PENNSYLVANIA. 



049 



Upon this pledge the existing loans were made, 

 and mostly at the low rate of five per cent, in- 

 terest. A correspondence upon the subject 

 took place between the State Treasurer and one 

 of the English bondholders, Sir Henry Holland, 

 in December, in which the Treasurer states his 

 views of the necessity as follows : 



The Legislature last year saw fit to alter that policy, 

 nd our interest is now paid in United States notes. 



This action of our Legislature was induced by tne 

 extraordinary circumstances in which the nation was 

 placed, and I am free to give it as my opinion that, 

 although the United States have made tbeir notes a 

 legal tender in all transactions, and we have no State 

 revenue in coin to meet our interest, that our justifi- 

 cation in a departure from paying it in coin can only 

 be found in one of those State necessities which yin- 

 dicate a nation in temporarily postponing its obliga- 

 tions, in order to preserve the power to discharge 

 them at a future day. 



I am also free to say, that my feelings of sympathy 

 for the holders of our securities in your country have 

 been very much weakened by the action of your peo- 

 ple since the expression of my opinion to the Legis- 

 lature to which I have called your attention. 



For four years our National Government has been 

 struggling to put down a most wicked and causeless 

 rebellion upon the part of some of the States of this 

 Union, and the enormous expenses incident upon 

 this war in which we have been engaged to preserve 

 the life of the nation, must be met oy the various 

 States of the Union, and the amount of those ex- 

 penses which has thus been thrown upon the citizens 

 of our State would have paid the entire amount of our 

 debt more than four times over. 



In this struggle we looked for no assistance what- 

 ever from your people or your Government, and de- 

 sired none ; but we did hope and believe, and had a 

 .right so to believe, that your people and your Gov- 

 ernment would give no countenance or assistance to 

 the rebels who were in arms against our Government 

 and its authority. In this we have been disappointed ; 

 and I believe that but for the granting of belligerent 

 rights to the rebels by Great Britain, and the assist- 

 ance and countenance which they have received from 

 her people, we should have long" since put down this 

 rebellion, and you would have~had no occasion to 

 "protest" against what you term " a repudiation 

 of the obligations of a State." 



It is true we have no positive evidence that the 

 holders of our bonds in your countrv are among 

 those who have given aid or countenance to our 

 enemy, but it is also true that all the public expres- 

 sions of sympathy in your country for our nation in 

 this its hour of trial have come, with a few noble ex- 

 ceptions, from that class in your midst who are un- 

 able, from their position in life, to own public securi- 

 ties of any kind. 



We have looked in vain for any openly-expressed 

 sympathy for our nation from that class in your 

 country who represent its wealth and official posi- 

 tion, with the few exceptions I have before admit- 

 ted, while we do know that our enemy has received 

 so much aid, assistance, and sympathy from rfiis class 

 of your people, and protection in many instances 

 from vour Government, that it has needlessly pro- 

 longed this rebellion, and added hundreds of millions 

 to the expenses necessarily incurred by the State in 

 its suppression, besides largely increasing the sacri- 

 fice of life and the sufferings o'f the people. 



"While I do not offer these facts as an excuse for 

 our State for the action she has taken, as she needs 

 no excuse at my hands, I do allude to them as reasons 

 why the holders of her securities in your country 

 have much'less cause for complaint than they other- 

 wise would have, and why your protest does not 

 carry that weight and force which, in my opinion, it 

 would possess did these facts not exist. 



The receipts of the Treasury during the 

 fiscal year, ending Nov. 30th, together with 

 the balance of the preceding year, were $6,- 

 880,644. The payments during the same pe- 

 riod were 4,938,441 ; leaving a balance of 

 $1,942,203. The revenue derived from a tax 

 on banks during the year was $539,606. So 

 many of them are now becoming National 

 Banks, that this source of revenue may now 

 be considered as substantially extinguished. 



The contribution of the State to the military 

 service of the United States has been as fol- 

 lows: 



Troops sent into service during 1S64 : 



Organizations for three years' term 



Organizations for one hundred days' term 



Organizations for one year's term 16,094 



Volunteer recruits. ..." 



Drafted men and substitutes 



Becruits for regular army 



Beenlistments of Pennsylvania volunteers : 



Infantry ". 



Cavalry 



Artillery 



Accredited to other Suites 88J 







' 



Troops sent into the service of the United States since the 

 commencement of the rebellion, including the ninety days' 

 militia in the Departments of the Monongahela and Sus- 

 quehanna in 



During the year 1861 130.594 



: 71.100 



" " 1SG3 43.046 



" u 1864 



EeOnlistment of Pennsvlvania volunteers 17.S76 



336,441 



The twenty-five thousand militia of 1862 are 

 not included in this statement. 



The system of bounties to volunteers was at- 

 tended with serious evils in some parts of the 

 State. In some counties and townships the 

 bounty tax during the year is estimated to have 

 exceeded the average income derived from the 

 land. The large sums offered in some places in 

 the competition for men have demoralized 

 many of the people, and the most atrocious 

 frauds connected with the system have become 

 common. The men of some of the poorer 

 counties have been nearly exhausted by their 

 volunteers being credited to richer counties 

 which paid higher bounties. Of the number 

 of men to whom bounties have been paid, it is 

 believed that not one-fourth have been actually 

 placed in the ranks of the army, and even those 

 who have joined it have probably not, on an 

 average, received for their own use one-half of 

 the bounty paid for them. The quota of the 

 State under the call for 300,000 in December, 

 1864, was 66,999. The opinion of the Supreme 

 Court of the State, declaring the conscription 

 act unconstitutional, was by a change in the. 

 judges reversed. The question came up on a 

 motion to dissolve an injunction granted at the 

 tune of the first decision. 



An act was passed by the Legislature at its 

 special session in August to enable the soldiers 

 in the field to vote at elections. The first re- 

 quisite for a voter, if a soldier, was that he 

 should be assessed and pay a tax of ten cents 

 in the township in which he belonged. This 



