Soon after the opening of the Civil War the legislature of Iowa was called together in extra session, and enacted a law providing for the issuing of $800,000 of war defense bonds to be sold for the purpose of providing means to equip and muster into service the troops to be furnished by Iowa for the national cause. It also provided for three state commissioners with authority to put these bonds upon the market and sell the same at the best rate they could obtain. A number of other states in the Union had also provided for the issuing of bonds and the raising of means to arm and equip their soldiers. Hence when these commissioners went to New York for the purpose of putting our bonds upon the market, no desirable bids could be obtained. Our Secretary of State, Elijah Sells, had been ordered or requested by Governor Kirkwood to take these bonds to New York in order that they might be ready for delivery in case of sale. There was danger to be apprehended that the commissioners might attempt to hypothecate these bonds, or pledge them for a loan of money. The bonds bore eight per cent interest per annum, and they would constitute a great prize if the money sharks could get hold of them and sell them at any price they might bring in a money market then flooded with similar paper. Being advised of the situation, I accompanied the Secretary of State to New York, at my own instance and expense, for the purpose of advising the Governor and commissioners that under the law they had no authority to pledge or hypothecate these bonds, but could only sell them in the manner expressly provided by the statute. I had an opportunity of giving this advice, which I did very readily in New York, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the bonds brought back to our state and sold at a fair price to our own people. My salary as Attorney General was one thousand dollars a year and a contingent fund of four hundred dollars additional each year. My official duties occupied about one-half of my time, and I continued in the general practice, except as to criminal cases, which yielded me about fourteen hundred dollars additional, making my income during these four years about twenty-eight hundred dollars which was rather more than any state officer or even judge of the supreme court received at that time. Upon the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 John A. Kasson, the man whom I had defeated for the nomination of Attorney General of the state, went to Washington City and secured the appointment as Second Assistant Postmaster General, which position he held until the fall of the year 1862, when he secured the nomination for congress from the republican congressional convention of this, the then fifth congressional district.