[Footnote 134: The first is a pocket veto.]
WASHINGTON, _December 18, 1843_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I received within a few hours of the adjournment of the last Congress a
resolution "directing payment of the certificates or awards issued by
the commissioners under the treaty with the Cherokee Indians." Its
provisions involved principles of great importance, in reference to
which it required more time to obtain the necessary information than
was allowed.
The balance of the fund provided by Congress for satisfying claims under
the seventeenth article of the Cherokee treaty, referred to in the
resolution, is wholly insufficient to meet the claims still pending. To
direct the payment, therefore, of the whole amount of those claims which
happened to be first adjudicated would prevent a ratable distribution of
the fund among those equally entitled to its benefits. Such a violation
of the individual rights of the claimants would impose upon the
Government the obligation of making further appropriations to indemnify
them, and thus Congress would be obliged to enlarge a provision, liberal
and equitable, which it had made for the satisfaction of all the demands
of the Cherokees. I was unwilling to sanction a measure which would thus
indirectly overturn the adjustment of our differences with the
Cherokees, accomplished with so much difficulty, and to which time is
reconciling those Indians.
If no such indemnity should be provided, then a palpable and very gross
wrong would be inflicted upon the claimants who had not been so
fortunate as to have their claims taken up in preference to others.
Besides, the fund having been appropriated by law to a specific purpose,
in fulfillment of the treaty, it belongs to the Cherokees, and the
authority of this Government to direct its application to particular
claims is more than questionable.
The direction in the joint resolution, therefore, to pay the awards
of the commissioners to the amount of $100,000 seemed to me quite
objectionable, and could not be approved.
The further direction that the certificates required to be issued by the
treaty, and in conformity with the practice of the board heretofore,
shall be proper and sufficient vouchers, upon which payments shall be
made at the Treasury, is a departure from the system established soon
after the adoption of the Constitution and maintained ever since. That
system requires that payments under the authority of any Department
shall be made upon its requisition, countersigned by the proper Auditor
and Comptroller. The greatest irregularity would ensue from the mode of
payment prescribed by the resolution.
I have deemed it respectful and proper to lay before the House of
Representatives these reasons for having withheld my approval of the
above-mentioned joint resolution.