This bill proposes to appropriate $5,000,000, to be paid in land scrip,
and provides that "no claim or memorial shall be received by the
commissioners" authorized by the act "unless accompanied by a release or
discharge of the United States from all other and further compensation"
than the claimant "may be entitled to receive under the provisions of
this act." These claims are estimated to amount to a much larger sum
than $5,000,000, and yet the claimant is required to release to the
Government all other compensation, and to accept his share of a fund
which is known to be inadequate. If the claims be well founded, it would
be unjust to the claimants to repudiate any portion of them, and the
payment of the remaining sum could not be hereafter resisted. This bill
proposes to pay these claims not in the currency known to the
Constitution, and not to their full amount.
Passed, as this bill has been, near the close of the session, and when
many measures of importance necessarily claim the attention of Congress,
and possibly without that full and deliberate consideration which the
large sum it appropriates and the existing condition of the Treasury and
of the country demand, I deem it to be my duty to withhold my approval,
that it may hereafter undergo the revision of Congress.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255