_February 3, 1831_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I respectfully submit to the Senate, in answer to their legislative
resolution of the 20th ultimo, in relation to the sales of land at the
Crawfordsville land office in November last, reports from the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.
Concurring with the Secretary of the Treasury in the views he has taken
of the treaties and act of Congress touching the subject, I can not
discover that the President is invested with any power under the
Constitution or laws to withhold a patent from a purchaser who has given
a fair and valuable consideration for land, and thereby acquired a
vested right to the same; nor do I perceive that the sole legislative
resolution of the Senate can confer such a power, or suspend the right
of the citizens to enter the lands that have been offered for sale in
said district and remain unsold, so long as the law authorizing the same
remains unrepealed.
I beg leave, therefore, to present the subject to the reconsideration of
the Senate.