EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 24, 1887_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 7648, entitled "An act
for the relief of the estate of the late John How, Indian agent, and his
sureties."
John How was appointed Indian agent in July, 1878, and upon such
appointment gave a bond to the Government in the penal sum of $10,000
conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties as such agent and
to protect the Government from loss by mismanagement or malfeasance in
his official conduct. The parties named in the bill were his sureties on
said bond.
On the 23d day of December, 1881, upon a report of inspectors connected
with the Indian Bureau suggesting frauds and mismanagement in the
conduct of this agency, Mr. How was suspended from his office, which
suspension was approved by the President in January, 1882.
After such suspension the accounts of the agent were examined and
various explanations offered by him in relation thereto. It is stated,
however, in a report from the Indian Office now before me, that such
explanations were deemed by that office sufficient to remove only a
small part of the items in the accounts which were questioned. The
matter was thereupon referred to the Treasury Department for further
examination and adjustment.
The Second Comptroller reports that the final settlement of this agent's
accounts was pending before the accounting officers for upward of
eighteen months, affording ample opportunity for any explanation which
might be deemed necessary and proper, and that on the 21st day of July,
1885, a final adjustment was made of the said accounts, by which a sum
very much in excess of the penalty of his bond was found due from said
agent to the Government.
A suit was afterwards instituted against the agent and his sureties to
recover the amount thus found due, so far as the bond covered the same.
This suit is still pending.
The object of the bill now under consideration is to wholly release and
discharge these sureties from any liability upon said bond.
It seems to be the opinion of all the officers of the Government who
have examined the matter at all that a debt exists in favor of the
Government upon this bond. It is reported that a large amount of
evidence has been taken, and that in the opinion of these officers the
amount due the Government can not be reduced to a less amount than the
penalty of the bond.
The Second Comptroller states, as results of examinations made in his
office and by the Second Auditor, that it appears that many of the
vouchers presented by the agent were fictitious, the persons in whose
names they were given testifying that services and supplies therein
mentioned were never rendered or furnished; that in other cases parties
denied the genuineness of vouchers purporting to be made by them; that a
large voucher apparently given for cattle was actually given for money
loaned, and that supplies bought with Government funds were appropriated
for the agent's personal benefit.
I do not suppose that it was intended by the Congress to entirely
relieve these sureties if a condition exists such as is above set out,
which results in an indebtedness to the Government. The proposed
legislation, judging from the report of the House Committee on Claims,
seems rather to proceed upon the theory that no sum is due the
Government in the premises.
I think it will hardly be claimed that the patient investigation of the
accounting officers should be lightly discredited in this case; and it
seems to me that justness to the Government and fairness to the sureties
seeking relief will presumably be secured by the further prosecution of
the suit already instituted, in which the truth of all matters involved
can be thoroughly tested.