have, as guerrillas, been engaged in plundering and murdering Union men in the State of Missouri, have taken refuge in this State to escape the punishment due to their crimes, and that instead of seeking to merit a pardon for past offenses by living peaceably and quietly among us as becomes good citizens, many if them are endeavoring to array a portion of our people in armed resistance to the laws, and I very deeply regret to say there is reason to believe that some of our people have been found weak enough to aid them in their mischievous designs.

These men, by bold and fierce denunciations of certain acts of the President and of the Congress of the United States as unconstitutional, and by industriously teaching that the citizen may lawfully resist with force what he deems an unconstitutional act or law, and in other ways, are seeking to array such as may be duped and deceived by their artful and wicked machinations into armed resistance to the authority of the General Government and to inaugurate civil war within our limits, thus exposing their dupes to the punishment due to traitors, and our State to the storm of war which has swept as with fire the State of Missouri. These men are endeavoring to induce our soldiers in the field to desert their colors, thus exposing them to the penalty of desertion, which is death; and are endeavoring to induce our citizens to violate the law by resisting the arrest of deserters and a conscription in this State, of ordered, thereby exposing themselves to the punishment due such criminal acts.

It is my duty to, and I therefore do, warm these men that their courses are fraught with peril to themselves and to the peace and good order of the State, and if persisted in to the extremity they innly bring punishment; and I algood people of the State, as they value peace and good order and would avoid the horrors of civil war, not to be misled by these wicked and designing men who, having nothing to lose, hope for plunder and profit in the license of civil war. The laws of the General Government will be enforced among us at any sot and at all hazards, and the men who array themselves in armed resistance to the laws will certainly be overpowered and punished.

As long as those have sought shelter in Iowa from other States behaved as quiet and peaceable citizens, I have had no disposition to interfere with or molest them, but it cannot be tolerated that these men, who have been compelled to flee from their own State for fear of the punishment of crimes committed against the laws of their State or of the United States, should, while enjoying the protection of our laws, be permitted to bring among our peaceful homes and upon our peaceful people all the horrors they have brought upon the State from which they fled. We owe it not only to ourselves and our families, but much more to the families of those who have left is to defend on the battlefield the life of our country, that we preserve peace and good order at home. It must be a bitter reflection to our gallant soldiers that while they are enduring the hardships and dangers of a soldier's life in defense of their country bad men at home are plotting to bring upon their unprotected families the dangers of civil war. Moved by these considerations, I have this day notified the proper authorities of the United States and of the State of Missouri that many criminals against their laws are in Iowa engaged, as I believe, in inciting rebellion, and that I shall insist upon their arrest and removal where necessary, and their trial for their crimes, if their conduct shall continue to be such as is dangerous to the peace and safety of the State; and I enjoin upon all good citizens who know that such men are among them that they