WASHINGTON, D.C., _July 28, 1866_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return, without my approval, the bill entitled "An act
erecting the Territory of Montana into a surveying district, and for
other purposes."
The bill contains four sections, the first of which erects the Territory
into a surveying district and authorizes the appointment of a
surveyor-general; the second constitutes the Territory a land district;
the third authorizes the appointment of a register and receiver for said
district; and the fourth requires the surveyor-general to--
select and survey eighteen alternate odd sections of nonmineral timber
lands within said district for the New York and Montana Iron Mining and
Manufacturing Company, incorporated under the laws of the State of New
York, which lands the said company shall have immediate possession of on
the payment of _$1.25_ per acre, and shall have a patent for the same
whenever, within two years after their selection, they shall have
furnished evidence satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior that
they have erected and have in operation on the said lands iron works
with a capacity for manufacturing 1,500 tons of iron per annum:
_Provided_, That the said lands shall revert to the United States in
case the above-mentioned iron works be not erected within the specified
time: _And provided_, That until the title to the said lands shall have
been perfected the timber shall not be cut off from more than one
section of the said lands.
To confer the special privileges specified in this fourth section
appears to be the chief object of the bill, the provisions of which are
subject to some of the most important objections that induced me to
return to the Senate with my disapproval the bill entitled "An act to
enable the New York and Montana Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company
to purchase a certain amount of the public lands not now in market."
That bill authorized the same corporation to select and survey in the
Territory of Montana, in square form, twenty-one sections of land, three
of which might contain coal and iron ore, for which the minimum rate of
$1.25 per acre was to be paid. The present bill omits these sections of
mineral lands, and directs the surveyor-general to select and survey the
timber lands; but it contains the objectionable feature of granting
to a private mining and manufacturing corporation exclusive rights and
privileges in the public domain which are by law denied to individuals.
The first choice of timber land in the Territory is bestowed upon a
corporation foreign to the Territory and over which Congress has no
control. The surveyor-general of the district, a public officer who
should have no connection with any purchase of public land, is made the
agent of the corporation to select the land, the selections to be made
in the absence of all competition; and over 11,000 acres are bestowed
at the lowest price of public lands. It is by no means certain that
the substitution of alternate sections for the compact body of lands
contemplated by the other bill is any less injurious to the public
interest, for alternate sections stripped of timber are not likely
to enhance the value of those reserved by the Government. Be this as
it may, this bill bestows a large monopoly of public lands without
adequate consideration; confers a right and privilege in quantity
equivalent to seventy-two preemption rights; introduces a dangerous
system of privileges to private trading corporations; and is an unjust
discrimination in favor of traders and speculators against individual
settlers and pioneers who are seeking homes and improving our Western
Territories. Such a departure from the long-established, wise, and just
policy which has heretofore governed the disposition of the public funds
[lands] can not receive my sanction. The objections enumerated apply to
the fourth section of the bill. The first, second, and third sections,
providing for the appointment of a surveyor-general, register, and
receiver, are unobjectionable if any necessity requires the creation
of these offices and the additional expenses of a new surveying land
district. But they appear in this instance to be only needed as a part
of the machinery to enable the "New York and Montana Iron Mining and
Manufacturing Company" to secure these privileges; for I am informed by
the proper Department, in a communication hereto annexed, that there is
no public necessity for a surveyor-general, register, or receiver in
Montana Territory, since it forms part of an existing surveying and land
district, wherein the public business is, under present laws, transacted
with adequate facility, so that the provisions of the first, second, and
third sections would occasion needless expense to the General
Government.