The condition of the Chinese question in the Western States and Territories is, despite this restrictive legislation, far from being satisfactory. The recent outbreak in Wyoming Territory, where numbers of unoffending Chinamen, indisputably within the protection of the treaties and the law, were murdered by a mob, and the still more recent threatened outbreak of the same character in Washington Territory, are fresh in the minds of all, and there is apprehension lest the bitterness of feeling against the Mongolian race on the Pacific Slope may find vent in similar lawless demonstrations. All the power of this Government should be exerted to maintain the amplest good faith toward China in the treatment of these men, and the inflexible sternness of the law in bringing the wrongdoers to justice should be insisted upon.
Every effort has been made by this Government to prevent these violent outbreaks and to aid the representatives of China in their investigation of these outrages; and it is but just to say that they are traceable to the lawlessness of men not citizens of the United States engaged in competition with Chinese laborers.
Race prejudice is the chief factor in originating these disturbances, and it exists in a large part of our domain, jeopardizing our domestic peace and the good relationship we strive to maintain with China.
The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even where there is no treaty stipulation on the subject. That the exclusion of Chinese labor is demanded in other countries where like conditions prevail is strongly evidenced in the Dominion of Canada, where Chinese immigration is now regulated by laws more exclusive than our own. If existing laws are inadequate to compass the end in view, I shall be prepared to give earnest consideration to any further remedial measures, within the treaty limits, which the wisdom of Congress may devise.
At the time I wrote this the shocking occurrences at Rock Springs, in Wyoming Territory, were fresh in the minds of all, and had been recently presented anew to the attention of this Government by the Chinese minister in a note which, while not unnaturally exhibiting some misconception of our Federal system of administration in the Territories while they as yet are not in the exercise of the full measure of that sovereign self-government pertaining to the States of the Union, presents in truthful terms the main features of the cruel outrage there perpetrated upon inoffensive subjects of China. In the investigation of the Rock Springs outbreak and the ascertainment of the facts on which the Chinese minister's statements rest the Chinese representatives were aided by the agents of the United States, and the reports submitted, having been thus framed and recounting the facts within the knowledge of witnesses on both sides, possess an impartial truthfulness which could not fail to give them great impressiveness.
The facts, which so far are not controverted or affected by any exculpatory or mitigating testimony, show the murder of a number of Chinese subjects in September last at Rock Springs, the wounding of many others, and the spoliation of the property of all when the unhappy survivors had been driven from their habitations. There is no allegation that the victims by any lawless or disorderly act on their part contributed to bring about a collision; on the contrary, it appears that the law-abiding disposition of these people, who were sojourners in our midst under the sanction of hospitality and express treaty obligations, was made the pretext for an attack upon them. This outrage upon law and treaty engagements was committed by a lawless mob. None of the aggressors—happily for the national good fame—appear by the reports to have been citizens of the United States. They were aliens engaged in that remote district as mining laborers, who became excited against the Chinese laborers, as it would seem, because of their refusal to join them in a strike to secure higher wages. The oppression of Chinese subjects by their rivals in the competition for labor does not differ in violence and illegality from that applied to other classes of native or alien labor. All are equally under the protection of law and equally entitled to enjoy the benefits of assured public order.
Were there no treaty in existence referring to the rights of Chinese subjects; did they come hither as all other strangers who voluntarily resort to this land of freedom, of self-government, and of laws, here peaceably to win their bread and to live their lives, there can be no question that they would be entitled still to the same measure of protection from violence and the same free forum for the redress of their grievances as any other aliens.
So far as the treaties between the United States and China stipulate for the treatment of the Chinese subjects actually in the United States as the citizens or subjects of "the most favored nation" are treated, they create no new status for them; they simply recognize and confirm a general and existing rule, applicable to all aliens alike, for none are favored above others by domestic law, and none by foreign treaties unless it be the Chinese themselves in some respects. For by the third article of the treaty of November 17, 1880, between the United States and China it is provided that—
ART. III. If Chinese laborers, or Chinese of any other class, now either permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of the United States, meet with ill treatment at the hands of any other persons, the Government of the United States will exert all its power to devise measures for their protection and to secure to them the same rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation, and to which they are entitled by treaty.
This article may be held to constitute a special privilege for Chinese subjects in the United States, as compared with other aliens; not that it creates any peculiar rights which others do not share, but because, in case, of ill treatment of the Chinese in the United States, this Government is bound to "exert all its power to devise measures for their protection," by securing to them the rights to which equally with any and all other foreigners they are entitled.
Whether it is now incumbent upon the United States to amend their general laws or devise new measures in this regard I do not consider in the present communication, but confine myself to the particular point raised by the outrage and massacre at Rock Springs.
The note of the Chinese minister and the documents which accompany it give, as I believe, an unexaggerated statement of the lamentable incident, and present impressively the regrettable circumstance that the proceedings, in the name of justice, for the ascertainment of the crime and fixing the responsibility therefor were a ghastly mockery of justice. So long as the Chinese minister, under his instructions, makes this the basis of an appeal to the principles and convictions of mankind, no exception can be taken; but when he goes further, and, taking as his precedent the action of the Chinese Government in past instances where the lives of American citizens and their property in China have been endangered, argues a reciprocal obligation on the part of the United States to indemnify the Chinese subjects who suffered at Rock Springs, it became necessary to meet his argument and to deny most emphatically the conclusions he seeks to draw as to the existence of such a liability and the right of the Chinese Government to insist upon it.
I draw the attention of the Congress to the latter part of the note of the Secretary of State of February 18, 1886, in reply to the Chinese minister's representations, and invite especial consideration of the cogent reasons by which he reaches the conclusion that whilst the United States Government is under no obligation, whether by the express terms of its treaties with China or the principles of international law, to indemnify these Chinese subjects for losses caused by such means and under the admitted circumstances, yet that in view of the palpable and discreditable failure of the authorities of Wyoming Territory to bring to justice the guilty parties or to assure to the sufferers an impartial forum in which to seek and obtain compensation for the losses which those subjects have incurred by lack of police protection, and considering further the entire absence of provocation or contribution on the part of the victims, the Executive may be induced to bring the matter to the benevolent consideration of the Congress, in order that that body, in its high discretion, may direct the bounty of the Government in aid of innocent and peaceful strangers whose maltreatment has brought discredit upon the country, with the distinct understanding that such action is in no wise to be held as a precedent, is wholly gratuitous, and is resorted to in a spirit of pure generosity toward those who are otherwise helpless.
The correspondence exchanged is herewith submitted for the information of the Congress, and accompanies a like message to the House of Representatives.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 27th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared in the Office of Indian Affairs, for the purpose of securing to the Cherokees and others, citizens of the Cherokee Nation by adoption and incorporation, a sum equal to their proportion of the $300,000, proceeds of lands west of 96° in the Indian Territory, appropriated by the act of March 3, 1883.
The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of 25th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill recommended by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the payment of money claimed under alleged existing treaty stipulations and laws by such Eastern Cherokee Indians as have removed or shall hereafter remove themselves to the Indian Territory.
The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of 26th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, with inclosures, requesting legislation to provide for the reappraisement and sale of a small tract of land in the State of Nebraska belonging to the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation.
The matter is presented for the action of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 3, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, the seventeenth annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, for the year 1885, submitted to the Secretary of the Interior in pursuance of the act of May 17, 1882.
The report accompanies the message to the House of Representatives.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 5th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared in the Office of Indian Affairs, "for the relief of the Omaha tribe of Indians in the State of Nebraska."
The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, the report of the National Board of Health for the year 1885.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 17, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, being a revised list of papers on file in the Department of State touching the unpaid claims of citizens of the United States against France for spoliation prior to July 31, 1801.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 17, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
In response to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th of February, requesting to be furnished with a copy of the report made by the consul-general of the United States at Berlin upon the shipping interest of Germany, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State upon the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, March 17, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate in executive session of the 27th of January, I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State and the papers accompanying it, relating to the emigration of Chinese to the United States.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of 16th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, providing for the use of certain funds, proceeds of Indian reservations, covered into the Treasury under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1883, for the benefit of the Indians on whose account the same is covered in.
The subject is recommended to the favorable consideration and action of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of the 16th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "to authorize the purchase of a tract of land near Salem, Oreg., for the use of the Indian training school."
The subject is presented for the consideration and action of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.
To the Senate:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of February 9, 1886, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with its accompanying documents, relative to the commerce between the United States and certain foreign countries in cereals, and the cotton product during the years 1884 and 1885.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 22, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th of February last, calling upon the Secretary of State for copies of all the correspondence relating to the claims of certain governments to be accorded the reductions and exemptions of tonnage dues accorded to vessels entering ports of the United States from certain ports named in the shipping act of June 26, 1884, I transmit the report of that officer, together with the correspondence.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 25, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith the report of the Civil Service Commission for the year ended on the 16th day of January last.
The exhibit thus made of the operations of the Commission and the account thus presented of the results following the execution of the civil-service law can not fail to demonstrate its usefulness and strengthen the conviction that this scheme for a reform in the methods of administering the Government is no longer an experiment.
Wherever this reform has gained a foothold it has steadily advanced in the esteem of those charged with public administrative duties, while the people who desire good government have constantly been confirmed in their high estimate of its value and efficiency.
With the benefits it has already secured to the public service plainly apparent, and with its promise of increased usefulness easily appreciated, this cause is commended to the liberal care and jealous protection of the Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 30, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In further answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th of February last, calling upon the Secretary of State for copies of all correspondence relating to the claims of governments to be accorded the reductions and exemptions of tonnage dues accorded to vessels entering the ports of the United States from certain ports named in the shipping act of June 26, 1884, I transmit herewith a copy of the reply of the Attorney-General to the letter of the Secretary of State of December 15, 1885, as found on pages 35 and 36 of Executive Document No. 132, House of Representatives, Forty-ninth Congress, first session, communicated on the 22d instant.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of March, relative to the employment of substitutes in the Department of State, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State on the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior and the accompanying report, submitted by the governor of Alaska in compliance with section 5 of the act of May 17, 1884, entitled "An act providing a civil government for Alaska."
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, in relation to the claim of the representatives of the late Hon. James Crooks, a British subject, against this Government for the seizure of the schooner Lord Nelson in 1812.
The matter is commended to the favorable consideration of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 6, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress with a view to appropriate legislation in the premises, a report of the Secretary of State, with certain correspondence touching the treaty right of Chinese subjects other than laborers "to go and come of their own free will and accord,"
In my annual message of the 8th of December last I said:
In the application of the acts lately passed to execute the treaty of 1880, restrictive of the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States, individual cases of hardship have occurred beyond the power of the Executive to remedy, and calling for judicial determination.
These cases of individual hardship are due to the ambiguous and defective provisions of the acts of Congress approved respectively on the 6th May, 1882, and 5th July, 1884. The hardship has in some cases been remedied by the action of the courts. In other cases, however, where the phraseology of the statutes has appeared to be conclusive against any discretion on the part of the officers charged with the execution of the law, Chinese persons expressly entitled to free admission under the treaty have been refused a landing and sent back to the country whence they came without being afforded any opportunity to show in the courts or otherwise their right to the privilege of free ingress and egress which it was the purpose of the treaty to secure.
In the language of one of the judicial determinations of the Supreme Court of the United States to which I have referred—
The supposition should not be indulged that Congress, while professing to faithfully execute the treaty stipulations and recognizing the fact that they secure to a certain class the right to go from and come to the United States, intended to make its protection depend upon the performance of conditions which it was physically impossible to perform. (112 U.S. Reports, p. 554, Chew Heong vs. United States.)
The act of July 5, 1884, imposes such an impossible condition in not providing for the admission, under proper certificate, of Chinese travelers of the exempted classes in the cases most likely to arise in ordinary commercial intercourse.
The treaty provisions governing the case are as follows:
ART. I. * * * The limitation or suspension shall be reasonable, and shall apply only to Chinese who may go to the United States as laborers, other classes not being included in the limitations. * * *
ART. II. Chinese subjects, whether proceeding to the United States as teachers, students, merchants, or from curiosity, together with their body and household servants, * * * shall be allowed to go and come of their own free will and accord, and shall be accorded all the rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions which are accorded to the citizens and subjects of the most favored nation.
Section 6 of the amended Chinese immigration act of 1884 purports to secure this treaty right to the exempted classes named by means of prescribed certificates of their status, which certificates shall be the prima facie and the sole permissible evidence to establish a right of entry into the United States. But it provides in terms for the issuance of certificates in two cases only:
(a) Chinese subjects departing from a port of China; and
(b) Chinese persons (i.e., of the Chinese race) who may at the time be subjects of some foreign government other than China, and who may depart for the United States from the ports of such other foreign government.
A statute is certainly most unusual which, purporting to execute the provisions of a treaty with China in respect of Chinese subjects, enacts strict formalities as regards the subjects of other governments than that of China.
It is sufficient that I should call the earnest attention of Congress to the circumstance that the statute makes no provision whatever for the somewhat numerous class of Chinese persons who, retaining their Chinese subjection in some countries other than China, desire to come from such countries to the United States.
Chinese merchants have trading operations of magnitude throughout the world. They do not become citizens or subjects of the country where they may temporarily reside and trade; they continue to be subjects of China, and to them the explicit exemption of the treaty applies. Yet if such a Chinese subject, the head of a mercantile house at Hongkong or Yokohama or Honolulu or Havana or Colon, desires to come from any of these places to the United States, he is met with the requirement that he must produce a certificate, in prescribed form and in the English tongue, issued by the Chinese Government. If there be at the foreign place of his residence no representative of the Chinese Government competent to issue a certificate in the prescribed form, he can obtain none, and is under the provisions of the present law unjustly debarred from entry into the United States. His usual Chinese passport will not suffice, for it is not in the form which the act prescribes shall be the sole permissible evidence of his right to land. And he can obtain no such certificate from the Government of his place of residence, because he is not a subject or citizen thereof "at the time," or at any time.
There being, therefore, no statutory provision prescribing the terms upon which Chinese persons resident in foreign countries but not subjects or citizens of such countries may prove their status and rights as members of the exempted classes in the absence of a Chinese representative in such country, the Secretary of the Treasury, in whom the execution of the act of July 5, 1884, was vested, undertook to remedy the omission by directing the revenue officers to recognize as lawful certificates those issued in favor of Chinese subjects by the Chinese consular and diplomatic officers at the foreign port of departure, when viséed by the United States representative thereat. This appears to be a just application of the spirit of the law, although enlarging its letter, and in adopting this rule he was controlled by the authority of high judicial decision as to what evidence is necessary to establish the fact that an individual Chinaman belongs to the exempted class.
He, however, went beyond the spirit of the act and the judicial decisions, by providing, in a circular dated January 14, 1885, for the original issuance of such a certificate by the United States consular officer at the port of departure, in the absence of a Chinese diplomatic or consular representative thereat; for it is clear that the act of Congress contemplated the intervention of the United States consul only in a supervisory capacity, his function being to check the proceeding and see that no abuse of the privilege followed. The power or duty of original certification is wholly distinct from that supervisory function. It either dispenses with the foreign certificate altogether, leaving the consular visé to stand alone and sufficient, or else it combines in one official act the distinct functions of certification and verification of the fact certified.
The official character attaching to the consular certification contemplated by the unamended circular of January 14, 1885, is to be borne in mind. It is not merely prima facie evidence of the status of the bearer, such as the courts may admit in their discretion; it was prescribed as an official attestation, on the strength of which the customs officers at the port of entry were to admit the bearer without further adjudication of his status unless question should arise as to the truth of the certificate itself.
It became, therefore, necessary to amend the circular of January 14, 1885, and this was done on the 13th of June following, by striking out the clause prescribing original certification of status by the United States consuls. The effect of this amendment is to deprive any certificate the United States consuls may issue of the value it purported to possess as sole permissible evidence under the statute when its issuance was prescribed by Treasury regulations. There is, however, nothing to prevent consuls giving certificates of facts within their knowledge to be received as evidence in the absence of statutory authentication.
The complaint of the Chinese minister in his note of March 24, 1886, is that the Chinese merchant Lay Sang, of the house of King Lee & Co., of San Francisco, having arrived at San Francisco from Hongkong and exhibited a certificate of the United States consul at Hongkong as to his status as a merchant, and consequently exempt under the treaty, was refused permission to land and was sent back to Hongkong by the steamer which brought him. While the certificate he bore was doubtless insufficient under the present law, it is to be remembered that there is at Hongkong no representative of the Government of China competent or authorized to issue the certificate required by the statute. The intent of Congress to legislate in execution of the treaty is thus defeated by a prohibition directly contrary to the treaty, and conditions are exacted which, in the words of the Supreme Court hereinbefore quoted, "it was physically impossible to perform."
This anomalous feature of the act should be reformed as speedily as possible, in order that the occurrence of such cases may be avoided and the imputation removed which would otherwise rest upon the good faith of the United States in the execution of their solemn treaty engagements.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 9, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, in relation to the mercantile marines of France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 14, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th ultimo, requesting the Secretary of State "to communicate to the House of Representatives, if not incompatible with the public interest, copies of the recent correspondence and dispatches between the Secretary of State and the minister of the United States at The Hague touching the subject of taxation of petroleum in Holland and in the Dutch colonies, and that of the export therefrom of leaf tobacco to the United States," I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State on the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 14, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 6th instant, requesting the Secretary of State "to transmit, if not incompatible with the public interest, copies of all correspondence between his Department and the representatives of France, Germany, Austria, and any other European country which has partially or entirely restricted the importation of American pork," I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State on the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 20, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State on the manufacture of milk sugar in Switzerland.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 22, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Constitution imposes upon the President the duty of recommending to the consideration of Congress from time to time such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
I am so deeply impressed with the importance of immediately and thoughtfully meeting the problem which recent events and a present condition have thrust upon us, involving the settlement of disputes arising between our laboring men and their employers, that I am constrained to recommend to Congress legislation upon this serious and pressing subject.
Under our form of government the value of labor as an element of national prosperity should be distinctly recognized, and the welfare of the laboring man should be regarded as especially entitled to legislative care. In a country which offers to all its citizens the highest attainment of social and political distinction its workingmen can not justly or safely be considered as irrevocably consigned to the limits of a class and entitled to no attention and allowed no protest against neglect.
The laboring man, bearing in his hand an indispensable contribution to our growth and progress, may well insist, with manly courage and as a right, upon the same recognition from those who make our laws as is accorded to any other citizen having a valuable interest in charge; and his reasonable demands should be met in such a spirit of appreciation and fairness as to induce a contented and patriotic cooperation in the achievement of a grand national destiny.
While the real interests of labor are not promoted by a resort to threats and violent manifestations, and while those who, under the pretext of an advocacy of the claims of labor, wantonly attack the rights of capital and for selfish purposes or the love of disorder sow seeds of violence and discontent should neither be encouraged nor conciliated, all legislation on the subject should be calmly and deliberately undertaken, with no purpose of satisfying unreasonable demands or gaining partisan advantage.
The present condition of the relations between labor and capital is far from satisfactory. The discontent of the employed is due in a large degree to the grasping and heedless exactions of employers and the alleged discrimination in favor of capital as an object of governmental attention. It must also be conceded that the laboring men are not always careful to avoid causeless and unjustifiable disturbance.
Though the importance of a better accord between these interests is apparent, it must be borne in mind that any effort in that direction by the Federal Government must be greatly limited by constitutional restrictions. There are many grievances which legislation by Congress can not redress, and many conditions which can not by such means be reformed.
I am satisfied, however, that something may be done under Federal authority to prevent the disturbances which so often arise from disputes between employers and the employed, and which at times seriously threaten the business interests of the country; and, in my opinion, the proper theory upon which to proceed is that of voluntary arbitration as the means of settling these difficulties.
But I suggest that instead of arbitrators chosen in the heat of conflicting claims, and after each dispute shall arise, for the purpose of determining the same, there be created a commission of labor, consisting of three members, who shall be regular officers of the Government, charged among other duties with the consideration and settlement, when possible, of all controversies between labor and capital.
A commission thus organized would have the advantage of being a stable body, and its members, as they gained experience, would constantly improve in their ability to deal intelligently and usefully with the questions which might be submitted to them. If arbitrators are chosen for temporary service as each case of dispute arises, experience and familiarity with much that is involved in the question will be lacking, extreme partisanship and bias will be the qualifications sought on either side, and frequent complaints of unfairness and partiality will be inevitable. The imposition upon a Federal court of a duty so foreign to the judicial function as the selection of an arbitrator in such cases is at least of doubtful propriety.
The establishment by Federal authority of such a bureau would be a just and sensible recognition of the value of labor and of its right to be represented in the departments of the Government. So far as its conciliatory offices shall have relation to disturbances which interfere with transit and commerce between the States, its existence would be justified under the provision of the Constitution which gives to Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States;" and in the frequent disputes between the laboring men and their employers, of less extent, and the consequences of which are confined within State limits and threaten domestic violence, the interposition of such a commission might be tendered, upon the application of the legislature or executive of a State, under the constitutional provision which requires the General Government to "protect" each of the States "against domestic violence."
If such a commission were fairly organized, the risk of a loss of popular support and sympathy resulting from a refusal to submit to so peaceful an instrumentality would constrain both parties to such disputes to invoke its interference and abide by its decisions. There would also be good reason to hope that the very existence of such an agency would invite application to it for advice and counsel, frequently resulting in the avoidance of contention and misunderstanding.
If the usefulness of such a commission is doubted because it might lack power to enforce its decisions, much encouragement is derived from the conceded good that has been accomplished by the railroad commissions which have been organized in many of the States, which, having little more than advisory power, have exerted a most salutary influence in the settlement of disputes between conflicting interests.
In July, 1884, by a law of Congress, a Bureau of Labor was established and placed in charge of a Commissioner of Labor, who is required to "collect information upon the subject of labor, its relations to capital, the hours of labor and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity."
The commission which I suggest could easily be ingrafted upon the bureau thus already organized by the addition of two more commissioners and by supplementing the duties now imposed upon it by such other powers and functions as would permit the commissioners to act as arbitrators when necessary between labor and capital, under such limitations and upon such occasions as should be deemed proper and useful.
Power should also be distinctly conferred upon this bureau to investigate the causes of all disputes as they occur, whether submitted for arbitration or not, so that information may always be at hand to aid legislation on the subject when necessary and desirable.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 26, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, accompanied by a report of Mr. Somerville P. Tuck, appointed to carry out certain provisions of section 5 of an act entitled "An act to provide for the ascertainment of claims of American citizens for spoliations committed by the French prior to the 31st day of July, 1801," approved January 20, 1885.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 5, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of 1st instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting a draft of a bill recommended by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, providing for the payment of improvements made by settlers on the lands of the Mescalero Indian Reservation in the Territory of New Mexico.
The subject is presented for the consideration and action of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 11, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, dated the 6th instant, touching the claims of Benjamin Weil and La Abra Silver Mining Company against the Government of Mexico.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 11, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
By a joint resolution of Congress approved March 3, 1877, the President was authorized and directed to accept the colossal statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World" when presented by the citizens of the French Republic, and to designate and set apart for the erection thereof a suitable site upon either Governors or Bedloes Island, in the harbor of New York, and upon the completion thereof to cause the statue "to be inaugurated with such ceremonies as will serve to testify the gratitude of our people for this expressive and felicitous memorial of the sympathy of the citizens of our sister Republic."
The President was further thereby "authorized to cause suitable regulations to be made for its future maintenance as a beacon and for the permanent care and preservation thereof as a monument of art and the continued good will of the great nation which aided us in our struggle for freedom."
Under the authority of this resolution, on the 4th day of July, 1884, the minister of the United States to the French Republic, by direction of the President of the United States, accepted the statue and received a deed of presentation from the Franco-American Union, which is now preserved in the archives of the Department of State.
I now transmit to Congress a letter to the Secretary of State from Joseph W. Drexel, esq., chairman of the executive committee of "the American committee on the pedestal of the great statue of 'Liberty Enlightening the World,'" dated the 27th of April, 1886, suggesting the propriety of the further execution by the President of the joint resolution referred to by prescribing the ceremonies of inauguration to be observed upon the complete erection of the statue upon its site on Bedloes Island, in the harbor of New York.
Thursday, the 3d of September, being the anniversary of the signing of the treaty of peace at Paris by which the independence of these United States was recognized and secured, has been suggested by this committee under whose auspices and agency the pedestal for the statue has been constructed as an appropriate day for the ceremonies of inauguration.
The international character which has been imprinted upon this work by the joint resolution of 1877 makes it incumbent upon Congress to provide means to carry their resolution into effect.
Therefore I recommend the appropriation of such sum of money as in the judgment of Congress shall be deemed adequate and proper to defray the cost of the inauguration of this statue.
I have been informed by the committee that certain expenses have been incurred in the care and custody of the statue since it was deposited on Bedloes Island, and the phraseology of the joint resolution providing for "the permanent care and preservation thereof as a monument of art" would seem to include the payment by the United States of the expense so incurred since the reception of the statue in this country.
The action of the French Government and people in relation to the presentation of this statue to the United States will, I hope, meet with hearty and responsive action upon the part of Congress, in which the Executive will be most happy to cooperate.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 11, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The last general appropriation bill passed by the legislature of Utah was vetoed by the then governor of that Territory. It made an appropriation of money for the support of the district courts of the Territory, including the pay of reporters, jurors, and witnesses, and for the completion and maintenance of the Deseret University and the education of the deaf mutes therein. It also appropriated for the support of the Territorial insane asylum, as well as the salaries of Territorial officers, including that of the superintendent of the district schools, the auditor, the librarian, and the treasurer of the Territory. It also provided for internal improvements, such as roads and bridges.
The appropriation for the district courts, for the payment of witnesses and jurors in criminal cases, was $40,000; that for the Deseret University and the deaf mutes was $66,000, and for the insane asylum $25,000.
The board of regents of the Deseret University have borrowed money for the completion of the university buildings which were authorized by legislative action, and which is now due and no provision made for the payment. The act appropriating for the benefit of the Territorial insane asylum passed by the legislature was also vetoed. This included the sum of $13,000, which had been borrowed by the board of directors of the asylum for its completion and furnishing, and which now remains due and unpaid. It also included the sum of $3,548.85 for the care and maintenance of the indigent insane.
The legislature of the Territory, under existing law, will not again convene for nearly two years, there being no authority for a special session. In the meantime, under present conditions, the good order of society will be jeopardized, educational and charitable institutions will be paralyzed, and internal improvements stopped until the legislature meets and makes provision for their support.
A determination on the part of the General Government to suppress certain unlawful practices in this Territory demands neither the refusal of the means to support the local government nor the sacrifice of the interests of the community.
I therefore recommend the immediate enactment of such legislation as will authorize the assembling of the legislature of that Territory in special session at an early day, so that provision can be made to meet the difficulties herein suggested.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 17, 1886.
To the Senate:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a supplementary article, signed the 14th instant by the Secretary of State and the minister of Mexico here, extending until May 20, 1887, the time specified in Article VIII of the commercial reciprocity treaty of January 20, 1883, between the United States and Mexico, for the approval of the laws necessary to carry the said treaty into effect.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 17, 1886
To the Senate:
In response to a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant, inquiring as to the necessity for the continuance of the present charge for passports for American citizens desiring to visit foreign countries, I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State on the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 17, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
With reference to the paragraph in my annual message to Congress in which I called attention to the uncertainty that exists as to the location of the frontier line between Alaska and British Columbia as defined by the treaty of cession with Russia of March 30, 1867, I now transmit herewith, for the information and consideration of Congress, a report of the Secretary of State upon the subject, with accompanying papers.
In view of the importance of the subject, I recommend that provision be made by law for a preliminary survey of the boundary line in question by officers of the United States, in order that the information necessary for the basis of a treaty between this country and Great Britain for the establishment of a definite boundary line may be obtained; and I also recommend that the sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be appropriated for the expenses of making such survey.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 21, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for your consideration with a view to their ratification, the "convention concerning the international exchanges for official documents and literary publications" and the "convention for assuring the immediate exchange of the official journal as well as of the parliamentary annals and documents."
The first was signed at Brussels on the 15th of March, 1886, by the plenipotentiaries of the United States, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Servia, and Switzerland.
The second was signed at the same place and on the same date by the plenipotentiaries of the above-named powers, with the exception of Switzerland.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 21, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, dated the 19th instant, touching the necessity of legislation to carry into effect the provisions of Article II of the treaty between the United States and China of November 17, 1880, for the repression of the opium traffic, and recommend that appropriate legislation to fulfill that treaty promise of this Government be provided without further delay.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 28, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, accompanying the report of consuls of the United States on the trade and commerce of foreign countries.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 1, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of March last, requesting the Secretary of State "to communicate to the House of Representatives, if not incompatible with the public interest, copies of recent correspondence and dispatches between the Secretary of State and the minister of the United States at The Hague touching the subject of taxation on petroleum in Holland and in the Dutch colonies, and that of the export therefrom of leaf tobacco to the United States," with reference to my message to the House of Representatives of the 14th ultimo [April], I now transmit a further report of the Secretary of State on the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 2, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In compliance with the request of the House of Representatives of this date, I return herewith House bill No. 6391, entitled "An act to authorize the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian Territory, and for other purposes."
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 9, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith transmit a letter from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying paper, in relation to the distribution of the fund appropriated by the act of April 20, 1882, for the relief of the captain, owners, officers, and crew of the brig General Armstrong.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, June 9, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for your consideration with a view to its ratification, a convention for the extradition of criminals, signed at Tokyo on the 29th day of April, 1886, by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and the Empire of Japan.
The negotiation which led to the conclusion of this convention was caused immediately by the case of a forger in San Francisco, who, having fled to Japan, was delivered up to the authorities of the State of California. It was not possible for this Government to ask his surrender, but the Japanese Government of its own motion caused his delivery as a friendly act. It then suggested the conclusion of an extradition convention between the two countries. The suggestion was favorably entertained by this Government, not only on account of the importance of such a treaty to the execution of the criminal laws of the United States, but also because of the support which its conclusion would give to Japan in her efforts toward judicial autonomy and complete sovereignty.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 15, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, concerning the claim of Benjamin Weil and La Abra Mining Company, of Mexico, agreeably to the resolution of the House of Representatives dated May 13, 1886.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 19, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
Upon an examination of a bill originating in the House of Representatives, No. 4838, entitled "An act to abolish certain fees for official services to American vessels, and to amend the laws relating to shipping commissioners, seamen, and owners of vessels, and for other purposes," I find that there is such a failure to adjust existing laws to the new departure proposed by the bill as to greatly endanger the public service if this bill should not be amended or at once supplemented by additional legislation.
The fees which are at present collected from vessels for services performed by the Bureau of Inspection, and which made up the fund from which certain expenses appurtenant to that Bureau were paid, are by the proposed bill abolished, but no provision has been substituted directing that such expenses shall be paid from the public Treasury or any other source.
The objects of the bill are in the main so useful and important that I have concluded to approve the same upon the assurance of those actively promoting its passage that another bill shall at once be introduced to cover the defect above referred to.
The necessity of such supplemental legislation is so obvious that I hope it will receive the immediate action of the Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 28, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I herewith inclose a report from the Secretary of State, with its accompanying copies of papers, relative to the case of the American schooner Ounalaska, which was duly condemned by the Government of Salvador for having been employed in aid of an insurrection against that Republic, and was subsequently presented to the United States. It seems that an act of Congress accepting the gift on the part of this Government is necessary to complete the transfer, and I recommend that legislation in this sense be adopted. It further appears that one Isidore Gutte, of San Francisco, has sought to obtain possession of the condemned vessel, and I therefore suggest that a second provision to the law accepting her be made giving authority to the Court of Claims to hear and determine the question of title.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 28, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication, with an accompanying paper, from the Secretary of State, in relation to the distribution of the award of the late Mexican Claims Commission in the case of S.A. Belden & Co. against the Republic of Mexico.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 30, 1886.
To the Senate:
In response to the resolution of the Senate of the 28th of April last, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State in relation to the affairs of the independent State of the Kongo.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 6, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In compliance with a concurrent resolution of this date, I return herewith House bill No. 3501, entitled "An act granting a pension to Daniel J. Bingham."
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, July 8, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith, for your consideration with a view to its ratification, a convention signed at London June 25, 1886, between the United States of America and Great Britain, concerning the extradition of persons charged with crime.
I also inclose a report from the Secretary of State and a copy of a dispatch from the United States minister at London dated June 26, 1886, in reference thereto.
The question of extradition has been discussed between the two countries by Secretaries Fish, Evarts, and Frelinghuysen, as well as by the present Secretary of State, and the method adopted by the inclosed convention, namely, that of amending and extending the provisions of the tenth article of the treaty of 1842, has seemed the most convenient and expeditious.
In view of the continued pendency of the question and its great importance owing to the contiguity of Her Majesty's territories with those of the United States, I respectfully urge the consideration of the convention by the Senate during the present session.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 9, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, for your information, a report from the Secretary of State, inclosing the correspondence which has been exchanged between the Department of State and the Governments of Switzerland and Italy on the subject of international copyright.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 12, 1886.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication of 3d instant, with inclosures, from the Secretary of the Interior, recommending legislative authority for the use of funds from appropriation, Sioux, etc., 1887, for the subsistence of certain Northern Cheyenne Indians who have gone or who may go from the Sioux Reservation in Dakota to the Tongue River Indian Agency or vicinity, in Montana.
The matter is presented for the favorable consideration of Congress.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 24, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
In response to the resolutions of the Senate dated respectively May 10 and July 10, 1886, touching alleged seizures and detentions of vessels of the United States in British North American waters, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 27, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, in response to the House resolution of the 10th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, and accompanying papers, relating to the imprisonment in Ecuador and subsequent release of Julio R. Santos.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 29, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 27th of May last, in relation to trust funds.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 29, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith reports from the heads of the several Executive Departments of the Government, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of June 18, 1886, which requested certain information regarding appointments in such Departments, and having relation to the civil-service law.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 30, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
In further response to the Senate resolutions of the 10th of May and 10th of July, 1886, touching the seizure and detention of American vessels in Canadian waters, I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State dated the 29th instant, accompanied by a report from the consul-general at Halifax relative to the subject.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 31, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I have approved House bill No. 4335, entitled "An act making an appropriation to continue the construction of a public building at Clarksburg, W. Va., and changing the limit of cost thereof."
A law passed by the last Congress authorized the construction of this building and appropriated $50,000 for that purpose, which was declared to be the limit of its cost. A site has been purchased for said building, and, as is too often the case, it is now discovered that the sum appropriated is insufficient to meet the expense of such a building as is really needed.
The object of the bill which I have approved is to extend the limit of the cost to $80,000 and to make the additional appropriation to reach that sum. The first section fixes the limit above mentioned, but the second section appropriates $35,000, and thus, with the appropriation of $50,000 heretofore made, the aggregate appropriations exceed the sum to which the cost of the building is limited by $5,000.
Inasmuch as this latter sum can not properly be applied to the construction of the building, attention is called to the existence of this excess of appropriation and the suggestion made that it be returned to the Treasury.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 2, 1886.
To the Senate of the United States:
In response to the resolution of your honorable body of the 26th ultimo, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, communicating the information possessed by the Department of State "concerning the alleged illegal detention of A.K. Cutting, an American citizen, by the Mexican authorities at El Paso del Norte;" and as to the further inquiry contained in said resolution, "whether any additional United States troops have been recently ordered to Fort Bliss," I answer in the negative.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 2, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
In performance of the duty imposed upon me by the Constitution, I herewith transmit for your information (the same having heretofore been communicated to the Senate in response to a resolution of inquiry adopted by that body July 26, 1886) certain correspondence and accompanying documents in relation to the arrest and imprisonment at Paso del Norte by Mexican authority of A.K. Cutting, a citizen of the United States.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 2, 1886.
To the House of Representatives:
I have this day approved a bill originating in the House of Representatives entitled "An act defining butter, also imposing a tax upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation of oleomargarine."
This legislation has awakened much interest among the people of the country, and earnest argument has been addressed to the Executive for the purpose of influencing his action thereupon. Many in opposition have urged its dangerous character as tending to break down the boundaries between the proper exercise of legislative power by Federal and State authority; many in favor of the enactment have represented that it promised great advantages to a large portion of our population who sadly need relief; and those on both sides of the question whose advocacy or opposition is based upon no broader foundation than local or personal interest have outnumbered all the others.
This upon its face and in its main features is a revenue bill, and was first introduced in the House of Representatives, wherein the Constitution declares that all bills for raising revenue shall originate.