U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 8, 1871.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith an extract of a paper addressed to the President, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the committee of Friends on Indian affairs having charge of the northern superintendency, in relation to a desire of certain Indian tribes to sell a portion of the lands owned by them, with a view of locating on other lands that they may be able to purchase, together with the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs thereon and a letter of the Secretary of the Interior Department approving the report of the Commissioner.
I submit the draft of a bill which has been prepared, and which it is believed will effect the object desired by the committee, and request the consideration thereof by Congress.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, February 9, 1871.
To the Senate:
The British minister accredited to this Government recently, in compliance with instructions from his Government, submitted a proposal for the appointment of a "joint high commission," to be composed of members to be named by each Government, to hold its session at Washington, and to treat and discuss the mode of settling the different questions which have arisen out of the fisheries, as well as those which affect the relations of the United States toward the British possessions in North America.
I did not deem it expedient to agree to the proposal unless the consideration of the questions growing out of the acts committed by the vessels which have given rise to the claims known as the "Alabama claims" were to be within the subject of discussion and settlement by the commission. The British Government having assented to this, the commission is expected shortly to meet. I therefore nominate as such commissioners, jointly and separately, on the part of the United States: