EXECUTIVE MANSION, _September 24, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 8310, entitled "An act provide
for the disposal of the Fort Wallace Military Reservation, in Kansas."
This bill provides that a portion of this reservation, which is situated
in the State of Kansas, shall be set apart for town-site purposes, and
may be entered by the corporate authorities of the adjoining city of
Wallace.
The second section of the bill permits the Union Pacific Railroad
Company to purchase within a limited time a certain part of the military
reservation, which is particularly described, at the rate of $30 per
acre.
I am informed that this privilege might, by reason of a faulty
description of the lands, enable the railroad company to purchase at the
price named property in which private parties have interests acquired
under our laws.
It is evident that the description of the land which the railroad
company is allowed the option of purchasing should be exact and certain
for the interest of all concerned.
Section 4 of the bill grants a certain portion of the military
reservation heretofore set apart by the military authorities as a
cemetery to the city of Wallace for cemetery purposes.
There should, in my opinion, be a provision that no bodies heretofore
interred in this ground should be disturbed, and that when the same is
no longer used as a cemetery it should revert to the Government.