162 



CONGRESS. (PEESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



the primary object of the public land legislation in 

 the early days of the republic. This system was a 

 simple one. It commenced with an admirable scheme 

 of public surveys, by which the humblest citizen could 

 identify the tract upon which he wished to establish 

 his home. The price of lands was placed within the 

 reach of all the enterprising, industrious, and honest 

 pioneer citizens of the country. It was soon, how- 

 ever, found that the object of the laws was perverted 

 under the system of cash sales, from a distribution of 

 land among the people to an accumulation of land 

 capital by wealthy and speculative persons. To check 

 this tendency a preference right of purchase was given 

 to settlers on the land, a plan which culminated in 

 the general pre-emption act of 1841. The foundation 

 of this system was actual residence and cultivation. 

 Twenty years later the homestead law was devised to 

 more surely place actual homes in the possession of 

 actual cultivators of the soil. The land was given 

 without price, the sole conditions being residence, im- 

 provement, and cultivation. Other laws have fol- 

 lowed, each designed to encourage the acquirement 

 and use of land in limited individual (quantities. But 

 in later years these laws, through vicious administra- 

 tive methods and under changed conditions of com- 

 munication and transportation, have been so evaded 

 and violated that their beneficent purpose ia threat- 

 ened with entire defeat. The methods of such eva- 

 sions and violations are set forth in detail in the re- 

 ports of the Secretary of the Interior and Commis- 

 sioner of the General Land-Office. The rapid appro- 

 priation of our public lands without bona-jide settle- 

 ments or cultivation, and not only without intention 

 of residence, but for the purpose of their aggregation 

 in large holdings, in ma_ny cases in the hands of for- 

 eigners, invites the serious and immediate attention 

 of the Congress. 



The energies of the land department have been de- 

 voted during the present administration to remedy 

 defects and correct abuses in the public land service. 

 The results of these efforts are so largely in the nature 

 of reforms in the processes and methods of our land 

 system as to prevent adequate estimate ; but it ap- 

 pears by a compilation from the reports of the Com- 

 missioner of the General Land-OlTice that the immedi- 

 ate effect in leading cases which have come to a final 

 termination has been the restoration to the mass of 

 public lands of two million seven hundred and fifty 

 thousand acres ; that two million three hundred and 

 seventy thousand acres are embraced in investiga- 

 tions now pending before the department or the 

 courts, and that the action of Congress has been asked 

 to effect the restoration of two million seven hundred 

 and ninety thousand acres additional ; besides which 

 four million acres have been withheld from reserva- 

 tion, and the rights of entry thereon maintained. 



I recommend the repeal of the pre-emption and 

 timber- culture acts, and that the homestead laws be 

 so amended as to better secure compliance with their 

 requirements of residence, improvement, and cultiva- 

 tion for the period of five years from date of entry, 

 without commutation or provision for speculative rc- 

 linquishment. I also recommend the repeal of the 

 desert-land laws unless it shall be the pleasure of the 

 Congress to so amend these laws as to render them 

 less liable to abuses. As the chief motive for an eva- 

 sion of the laws, and the principal cause of their result 

 in land accumulation instead of land distribution, is 

 the facility with which transfers are made of the right 

 intended to be secured to settlers, it may be deemed 

 advisable to provide by legislation some guards and 

 checks upon the alienation of homestead rights and 

 lands covered thereby until patents issue. 



Last year an executive proclamation was issued di- 

 recting the removal of fences which inclosed the public 

 domain. Many of these have been removed in obedi- 

 ence to such order ; but much of the public land still 

 remains within the lines of these unlawful fences. 

 The ingenious methods resorted to iu order to con- 

 tinue these trespasses, and the hardihood of the pre- 



tenses by which in some cases such inclosures are 

 justified, are fully detailed in the report of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior. 



The removal of the fences still remaining which in- 

 close public lands will be enforced with all the au- 

 thority ind means with which the executive branch 

 of the Government is or shall be invested by the Con- 

 gress for that purpose. 



The report of the Commissioner of Pensions con- 

 tains a detailed and most satisfactory exhibit of the 

 operations of the Pension Bureau during the last fiscal 

 year. The amount of work done was the largest in 

 any year since the organization of the bureau ; and it 

 has been done at less cost than during the previous 

 year in every division. 



On the 30th day of June, 1886, there were 365,783 

 pensioners on the rolls of the bureau. 



Since 1861 there have been 1,018,735 applications 

 for pensions filed, of which 78,834 were based upon 

 service in the War of 1812. There were 621,754 of 

 these applications allowed, including 60,178 to the 

 soldiers of 1812 and their widows. 



The total amount paid for pensions since 1861 is 

 $808,624,811.57. 



The number of new pensions allowed during the 

 year ended June 30, 1886, is 40,857 a larger number 

 than has been allowed in any year save one since 

 1861 ; the names of 2,229 pensioners which had been 

 previously dropped from the rolls, were restored dur- 

 ing the year, and after deducting those dropped with- 

 in the same time for various .causes, a net increase 

 remains for the year of 20.658 names. 



From Jan. 1, 1861, to Dec. 1, 1885, 1,967 private 

 pension acts had been passed. Since the last-men- 

 tioned date, and during the last session of the Con- 

 gress, 644 such acts became laws. 



It seems to me that no one can examine our pension 

 establishment ahd its operations, without being con- 

 vinced that through its instrumentality justice can be 

 very nearly done to all who are entitled under pres- 

 ent laws to the pension bounty of the Government ; 

 but it is undeniable that cases exist, well entitled to 

 relief, in which the Pension Bureau is powerless to 

 aid the really worthy. Cases of this class are such as 

 only lack by misfortune the kind or quality of proof 

 which the law and regulations of the bureau require, 

 or which, though their merit is apparent, for some 

 other reason can not be justly dealt with through gen- 

 eral laws, and these conditions fully justify applica- 

 tion to Congress and special enactments ; but the re- 

 sort to Congress for a special pension act to overrule 

 the deliberate and careful determination of the Pen- 

 sion Bureau on the merits is to secure favorable action 

 when it could not be expected under most liberal 

 execution of the laws. It must be admitted that this 

 opens the doors to the allowance of questionable 

 claims, and presents to the legislative and executive 

 branches of the Government applications concedcdly 

 not within the law and plainly devoid of merit, but 

 so surrounded by sentiment and patriotic feeling that 

 they are hard to resist. I suppose it will not be de- 

 niecl that many claims for pensions are made without 

 merit and that many have been allowed upon fraudu- 

 lent representations. This has been declared from 

 the Pension Bureau, not only in this, but in prior 

 administrations. 



The usefulness and the justice of any system for 

 the distribution of pensions depend upon the equality 

 and uniformity of its operation. 



It will be seen from the report of the Commissioner 

 that there are now paid by the Government one hun- 

 dred and thirty-one different rates of pension. 



He estimates from the best information he can ob- 

 tain that nine thousand of those who have served in 

 the Army and Navy of the United States are now 

 supported, in whole or in part, from public funds or 

 by organized charities, exclusive of those in soldiers' 

 homes under the direction and control of the Govern- 

 ment. Only 13 per cent, of these are pensioners, 

 while of the entire number of men furnished for the 



