LEGISLATURE, 1863.

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HOUSE DOC.
No. 2.

[No. 2.]

REPORT of the majority of the Select Committee of the Senate and the Committee of Ways and Means of the House, in relation to the Legalization of the action of Towns and Counties in raising Bounties for Volunteers.

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The majority of the select committee of the Senate, and of the committee of ways and meaus of the House, authorized by concurrent vote of both branches to act as a joint committee, and to whom was referred so much of the Governor's relates to the legalization of the action of towns and counties in raising bounties for volunteers;" and to whom was also referred, on the part of the Senate, the following memorials and petitions, viz:

Of the board of supervisors of the counties of Midland, Saginaw, Alpena, Lenawee and Kent, asking that certain orders and bonds issued by them to volunteers, or for the payment of bounties to volunteers, by their respective counties, to fill the quotas of said counties under the last call of the President, and all action in reference to said bonds, or to the raising of money for the payment of the same, be legalized;

Of the board of supervisors of the county of Branch, asking

that the action of said board may be legalized in offering a bounty of one hundred and fifty dollars to each volunteer for said county;

Of the board of supervisors of the county of Saginaw, asking that a law be passed to legalize the action of towns in raising funds to encourage enlistments, and also to legalize all acts passed by said board, or which may hereafter be passed, to acilitate the raising of volunteers;

Of the board of supervisors of Hillsdale county, asking for the passage of a law making bounties uniform throughout the State, and doing away with all subsequent township bounties;

Of the board of supervisors of Montcalm county, asking that a law shall be passed whereby the State shall assume the payment of town and county bonds to volunteers;

Of Nathan Cole and 39 others, tax-payers of West Bloomfield, in the county of Oakland;

Of D. D. Riley and 24 others. citizens of the township of Sherwood, in the county of Branch;

Of A. M. Felt and 59 others, inhabitants of the township of Clayton, in the county of Genesee;

Of the township board of Iosco, in the county of Livingston; Of the township board of Sharon, in the county of Washtenaw;

Of T. C. Carpenter and 90 others, inhabitants of the township of Sturgis, in the county of St. Joseph;

Of L. A. Beadle and 97 others, citizens of the township of Ross, in the county of Kalamazoo, asking for the passage of such laws as shall be necessary to authorize and legalize the assessment and collection of taxes in their respective towns, for the payment of bounties to volunteers, or for the payment of moneys which have been advanced for that purpose;

Of John I. Gordon and 23 others, inhabitants of the township of Clayton, in the county of Genesee, asking for the passage of a law authorizing said township to raise by tax, a sum not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, to refund the commutation money paid by men drafted Oct. 26th, 1863;

Of the board of supervisors of the county of Oceana, asking that the bonds issued by said county for the payment of bounties, be assumed as a State tax;

Of John McDermid and 10 others, tax payers of the township of Cambria, in the county of Hillsdale, asking for a law to authorize the levying and collecting of a tax not exceeding one thousand dollars, to refund moneys loaned and paid to volunteers, in bounties;

Of the board of supervisors of the county of Cass, asking that the bonds of the county be legalized, and that a law be passed authorizing the levying and collecting of township taxes to redeem the bonds issued by the townships in said county;

Of the township board of Fayette, in the county of Hillsdale; Or John McLouth and 40 other inhabitants and electors of the township of Wheatland, in the county of Hillsdale;

Of the township board of Adams, in the county of Hillsdale; Of Sylvester Hoyt, supervisor, and A. J. Bennett, clerk, of the township of De Witt, in the county of Clinton, asking that the action of said township in issuing bonds and borrowing money for the pay of bounties to volunteers, be legalized; and that they be authorized to raise the necessary amount for the payment of the same, by taxes;

Of S. V. Irwin and 30 others, electors and tax-payers of the township of Albion, in the county of Calhoun;

Of W. H. Bidwell and 20 others, electors and tax-payers of Sheridan, in the county of Calhoun, who furnished the money for that township to pay the bounties voted to be raised and paid by said township to volunteers enlisting in the service of United States from said township-asking the passage of an act to legalize the proceeding taken by said township to raise and pay the same;

Of Joseph Darwood and 58 others, citizens of the township of Dryden, in the county of Lapeer, asking the enactment of a law authorizing said township to levy taxes on the taxable property of the township, in accordance with a vote of the