1889, made provision for the purchase by the United States from the
Seminole tribe of a certain portion of their lands. The delegates of the
Seminole Nation, having first duly evidenced to me their power to act
in that behalf, delivered a proper release or conveyance to the United
States of all the lands mentioned in the act, which was accepted by
me and certified to be in compliance with the statute.
By the terms of both the acts referred to all the lands so purchased
were declared to be a part of the public domain and open to settlement
under the homestead law. But of the lands embraced in these purchases,
being in the aggregate about 5,500,000 acres, 3,500,000 acres had
already, under the terms of the treaty of 1866, been acquired by the
United States for the purpose of settling other Indian tribes thereon
and had been appropriated to that purpose. The land remaining and
available for settlement consisted of 1,887,796 acres, surrounded on all
sides by lands in the occupancy of Indian tribes. Congress had provided
no civil government for the people who were to be invited by my
proclamation to settle upon these lands, except as the new court which
had been established at Muscogee or the United States courts in some of
the adjoining States had power to enforce the general laws of the United
States.
In this condition of things I was quite reluctant to open the lands to
settlement; but in view of the fact that several thousand persons, many
of them with their families, had gathered upon the borders of the Indian
Territory with a view to securing homesteads on the ceded lands, and
that delay would involve them in much loss and suffering, I did on the
23d day of March last issue a proclamation[3] declaring that the lands
therein described would be open to settlement under the provisions of
the law on the 22d day of April following at 12 o'clock noon. Two land
districts had been established and the offices were opened for the
transaction of business when the appointed time arrived.
It is much to the credit of the settlers that they very generally
observed the limitation as to the time when they might enter the
Territory. Care will be taken that those who entered in violation of the
law do not secure the advantage they unfairly sought. There was a good
deal of apprehension that the strife for locations would result in much
violence and bloodshed, but happily these anticipations were not
realized. It is estimated that there are now in the Territory about
60,000 people, and several considerable towns have sprung up, for which
temporary municipal governments have been organized. Guthrie is said to
have now a population of almost 8,000. Eleven schools and nine churches
have been established, and three daily and five weekly newspapers are
published in this city, whose charter and ordinances have only the
sanction of the voluntary acquiescence of the people from day to day.
Oklahoma City has a population of about 5,000, and is proportionately as
well provided as Guthrie with churches, schools, and newspapers. Other
towns and villages having populations of from 100 to 1,000 are scattered
over the Territory.
In order to secure the peace of this new community in the absence of
civil government, I directed General Merritt, commanding the Department
of the Missouri, to act in conjunction with the marshals of the United
States to preserve the peace, and upon their requisition to use the
troops to aid them in executing warrants and in quieting any riots or
breaches of the peace that might occur. He was further directed to use
his influence to promote good order and to avoid any conflicts between
or with the settlers. Believing that the introduction and sale of
liquors where no legal restraints or regulations existed would endanger
the public peace, and in view of the fact that such liquors must first
be introduced into the Indian reservations before reaching the white
settlements, I further directed the general commanding to enforce the
laws relating to the introduction of ardent spirits into the Indian
country.
The presence of the troops has given a sense of security to the
well-disposed citizens and has tended to restrain the lawless. In one
instance the officer in immediate command of the troops went further
than I deemed justifiable in supporting the _de facto_ municipal
government of Guthrie, and he was so informed, and directed to limit the
interference of the military to the support of the marshals on the lines
indicated in the original order. I very urgently recommend that Congress
at once provide a Territorial government for these people. Serious
questions, which may at any time lead to violent outbreaks, are awaiting
the institution of courts for their peaceful adjustment. The American
genius for self-government has been well illustrated in Oklahoma; but it
is neither safe nor wise to leave these people longer to the expedients
which have temporarily served them.
Provision should be made for the acquisition of title to town lots in
the towns now established in Alaska, for locating town sites, and for
the establishment of municipal governments. Only the mining laws have
been extended to that Territory, and no other form of title to lands can
now be obtained. The general land laws were framed with reference to the
disposition of agricultural lands, and it is doubtful if their operation
in Alaska would be beneficial.
We have fortunately not extended to Alaska the mistaken policy of
establishing reservations for the Indian tribes, and can deal with them
from the beginning as individuals with, I am sure, better results; but
any disposition of the public lands and any regulations relating to
timber and to the fisheries should have a kindly regard to their
interests. Having no power to levy taxes, the people of Alaska are
wholly dependent upon the General Government, to whose revenues the
seal fisheries make a large annual contribution. An appropriation for
education should neither be overlooked nor stinted.
The smallness of the population and the great distances between the
settlements offer serious obstacles to the establishment of the usual
Territorial form of government. Perhaps the organization of several
sub-districts with a small municipal council of limited powers for each
would be safe and useful.
Attention is called in this connection to the suggestions of the
Secretary of the Treasury relating to the establishment of another port
of entry in Alaska and of other needed customs facilities and
regulations.
In the administration of the land laws the policy of facilitating in
every proper way the adjustment of the honest claims of individual
settlers upon the public lands has been pursued. The number of pending
cases had during the preceding Administration been greatly increased
under the operation of orders for a time suspending final action in a
large part of the cases originating in the West and Northwest, and by
the subsequent use of unusual methods of examination. Only those who are
familiar with the conditions under which our agricultural lands have
been settled can appreciate the serious and often fatal consequences to
the settler of a policy that puts his title under suspicion or delays
the issuance of his patent. While care is taken to prevent and to expose
fraud, it should not be imputed without reason.
The manifest purpose of the homestead and preemption laws was to promote
the settlement of the public domain by persons having a _bona fide_
intent to make a home upon the selected lands. Where this intent is well
established and the requirements of the law have been substantially
complied with, the claimant is entitled to a prompt and friendly
consideration of his case; but where there is reason to believe that
the claimant is the mere agent of another who is seeking to evade a law
intended to promote small holdings and to secure by fraudulent methods
large tracts of timber and other lands, both principal and agent should
not only be thwarted in their fraudulent purpose, but should be made to
feel the full penalties of our criminal statutes. The laws should be so
administered as not to confound these two classes and to visit penalties
only upon the latter.
The unsettled state of the titles to large bodies of lands in the
Territories of New Mexico and Arizona has greatly retarded the
development of those Territories. Provision should be made by law for
the prompt trial and final adjustment before a judicial tribunal or
commission of all claims based upon Mexican grants. It is not just to an
intelligent and enterprising people that their peace should be disturbed
and their prosperity retarded by these old contentions. I express the
hope that differences of opinion as to methods may yield to the urgency
of the case.
The law now provides a pension for every soldier and sailor who was
mustered into the service of the United States during the Civil War and
is now suffering from wounds or disease having an origin in the service
and in the line of duty. Two of the three necessary facts, viz, muster
and disability, are usually susceptible of easy proof; but the third,
origin in the service, is often difficult and in many deserving cases
impossible to establish. That very many of those who endured the
hardships of our most bloody and arduous campaigns are now disabled from
diseases that had a real but not traceable origin in the service I do
not doubt. Besides these there is another class composed of men many of
whom served an enlistment of three full years and of reenlisted veterans
who added a fourth year of service, who escaped the casualties of battle
and the assaults of disease, who were always ready for any detail, who
were in every battle line of their command, and were mustered out in
sound health, and have since the close of the war, while fighting with
the same indomitable and independent spirit the contests of civil life,
been overcome by disease or casualty.
I am not unaware that the pension roll already involves a very large
annual expenditure; neither am I deterred by that fact from recommending
that Congress grant a pension to such honorably discharged soldiers and
sailors of the Civil War as, having rendered substantial service during
the war, are now dependent upon their own labor for a maintenance and by
disease or casualty are incapacitated from earning it. Many of the men
who would be included in this form of relief are now dependent upon
public aid, and it does not, in my judgment, consist with the national
honor that they shall continue to subsist upon the local relief given
indiscriminately to paupers instead of upon the special and generous
provision of the nation they served so gallantly and unselfishly. Our
people will, I am sure, very generally approve such legislation. And I
am equally sure that the survivors of the Union Army and Navy will feel
a grateful sense of relief when this worthy and suffering class of their
comrades is fairly cared for.
There are some manifest inequalities in the existing law that should be
remedied. To some of these the Secretary of the Interior has called
attention.
It is gratifying to be able to state that by the adoption of new and
better methods in the War Department the calls of the Pension Office for
information as to the military and hospital records of pension claimants
are now promptly answered and the injurious and vexatious delays that
have heretofore occurred are entirely avoided. This will greatly
facilitate the adjustment of all pending claims.
The advent of four new States--South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and
Washington--into the Union under the Constitution in the same month,
and the admission of their duly chosen representatives to our National
Congress at the same session, is an event as unexampled as it is
interesting.
The certification of the votes cast and of the constitutions adopted in
each of the States was filed with me, as required by the eighth section
of the act of February 22, 1889, by the governors of said Territories,
respectively. Having after a careful examination found that the several
constitutions and governments were republican in form and not repugnant
to the Constitution of the United States, that all the provisions of the
act of Congress had been complied with, and that a majority of the votes
cast in each of said proposed States was in favor of the adoption of
the constitution submitted therein, I did so declare by a separate
proclamation as to each--as to North Dakota and South Dakota on
Saturday, November 2;[4] as to Montana on Friday, November 8,[5] and as
to Washington on Monday, November 11.[6]
Each of these States has within it resources the development of which
will employ the energies of and yield a comfortable subsistence to a
great population. The smallest of these new States, Washington, stands
twelfth, and the largest, Montana, third, among the forty-two in area.
The people of these States are already well-trained, intelligent, and
patriotic American citizens, having common interests and sympathies with
those of the older States and a common purpose to defend the integrity
and uphold the honor of the nation.
The attention of the Interstate Commerce Commission has been called to
the urgent need of Congressional legislation for the better protection
of the lives and limbs of those engaged in operating the great
interstate freight lines of the country, and especially of the yardmen
and brakemen. A petition signed by nearly 10,000 railway brakemen was
presented to the Commission asking that steps might be taken to bring
about the use of automatic brakes and couplers on freight cars.
At a meeting of State railroad commissioners and their accredited
representatives held at Washington in March last upon the invitation of
the Interstate Commerce Commission a resolution was unanimously adopted
urging the Commission "to consider what can be done to prevent the loss
of life and limb in coupling and uncoupling freight cars and in handling
the brakes of such cars." During the year ending June 30, 1888, over
2,000 railroad employees were killed in service and more than 20,000
injured. It is competent, I think, for Congress to require uniformity
in the construction of cars used in interstate commerce and the use of
improved safety appliances upon such trains. Time will be necessary to
make the needed changes, but an earnest and intelligent beginning should
be made at once. It is a reproach to our civilization that any class
of American workmen should in the pursuit of a necessary and useful
vocation be subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of
a soldier in time of war.
The creation of an Executive Department to be known as the Department of
Agriculture by the act of February 9 last was a wise and timely response
to a request which had long been respectfully urged by the farmers of
the country; but much remains to be done to perfect the organization of
the Department so that it may fairly realize the expectations which
its creation excited. In this connection attention is called to the
suggestions contained in the report of the Secretary, which is herewith
submitted. The need of a law officer for the Department such as is
provided for the other Executive Departments is manifest. The failure of
the last Congress to make the usual provision for the publication of the
annual report should be promptly remedied. The public interest in the
report and its value to the farming community, I am sure, will not be
diminished under the new organization of the Department.
I recommend that the weather service be separated from the War
Department and established as a bureau in the Department of Agriculture.
This will involve an entire reorganization both of the Weather Bureau
and of the Signal Corps, making of the first a purely civil organization
and of the other a purely military staff corps. The report of the Chief
Signal Officer shows that the work of the corps on its military side has
been deteriorating.
The interests of the people of the District of Columbia should not be
lost sight of in the pressure for consideration of measures affecting
the whole country. Having no legislature of its own, either municipal
or general, its people must look to Congress for the regulation of all
those concerns that in the States are the subject of local control. Our
whole people have an interest that the national capital should be made
attractive and beautiful, and, above all, that its repute for social
order should be well maintained. The laws regulating the sale of
intoxicating drinks in the District should be revised with a view to
bringing the traffic under stringent limitations and control.
In execution of the power conferred upon me by the act making
appropriations for the expenses of the District of Columbia for the
year ending June 30, 1890, I did on the 17th day of August last appoint
Rudolph Hering, of New York, Samuel M. Gray, of Rhode Island, and
Frederick P. Stearns, of Massachusetts, three eminent sanitary
engineers, to examine and report upon the system of sewerage existing in
the District of Columbia. Their report, which is not yet completed, will
be in due course submitted to Congress.
The report of the Commissioners of the District is herewith transmitted,
and the attention of Congress is called to the suggestions contained
therein.
The proposition to observe the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of America by the opening of a world's fair or exposition in
some one of our great cities will be presented for the consideration of
Congress. The value and interest of such an exposition may well claim
the promotion of the General Government.
On the 4th of March last the Civil Service Commission had but a single
member. The vacancies were filled on the 9th day of May, and since then
the Commissioners have been industriously, though with an inadequate
force, engaged in executing the law. They were assured by me that a
cordial support would be given them in the faithful and impartial
enforcement of the statute and of the rules and regulations adopted
in aid of it.
Heretofore the book of eligibles has been closed to everyone, except
as certifications were made upon the requisition of the appointing
officers. This secrecy was the source of much suspicion and of many
charges of favoritism in the administration of the law. What is secret
is always suspected; what is open can be judged. The Commission, with
the full approval of all its members, has now opened the list of
eligibles to the public. The eligible lists for the classified
post-offices and custom-houses are now publicly posted in the respective
offices, as are also the certifications for appointments. The purpose of
the civil-service law was absolutely to exclude any other consideration
in connection with appointments under it than that of merit as tested by
the examinations. The business proceeds upon the theory that both the
examining boards and the appointing officers are absolutely ignorant
as to the political views and associations of all persons on the
civil-service lists. It is not too much to say, however, that some
recent Congressional investigations have somewhat shaken public
confidence in the impartiality of the selections for appointment.
The reform of the civil service will make no safe or satisfactory
advance until the present law and its equal administration are well
established in the confidence of the people. It will be my pleasure,
as it is my duty, to see that the law is executed with firmness and
impartiality. If some of its provisions have been fraudulently evaded
by appointing officers, our resentment should not suggest the repeal of
the law, but reform in its administration. We should have one view of
the matter, and hold it with a sincerity that is not affected by the
consideration that the party to which we belong is for the time in
power.
My predecessor, on the 4th day of January, 1889, by an Executive order
to take effect March 15, brought the Railway Mail Service under the
operation of the civil-service law.[7] Provision was made that the order
should take effect sooner in any State where an eligible list was sooner
obtained. On the 11th day of March Mr. Lyman, then the only member of
the Commission, reported to me in writing that it would not be possible
to have the list of eligibles ready before May 1, and requested that the
taking effect of the order be postponed until that time, which was
done,[8] subject to the same provision contained in the original order
as to States in which an eligible list was sooner obtained.
As a result of the revision of the rules, of the new classification, and
of the inclusion of the Railway Mail Service, the work of the Commission
has been greatly increased, and the present clerical force is found to
be inadequate. I recommend that the additional clerks asked by the
Commission be appropriated for.
The duty of appointment is devolved by the Constitution or by the law,
and the appointing officers are properly held to a high responsibility
in its exercise. The growth of the country and the consequent increase
of the civil list have magnified this function of the Executive
disproportionally. It can not be denied, however, that the labor
connected with this necessary work is increased, often to the point of
actual distress, by the sudden and excessive demands that are made upon
an incoming Administration for removals and appointments. But, on the
other hand, it is not true that incumbency is a conclusive argument for
continuance in office. Impartiality, moderation, fidelity to public
duty, and a good attainment in the discharge of it must be added before
the argument is complete. When those holding administrative offices so
conduct themselves as to convince just political opponents that no party
consideration or bias affects in any way the discharge of their public
duties, we can more easily stay the demand for removals.
I am satisfied that both in and out of the classified service great
benefit would accrue from the adoption of some system by which the
officer would receive the distinction and benefit that in all private
employments comes from exceptional faithfulness and efficiency in the
performance of duty.
I have suggested to the heads of the Executive Departments that they
consider whether a record might not be kept in each bureau of all those
elements that are covered by the terms "faithfulness" and "efficiency,"
and a rating made showing the relative merits of the clerks of each
class, this rating to be regarded as a test of merit in making
promotions.
I have also suggested to the Postmaster-General that he adopt some plan
by which he can, upon the basis of the reports to the Department and of
frequent inspections, indicate the relative merit of postmasters of each
class. They will be appropriately indicated in the Official Register and
in the report of the Department. That a great stimulus would thus be
given to the whole service I do not doubt, and such a record would be
the best defense against inconsiderate removals from office.
The interest of the General Government in the education of the
people found an early expression, not only in the thoughtful and
sometimes warning utterances of our ablest statesmen, but in liberal
appropriations from the common resources for the support of education
in the new States. No one will deny that it is of the gravest national
concern that those who hold the ultimate control of all public affairs
should have the necessary intelligence wisely to direct and determine
them. National aid to education has heretofore taken the form of land
grants, and in that form the constitutional power of Congress to promote
the education of the people is not seriously questioned. I do not think
it can be successfully questioned when the form is changed to that of a
direct grant of money from the public Treasury.
Such aid should be, as it always has been, suggested by some exceptional
conditions. The sudden emancipation of the slaves of the South, the
bestowal of the suffrage which soon followed, and the impairment of the
ability of the States where these new citizens were chiefly found to
adequately provide educational facilities presented not only exceptional
but unexampled conditions. That the situation has been much ameliorated
there is no doubt. The ability and interest of the States have happily
increased.
But a great work remains to be done, and I think the General
Government should lend its aid. As the suggestion of a national grant
in aid of education grows chiefly out of the condition and needs of
the emancipated slave and his descendants, the relief should as far
as possible, while necessarily proceeding upon some general lines, be
applied to the need that suggested it. It is essential, if much good is
to be accomplished, that the sympathy and active interest of the people
of the States should be enlisted, and that the methods adopted should
be such as to stimulate and not to supplant local taxation for school
purposes.
As one Congress can not bind a succeeding one in such a case and as
the effort must in some degree be experimental, I recommend that any
appropriation made for this purpose be so limited in annual amount and
as to the time over which it is to extend as will on the one hand give
the local school authorities opportunity to make the best use of the
first year's allowance, and on the other deliver them from the
temptation to unduly postpone the assumption of the whole burden
themselves.
The colored people did not intrude themselves upon us. They were brought
here in chains and held in the communities where they are now chiefly
found by a cruel slave code. Happily for both races, they are now free.
They have from a standpoint of ignorance and poverty--which was our
shame, not theirs--made remarkable advances in education and in the
acquisition of property. They have as a people shown themselves to
be friendly and faithful toward the white race under temptations of
tremendous strength. They have their representatives in the national
cemeteries, where a grateful Government has gathered the ashes of
those who died in its defense. They have furnished to our Regular Army
regiments that have won high praise from their commanding officers for
courage and soldierly qualities and for fidelity to the enlistment oath.
In civil life they are now the toilers of their communities, making
their full contribution to the widening streams of prosperity which
these communities are receiving. Their sudden withdrawal would stop
production and bring disorder into the household as well as the shop.
Generally they do not desire to quit their homes, and their employers
resent the interference of the emigration agents who seek to stimulate
such a desire.
But notwithstanding all this, in many parts of our country where the
colored population is large the people of that race are by various
devices deprived of any effective exercise of their political rights and
of many of their civil rights. The wrong does not expend itself upon
those whose votes are suppressed. Every constituency in the Union is
wronged.
It has been the hope of every patriot that a sense of justice and of
respect for the law would work a gradual cure of these flagrant evils.
Surely no one supposes that the present can be accepted as a permanent
condition. If it is said that these communities must work out this
problem for themselves, we have a right to ask whether they are at work
upon it. Do they suggest any solution? When and under what conditions is
the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those
full civil rights which have so long been his in law? When is that
equality of influence which our form of government was intended to
secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should
courageously face these grave questions, and not leave them as a
heritage of woe to the next. The consultation should proceed with
candor, calmness, and great patience, upon the lines of justice and
humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. No question in our country can
be at rest except upon the firm base of justice and of the law.
I earnestly invoke the attention of Congress to the consideration of
such measures within its well-defined constitutional powers as will
secure to all our people a free exercise of the right of suffrage and
every other civil right under the Constitution and laws of the United
States. No evil, however deplorable, can justify the assumption either
on the part of the Executive or of Congress of powers not granted, but
both will be highly blamable if all the powers granted are not wisely
but firmly used to correct these evils. The power to take the whole
direction and control of the election of members of the House of
Representatives is clearly given to the General Government. A partial
and qualified supervision of these elections is now provided for by law,
and in my opinion this law may be so strengthened and extended as to
secure on the whole better results than can be attained by a law taking
all the processes of such election into Federal control. The colored man
should be protected in all of his relations to the Federal Government,
whether as litigant, juror, or witness in our courts, as an elector for
members of Congress, or as a peaceful traveler upon our interstate
railways.
There is nothing more justly humiliating to the national pride and
nothing more hurtful to the national prosperity than the inferiority of
our merchant marine compared with that of other nations whose general
resources, wealth, and seacoast lines do not suggest any reason for
their supremacy on the sea. It was not always so, and our people are
agreed, I think, that it shall not continue to be so. It is not possible
in this communication to discuss the causes of the decay of our shipping
interests or the differing methods by which it is proposed to restore
them. The statement of a few well-authenticated facts and some general
suggestions as to legislation is all that is practicable. That the great
steamship lines sailing under the flags of England, France, Germany,
Spain, and Italy, and engaged in foreign commerce, were promoted and
have since been and now are liberally aided by grants of public money
in one form or another is generally known. That the American lines of
steamships have been abandoned by us to an unequal contest with the
aided lines of other nations until they have been withdrawn, or in
the few cases where they are still maintained are subject to serious
disadvantages, is matter of common knowledge.
The present situation is such that travelers and merchandise find
Liverpool often a necessary intermediate port between New York and some
of the South American capitals. The fact that some of the delegates from
South American States to the conference of American nations now in
session at Washington reached our shores by reversing that line of
travel is very conclusive of the need of such a conference and very
suggestive as to the first and most necessary step in the direction of
fuller and more beneficial intercourse with nations that are now our
neighbors upon the lines of latitude, but not upon the lines of
established commercial intercourse.
I recommend that such appropriations be made for ocean mail service in
American steamships between our ports and those of Central and South
America, China, Japan, and the important islands in both of the great
oceans as will be liberally remunerative for the service rendered and
as will encourage the establishment and in some fair degree equalize
the chances of American steamship lines in the competitions which they
must meet. That the American States lying south of us will cordially
cooperate in establishing and maintaining such lines of steamships to
their principal ports I do not doubt.
We should also make provision for a naval reserve to consist of such
merchant ships of American construction and of a specified tonnage and
speed as the owners will consent to place at the use of the Government
in case of need as armed cruisers. England has adopted this policy, and
as a result can now upon necessity at once place upon her naval list
some of the fastest steamships in the world. A proper supervision of the
construction of such vessels would make their conversion into effective
ships of war very easy.
I am an advocate of economy in our national expenditures, but it is
a misuse of terms to make this word describe a policy that withholds
an expenditure for the purpose of extending our foreign commerce. The
enlargement and improvement of our merchant marine, the development of
a sufficient body of trained American seamen, the promotion of rapid and
regular mail communication between the ports of other countries and our
own, and the adaptation of large and swift American merchant steamships
to naval uses in time of war are public purposes of the highest concern.
The enlarged participation of our people in the carrying trade, the new
and increased markets that will be opened for the products of our farms
and factories, and the fuller and better employment of our mechanics
which will result from a liberal promotion of our foreign commerce
insure the widest possible diffusion of benefit to all the States
and to all our people. Everything is most propitious for the present
inauguration of a liberal and progressive policy upon this subject,
and we should enter upon it with promptness and decision.
The legislation which I have suggested, it is sincerely believed,
will promote the peace and honor of our country and the prosperity and
security of the people. I invoke the diligent and serious attention of
Congress to the consideration of these and such other measures as may
be presented having the same great end in view.
BENJ. HARRISON.
[Footnote 2: See pp. 14-15.]
[Footnote 3: See pp. 15-18.]
[Footnote 4: See pp. 20-24.]
[Footnote 5: See pp. 24-25.]
[Footnote 6: See pp. 25-26.]
[Footnote 7: See Vol. VIII, pp. 847-851.]
[Footnote 8: See p. 27.]
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 17, 1889_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
The act of Congress approved July 9, 1888, "for an international marine
conference to secure greater safety for life and property at sea," and
in virtue of which the present conference is now holding its sessions
at Washington, provides by the third section that the labors of the
conference shall terminate on the 1st day of January, 1890, or sooner,
by direction of the President.
I transmit herewith a report from the Acting Secretary of State,
accompanied with a letter from Rear-Admiral S.R. Franklin, United States
Navy, president of the conference, stating that in all probability the
labors of the conference can not be brought to a close by the time fixed
by the present law.
In consideration of the many important questions now under discussion by
the conference, which should if possible be satisfactorily determined
before the final adjournment, I earnestly recommend that a further act
be passed to enable the conference to continue its sessions for a period
of two months from January 1, 1890.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 18, 1889_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a communication of 16th instant from the Secretary
of the Interior, submitting the report, with accompanying papers, of the
commission appointed under the provisions of the act of March 2, 1889
(25 U.S. Statutes at Large, p. 1002), to conduct negotiations with the
Coeur d'Alene tribe of Indians for the purchase and release by said
tribe of such portions of its reservation not agricultural and valuable
chiefly for minerals and timber as such tribe shall consent to sell,
etc., together with the agreement entered into by said commission
September 9, 1889, with said Indians.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 20, 1889_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 16th instant from the
Secretary of the Interior, submitting a draft of a bill "to provide for
the reduction of the Round Valley Indian Reservation, in the State of
California, and for other purposes." I invite your attention to the
papers herein referred to, showing the necessity for the proposed
legislation, and ask that the bill herewith receive careful and early
consideration.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 7, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I herewith inclose a report from the Secretary of State, with
accompanying papers, in relation to the death of George Pauls, a German
subject, at Wilmington, N.C., May 8, 1886, and the claim of his widow
for compensation on that account. In view of the statements made by the
Secretary of State, I earnestly recommend that an appropriation of
$5,000 be made in behalf of Mrs. Pauls.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 13, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State of the 13th
instant, recommending that the necessary means be provided to erect
suitable buildings on the grounds so generously presented in the year
1884 to this Government for the use of its legation at Bangkok by His
Majesty the King of Siam.
I commend the matter to the favorable consideration of Congress.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 16, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in relation
to the claim of the Government of Sweden and Norway, under the treaty
between the United States and that Government of July 4, 1827, for the
benefit of the lower rate of tonnage dues under the shipping acts of
1884 and 1886.
I recommend the immediate adoption by Congress of the necessary
legislation to enable this Government to apply in the case of Sweden and
Norway the same rule in respect to the levying of tonnage dues under the
treaty of 1827 as was claimed and secured by this Government under the
same instrument in 1828.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 20, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a letter of Professor T.C. Mendenhall, chairman of
a committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and president of that association, and also the memorial prepared by
said committee, relating to the preservation of the forests upon the
public domain.
I very earnestly recommend that adequate legislation may be provided
to the end that the rapid and needless destruction of our great forest
areas may be prevented.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 20, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of War, relating to the
condition and needs of the band of Apache Indians now held at Mount
Vernon Barracks and at Governors Island. The reports of General Crook
and Lieutenant Howard, which accompany the letter of the Secretary, show
that some of these Indians have rendered good service to the Government
in the pursuit and capture of the murderous band that followed Natchez
and Geronimo. It is a reproach that they should not in our treatment of
them be distinguished from the cruel and bloody members of the tribe now
confined with them.
I earnestly recommend that provision be made by law for locating these
Indians upon lands in the Indian Territory.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 27, 1890_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant,
a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents, in
relation to the execution of the acts of Congress approved May 6, 1882,
and October 1, 1888, concerning Chinese.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 10, 1890_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
In pursuance of the power vested in me by the terms of the last clause
of section 3 of the act of Congress approved March 2, 1889, entitled
"An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses
of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with
various Indian tribes for the year ending June 30, 1890, and for other
purposes," a commission, as therein authorized, was appointed,
consisting of Charles Foster, of Ohio, William Warner, of Missouri, and
General George Crook, of the United States Army. This commission was
specially instructed to present to the Sioux Indians occupying the Great
Sioux Reservation, for their acceptance thereof and consent thereto in
manner and form as therein provided, the act of Congress approved March
2, 1889, entitled "An act to divide a portion of the reservation of the
Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations and to
secure the relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for
other purposes."
The report of the commission was submitted to me on the 24th day of
December, 1889, and is, with the accompanying documents and a letter of
the Secretary of the Interior, herewith transmitted for the information
of Congress. It appears from the report of the commission that the
consent of more than three-fourths of the adult Indians to the terms of
the act last named was secured, as required by section 12 of the treaty
of 1868, and upon a careful examination of the papers submitted I find
such to be the fact, and that such consent is properly evidenced by the
signatures of more than three-fourths of such Indians.
At the outset of the negotiations the commission was confronted by
certain questions as to the interpretation and effect of the act of
Congress which they were presenting for the acceptance of the Indians.
Upon two or three points of some importance the commission gave in
response to these inquiries an interpretation to the law, and it was
the law thus explained to them that was accepted by the Indians. The
commissioners had no power to bind Congress or the Executive by their
construction of a statute, but they were the agents of the United
States, first, to submit a definite proposition for the acceptance
of the Indians, and, that failing, to agree upon modified terms to
be submitted to Congress for ratification. They were dealing with an
ignorant and suspicious people, and an explanation of the terms and
effect of the offer submitted could not be avoided. Good faith demands
that if the United States accepts the lands ceded the beneficial
construction of the act given by our agents should be also admitted
and observed.
The chief difficulty in the construction of the act grows out of its
relation to prior treaties, which were by section 19 continued in
force so far as they are not in conflict with the terms of the act.
The seventh article of the treaty of 1868, relating to schools and
schoolhouses, is by section 17 of the act continued in force for twenty
years, "subject to such modifications as Congress shall deem most
effective to secure to said Indians equivalent benefits of such
education."