SPECIAL MESSAGES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 4, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 3d instant from the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by an agreement concluded by the Cherokee Commission with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes of Indians for the cession of certain lands and for other purposes.
The agreement is submitted for the consideration of Congress, as required by law.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 5, 1890.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of September last, a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying correspondence, in relation to the killing of General J. Martine Barrundia by Guatemalan officers on board the Pacific mail steamer Acapulco in the port of San Jose, Guatemala, on the 28th of August last.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 17, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of State, in relation to a report upon the subject of cholera made by Dr. E.O. Shakespeare pursuant to the act of Congress approved March 3, 1885.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 17, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a letter from the secretary of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who transmits a memorial, addressed to the Government of the United States, in relation to the late Captain John Ericsson.
The matter is presented for such action as the Congress may deem proper.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 17, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of War, accompanied by a copy of a preliminary report of the board on gun factories and steel forgings for high-power guns, appointed by me under the provisions of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for fortifications," etc., approved August 18, 1890.
The report and accompanying papers are submitted for the information and early attention of Congress.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 22, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter of the 18th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, in relation to the disposition of timber on certain Chippewa reservations in Wisconsin, together with copies of papers relating thereto. The matter is presented for the action of Congress.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 23, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Territorial legislature of Oklahoma, now in session, will adjourn by limitation of law on to-morrow, the 24th instant. The act organizing the Territory provided (section II) that certain chapters of the revised statutes of Nebraska should be in force until after the adjournment of the first session of the Territorial legislature.
The question of the location of the Territorial capital has so occupied the time of the legislature and so distracted and divided its members that no criminal code has been provided. It is urgently necessary that Congress should at once, by joint resolution or otherwise, continue the laws of Nebraska in force, and save pending criminal arrests and prosecutions at least. The reconvening of the legislature does not under the existing circumstances promise any relief.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 23, 1890.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by the report of the commission appointed by me by virtue of a provision in the naval appropriation bill approved June 30, 1890, for the purpose of selecting a suitable site "for a dry dock at some point on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, or the waters connected therewith, north of the parallel of latitude marking the northern boundary of California, including the waters of Puget Sound and also Lakes Union and Washington, in the State of Washington."
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 5, 1891.
To the House of Representatives:
In further response to the resolution of the House of Representatives requesting me, if in my judgment not incompatible with the public interest, to furnish to the House the correspondence since March 4, 1889, between the Government of the United States and the Government of Great Britain touching the subjects in dispute in the Bering Sea, I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by the correspondence which has taken place since my message of July 23, 1890.[16]
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 10, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a memorial of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma, asking an appropriation for the relief of the destitute people of that Territory.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 16, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith the report of the World's Columbian Commission, with the accompanying papers.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 19, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 17th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting the agreement entered into between the Crow Indians and the commission appointed to negotiate with them for the sale to the United States of the western portion of their reservation in Montana under the provisions of the act of September 25, 1890.
It is thought important by the Department that this matter receive the consideration of Congress during the present session.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 26, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of War, accompanied by the final report of the board on gun factories and steel forgings for high-power guns, and appendixes thereto.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 26, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who transmits a draft of a bill for compensating the Indians of the Crow Creek Reservation for the loss sustained by them by reason of their receiving less land per capita in their diminished reservations than is to be received by Indians occupying other diminished reservations.
The matter is presented for the early consideration of the Congress.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 31, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The sudden death of the Hon. William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, in New York, on the evening of the 29th instant, has directed my attention to the present state of the law as to the filling of a vacancy occasioned by the death of the head of a Department.
I transmit herewith an opinion of the Attorney-General, from which it will be seen that under the statutes in force no officer in the Treasury Department or other person designated by me can exercise the duties of Secretary of the Treasury for a longer period than ten days. This limitation is, I am sure, unwise, and necessarily involves in such a case as that now presented undue haste and even indelicacy. The President should not be required to take up the question of the selection of a successor before the last offices of affection and respect have been paid to the dead. If the proprieties of an occasion as sad as that which now overshadows us are observed, possibly one-half of the brief time allowed is gone before, with due regard to the decencies of life, the President and those with whom he should advise can take up the consideration of the grave duty of selecting a head for one of the greatest Departments of the Government.
Hasty action by the Senate is also necessarily involved, and geographical limitations are practically imposed by the necessity of selecting some one who can reach the capital and take the necessary oath of office before the expiration of the ten days.
It may be a very proper restriction of the power of the President in this connection that he shall not designate for any great length of time a person to discharge these important duties who has not been confirmed by the Senate, but there would seem to be no reason why one of the assistant secretaries of the Department wherein the vacancy exists might not discharge the duties of Secretary until a successor is selected, confirmed, and qualified. The inconvenience of this limitation was made apparent at the time of the death of Secretary Folger. President Arthur in that case allowed one of the assistant secretaries, who had been designated to act in the absence of the Secretary, to continue in the discharge of such duties for ten days, then designated the same person to discharge the duties for a further term of ten days, and then made a temporary appointment as Secretary, in order to secure the consideration that he needed in filling this important place.
I recommend such a modification of the existing law as will permit the first or sole assistant, or, in the case of the Treasury Department, where the assistants are not graded, that one who may be designated by the President, to discharge the duties of the head of the Department until a successor is appointed and qualified.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 10, 1891.
To the Senate:
I transmit herewith the correspondence called for by the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, relating to the conduct of Commander Reiter in connection with the arrest and killing of General Barrundia.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 13, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Admiral of the Navy, David Dixon Porter, died at his residence in the city of Washington this morning at 8.15 o'clock, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He entered the naval service as a midshipman February 2, 1829, and had been since continuously in service, having been made Admiral August 15, 1870. He was the son of Commodore David Porter, one of the greatest of our naval commanders. His service during the Civil War was conspicuously brilliant and successful, and his death ends a very high and honorable career. His countrymen will sincerely mourn his loss while they cherish with grateful pride the memory of his deeds. To officers of the Navy his life will continue to yield inspiration and encouragement.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D.C., February 14, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith the sixth annual report of the Commissioner of Labor. This report relates to the cost of producing iron and steel and the materials of which iron is made in the United States and in Europe, and the earnings, the efficiency, and the cost of living of the men employed in such production.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 14, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The death of William Tecumseh Sherman, which took place to-day at his residence in the city of New York, at 1 o'clock and 50 minutes p.m., is an event that will bring sorrow to the heart of every patriotic citizen. No living American was so loved and venerated as he. To look upon his face, to hear his name, was to have one's love of country intensified. He served his country, not for fame, not out of a sense of professional duty, but for love of the flag and of the beneficent civil institutions of which it was the emblem. He was an ideal soldier, and shared to the fullest the esprit de corps of the Army; but he cherished the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and was a soldier only that these might be perpetuated in undiminished usefulness and honor. He was in nothing an imitator.
A profound student of military science and precedent, he drew from them principles and suggestions, and so adapted them to novel conditions that his campaigns will continue to be the profitable study of the military profession throughout the world. His genial nature made him comrade to every soldier of the great Union Army. No presence was so welcome and inspiring at the camp fire or commandery as his. His career was complete; his honors were full. He had received from the Government the highest rank known to our military establishment and from the people unstinted gratitude and love. No word of mine can add to his fame. His death has followed in startling quickness that of the Admiral of the Navy; and it is a sad and notable incident that when the Department under which he served shall have put on the usual emblems of mourning four of the eight Executive Departments will be simultaneously draped in black, and one other has but today removed the crape from its walls.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 26, 1891.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying documents, in relation to the execution of letters rogatory in foreign countries.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 26, 1891.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by the papers relating to the commercial arrangement recently entered into with Brazil.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 3, 1891.
To the Senate:
In accordance with the resolution of the Senate of this date, I return herewith Senate bill 1453, to provide for the purchase of a site and the erection of a public building thereon at Saginaw, in the State of Michigan.
BENJ. HARRISON.