, acting upon the premises that the contract which had been made by the commissioners with the company was not binding upon the state, on the 29th of Jan- uary, 1857, passed an act by which there was to be a commis- sioner appointed by the governor, who, with the regular com- missioner, were authorized to contract for speedy prosecution of the work, and it was made their duty to ascertain and pay off all just claims against the improvement, and they were authorized to contract with any company for the sale of all lands, tolls and water rents who would give satisfactory evidence and security
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for the completion of the improvement ; but they were not to bind the state by any contract further than the appropriation of lands and the income of the improvement, and no contract made by the commissioners was to be valid until approved by the gov- ernor ; and by this act the office of register and the office of assistant commissioners were abolished, and the register was required to deliver over to the state land office all books and papers in his office, and the register of the state land office was required to perform all the duties which the register of the improvement had done; and by thus doing the legislature gave the Des Moines navigation and railroad company to understand, that they did not regard the contract made with them by the commissioner as binding upon the state, though by this act, they made arrangements for auditing their claims and paying them their just dues.
About this time the question was again brought up in the land department at Washington, as to the extent of this grant of land, and the opinion was made public, that the original intention of congress was to only give the state the lands below Raccoon Fork; but a disposition was manifested to compromise, by the department recognizing as being in the grant, all lands adjacent to the river within the state; but assumptions had heretofore met with success, and now those interested in the land grant claimed and contended that this grant embraced all the lands to the source of the river.
This difficulty about the extent of the land grant, together with the action of the legislature nearly suspended all operations on the river, and much was said by the company, about enforcing their claims by law.
The commissioners appointed to audit and pay the claims against the improvement did not succeed in adjusting the claims of the company, and the matter was again referred to the legisla- ture ; and on the 22d of March, 1858, there was a joint resolution passed by the legislature, defining the basis on which the state would settle, and the company were given sixty days to consider whether they would accept and ratify this proposition, and if they did not, within that time, then it was made the duty of the governor to enjoin them from further proceeding with the work
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of the improvement ; and on the same day of adopting this reso- lution, there was an act passed giving all the lands which re- mained, after settling with the company "and also all the stone, timber and other materials turned over to the state by the com- pany to the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines, and Minnesota Railroad Company" for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Keokuk up the Des Moines valley to the northern line of the state, except the material which might be necessary to use for the completion of the locks and dams at Croton, Plymouth, Bentonsport and Keosauga, which the railroad company were to complete ; and also all debts which grew out of the improvement, which at that time remained unsatisfied, or in some manner provided for, but in this grant there was a provision made that it should not in any manner conflict with the lands which had, previous to that time been given to the state by congress for railroad purposes, which on the 15th of July 1856, had been given by the legislature to the companies formed to build the four roads designated in the grant. But it was understood that these lands having been do- nated by congress for the improvement of the navigation of the river Des Moines, could not be diverted to the building of a rail- road without the consent of congress, and measures were imme- diately taken to get congress to sanction the diversion ; but this attempt failed, so that the action of the Iowa legislature did not avail the railroad company anything that session.
The railroad company determined to make another effort at the next session of congress ; but before the time for this effort another, difficulty arose in the way of obtaining the lands for the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad Company.
In settling up the claims that the grants for improving the river Des Moines extended above the Raccoon Fork, the citizens of Iowa were united until after the grant of lands by congress for railroad purposes was made. After this, the railroad companies became interested in the lands claimed for the river improvement, and claimed that the grant did not embrace any lands above the Raccoon Fork, on which the citizens of the state were now di- vided, and both sides of the question were represented.
Upon this phase of the case, the officer of the land department at Washington had but very little hesitation in deciding against
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the claims of the river improvement. After this decision was made, the legal tribunals were resorted to, and a case was taken to the supreme court of the United States, where the same decis- ion was given as in the land office.
On the 3d of March, 1860, an act was passed abolishing the office of commissioner of the Des Moines river improvement, and George G. Wright, Edward Johnson and Christian W. Slagle were appointed a board of commissioners for the purpose of as- certaining all the liabilities against the river improvement, and against the state of Iowa growing out of the improvement. They were required to meet at Keosauqua, and were clothed with power, similar to the district court, to hear and determine all claims growing out of the river improvement, and were author- ized to sell all the interest of the state and all dams and improve- ments, and the lands appertaining thereto.
These commissioners proceeded with their duties, and, with their labors, closed all official acts, so far as the state was con- cerned, in applying ,the proceeds of this land grant towards the improvement of the navigation of the river.
This was a most magnificent grant, embracing some of the best lands in the state; and, if the proceeds had been properly and judiciously expended, would have made a great thoroughfare for steamboats, besides affording an immense water power for driving machinery ; but through incompetency in the management of the means, and the intrigues of designing men, the whole of the lands below the Raccoon fork, and a large quantity above were disposed of, and but very little practical good accomplished towards im- proving the navigation of the river.
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHILA
At Brook.
CHAPTER XXXII.
GOV. KIRKWOOD'S ADMINISTRATION.
Gov. Lowe's Last Message - Election of United States Senator - Extra Session in May 1861 -Gov. Kirkwood's Message -The Civil War- War Measures.
THE EIGHTH session of the general assembly of Iowa convened at Des Moines on the 9th day of January, 1860, and was organ- ized in the senate by Lieut. Gov. Orin Faville taking the chair, and the election of J. H. Sanders as secretary ; and in the house, by the election of John Edwards, speaker, and Charles Aldrich, chief clerk. On the succeeding day, Gov. Lowe sent to botlı houses his biennial message respecting the affairs of the state for the previous two years. From this document, which is lengthy, the following abstract is made.
He commences by saying "that the period that has elapsed since the last biennial session has been one of great disturbing causes, and of anxious solicitude to all classes of our fellow citi- zens. The first year of this period was visited with heavy and continuous rains which reduced the measure of our field crops below one half the usual product, whilst the financial revulsions which commenced upon the Atlantic in the fall of 1857, did not reach its climax for evil in our borders until the year just past. Of the disastrous effects produced by these two causes upon the hopes and condition of our people you need not be informed, and you may reasonably expect that strong appeals will be made to you for remedial legislation ; and I doubt not the pecuniary con- dition of the people will prompt you to put forth, in your sover- eign capacity, such powers as you possess to secure to them in- demnity against unreasonable and unjust sacrifices, in a manner that shall guard and protect the rights of all parties interested."
He referred at length to the claim of the state against the fed- (264)
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ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. KIRKWOOD.
eral government, and said that he had appcaled in vain to the secretary of the interior for the payment of the five per cent. upon the military land warrants that the state is justly entitled to, which then approximated to a million of dollars. The pay- ment of this fund, he says, "is not a mere favor which is asked of the general government, but a subsisting right which could be enforced in a court of justice, was there a tribunal of this kind clothed with the requisite jurisdiction."
The subject of the Des Moines River Grant received from the governor special attention, and he gave a history of the operations of the state authorities in reference to obtaining the residue of the lands to which the state was entitled, and other information as to the progress of the work. He also remarked "that under the act authorizing the governor to raise a company of mounted men for defense and protection of our frontier, approved February 9th, 1858, a company of thirty such men, known as the Frontier Guards, armed and equipped as required were organized and mus- tered into service under the command of Capt. Henry B. Martin, of Webster City, about the first of March then following, and were divided into two companies, one stationed on the Little Sioux river, the other at Spirit Lake. Their presence afforded security and gave quiet to the settlements in that region, and after a ser- vice of four months, they were duly disbanded.
" Late in the fall of the same year, however, great alarm and consternation was again felt in the region of Spirit Lake and Sioux River settlements, produced, by the appearance of large numbers of Indians on the border, whose bearing was insolent and menacing, and who were charged with clandestinely running off the stock of the settlers. The most urgent appeals came from these settlers, invoking again the protection of the state. From the representations made of the imminence of their danger, and the losses already sustained, the governor summoned into the field once more the frontier guards. After a service of four of five months they were again discharged, and paid in the manner pre- scribed in the act under which they were called out.
"It is believed that this company afforded the needed protection, and saved, it may be, our hardy border settlements from another inhuman butchery."
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
On the 11th of January, 1860, the two houses of the legislature met in joint convention for the purpose of canvassing the votes for governor and lieutenant governor, at the election in October, 1859. After the canvass it was announced that the whole num- ber of votes cast for the office of governor was 110,047, of which S. J. Kirkwood received 56,505 votes, and A. C. Dodge 53,342 votes ; and for lieutenant governor, N. J. Rusch received 55,142 votes ; L. W. Babbitt, 52,874; N. P. Rusch, 307 ; S. W. Babbitt, 114, and 109 votes scattering. Whereupon the president an- nounced that S. J. Kirkwood and N. J. Rusch were duly elected governor and lieutenant governor of the state for the term of two years. The governor and lieutenant governor elect, accompanied by the other state officers, soon after appeared before the conven- tion and the governor read his inaugural message, after which the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Wright of the supreme court.
A joint convention of the two houses was also held, on the 14th of January, for the election of a United States senator, at which time James Harlan received 73 votes, and Augustus C. Dodge received 52 votes. Mr. Harlan was declared duly elected senator for six years from and after the fourth day of March, 1861. The legislature adjourned April 3, 1860. The following special acts were passed at this session. The general laws passed were printed in the revised statutes : Appropriating money for furniture and improvements in the capitol building ; same for the deaf and dumb, the blind, and the insane institutions, and the state peni- tentiary ; accepting and carrying into execution the trust con- ferred by congress for railroads in the state ; to reapportion the state into senate and assembly districts ; to provide for the estab- lishment of a commissioner of immigration ; to submit to a vote of the people an amendment to the banking law ; and a number of acts incorporating and amending the charters of towns, villages and cities ; the appointment of commissioners to locate county seats ; disposition of swamp and saline lands, and the lands of the Des Moines improvement ; the change of names of towns, and other measures of local interest.
At the general election in 1860, for president, the republican electoral ticket received 70,302 votes, and the democratic electors,
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ADMINISTRATION OF Gov. KIRKWOOD.
55,069, and the electors favorable to John Bell, 1,763. The repub- lican ticket was elected, and at a meeting of the electoral college, they cast their votes, for the state of Iowa, for Abraham Lincoln for president, and H. Hamlin for Vice President.
Pursuant to a proclamation of the governor, the general assem- bly convened at Des Moines, on the 15th of May, 1861, in extra session. In the senate the lieutenant governor declined to take the chair as speaker, as he had been appointed to the office of commissioner of emigration, and J. F. Wilson was ap- pointed temporary president and J. H. Sanders secretary. In the house, Hon. John Edwards assumed the chair and Chas. Aldrich was elected chief clerk pro tem. The latter gentlemen declining the position, Wm. Thompson was elected to that position. On the following day, Gov. Kirkwood sent to each house, his annual message, from which liberal extracts have been taken. He com- mences by saying :
" The constitution requires that I shall state to you the purpose for which you have been convened in extraordinary session.
" When a little more than a year ago your regular session clos- ed, the whole country was in the enjoyment of peace, and pros- perity. At home, life, liberty, and property were secure, and abroad the title of an American citizen was claimed with pride, and a full assurance that it was a sure guaranty of respect and protectiou to all who could make good the claim. To-day civil war is upon us, and a wide-spread conspiracy against the general government, which we now know has been maturing for years, has been developed, and the whole country is filled with the din of arms. On the one hand, and from one section of the country men who should be loyal citizens, if benefits conferred by a gov- ernment should make men loyal to it, are mustering in armed bands with the intent to dissolve the union, and destroy our gov- ernment, and on the other hand partially from the same section, and as one man from the other, our loyal people are rallying around our union and our government, and pledging for their maintenance, what our fathers so freely periled to secure for them, life, fortune and honor.
"In this emergency Iowa must not and does not occupy a doubtful position. For the union as our fathers formed it, and
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
for the government they founded so wisely, and so well, the peo- ple of Iowa are ready to pledge every fighting man in the state and every dollar of her money and credit : and I have called you together in extraordinary session, for the purpose of enabling them to make that pledge formal and effective.
" On the 15th day of April last, the President issued his proc- lamation, calling on the loyal states for aid to enforce the laws. On the 25th day of the same month, I received from the secretary of war a requisition on this state dated on the 15th, calling for one regiment of troops. Having been before advised by tele- graph that such requisition had been issued, I felt well assured that I would only be carrying out your will and the will of the people of the state, in responding to the call as promptly as possible. I therefore did not wait the receipt of the formal requisition, but proceeded at once to take such steps as seemed to me best adapted to speedily effect that object. I was met at the outset by two difficulties. There were not any funds under my control to meet the necessary expenses, nor was there any effcient military law under which to operate. Your action only could furnish these aids in a legal way, and yet to await your action would involve great, perhaps dangerous, delay.
" The first difficulty was obviated by the patriotic action of the chartered banks, and citizens of the state, who promptly placed at my disposal all the money I might need, and I determined, although without authority of law, to accept their offer, trusting that you would legalize my acts. One difficulty thus avoided, I trusted, and as the result shows, safely, to the patriotism of the people for the removal of the other, and on the 17th day of April issued my proclamation calling for the requisite number of troops.
" The telegraphic dispatch of the secretary of war informed mc that it would be sufficient if the troops required of this state were in rendezvous at Keokuk, by the 20th inst. The prompt and patriotic action of the people enabled me to place them there in uniform on the 8th, twelve days in advance of the time fixed, and they would have been there a week sooner had not the action of the mob at Baltimore cut off all communication with the seat of government, and left me without any instructions for two weeks.
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.FHILA.
John a Halderman
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TUTTLE'S HISTORY OF IOWA.
I recommend that you make suitable appropriations covering ex- penses thus incurred.
" Tenders of troops were made altogether beyond the amount required, and learning from the newspapers and other sources, that another requisition would probably be made on this state, I took the responsibility of ordering into quarters, in the respective counties where raised, enough companies to form a second regi- ment in anticipation of such requisition, that they might acquire the necessary discipline and drill. The second requisition has not yet reached me, but I am expecting it daily, and am prepared to respond to it promptly when inade.
" The officers and men composing the first regiment were in quarters for sometime before being mustered into the service of the United States and those called out in anticipation of a second requisition will have been in quarters a considerable time before they will be called into service, if at all. It is but just that pro- vision be made for payment of the men who have thus promptly and patriotically stepped forth in the defense of the country, for the time lost by them before being actually received by the United States, and I recommend that you make the necessary ap- propriations for that purpose.
" In addition to the two regiments thus accepted by me, I have already received tenders of companies enough to make up five regiments more, and I have been strongly urged by them, and by many other good citizens, to accept the whole, and place them in quarters at the expense of the state. In view of the facts that all I had done was without authority of law, and the further fact that you, the law making power of the state, were so soon to assemble, I did not feel justified in so doing, but have recommended in all cases that all such companies should, if possible, keep up their organization, and should devote as much of their time as possible to the drill, without interfering materially with their ordinary business, thus keeping in reserve a large organized and partially drilled force to meet emergencies.
"It will be necessary that you enact a military law, authoriz- ing, among other things, the formation of a military staff under which I can have the assistance and advice of such officers as compose it, in raising, arming, equipping and supporting such
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ADMINISTRATION OF Gov. KIRKWOOD.
further troops as you may direct to be raised for the use of the state, or as may be required by the United States.
"It will also be necessary to use the credit of the state to raise means to meet the extraordinary expenses incurred, and to be in- curred. You have the power to do this under that provision of the constitution which authorizes without a vote of the people the contracting of a debt 'to repel invasion' or to 'defend the state in war.'
" In most or all of the counties in which companies have thus far been accepted, the board of supervisors or public and spirited citizens have raised means for the support of the families of vol- unteers who have left families dependent on them for support. This action is eminently praiseworthy, and yet its operation is partial and unequal. It is scarcely to be presumed that compa- nies will be received from all the counties of the state, or equally from those counties from which they may be received, and it seems to me much more equitable and just that the expense be borne by the state, and the burden thus equally distributed among our people.
"The procuring of a liberal supply of arms for the use of the state is a matter that I earnestly recommend to your early and serious consideration. The last four weeks have taught us a les- son which I trust we may never forget, that peace is the proper time in which to prepare for war.
" I feel assured the state can readily raise the means necessary to place her in a position consistent alike with her honor and her safety. Her territory of great extent and unsurpassed fertility, inviting and constantly receiving a desirable emigration, her pop- ulation of near three quarters of a million of intelligent, industri- ous, energetic and liberty loving people, her rapid past and pros- pective growth, her present financial condition, having a debt of only about one quarter of a million of dollars, unite to make her bonds among the most desirable investments that our country af- fords.
" The people of Iowa, your constituents and mine, remember- ing that money is the sinews of war, will consider alike criminal a mistaken parsimony which stops short of doing whatever is necessary for the honor and safety of the state and a wild extrav-
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agance which would unnecessarily squander the public trea- sure."
The business of the session was confined mainly to acts con- nected with the war and for the benefit of volunteers. The fol- lowing enactments were of this character: an act to legalize the acts of certain boards of supervisors and municipal corporations, by which any appropriations heretofore made by these corpora- tions for procuring equipments, munitions of war, or maintaining the families of enlisted persons, are legalized and confirmed ; an act requiring and authorizing the governor to purchase arms, powder, clothing, etc., and providing the means of payment; for the relief of the volunteer soldiers of the state, by which in all actions now pending or that may be hereafter in any of the courts of the state, if the defendant is absent from home in actual military service, it shall be a sufficient cause for a continuance of such suits until such soldier is discharged or mustered out; providing for auditing all accounts and disbursements arising under a call for volunteers, and the appointment of a board of commissioners to audit such accounts ; an act for the relief of volunteers, provid- ing that officers and privates shall be paid out of the war and defense fund, for the time between the date such volunteers were or may be ordered into quarters by the governor, to the time they may have been or may be mustured into the United States army ; to provide for the issue and sale of state bonds to procure a loan of money for the state to repel invasion and defend itself in war (not exceeding the sum of $800,000); to amend the militia law of the state ; to appropriate money to pay expenses incurred by the state in calling out, organizing, uniforming, subsisting and equiping the militia of the state, and purchasing arms and muni- tions of war; same for the militia men of the state for the better protection of the exposed borders of the state, and to resist maraud- ing parties of Indians and other hostile persons, etc., empowering the board of supervisors to make appropriations for the support of the families of volunteers.
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