Pacific coast, duly conferred with the governor and the legislature of the State of California and jointly agreed upon the manner in which the defenses of said State for the common defense should be improved and perfected, and which system of defense so agreed upon was adopted by the legislature of California, as contemplated in said letter of Mr. Secretary Seward. These commanding generals spoke not in their own names but in the name of their highest military commander, to wit: The Commander in Chief of the Army, the President of the United States, all of whose official acts were approved, legalized, and made valid by Congress as if done by express authority and direction of Congress. In addition, the State of California relied and now relies for full indemnity and reimbursement herein upon that general comity that has ever heretofore existed between the United States and the several States in all cases wherever and whenever the latter have been made, either expressly or impliedly, the agents of the United States in aiding to maintain the common defense during a period of actual war. There was no war in California or between California and surrounding States. The Civil War was between the United States and the Confederate States. These war costs, charges, and expenses of the State of California so incurred under State and Federal authority, executive and legislative, were incurred not in the defense of said State, separate and apart from the rest of the States, but were incurred in aiding the United States to maintain the common defense; and when incurred were authorized by the State Legislature of the State of California, moved thereto at the urgent solicitation of the highest executive authority of the United States, with the approval and at the direction of the President of the United States and by the sanction and indorsement of Congress theretofore duly expressed in the act and resolutions herein before cited. To all intents and purposes the State of California was made the agent of the United States for the purposes of enlisting, supplying, training, transporting, and paying troops, which were so enlisted, supplied, trained, transported, and paid but for one purpose. That purpose was the common defense in time of war. For that purpose, and only for that purpose, the State of California depleted its treasury and extended its credit through the sale of its interest-bearing State bonds to the end that the common defense might be maintained and the integrity of the Union preserved. It has been demonstrated that in all essential particulars the State, through its responsible public officials, consulted and cooperated with the commanding Army officer on the Pacific coast and what was done was done with his full approval and accorded with his best judgment. The expenditures made were in all respects necessary expenditures in a time of great stress when the United States Government was in great need of men and money for use in the eastern theater of the war. California in recruiting troops to protect the overland mail route and for the expeditions into Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Oregon, acted for and in behalf of the United States as principal. In the agency so undertaken the situation being remote, the cone ditions being extraordinary, and the emergency one of national concern, the State was expected to act and did act in concurrence with the recommendation and approval of the commander of the Department of the Pacific. The rule of agency, as expressed in Story on Agency, is applicable: Whether the authority be expressed or implied, it necessarily carries with it or includes in it as an incident all the powers which are necessary or proper or usual as means to effectuate the purposes for which the agency was created. In cases of necessity or great urgency it is only necessary that the agent should act bona fide and with reasonable discretion in order to bind the principal. (1 Story, 43.) That the State of California acted in good faith and with reasonable discretion has never been questioned. Moreover, it so acted in cooperation with and with the approval of the highest military commander in the region of the emergency. A new State, widely separated from other States, sparsely populated, with small taxable resources, took upon itself a great debt, largely increasing its tax rate in order to assist the Government of the United States. The money raised by the State of California through the sale of its interest-bearing State bonds at a great discount was not expended for any purpose that was in any sense local to the State of California or for which such State might ordinarily make appropriations. It was expended only for the purpose of providing an effective military force for use in time of war in aid of the common defense, which is a Federal responsibility. PRECEDENT No other State in the Union, with the possible exception of Oregon and Nevada, had to contend with such extreme, abnormal, conditions during the period of the Civil War as California had to contend with; and for that reason the reimbursement of California at this time, in view of the reimbursement of Nevada during the Seventieth Congress, should create no apprehension as to establishing a precedent. The reimbursement of California is just, meritorious, and honorable, so declared several times by the Senate by the passage of bills providing for reimbursement, and in the Seventieth Congress, Congress itself declared similar expenditures valid. Any objections now raised against reimbursement can be completely answered in the words of Senator Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts: If the claim is just, the precedent of paying it is one which our Government should wish to establish. Honesty and justice are not precedents of which either Government or individuals should be afraid. (S. Rept. 4, 41st Cong., 1st sess., p. 10.) The conclusion of the report submitted by the Judiciary Committee in the Nevada case (S. Rept. 1706, 70th Cong., 2d sess.) applies with equal force in the California case, as California is not asking reimbursement of a penny she has not actually and honestly expended on behalf of the Government, viz: The Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Realty Co. (163 U. S. 427) said: "That the case as presented to Congress was enough upon which to base the assertion that there was a moral and honorable claim upon the Public Treasury which that body had the constitutional right to recognize and pay; that even though in its purely legal aspects an invalid law could not be made the basis of a legal claim, the planter had acquired a claim against the Government of an 'equitable, moral, or honorable nature'; that the Nation, speaking broadly, owed a debt' to an individual when his claim grew out of right and justice-when, in other words, it was based upon considerations of a moral or merely honorary nature. "Reimbursement in accordance with the account stated by the Comptroller General in Senate Document No. 210, Seventieth Congress, second session, is strongly based on 'right and justice,' as the State of Nevada is not asking Congress to appropriate a dollar she has not actually expended for the benefit of the United States." APPENDIX A STATE OF CALIFORNIA, I, Frank C. Jordan, secretary of state of the State of California, do hereby certify that I have carefully compared the transcript to which this certificate is attached, with the record on file in my office of which it purports to be a copy, and that the same is a full, true, and correct copy thereof. I further certify that this authentication is in due form and by the proper officer. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and have caused the great seal of the State of California to be affixed hereto this 22d day of January, 1931. [SEAL.] FRANK C. JORDAN, Secretary of State. Ву Силв. Ј. НаGERTY, Deputy. Assembly Joint Resolution 4 Adopted in assembly January 12, 1931. ARTHUR A. OHNIMUS, Adopted in Senate January 19, 1931. J. A. BEEK, Secretary of the Senate. This resolution was received by the governor this 22d day of January, A. D. 1931, at 10.15 o'clock a. m. CHAPTER 14 WM. A. SMITH, Private Secretary of the Governor. Assembly Joint Resolution 4, relative to the reimbursement of the State of California for moneys actually expended in aid of the Government of the United States during the War between the States Whereas the State of California has not been reimbursed for moneys actually expended by the State for costs, charges, and expenses incurred in enrolling, equipping, transporting, and paying its volunteer troops during the War between the States in response to the urgent calls of and under proper requisitions made by the commanding general of the military department of the Pacific under direct authority of the President and the Secretary of War, upon the understanding that all such costs, charges, and expenses actually incurred in raising troops for the United States would be reimbursed to the State, as shown by the letter from the Secretary of State, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, addressed to the Governor of California, dated October 14, 1861, wherein he stated: "The President has directed me to invite your consideration to the subject of the improvement and perfection of the defenses of the State over which you preside and to ask you to submit the subject to the consideration of the legislature when it shall have assembled. Such proceedings by the State would require only a temporary use of its means. The expenditures ought to be made the subject of conference with the Federal authorities. Being thus made with the concurrence of the Government for general defense, there is every reason to believe that Congress would sanction what the State should do and would provide for its reimbursement"; and Whereas the record shows that the expenditures by the State of California on behalf of the United States were made with the knowledge, cooperation, and approval of the commanding general of the department of the Pacific representing the Federal authorities; and Whereas the expenditures made by the State of California for, and on account of the United States and at its most urgent calls, are set forth by the Comptroller 8. Repts., 74-1, vol. 1——————44 General of the United States under date of August 14, 1930, in pursuance of a resolution of the Senate passed May 28, 1930, as follows: Grand total sum actually expended by and not repaid to the State of California on July 1, 1889, stated in the account set forth in the report of the Secretary of War made in pursuance of resolution of the Senate of February 27, 1889, printed in Senate Executive Document No. 11, Fifty-first Congress, first session... Plus interest certified by the treasurer of the State of California as actually paid by said State on the sums so advanced and expended from July 1, 1889, to December 31, 1929, $571,104.17 interest on moneys borrowed through the sale of State bonds issued under authority of the act of the Legislature of the State of California of April 27, 1863; and $1,470,150 interest on moneys similarly borrowed to carry out the provisions of the act of the legislature of said State of April 4, 1864.. Balance due the State of California. (S. Doc. No. 220, 71st Cong., 3d sess.) And $4, 420, 891. 16 2, 041, 254. 17 6, 462, 145. 35 Whereas no part of the sum so actually expended for the benefit of the United States and at its request has been reimbursed the State of California, although the costs, charges, and expenses, including interest (the Supreme Court of the United States in the New York case, 160 U. S. 598, having held interest paid by a State on moneys borrowed a proper cost or charge) incurred by other States in aid of the Government during the War between the States have been paid said States; and Whereas the validity, equity, and justness of these expenditures made by the State of California in aid of the Federal Government in times of great stress have often been admitted and never successfully disputed; and Whereas the Senate after thorough investigation has repeatedly passed bills providing for the reimbursement of the State of California, and the committees of the House of Representatives have likewise favorably reported bills for such reimbursement; and Whereas the Seventieth Congress, after many years of consideration, passed and the President approved an act providing for the reimbursement of the State of Nevada for costs, charges, and expenses incurred in aid of the Government during the War between the States identical in character and authorized under exactly similar circumstances as were the expenditures made by the State of California, thus recognizing the validity and merit of such expenditures; and Whereas it is deemed appropriate to quote, from among the many statesmen in Congress who have considered and assisted in establishing the justice of the reimbursement of California, three United States Senators who, on account of their prominence, experience, and rank, are most competent to speak again in behalf of our State, namely: Senator HAWLEY, of Connecticut (chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs): "There is no sort of question as to its justice." Senate Eugene Hale, of Maine (chairman of the Committee on Appropriations): The Senate is committed to these State claims by vote, by sentiment, and it is only a question of time when they will pass.' Senator Teller, of Colorado (chairman of the Committee on Claims): "If there are any claims that are just and proper which the United States ought to pay, this is one of them. It is as sacred an obligation, in my judgment, as the national bonds." And Whereas the State of California has been so long deprived of its rights respecting these expenditures upon part of which it is still paying interest, and as the State is now in such urgent need of the sum due from the United States, that it is believed if the attention of the Congress is again invited to this obligation, it will appreciate the justice of the State's request for reimbursement at this time: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California (the Senate concurring), That we respectfully request our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United States to use all honorable means to secure the enactment by that body of a law providing for the reimbursement of the State of California in accordance with the accounting rendered by the Comptroller General of the United States hereinabove referred to, and that his excellency the Governor of the State of California be requested to forward to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress a properly certified copy of this resolution. EDGAR C. LEVEY, Speaker of the Assembly. FRANK F. MERRIAM, President of the Senate. Attest: [SEAL.] APPENDIX B FRANK C. JORDAN, Secretary of State. [Senate Document No. 220, Seventy-first Congress, third session} COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, Washington, August 14, 1930. The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE. SIR: There has been received Senate Resolution 277, Seventy-first Congress, directing me: * * to reopen and restate the account of the State of California for moneys advanced and expended in aid of the Government of the United States during the War between the States, and on such restatement (1) to accept as a basis of calculation the grand total sum actually expended by and not repaid the State of California on July 1, 1889, stated in the account set forth in the report of the Secretary of War made in pursuance of resolution of the Senate of February 27, 1889, printed in Senate Executive Document Numbered 11, Fiftyfirst Congress, first session, page 27; (2) to add to such sum the interest certified by the Treasurer of the State of California as actually paid by said State on the sums so advanced and expended from July 1, 1889, to December 31, 1929; (3) to deduct from the total sum so stated the amounts repaid by the United States to the State of California since July 1, 1889, and certify to the Senate the balance found due the State of California.' Complying therewith, I have the honor to certify that, computed as directed in said resolution, the balance found due to the State of California for moneys advanced and expended in aid of the Government of the United States during the War between the States, would be $6,462,145.33, ascertained as follows: 1. Accepted as "basis of calculation the grand total sum actually 8. Less amount "repaid by the United States to the State of Balance due the State of California, computed as directed $4, 420, 891. 16 2,041, 254. 17 by Senate Resolution No. 277, Seventy-first Congress. 6, 462, 145. 83 |