Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/reportonwarclaimOOiowa REPORT ON WAR CLAIMS AGAINST THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. ;id SPECIAL MESSAGE . GOVERNOR OF IOWA, TRANSMITTINQ REPORT OF JOHN N. DEWEY. COMMISSIONER UNDER CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE, OP THE ACTS OF THE ELEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY. LAID BEFORE THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY, APRIL 2, 1872. DES MOINES : Cr. V^. EDWAHDS, STATE PflNTEIl. 1872. . J^ 44- Co . n . 'B^-*-:^ APR 2 9 ■'9'"* [ No. 23 a. ] SPECIAL MESSAGE. STATE OF IOWA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ) April 3, 1873. ( Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representative^: I herewith transmit the final report of Col. John N, Dewej, Com- missioner under chapter 95, of the acts of the Eleventh General As- sembly, giving a detailed statement of the prosecution before the accounting officers at "Washington, of the claims of the State growing out of the war of the rebellion, and the protection of our frontiers, from the date of his appointment to the 1st dav of April, 1S72. This statement shows that since the date of his last report to my predecessor, the Commissioner has secured the allowance of ^80,237.40, making, with the sum then just allowed, a total of '^101,376.02, leaving a disallowed balance of $33,900.82. The nature of the claims disallowed, and the extreme improbability of ever getting them audited and paid without special legislation by Congress, you will find fully set forth in the accompanying report. On the 18th day of April, A. D., 1866, the act took eftect, which constituted Col. Dewey a Commissioner for the State to press these claims to a settlement with the General Government. He entered upon his duties with his usual zeal, system, and determination. He found unadjusted balances claimed by the State of Iowa, amounting to $1,090,733.50. These claims, although regarded as just, were at that time thought to be so uncertain as to collection, that several gen- tleman who had given them attention, were favorable to a commuta' tion with the Government, from which we would have failed to real- ize one-half the amount of subsequent allowances. I cannot, there- fore, in submitting this report, fail to say that the Commissioner for 4 SPECIAL MESSAGE. Iowa, by the energy and good judgment with which he pressed the claims before the Departments at Washington, and the results real- ized from his efforts, has more than met the expectations of the peo- ple, especially of those conversant with the obstacles he had to over- come, and is entitled, aside fro)n his compensation, to the recogni- tion of having been a faithful and conscientious agent of the State. C. C. CARPENTER. REPORT. To His Excellency^ C. C. Carpenter, Governor : Having, since the date of mj last report to your immediate prede- cessor, concluded a final settlement of the first installment of the Iowa war claims, by which the whole of the then outstanding bal- ance has been recovered, and a special settlement of the second, third, fifth, and seventli installments, by which the further sum of $80,237.40 has been admitted due, making, with the addition of the sum then but recently admitted, a total of $101,376.02, which I have caused to be carried to the credit of the State, as per statement of Third Auditor to your Excellency, I beg now, as then intimated, to make a final report of my action in these premises. These claiins, although all of a military character, arose at differ- ent periods of time, and grew out of different exigencies. For some of them, Congress in 1861 made provision for payment, while, for others, none whatever had been made, these last being essentially for expenses incurred for State protection, and not for national de- fense. Nearly a quarter of a million of dollars was of this charac- ter, and for their payment provision had first to be made by law. To secure this, was one of the earliest efforts of the undersigned — an effort in the end successful, through the aid and influence of the very able delegation then representing this State in the Federal Congress. No authority of Congress, however, ever authorized the payment of any of these claims, except upon proper vouchers, passed upon and settled by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury Department, after the most rigid scrutiny. These settlements were made by in- stallments, and involved a great amount of labor, not only in prepar- ing them for departmental action, but also in subsequent explana- tions, personally and in w^riting, whereby objections were removed, by supplying information to those having charge of the examination of the vouchers, as to the legality, authority, justice, or necessity of the different expenditures, for which re-imbursement was claimed. 6 REPORT OP The first installment (numerically) filed with the Department in February, 1862, was for pay of services of officers and men of the first three regiments of infantry, previous to their muster into United States service. It amounted to $30,824.51. The second installment, filed in February, 18G3, was on account of payments made for " barracks and quarters, clothing, subsistence, " transportation, recruiting, and other expenses," necessarily incurred in raising troops for the United States service, to be employed in sup- pressing the rebelhon. Amount as filed, $334,281.47. The third installment, filed in March, 1863, was for payments made to the officers and men of the remaining infantry and cavalry regiments, (First Cavalry excepted,) for services previous to muster-in. Amount as filed, $282,457.30. The fourth installment, or what is known as the fourth installment, was really the first as to pclint of time in which it originated. It arose out of expenses incurred in maintaining a company of men in the Spirit Lake country in 1857-8, to guard against a recurrence of what was known as the " Ink-pa-du-tah raid," or massacre. It amounted to $18,988.84, and was originally preferred against the general Gov- ernment by Governor Lowe, in 1859. Congress passed an act in 1860 for its payment, but coupled with certain provisions that nearly rendered it nugatory, so much so that it was not sufficiently perfect- ed to go before the accounting officers of the Treasury Department until November, 1867. The fifth installment, filed January, 1869, like the second, was for expenses necessarily incurred for " barracks and quarters, clothing, " subsistence, transportation, and other expenses," on account of troops raised for United States service, etc. Amount, as filed, $166,574.51. The sixth installment, filed in April, 1869, was on account of ex- penses incurred in raising, paying, and maintaining a militia force in 1861, '2, and '3, along our northern and southern borders, to guard against incursions by hostile Indians and rebel guerrillas. Like the fourth installment, legislation by Congress had to be invoked before it could be acted upon, or paid. This was at last obtained in the winter of 1869, when the accounts were immediately " abstracted,''' and brought before the proper accounting officers of the Treasury Department. Amount filed, $229,848.23. COMMISSIONER J. N. DEWEY. 7 The seventh installment, filed December, 1S69, was on account of payments made to the officers and men exclusively of the First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry for services rendered previous to muster into the United States service. Amount filed, $27,779.42. These several installments amounted in the .aggregate — after balancing errors in extensions and footings — to the sum of $1,090,733.50. From this amount deduct, on account of vouchers withdrawn from second installment and filed with th<3 sixth, $343.04 ; also, on account of vouchers withdrawn from fifth install- ment and returned to town of Guttenburg, and Clayton and Fayette counties, $1,500.55 — $1,843.59 — and we have remaining the sum of $1,088,889.91. Of this amount I have recovered, and the State has been credited at different times on the books of the Treasury Department at Washington City, the sum of $1,054,989.09, leaving $33,889.91 as an unadjusted or disallowed balance. The vouchers representing this disallowed balance remain in the ofiice of the Third Auditor at "Washington ; most of them have been disallowed two and three times over, after as many explanations. They repre- sent a class of expenditures impossible for the State to have avoided, but yet of such a character that in no instance has the Government refunded them to a single State ; their numbers and amounts, as well as reasons for their disallowance, may be ascertained upon con- sulting the statement of differences " on special settlement of second, " third, fifth, and seventh installments, reported February 9th, 1872, " returned February 10. 1872," — copy of which has just been re- ceived, and which I hand you herewith. A comparison of these vouchers with the original abstracts filed therewith in the Depart- ment, shows this balance distributed as follows, viz : On accc'unt of payments made to officers and men $17,294.30 " " " clothing furnished to officers 211.62 " " " subsistence 229.79 " " " transportation 5,200.33 " " " recruiting 110.00 " " " other expenses 10,854.78 Total ' $33,900.82 g REPORT OF A very large proportion of the " payments made to officers and " men," wliicli were disallowed, was on account of their failure to muster into the United States service. So of subsistence and trans- portation ; nearly all of it being on account of rejected volunteers, furlouo-hed, sick, or wounded soldiers, and officers who, for various reasons, failed to muster. Under the head of " other expenses " was included w^iatever was expended by the State that did not strictly fall under some one of the preceding heads; as, the entire expense of the Adjutant, Pay, Quar- termaster, and Surgeon-General's departments, the Bond or Loan Commissioners, the Board of Auditing Commissioners, interest on money temporarily borrowed, blank books and stationery for all the military departments, telegraphing, printing, advertising, etc. In the aggregate it amounted to nearly $150,000, and, considering the nature, character, and great variety of these incidental expenses, the amount remaining unpaid is very small. It may be very nearly dis- tributed as follows : Clerical services in A. G., Q. M. G., and P. M. G. Depart- ments, including blank books, stationery, 6zc $ 3,500.00 Bond or loan commissioners, with printing, 6cc , for same. 2,600.00 Auditing commissioners, including blank books,