Chapter XI: Section 7: of Railway Mail Rule IV is hereby amended by inserting in line (2)

I am advised by the Postmaster-General that the United States receives for carrying the Australian mails, brought to San Francisco in these steamers, by rail to Vancouver, an estimated annual income of $75,000. while, as I have stated, we are paying out for the support of the steamship line that brings this mail to us only $46,000, leaving an annual surplus resulting from this service of $29,000. The trade of the United States with Australia, which is in a considerable part carried by these steamers, and the whole of which is practically dependent upon the mail communication which they maintain, is largely in our favor. Our total exports of merchandise to Australasian ports during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, were $11,266,484, while the total imports of merchandise from these ports were only $4,277,676. If we are not willing to see this important steamship line withdrawn, or continued with Vancouver substituted for San Francisco as the American terminal, Congress should put it in the power of the Postmaster-General to make a liberal increase in the amount now paid for the transportation of this important mail.

The South Atlantic and Gulf ports occupy a very favored position toward the new and important commerce which the reciprocity clause of the tariff act and the postal shipping bill are designed to promote. Steamship lines from these ports to some northern port of South America will almost certainly effect a connection between the railroad systems of the continents long before any continuous line of railroads can be put into operation. The very large appropriation made at the last session for the harbor of Galveston was justified, as it seemed to me, by these considerations. The great Northwest will feel the advantage of trunk lines to the South as well as to the East and of the new markets opened for their surplus food products and for many of their manufactured products.

I had occasion in May last to transmit to Congress a report adopted by the International American Conference upon the subject of the incorporation of an international American bank, with a view to facilitating money exchanges between the States represented in that conference.[14] Such an institution would greatly promote the trade we are seeking to develop. I renew the recommendation that a careful and well-guarded charter be granted. I do not think the powers granted should include those ordinarily exercised by trust, guaranty, and safe-deposit companies, or that more branches in the United States should be authorized than are strictly necessary to accomplish the object primarily in view, namely, convenient foreign exchanges. It is quite important that prompt action should be taken in this matter, in order that any appropriations for better communication with these countries and any agreements that may be made for reciprocal trade may not be hindered by the inconvenience of making exchanges through European money centers or burdened by the tribute which is an incident of that method of business.

The bill for the relief of the Supreme Court has after many years of discussion reached a position where final action is easily attainable, and it is hoped that any differences of opinion may be so harmonized as to save the essential features of this very important measure. In this connection I earnestly renew my recommendation that the salaries of the judges of the United States district courts be so readjusted that none of them shall receive less than $5,000 per annum.

The subject of the unadjusted Spanish and Mexican land grants and the urgent necessity for providing some commission or tribunal for the trial of questions of title growing out of them were twice brought by me to the attention of Congress at the last session. Bills have been reported from the proper committees in both Houses upon the subject, and I very earnestly hope that this Congress will put an end to the delay which has attended the settlement of the disputes as to the title between the settlers and the claimants under these grants. These disputes retard the prosperity and disturb the peace of large and important communities. The governor of New Mexico in his last report to the Secretary of the Interior suggests some modifications of the provisions of the pending bills relating to the small holdings of farm lands. I commend to your attention the suggestions of the Secretary of the Interior upon this subject.

The enactment of a national bankrupt law I still regard as very desirable. The Constitution having given to Congress jurisdiction of this subject, it should be exercised and uniform rules provided for the administration of the affairs of insolvent debtors. The inconveniences resulting from the occasional and temporary exercise of this power by Congress and from the conflicting State codes of insolvency which come into force intermediately should be removed by the enactment of a simple, inexpensive, and permanent national bankrupt law.

I also renew my recommendation in favor of legislation affording just copyright protection to foreign authors on a footing of reciprocal advantage for our authors abroad.

It may still be possible for this Congress to inaugurate by suitable legislation a movement looking to uniformity and increased safety in the use of couplers and brakes upon freight trains engaged in interstate commerce. The chief difficulty in the way is to secure agreement as to the best appliances, simplicity, effectiveness, and cost being considered. This difficulty will only yield to legislation, which should be based upon full inquiry and impartial tests. The purpose should be to secure the cooperation of all well-disposed managers and owners; but the fearful fact that every year's delay involves the sacrifice of 2,000 lives and the maiming of 20,000 young men should plead both with Congress and the managers against any needless delay.

The subject of the conservation and equal distribution of the water supply of the arid regions has had much attention from Congress, but has not as yet been put upon a permanent and satisfactory basis. The urgency of the subject does not grow out of any large present demand for the use of these lands for agriculture, but out of the danger that the water supply and the sites for the necessary catch basins may fall into the hands of individuals or private corporations and be used to render subservient the large areas dependent upon such supply. The owner of the water is the owner of the lands, however the titles may run. All unappropriated natural water sources and all necessary reservoir sites should be held by the Government for the equal use at fair rates of the homestead settlers who will eventually take up these lands. The United States should not, in my opinion, undertake the construction of dams or canals, but should limit its work to such surveys and observations as will determine the water supply, both surface and subterranean, the areas capable of irrigation, and the location and storage capacity of reservoirs. This done, the use of the water and of the reservoir sites might be granted to the respective States or Territories or to individuals or associations upon the condition that the necessary works should be constructed and the water furnished at fair rates without discrimination, the rates to be subject to supervision by the legislatures or by boards of water commissioners duly constituted. The essential thing to be secured is the common and equal use at fair rates of the accumulated water supply. It were almost better that these lands should remain arid than that those who occupy them should become the slaves of unrestrained monopolies controlling the one essential element of land values and crop results.

The use of the telegraph by the Post-Office Department as a means for the rapid transmission of written communications is, I believe, upon proper terms, quite desirable. The Government does not own or operate the railroads, and it should not, I think, own or operate the telegraph lines. It does, however, seem to be quite practicable for the Government to contract with the telegraph companies, as it does with railroad companies, to carry at specified rates such communications as the senders may designate for this method of transmission. I recommend that such legislation be enacted as will enable the Post-Office Department fairly to test by experiment the advantages of such a use of the telegraph.

If any intelligent, and loyal company of American citizens were required to catalogue the essential human conditions of national life, I do not doubt that with absolute unanimity they would begin with "free and honest elections." And it is gratifying to know that generally there is a growing and nonpartisan demand for better election laws; but against this sign of hope and progress must be set the depressing and undeniable fact that election laws and methods are sometimes cunningly contrived to secure minority control, while violence completes the shortcomings of fraud.

In my last annual message I suggested that the development of the existing law providing a Federal supervision of Congressional elections offered an effective method of reforming these abuses.[15] The need of such a law has manifested itself in many parts of the country, and its wholesome restraints and penalties will be useful in all. The constitutionality of such legislation has been affirmed by the Supreme Court. Its probable effectiveness is evidenced by the character of the opposition that is made to it. It has been denounced as if it were a new exercise of Federal power and an invasion of the rights of States. Nothing could be further from the truth. Congress has already fixed the time for the election of members of Congress. It has declared that votes for members of Congress must be by written or printed ballot; it has provided for the appointment by the circuit courts in certain cases, and upon the petition of a certain number of citizens, of election supervisors, and made it their duty to supervise the registration of voters conducted by the State officers; to challenge persons offering to register; to personally inspect and scrutinize the registry lists, and to affix their names to the lists for the purpose of identification and the prevention of frauds; to attend at elections and remain with the boxes till they are all cast and counted; to attach to the registry lists and election returns any statement touching the accuracy and fairness of the registry and election, and to take and transmit to the Clerk of the House of Representatives any evidence of fraudulent practices which may be presented to them. The same law provides for the appointment of deputy United States marshals to attend at the polls, support the supervisors in the discharge of their duties, and to arrest persons violating the election laws. The provisions of this familiar title of the Revised Statutes have been put into exercise by both the great political parties, and in the North as well as in the South, by the filing with the court of the petitions required by the law.

It is not, therefore, a question whether we shall have a Federal election law, for we now have one and have had for nearly twenty years, but whether we shall have an effective law. The present law stops just short of effectiveness, for it surrenders to the local authorities all control over the certification which establishes the _prima facie_ right to a seat in the House of Representatives. This defect should be cured. Equality of representation and the parity of the electors must be maintained or everything that is valuable in our system of government is lost. The qualifications of an elector must be sought in the law, not in the opinions, prejudices, or fears of any class, however powerful. The path of the elector to the ballot box must be free from the ambush of fear and the enticements of fraud; the count so true and open that none shall gainsay it. Such a law should be absolutely nonpartisan and impartial. It should give the advantage to honesty and the control to majorities. Surely there is nothing sectional about this creed, and if it shall happen that the penalties of laws intended to enforce these rights fall here and not there it is not because the law is sectional, but because, happily, crime is local and not universal. Nor should it be forgotten that every law, whether relating to elections or to any other subject, whether enacted by the State or by the nation, has force behind it; the courts, the marshal or constable, the _posse comitatus_, the prison, are all and always behind the law.

One can not be justly charged with unfriendliness to any section or class who seeks only to restrain violations of law and of personal right. No community will find lawlessness profitable. No community can afford to have it known that the officers who are charged with the preservation of the public peace and the restraint of the criminal classes are themselves the product of fraud or violence. The magistrate is then without respect and the law without sanction. The floods of lawlessness can not be leveed and made to run in one channel. The killing of a United States marshal carrying a writ of arrest for an election offense is full of prompting and suggestion to men who are pursued by a city marshal for a crime against life or property.

But it is said that this legislation will revive race animosities, and some have even suggested that when the peaceful methods of fraud are made impossible they may be supplanted by intimidation and violence. If the proposed law gives to any qualified elector by a hair's weight more than his equal influence or detracts by so much from any other qualified elector, it is fatally impeached. But if the law is equal and the animosities it is to evoke grow out of the fact that some electors have been accustomed to exercise the franchise for others as well as for themselves, then these animosities ought not to be confessed without shame, and can not be given any weight in the discussion without dishonor. No choice is left to me but to enforce with vigor all laws intended to secure to the citizen his constitutional rights and to recommend that the inadequacies of such laws be promptly remedied. If to promote with zeal and ready interest every project for the development of its material interests, its rivers, harbors, mines, and factories, and the intelligence, peace, and security under the law of its communities and its homes is not accepted as sufficient evidence of friendliness to any State or section, I can not add connivance at election practices that not only disturb local results, but rob the electors of other States and sections of their most priceless political rights.

The preparation of the general appropriation bills should be conducted with the greatest care and the closest scrutiny of expenditures. Appropriations should be adequate to the needs of the public service, but they should be absolutely free from prodigality.

I venture again to remind you that the brief time remaining for the consideration of the important legislation now awaiting your attention offers no margin for waste. If the present duty is discharged with diligence, fidelity, and courage, the work of the Fifty-first Congress may be confidently submitted to the considerate judgment of the people.

BENJ. HARRISON.

[Footnote 11: See pp. 93-94.]

[Footnote 12: See p. 49].

[Footnote 13: See pp. 56-58.]

[Footnote 14: See pp. 70-71.]

[Footnote 15: See p. 56.]

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 4, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 3d instant from the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by an agreement concluded by the Cherokee Commission with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes of Indians for the cession of certain lands and for other purposes.

The agreement is submitted for the consideration of Congress, as required by law.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 5, 1890_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of September last, a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying correspondence, in relation to the killing of General J. Martine Barrundia by Guatemalan officers on board the Pacific mail steamer _Acapulco_ in the port of San Jose, Guatemala, on the 28th of August last.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 17, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of State, in relation to a report upon the subject of cholera made by Dr. E.O. Shakespeare pursuant to the act of Congress approved March 3, 1885.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 17, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a letter from the secretary of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who transmits a memorial, addressed to the Government of the United States, in relation to the late Captain John Ericsson.

The matter is presented for such action as the Congress may deem proper.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 17, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of War, accompanied by a copy of a preliminary report of the board on gun factories and steel forgings for high-power guns, appointed by me under the provisions of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for fortifications," etc., approved August 18, 1890.

The report and accompanying papers are submitted for the information and early attention of Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 22, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter of the 18th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, in relation to the disposition of timber on certain Chippewa reservations in Wisconsin, together with copies of papers relating thereto. The matter is presented for the action of Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 23, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The Territorial legislature of Oklahoma, now in session, will adjourn by limitation of law on to-morrow, the 24th instant. The act organizing the Territory provided (section II) that certain chapters of the revised statutes of Nebraska should be in force until after the adjournment of the first session of the Territorial legislature.

The question of the location of the Territorial capital has so occupied the time of the legislature and so distracted and divided its members that no criminal code has been provided. It is urgently necessary that Congress should at once, by joint resolution or otherwise, continue the laws of Nebraska in force, and save pending criminal arrests and prosecutions at least. The reconvening of the legislature does not under the existing circumstances promise any relief.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 23, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by the report of the commission appointed by me by virtue of a provision in the naval appropriation bill approved June 30, 1890, for the purpose of selecting a suitable site "for a dry dock at some point on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, or the waters connected therewith, north of the parallel of latitude marking the northern boundary of California, including the waters of Puget Sound and also Lakes Union and Washington, in the State of Washington."

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 5, 1891_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In further response to the resolution of the House of Representatives requesting me, if in my judgment not incompatible with the public interest, to furnish to the House the correspondence since March 4, 1889, between the Government of the United States and the Government of Great Britain touching the subjects in dispute in the Bering Sea, I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by the correspondence which has taken place since my message of July 23, 1890.[16]

BENJ. HARRISON.

[Footnote 16: See p. 80.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 10, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a memorial of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma, asking an appropriation for the relief of the destitute people of that Territory.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 16, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith the report of the World's Columbian Commission, with the accompanying papers.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 19, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 17th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting the agreement entered into between the Crow Indians and the commission appointed to negotiate with them for the sale to the United States of the western portion of their reservation in Montana under the provisions of the act of September 25, 1890.

It is thought important by the Department that this matter receive the consideration of Congress during the present session.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 26, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of War, accompanied by the final report of the board on gun factories and steel forgings for high-power guns, and appendixes thereto.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 26, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who transmits a draft of a bill for compensating the Indians of the Crow Creek Reservation for the loss sustained by them by reason of their receiving less land per capita in their diminished reservations than is to be received by Indians occupying other diminished reservations.

The matter is presented for the early consideration of the Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 31, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The sudden death of the Hon. William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, in New York, on the evening of the 29th instant, has directed my attention to the present state of the law as to the filling of a vacancy occasioned by the death of the head of a Department.

I transmit herewith an opinion of the Attorney-General, from which it will be seen that under the statutes in force no officer in the Treasury Department or other person designated by me can exercise the duties of Secretary of the Treasury for a longer period than ten days. This limitation is, I am sure, unwise, and necessarily involves in such a case as that now presented undue haste and even indelicacy. The President should not be required to take up the question of the selection of a successor before the last offices of affection and respect have been paid to the dead. If the proprieties of an occasion as sad as that which now overshadows us are observed, possibly one-half of the brief time allowed is gone before, with due regard to the decencies of life, the President and those with whom he should advise can take up the consideration of the grave duty of selecting a head for one of the greatest Departments of the Government.

Hasty action by the Senate is also necessarily involved, and geographical limitations are practically imposed by the necessity of selecting some one who can reach the capital and take the necessary oath of office before the expiration of the ten days.

It may be a very proper restriction of the power of the President in this connection that he shall not designate for any great length of time a person to discharge these important duties who has not been confirmed by the Senate, but there would seem to be no reason why one of the assistant secretaries of the Department wherein the vacancy exists might not discharge the duties of Secretary until a successor is selected, confirmed, and qualified. The inconvenience of this limitation was made apparent at the time of the death of Secretary Folger. President Arthur in that case allowed one of the assistant secretaries, who had been designated to act in the absence of the Secretary, to continue in the discharge of such duties for ten days, then designated the same person to discharge the duties for a further term of ten days, and then made a temporary appointment as Secretary, in order to secure the consideration that he needed in filling this important place.

I recommend such a modification of the existing law as will permit the first or sole assistant, or, in the case of the Treasury Department, where the assistants are not graded, that one who may be designated by the President, to discharge the duties of the head of the Department until a successor is appointed and qualified.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 10, 1891_.

_To the Senate_:

I transmit herewith the correspondence called for by the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, relating to the conduct of Commander Reiter in connection with the arrest and killing of General Barrundia.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 13, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The Admiral of the Navy, David Dixon Porter, died at his residence in the city of Washington this morning at 8.15 o'clock, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He entered the naval service as a midshipman February 2, 1829, and had been since continuously in service, having been made Admiral August 15, 1870. He was the son of Commodore David Porter, one of the greatest of our naval commanders. His service during the Civil War was conspicuously brilliant and successful, and his death ends a very high and honorable career. His countrymen will sincerely mourn his loss while they cherish with grateful pride the memory of his deeds. To officers of the Navy his life will continue to yield inspiration and encouragement.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., February 14, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith the sixth annual report of the Commissioner of Labor. This report relates to the cost of producing iron and steel and the materials of which iron is made in the United States and in Europe, and the earnings, the efficiency, and the cost of living of the men employed in such production.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 14, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The death of William Tecumseh Sherman, which took place to-day at his residence in the city of New York, at 1 o'clock and 50 minutes p.m., is an event that will bring sorrow to the heart of every patriotic citizen. No living American was so loved and venerated as he. To look upon his face, to hear his name, was to have one's love of country intensified. He served his country, not for fame, not out of a sense of professional duty, but for love of the flag and of the beneficent civil institutions of which it was the emblem. He was an ideal soldier, and shared to the fullest the _esprit de corps_ of the Army; but he cherished the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and was a soldier only that these might be perpetuated in undiminished usefulness and honor. He was in nothing an imitator.

A profound student of military science and precedent, he drew from them principles and suggestions, and so adapted them to novel conditions that his campaigns will continue to be the profitable study of the military profession throughout the world. His genial nature made him comrade to every soldier of the great Union Army. No presence was so welcome and inspiring at the camp fire or commandery as his. His career was complete; his honors were full. He had received from the Government the highest rank known to our military establishment and from the people unstinted gratitude and love. No word of mine can add to his fame. His death has followed in startling quickness that of the Admiral of the Navy; and it is a sad and notable incident that when the Department under which he served shall have put on the usual emblems of mourning four of the eight Executive Departments will be simultaneously draped in black, and one other has but today removed the crape from its walls.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1891_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying documents, in relation to the execution of letters rogatory in foreign countries.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1891_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by the papers relating to the commercial arrangement recently entered into with Brazil.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 3, 1891_.

_To the Senate_:

In accordance with the resolution of the Senate of this date, I return herewith Senate bill 1453, to provide for the purchase of a site and the erection of a public building thereon at Saginaw, in the State of Michigan.

BENJ. HARRISON.

VETO MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 24, 1890_.

_To the Senate_:

I return to the Senate, in which it originated, with my objections, the bill (No. 544) "to provide for the purchase of a site and the erection of a public building thereon at Bar Harbor, in the State of Maine." The statement of a few facts will show, I think, that the public needs do not justify the contemplated expenditure of $75,000 for the erection of a public building at Bar Harbor. Only one public office, the post-office, is to be accommodated. It appears from a report of the Postmaster-General that the rent paid by the United States for a room containing 875 square feet of floor space was in 1888 $300 and the expenditure for fuel and lights $60. One clerk was employed in the office and no carriers. The gross postal receipts for that year were $7,000. Bar Harbor is almost wholly a summer resort. The population of the town of Eden, of which Bar Harbor forms a part, as taken by the census enumerators, was less than 2,000. During one quarter of the year this population is largely increased by summer residents and visitors, but for the other three quarters is not much above the census enumeration. The postal receipts for 1890 by quarters show that for more than half the year the gross receipts of the post-office are about $8 per day. The salary of a janitor for the new building would be more than twice the present cost to the Government of rent, fuel, and lights. I can not believe that upon reconsideration the Congress will approve the contemplated expenditure.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 26, 1891_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (H.R. 12365) entitled "An act to authorize Oklahoma City, in Oklahoma Territory, to issue bonds to provide a right of way for the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company through said city." This bill authorizes the corporation of Oklahoma City to issue corporate bonds to the amount of $40,000 for the purpose of providing the right of way for a railroad company through the city, if the proposition shall receive the assent of a majority of the legal voters at an election to be called for that purpose.

It is attempted to distinguish this case from the ordinary case of a municipal grant to a railway company by the fact that this railway company had located its line through the lands afterwards settled upon under the town-site law before such settlement, and that the route thus located cuts the plat of the city diagonally and in a way to be very injurious to property interests.

Upon an examination of the facts it appears to me to be clear that no legal location was made by the railway company prior to the acquisition of the lands by the occupying settlers. Some preliminary surveys had been made, but no map of location had been filed with the Secretary of the Interior. If the rights of this company at this point of its road as to right of way are derived from the general statute of the United States upon that subject (U. S. Revised Statutes, Supplement, p. 87), then section 4 distinctly saves the right of any settler who had located prior to the filing of a profile of the road and the approval by the Secretary of the Interior thereof. And if, on the other hand, the rights of the company at the point indicated are derived from the act of Congress of February 18, 1888, "to authorize the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," section 6 of that act also plainly protects the right of any occupying claimant. The latter statute, it seems to me, was intended to grant a right of way only through Indian lands, and if these lands were not such the general statute to which I have referred would apply; but in either event the conclusion is the same.

It appears from the report of the committee that its favorable action, and, I must assume, the favorable action of Congress, proceeded upon the theory that there was a real controversy, doubtful as to its issue, as to the right of the railroad company to hold the line of its survey through the city.

Stripped, then, of this claim the proposition is nakedly one to authorize Oklahoma City to donate $40,000 to the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company. The general statute of the United States prohibits such grants, and this must stand until repealed as a continuing expression of legislative opinion. If a departure from this rule is to be allowed at all, certainly it should only be where the circumstances are exceptional. Such circumstances, in my opinion, do not exist in this case. Already I have received from other cities in the Territory protests against special legislation of this sort, accompanied by the suggestion that if this policy is admitted other cities shall also be allowed to encourage the building of roads by donation.

Oklahoma City, according to the report of the Census Office, has a population of about 4,100, and this donation would be equivalent to nearly $10 per capita. Very little real estate, whether town-site or country property, in this Territory is yet subject to assessment for taxation. The people have not yet had time to accumulate, and Congress has received appeals for aid to relieve a prevailing distress which the Territorial authorities have found themselves unable to deal with. It does not seem to me, in view of all these facts, that the wholesome rule prescribed by the general statute should be departed from.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 26, 1891_.

_To the Senate_:

I return to the Senate without my approval the bill (S. 4620) "to establish the Record and Pension Office of the War Department, and for other purposes."

This bill proposes to change the designation of one of the divisions of the War Department. It is now the "Record and Pension Division," and it is proposed that it shall hereafter be the "Record and Pension Office" of the War Department. The scope of the work assigned to this division or office is not changed, but the organization now existing under a classification made by the Secretary of War is by the bill made permanent and put beyond the control of the Secretary. The change of designation seems to have been intended to add dignity to the position, and the effect of the bill is probably to require that the chief of this office shall hereafter be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, though it is not clear that any provision is made for a chief after the particular person designated in the bill has been separated from the place or in case he is not appointed.

The real object of the bill is disclosed in the following clause:

The President is hereby authorized to nominate and, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint the officer now in charge
of said Record and Pension Division to be a colonel in the Army and
chief of said office.

It is fairly to be implied from the bill that in the opinion of Congress the public interests would be promoted by making the contemplated change in the grade of this office and by giving the rank and pay of a colonel in the Army to the chief. A new and rather anomalous office is therefore created--that of "colonel in the Army and chief of the Record and Pension Office of the War Department"--but upon the condition that the President shall nominate a particular person to fill it. I do not think it is competent for Congress to designate the person who shall fill an office created by law, and practically nothing remains of the bill under consideration if this person is not to be appointed. The office is an important one, connected with the active civil administration of the War Department. I can not agree that the selection of the officer shall be taken out of the discretion of the Executive, where the responsibility for good administration necessarily rests. It is probably true that the officer intended to be benefited is peculiarly deserving and has had remarkable success in the discharge of the duties of the office; but these are considerations for the appointing power, and might safely have been left there.

If this particular appointment was backed by reasons so obvious as to secure the support of both Houses of Congress, it should have been assumed that these reasons could have been made obvious to the Executive by the ordinary methods. In connection with the Army and Navy retired lists, legislation akin to this has become quite frequent, too frequent in my opinion; but these laws have been regarded as grants of pensions rather than of offices.

If it is to be allowed that active places connected with the Executive Departments can be created upon condition that particular persons are or are not to be designated to fill them, the power of appointment might be wholly diverted from the Executive to the Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 2, 1891_.

_To the Senate_:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 3270) "for the relief of the administratrix of the estate of George W. Lawrence."

If I rightly construe this bill, it authorizes the Court of Claims to give judgment in favor of the contractor with the United States for the construction of the vessels named (_Agawam_ and _Pontoosuc_) for the difference between the contract price and the actual cost to the contractor of building the vessels, subject only to the condition that nothing shall be allowed for any advance in the price of labor or material unless such advance occurred during the prolonged term for completing the work rendered necessary by delay resulting from the action of the Government. The bill is somewhat obscure, but I have, I think, correctly stated the legal effect of it.

Undoubtedly in contracts made for army and navy supplies and construction during the early days of the war there was not infrequently loss to the contractor by reason of the advance in the cost of labor resulting from the withdrawal of so large a body of men for service in the field and the indirect result of this upon the cost of material; but I can not believe that it is the purpose of Congress to reopen such contracts at this late day and to pay to the contractors the cost of the work or material which they stipulated to do or deliver at fixed prices. In the matter of another vessel constructed by this same claimant and in the case of one other similar claim I approved bills at the last session, but they carefully limited any finding by the Court of Claims to such losses as necessarily resulted from the interference by the Government with the progress of the work, thus creating delays and enhanced cost.

In those cases the Government only undertook to make good losses resulting directly and unavoidably from its own acts. If the principle which seems to me to be embodied in the bill under consideration is adopted, I do not see how the Congress can refuse in all cases of all sorts of contracts to make good the losses resulting from appreciation in the cost of labor and material. The expenditure that such a policy would entail is incalculable, and the policy itself is, in my judgment, indefensible. The bill at the last session for the relief of this claimant in the case of another vessel constructed by him was, as I have said, carefully put upon the lines I have indicated, and if this claim could have been maintained upon, those lines I assume that the bill would have been similar in its provisions.

BENJ. HARRISON.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas satisfactory proof has been presented to me that provision has been made for adequate grounds and buildings for the uses of the World's Columbian Exposition, and that a sum not less than $10,000,000, to be used and expended for the purposes of said exposition, has been provided in accordance with the conditions and requirements of section 10 of an act entitled "An act to provide for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus by holding an international exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine, and sea, in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois," approved April 25, 1890:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by said act, do hereby declare and proclaim that such international exhibition will be opened on the 1st day of May, in the year 1893, in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, and will not be closed before the last Thursday in October of the same year. And in the name of the Government and of the people of the United States I do hereby invite all the nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event that is preeminent in human history and of lasting interest to mankind by appointing representatives thereto and sending such exhibits to the World's Columbian Exposition as will most fitly and fully illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 24th day of December, 1890, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of the United States of Brazil the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3, to wit, sugars, molasses, coffee, and hides, to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Brazil at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in due reciprocity for and in consideration of the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Brazil has by legal enactment authorized the admission, from and after April 1, 1891, into all the established ports of entry of Brazil, free of all duty, whether national, state, or municipal, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product and manufacture of the United States of America:

1.--SCHEDULE OF ARTICLES TO BE ADMITTED FREE INTO BRAZIL.

Wheat.
Wheat flour.
Corn or maize and the manufactures thereof, including corn meal and
starch.
Rye, rye flour, buckwheat, buckwheat flour, and barley.
Potatoes, beans, and pease.
Hay and oats.
Pork, salted, including pickled pork and bacon, except hams.
Fish, salted, dried, or pickled.
Cotton-seed oil.
Coal, anthracite and bituminous.
Rosin, tar, pitch, and turpentine.
Agricultural tools, implements, and machinery.
Mining and mechanical tools, implements, and machinery, including
stationary and portable engines and all machinery for manufacturing
and industrial purposes, except sewing machines.
Instruments and books for the arts and sciences.
Railway construction material and equipment.

And that the Government of Brazil has by legal enactment further authorized the admission into all the established ports of entry of Brazil, with a reduction of 25 per cent of the duty designated on the respective article in the tariff now in force or which may hereafter be adopted in the United States of Brazil, whether national, state, or municipal, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States of America:

2.--SCHEDULE OF ARTICLES TO BE ADMITTED INTO BRAZIL, WITH A REDUCTION
OF DUTY OF 25 PER CENT.

Lard and substitutes therefor.
Bacon hams.
Butter and cheese.
Canned and preserved meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables.
Manufactures of cotton, including cotton clothing.
Manufactures of iron and steel, single or mixed, not included in the
foregoing free schedule.
Leather and the manufactures thereof, except boots and shoes.
Lumber, timber, and the manufactures of wood, including cooperage,
furniture of all kinds, wagons, carts, and carriages.
Manufactures of rubber.

And that the Government of Brazil has further provided that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedules are the product or manufacture of the United States of America shall place no undue restrictions on the importer nor impose any additional charges or fees therefor on the articles imported;

And whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Brazil at Washington that this action of the Government of Brazil in granting exemption of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff law of Brazil to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 5th day of February, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fifteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas it is provided by section 24 of an act approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes"--

That the President of the United States may from time to time set apart
and reserve in any State or Territory having public land bearing
forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with
timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public
reservations; and the President shall by public proclamation declare
the establishment of such reservations and limits thereof.

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby make known and proclaim that there has been and is hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart for a public forest reservation all that tract of land situate in the State of Wyoming contained within the following-described boundaries:

Beginning at a point on the parallel of 44° 50' where said parallel is intersected by the meridian of 110° west longitude; thence due east along said parallel to the meridian of 109° 30' west longitude; thence due south along said meridian to the forty-fourth parallel of north latitude; thence due west along said parallel to its point of intersection with the west boundary of the State of Wyoming; thence due north along said boundary line to its intersection with the south boundary of the Yellowstone National Park.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to enter or make settlement upon the tract of land reserved by this proclamation.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A.D.1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The following provisions of the laws of the United States are hereby published for the information of all concerned:

Section 1956, Revised Statutes, chapter 3, Title XXIII, enacts that--

No person shall kill any otter, mink, marten, sable, or fur seal, or
other fur-bearing animal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in
the waters thereof; and every person guilty thereof shall for each
offense be fined not less than $200 nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned
not more than six months, or both; and all vessels, their tackle,
apparel, furniture, and cargo, found engaged in violation of this
section shall be forfeited; but the Secretary of the Treasury shall
have power to authorize the killing of any such mink, marten, sable, or
other fur-bearing animal, except fur seals, under such regulations as
he may prescribe; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary to prevent
the killing of any fur seal and to provide for the execution of the
provisions of this section until it is otherwise provided by law, nor
shall he grant any special privileges under this section.

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