Year: 1868

Gentlemen ofMe Senate and House ef Rep.


resentatices:


With gratitude to the people of Iowa for
an election to the responsible Office of chief
magistrate of the State, l appear before
you to take the solemn obligations prescri.
bed by the Constitution, and to give assur-
ance of fidelity to the interests Of the Com
monwealth.


| The period in which we meet is distin-
guished with peculiar favor. The labors
Of the husbandman have been crowned
with plenty; Pestilenee and Want have
not visited us; spirit Of goodwill and
fraternal regard has prevailed throughout
al our borders. Let US gratefully ack-
nowiedge the beniicsnt Author of these
blessings and recognize our increased OBJ
legations Of obedience and love.


The prospects of our State were never
more hopeful. The finances are in sound
and healthful condition. Notwithstanding
the heavy burdens Of war, we find our
selves untramme.ed with debt and free
from exhausting taxation. Our seasons
are kindly, and our harvest3 abundant
The useful and mechanic arts have not
been neglected in the development of our
resources. Never in our history has the
spirit of internal improvements exhibited
such strength of purpose as to-day, and
energy and enterprise are everywhere striv-
ing to promot, the commercial facilities of
the State. Especially is'this manifest in
the rapid development of our railway com.
munications. In 1859, the number of miles
o railway in operation was three hundred
and ninety in 1868, it was seven humid
red and ninety three while at the pres
ent time it can not be less than twelve
hundred, and as this estimate embraces
but fractional part of chartered lines, we
see how hopeful, how full Of promise is
our future in this particular. The growth
of our cities and towns t spread of our
commerce the multiplication Of schools
and colleges in our midst, are evidences of
a substantial and progressive prosperity.
The representations OF the condition of
the State in its details by my predecessor
have given you a favorable introduction to
its varied interests, and bespeak for his
recommendations your careful considera
ton. To again consider the topics which
have been so Gently and so well present
ed would seem unnecessary upon the pres
ent occasion. Hereafter may deem it my
duty to invite your attention to some par
ticular subjects of legislation, and there
fore shall be pardoned if l now turn to
the more extended field of national affairs.


In the war for preserving the unity of
the Republic, the people of Iowa bore a
leading and brilliant part. Well may we
congratulate ourselves, therefore. that the
labors in which we have shared. the sor-
rows in which we have participated, the
hopes and anxieties which we have felt in
common with loyal hearts all over the
land, have established it upon firmer foun-
dations than ever before. The pcrnicious
dogma of State Rights perished with
the sword which was drawn in its defense
1t is one of the first fruits of victory that
we are not a Republic of corporations,
but a Republic Of the people, and that in
questions affecting the interests Of all the
States, the ultimate arbiters are the people
of the United States. While the rights Of
none are to suffer encroachment, and the
prerogatives of each are to be jealously
guarded by the power of the whole, the
popular will must be the great expounder
OF the Constitution. The cry has been
raised that in establishing and fortifying
the powers of the nation, the people are
in danger of losing their liberties. Histo-
ry has been cited to show that we are imi-
tatinS the unhappy policy of other free
governments, in which, first the spirit, and
then the form, Of their institutions perish
cd. But it is forgotten that men have new
er before attained a freedom worthy of the
name, and that if they failed they failed
because they were unworthy.


Our own experience has more meaning
lessons for US than any examples of former
success or ruin. Disclaiming the heresy
that the nation is every thing and the State
nothing, let US at the same time rejoice
that we have established so firm ly the par
amount sovereignty of the Union over all
it's parts, that in the hour of great nation
al exigency, we shall never again be COM
PEELED to listen to the declaration that
!" there is no power in the general govern
ment to coerce a sovereign State" Gen.
trfugal must yield to centripetal law, Or
our system must perish. And yet neither
can be spared from the perfection of our
theory. With the idea that the authority
of the whole is supreme, must be coupled
the principle that the States have sphere
Of action, limited to be sure, but neyerthe-
less distinct sphere, which the general
government las neither the power nor
wish to invade.


To vindicate the integrity of the Union
required large expenditure. Happily
for us and for the success of our cause,
the credit of the nation was equal to the
emergency which called it into exercise
In times of unprecedented difficulty, and
when our financial ability seemed the piv-
otal point of triumph or defeat, it proved
an uniaiing rock Of supply. To main
that credit constitutes our most sacred
duty /; and whatever responsibilities it
may impose upon us, the highest standard
of national good faith will command the
verdict of the American people. The cit
idel of financial honor can not be guard
too sacredly. / should reprobate as the
most caIamitous of misfortunes any legis-
lation on the part of Congress, tending to
invalidate the plighted, or even the fairly
implied, faith Of the nation.


1t has become the conviction of some
that a part of the national bonds could be
redeemed in currency, without fraud upon
the holder. The advocates of this policy
base the righteousness of such redemption
upon the fact that tho bonds themselves
contain no stipulation of payment in spe-
Gle. A more subtle, insiduous and, at the
same time, deadly attack upon the public
credit could not have been made. Apart
from the fact that gold is the recognized.
currency Of the world and the standard of
value, and that we can not exempt our
selves from the operation. of this law, there
was, in this instance, an implied under
standing with both parties to the covenant
that loans to the Government should be
paid in specie. The Secretary of the Trea-
sury placed this Interpretation upon the
contract at the time the loan was being ne
gotiated. All the contemporaneous acts
and sayings of the men who framed the
law are explicit in the assurance that no
other intention lurked in the purposes of