A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 9, part 1: Benjamin Harrison

VETO MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 19, 1892.

To the Senate:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 2729) entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to establish circuit courts of appeals, and to define and regulate in certain cases the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, and for other purposes.'"

The original act to which this amendment is proposed, constituting an intermediate court of appeals, had for its object the relief of the Supreme Court by limiting the cases which might be brought up for hearing in that court. The first section of the bill under consideration allows appeals in criminal cases where the sentence imposes no imprisonment and the fine is as much as $1,000. The effect of this provision will be to bring to the Supreme Court many cases that in my opinion should be finally determined in the intermediate appellate court, and so in part to defeat the general purpose of Congress in constituting the intermediate court. But this objection would not alone have sufficient weight in my mind to induce me to return the bill. Section 3 of the bill is as follows:

That no appeal shall hereafter be allowed from judgments of the Court of Claims in cases under the act of March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to provide for the adjudication and payment of claims arising from Indian depredations," except where the adjudication involves the construction or application of the Constitution or the validity or construction of a treaty or the constitutionality of a law of the United States: Provided, however, That upon such appeal it shall be competent for the Supreme Court to require, by certiorari or otherwise, the whole case to be certified for its review and determination upon the facts as well as the law.

I am advised by the Attorney-General that under the Indian-depredations act 8,000 cases, involving an aggregate of damages claimed of about $30,000,000, have already been filed. A number of these cases involve as much as $100,000 each, while a few involve as much as $500,000 each and one something over $1,000,000. The damages which may be awarded in these cases by the Court of Claims are to be paid out of the trust funds of the Indians held by the United States, or, if there are no such funds, out of the Treasury of the United States. The law referring these cases to the Court of Claims has had no judicial interpretation, and many novel and difficult questions are likely to arise. It is quite a startling proposition, and a very novel one, I think, that there shall be absolutely no opportunity for the review in an appellate court, in cases involving such large amounts, of questions involving the construction of the statute under which the court is proceeding, or those various questions of law, many of them new, which necessarily arise in such cases.

Neither the claimants, the Indians, nor the Government of the United States should be absolutely denied opportunity to bring their exceptions to review by some appellate tribunal. I would not suggest that an appeal should be allowed in all cases. Some limitation as to amount would be reasonable, and perhaps some discretion might be lodged in the Supreme Court as to granting appeals. The limitations, however, imposed by the section I have quoted are so severe and unreasonable, in my judgment, that I have felt compelled to return the bill to the Senate with a view to its reconsideration.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 29, 1892.

To the Senate:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 1958) entitled "An act to submit to the Court of Private Land Claims, established by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, the title of William McGarrahan to the Rancho Panoche Grande, in the State of California, and for other purposes."

This bill came to me on the 20th instant, at a time when very many other bills were submitted for my consideration, and it has not been possible for me to make such an examination of the history of Mr. McGarrahan's claim as would be necessary to form an intelligent judgment as to its merits and just extent. It is quite possible that he has been wronged and that he has a claim for some reparation from the Government. I can not, however, think that this bill proceeds upon a just basis. It provides that Mr. McGarrahan shall file his claim as the assignee of Gomez in the Court of Private Land Claims for the lands described in the title, and that if the court establishes the grant to Gomez it shall be confirmed to McGarrahan. No evidence that he is the assignee of Gomez is, I think, required by the bill, which assumes that fact instead of submitting it to the court. If the claim is established, it is provided in substance that all lands part of said grant which have been conveyed by the Government or are in the occupancy of actual settlers, or "upon which there are any smelting or reduction works, or the lands claimed in connection with such reduction or smelting works," shall be excepted from the patent which the Secretary of the Interior is directed to issue to McGarrahan. By this provision the title of the New Idria Mining Company, which has long contested with McGarrahan the title to a large part of this property, is established and that company is relieved from any responsibility to account for the profits made in mining. On the other hand, the United States waives all benefit of judicial proceedings which have resulted in its favor and gives Mr. McGarrahan an opportunity de novo to try all such questions; and the decision, if in his favor, is not only to restore to him all the lands yet undisposed of, but the United States assumes to pay him the value of the lands appropriated by others and of their use for all these years and to account to him for all profits that have been made by the New Idria Mining Company or anyone else in quicksilver or other mining.

This seems to me to be wholly inadmissible. The amount involved must be enormously large, though at present incapable of any accurate estimate. If the title of the New Idria Company has been established by final decrees of court placing that title beyond question and that company beyond any call to respond for use and profits, why should the Government of the United States, waiving in its behalf these decrees, which would protect it also, assume a responsibility to account for the value of the lands and for their use and for the net value of minerals extracted by that company or others? It will be noticed in the quotation I have made from the act that this company is allowed to take all the land it may claim, but at the expense of the United States, not of Mr. McGarrahan.

The bill is so framed as to give full protection to the New Idria Mining Company to the full extent of its largest claim, while throwing upon the United States a responsibility which that company should bear if the title of Mr. McGarrahan is established.

The United States provided a proper tribunal for the trial of claims founded upon Mexican grants. This claim was there tried, and if fraud affected the judgment it is not, I think, chargeable to the Government; the contest was chiefly between rival claimants. In this state of the case it would seem that if the United States consents to open the litigation and to wipe out all judicial findings and decrees a less exacting measure of damages than that proposed in the bill should be agreed on.

It is not my purpose, as I have intimated, to express the opinion that Mr. McGarrahan is entitled to no relief. It seems to me, however, clear that he is not entitled to the relief given by this bill, and that it does not adequately protect the interests of the United States.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 3, 1892.

To the Senate:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 1111) entitled "An act to amend the act of Congress approved March 3, 1887, entitled 'An act to provide for the bringing of suits against the Government of the United States.'"

If I may judge from the very limited discussion of this measure in Congress, the sweeping effects of it upon the administration of the public lands could hardly have been fully realized. From the beginning of the Government the administration of the public lands and the issuing of patents under the land laws have been an Executive function.

The jurisdiction of the courts as to contesting claims for patents has awaited the action of the General Land Office. Land offices have been established and maintained in all the districts where public lands were found, located with reference to the convenience of the settlers, and the proceedings have been informal and inexpensive. It is true that at times, by an administration of the Land Office unfriendly toward the settlers, unnecessary delays involving much hardship have intervened in the issuing of patents, but such is not the case now. The work of the Land Office within the last three years has been so efficient and so friendly to the bona fide settler that the large accumulation of cases there has been swept away, and the office, as I am informed by the Secretary of the Interior, is now engaged upon current business.

It seems to me that a transfer in whole or in part of this business to the courts, some of whose dockets are already loaded with cases, can not tend to expedition, while it is very manifest that, by reason of the greater formality in the taking and presentation of evidence which would be required in court and of the long distances which settlers would have to traverse in order to attend court, the costs in such cases would be enormously increased.

It is proposed by this bill to give what is called concurrent jurisdiction to the district courts of the United States and to the Court of Claims to hear and determine all claims for land patents under any law or grant of the United States. Whether concurrent with each other or with each other and the Land Office is not clear.

It is quite doubtful under the rulings of the Supreme Court whether the courts now provided by law for the Territories are "district courts of the United States" within the meaning of this bill. The effect of this legislation would, if they were held not to be such, be that as to all suits relating to lands in the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma no other forum is provided than the Court of Claims at Washington. In this state of the case a settler, or one who has taken a mineral claim in any of these Territories, would be subject to be brought to the city of Washington for the trial of his case.

In view of the fact that all recent legislation of Congress has been in the direction of subdividing judicial districts and of bringing the United States courts nearer to the litigants, I can only attribute to oversight the passage of this bill, which in my opinion would burden the homesteader and preemptor whose claim is contested, whether by another individual or by any corporation, by compelling him to appear at Washington and to conduct with the formality and expense incident to court proceedings the defense of his title. But even in the case of land contests arising in the States where district courts exist the plaintiff, it will be observed, by this act is given the option to sue in those courts or to bring his adversary to Washington to litigate the claim. Why should he have this advantage, one that is not given so far as I know in any other law fixing the forum of litigation between individuals? Not only is this true, but the Court of Claims was established for the trial of cases between individuals and corporations on the one side and the United States on the other, and so far as I now recall wholly for the trial of money claims.

There are no adequate provisions of law, if any at all, for conducting suits between individuals contesting private rights. The court has one bailiff and one messenger, no marshal, and is not provided, I think, either with the machinery or with the appropriation to send its processes to the most distant parts of the country. Yet it is apparent that under this bill the real issue would frequently be between rival claimants, and not between either and the United States. This court, too, is already burdened with business since the reference to it of the Indian depredation claims, the French spoliation claims, etc., and it certainly can not be thought that a more speedy settlement of land claims could be there obtained than is now given.

Again, the bill is so indefinite in its provisions that it can not be told, I think, what function, if any, remains to be discharged by the General Land Office. It was said in answer to an interrogatory when the bill was under consideration that it did not affect claims pending in the Land Office; and yet it seems to me that its effect is to allow any contestant in the Land Office at any stage of the proceedings there to transfer the whole controversy to the courts. He may take his chances of success in the Land Office, and if at any time he becomes apprehensive of an adverse decision he may begin de novo in the courts.

If it was intended to preserve the jurisdiction of the Land Office and to hold cases there until a judgment had been reached, the bill should have so provided, for it is capable of, and indeed seems to me compels, the construction that either party may forsake the Land Office at any stage of a contest. I am quite inclined to believe that if provision were made, as in section 1063 of the Revised Statutes, relating to claims in other departments, for the transfer to a proper court, under proper regulations, of certain contest cases involving questions affecting large classes of claims, it would be a relief to the Land Office and would tend to a more speedy adjustment of land titles in such cases, a result which would be in the interest of all our people.

Nothing is more disadvantageous to a community, its progress and peace, than unsettled land titles. This bill, however, as I have said, is so radical and seems to me to be so indefinite in its provisions that I can not give it my approval.

BENJ. HARRISON.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of Salvador the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3 to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Salvador at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in reciprocity for the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Salvador will by due legal enactment, as a provisional measure and until a more complete arrangement may be negotiated and put in operation, admit free of all duty, from and after February 1, 1892, into all the established ports of entry of Salvador the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States:

SCHEDULE OF PRODUCTS AND MANUFACTURES WHICH THE REPUBLIC OF SALVADOR WILL ADMIT FREE OF ALL CUSTOMS, MUNICIPAL, AND ANY OTHER KIND OF DUTY.

1. Animals for breeding purposes.
2. Corn, rice, barley, and rye.
3. Beans.
4. Hay and straw for forage.
5. Fruits, fresh.
6. Preparations of flour in biscuits, crackers not sweetened, macaroni, vermicelli, and tallarin.
7. Coal, mineral.
8. Roman cement.
9. Hydraulic lime.
10. Bricks, fire bricks, and crucibles for melting.
11. Marble, dressed, for furniture, statues, fountains, gravestones, and building purposes.
12. Tar, vegetable and mineral.
13. Guano and other fertilizers, natural or artificial.
14. Plows and all other agricultural tools and implements.
15. Machinery of all kinds, including sewing machines, and separate or extra parts for the same.
16. Materials of all kinds for the construction and equipment of railroads.
17. Materials of all kinds for the construction and operation of telegraphic and telephonic lines.
18. Materials of all kinds for lighting by electricity and gas.
19. Materials of all kinds for the construction of wharves.
20. Apparatus for distilling liquors.
21. Wood of all kinds for building, in trunks or pieces, beams, rafters, planks, boards, shingles, or flooring.
22. Wooden staves, heads, and hoops, and barrels and boxes for packing, mounted or in pieces.
23. Houses of wood or iron, complete or in parts.
24. Wagons, carts, and carriages of all kinds.
25. Barrels, casks, and tanks of iron for water.
26. Tubes of iron and all other accessories necessary for water supply.
27. Wire, barbed, and staples for fences.
28. Plates of iron for building purposes.
29. Mineral ores.
30. Kettles of iron for making salt.
31. Kettles of iron for making sugar.
32. Molds for making sugar.
33. Guys for mining purposes.
34. Furnaces and instruments for assaying metals.
35. Scientific instruments.
36. Models of machinery and buildings.
37. Boats, lighters, tackle, anchors, chains, girtlines, sails, and all other articles for vessels, to be used in the ports, lakes, and rivers of the Republic.
38. Printing materials, including presses, type, ink, and all other accessories.
39. Printed books, pamphlets, and newspapers, bound or unbound, maps, photographs, printed music, and paper for music.
40. Paper for printing newspapers.
41. Quicksilver.
42. Loadstones.
43. Hops.
44. Sulphate of quinine.
45. Gold and silver in bars, dust, or coin.
46. Samples of merchandise the duties on which do not exceed $1.

It is understood that the packages or coverings in which the articles named in the foregoing schedule are imported shall be free of duty if they are usual and proper for the purpose.

And that the Government of Salvador has further stipulated that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedule are the product or manufacture of the United States of America shall impose no additional charges on the importer nor undue restrictions on the articles imported; and

Whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Salvador at Washington that this action of the Government of Salvador in granting freedom of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America on their importation into Salvador and in stipulating for a more complete reciprocity arrangement is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff laws of Salvador to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 31st day of December, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas it is provided by section 24 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes"—

That the President of the United States may from time to time set apart and reserve in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or, undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations; and the President shall by public proclamation declare the establishment of such reservation and the limits thereof.

And whereas the public lands in the Territory of New Mexico within the limits hereinafter described are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by section 24 of the aforesaid act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that there is hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart as a public reservation all those certain tracts, pieces, or parcels of land lying and being situate in the Territory of New Mexico and particularly described as follows, to wit:

Commencing at the standard corner to township seventeen (17) north, ranges thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) east (New Mexico principal base and meridian) on the fourth (4th) standard parallel north; thence northerly along the range line between ranges thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) east to the closing corner between ranges thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) east on the fifth (5th) standard parallel north; thence along said fifth (5th) standard parallel to the southeast corner of township twenty-one (21) north, range thirteen (13) east; thence north six (6) miles; thence west twelve (12) miles; thence due south to the fifth (5th) standard parallel; thence westerly on said fifth (5th) standard parallel to a point due north of the northwest corner of township seventeen (17) north, range eleven (11) east; thence south to the fourth (4th) standard parallel; thence westerly on said fourth (4th) standard parallel north seven and sixty-two one-hundredths (7.62) chains to the northwest corner of township sixteen (16) north, range eleven (11) east; thence southerly on the range line between townships sixteen (16) north, ranges ten (10) and eleven (11) east, three (3) miles and three and forty-three hundredths (3.43) chains to the corner to sections thirteen (13), eighteen (18), nineteen (19), and twenty-four (24) on said range line; thence easterly along the section lines to the range line between ranges eleven (11) and twelve (12) east; thence northerly three (3) miles and three (3) chains to the fourth (4th) standard parallel north; thence easterly on said fourth (4th) standard parallel eight (8) and fifty-hundredths (8.50) chains to the standard corner to township seventeen (17) north, ranges eleven (11) and twelve (12) east; thence northerly on the range line to the southwest corner of township eighteen (18) north, range twelve (12) east; thence easterly on the township line six (6) miles one and six-hundredths (1.06) chains to the southeast corner of township eighteen (18) north, range twelve (12) east; thence south six (6) miles to the fourth (4th) standard parallel north; thence east along said fourth (4th) standard parallel to the place of beginning.

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all land which may have been prior to the date hereof embraced in any valid Spanish or Mexican grant or in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly made in the proper United States land office, and all mining claims duly located and held according to the laws of the United States and rules and regulations not in conflict therewith.

Provided, That this exception shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entry man or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the entry, filing, or location was made.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to enter or make settlement upon the tract of land reserved by this proclamation.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 11th day of January, A.D. 1892, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the attention of the Government of Great Britain was called to the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3 to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in view of the act of Congress above cited, the Government of Great Britain has by due legal enactment authorized the admission, from and after February 1, 1892, of the articles in merchandise named in the following schedules, on the terms stated therein, into the British colonies of Trinidad (which includes Tobago), Barbados, the Leeward Islands (consisting of the islands of Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher, Nevis, Dominica, with their respective dependencies, and the Virgin Islands), the Windward Islands (consisting of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and their dependencies, but exclusive of Grenada and its dependencies), and into the colony of British Guiana on and after April 1, 1892:

Table No. 1.—Applicable to British Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands Excepting the Island of Grenada.

SCHEDULE A.

Articles to be admitted free of all customs duty and any other national, colonial, or municipal charges:

1. Animals, alive, to include only asses, sheep, goats, hogs, and poultry, and horses for breeding.
2. Beef, including tongues, smoked and dried.
3. Beef and pork preserved in cans.
4. Belting for machinery, of leather, canvas, or india rubber.
5. Boats and lighters.
6. Books,27 bound or unbound, pamphlets, newspapers, and printed matter in all languages.
7. Bones and horns.
8. Bottles of glass or stone ware.
9. Bran, middlings, and shorts.
10. Bridges of iron or wood, or of both combined,
11. Brooms, brushes, and whisks of broom straw.
12. Candles, tallow.
13. Carts, wagons, cars, and barrows, with or without springs, for ordinary roads and agricultural use, not including vehicles of pleasure.
14. Clocks, mantel or wall.
15. Copper, bronze, zinc, and lead articles, plain and nickel plated, for industrial and domestic uses and for building.
16. Cotton seed and its products.
17. Crucibles and melting pots of all kinds.
18. Eggs.
19. Fertilizers of all kinds, natural and artificial.
20. Fish, fresh or on ice, and salmon and oysters in cans.
21. Fishing apparatus of all kinds.
22. Fruits and vegetables, fresh and dried, when not canned, tinned, or bottled.
23. Gas fixtures and pipes.
24. Gold and silver coin of the United States, and bullion.
25. Hay and straw for forage.
26. Houses of wood, complete.
27. Ice.
28. India-rubber and gutta-percha goods, including waterproof clothing made wholly or in part thereof.
29. Implements, utensils, and tools for agriculture, exclusive of cutlasses and forks.
30. Lamps and lanterns.
31. Lime of all kinds.
32. Locomotives, railway rolling stock, rails, railway ties, and all materials and appliances for railways and tramways.
33. Marble or alabaster, in the rough or squared, worked or carved, for building purposes or monuments.
34. Medicinal extracts and preparations of all kinds, including proprietary or patent medicines, but exclusive of quinine or preparations of quinine, opium, gange, and bhang.
35. Paper of all kinds for printing.
36. Paper of wood or straw for wrapping and packing, including surface coated or glazed.
37. Photographic apparatus and chemicals.
38. Printers' ink, all colors.
39. Printing presses, types, rules, spaces, and all accessories for printing.
40. Quicksilver.
41. Resin, tar, pitch, and turpentine.
42. Salt.
43. Sewing machines and all parts and accessories thereof.
44. Shipbuilding materials and accessories of all kinds, when used in the construction, equipment, or repair of vessels or boats of any kind, except rope and cordage of all kinds, including wire rope.
45. Starch of Indian corn or maize.
46. Steam and power engines, and machines, machinery, and apparatus, whether stationary or portable, worked by power or by hand, for agriculture, irrigation, mining, the arts and industries of all kinds, and all necessary parts and appliances for the erection or repair thereof or the communication of motive power thereto.
47. Steam boilers and steam pipes.
48. Sulphur.
49. Tan bark of all kinds, whole or ground.
50. Telegraph wire, telegraphic, telephonic, and electrical apparatus and appliances of all kinds for communication or illumination.
51. Trees, plants, vines, and seeds and grains of all kinds, for propagation or cultivation.
52. Varnish, not containing spirits.
53. Wall papers.
54. Watches when not cased in gold or silver, and watch movements uncased.
55. Water pipes of all classes, materials, and dimensions.
56. Wire for fences, the hooks, staples, nails, and the like appliances for fastening the same.
57. Yeast cake and baking powders.
58. Zinc, tin, and lead, in sheets, asbestus, and tar paper, for roofing.

It is understood that the packages or coverings in which the articles named in the foregoing schedule are imported shall be free of duty if they are usual and proper for the purpose.

SCHEDULE B.

Articles to be admitted at 50 per cent reduction of the duty designated in the respective customs tariff now in force in each of said colonies:

1. Bacon and bacon hams.
2. Boots and shoes made wholly or in part of leather.
3. Bread and biscuit.
4. Cheese.
5. Lard and its compounds.
6. Mules.
7. Oleomargarine.
8. Shooks and staves.

SCHEDULE C.

Articles to be admitted at 25 per cent reduction of the duty designated in the respective customs tariff now in force in each of said colonies:

1. Beef, salted or pickled.
2. Corn or maize.
3. Corn meal.
4. Flour of wheat.
5. Lumber of pitch pine, in rough or prepared for buildings.
6. Petroleum and its products, crude or refined.
7. Pork, salted or pickled.
8. Wheat.

It is understood that No. 4 of this schedule shall not apply to the colony of Trinidad, but it is stipulated that the duty on flour in said colony shall not exceed 75 cents per barrel.

And that the Government of Great Britain has by due legal enactment authorized the admission, from and after February 1, 1892, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedules, on the terms stated therein, into the British colony of Jamaica and its dependencies:

Table No. 2.—Applicable to the Colony of Jamaica and its Dependencies.

SCHEDULE A.

Articles to be admitted free of all customs duty and any other national, colonial, or municipal charges:

1. Animals, alive, and poultry.
2. Beef, including tongues, smoked and dried.
3. Beef and pork preserved in cans.
4. Belting for machinery, of leather, canvas, or india rubber.
5. Boats and lighters.
6. Books,28 bound or unbound, pamphlets, newspapers, and printed matter in all languages.
7. Bones and horns.
8. Bottles of glass or stone ware.
9. Bran, middlings, and shorts.
10. Bridges of iron or wood, or of both combined.
11. Brooms, brushes, and whisks or broom straw.
12. Candles, tallow.
13. Carts, wagons, cars, and barrows, with or without springs, for ordinary roads and agricultural use, not including vehicles of pleasure.
14. Coal and coke.
15. Clocks, mantel or wall.
16. Cotton seed and its products, to include meal, meal cake, oil, and cottolene.
17. Crucibles and melting pots of all kinds.
18. Drawings, paintings, engravings, lithographs, and photographs
19. Eggs.
20. Fertilizers of all kinds, natural and artificial.
21. Fish, fresh or on ice, and oysters in cans.
22. Fishing apparatus of all kinds.
23. Fruits and vegetables, fresh and dried, when not canned, tinned, or bottled.
24. Gas fixtures and pipes.
25. Gold and silver coin of the United States, and bullion.
26. Hay and straw for forage.
27. Houses of wood, complete.
28. Ice.
29. India-rubber and gutta-percha goods, including waterproof clothing made wholly or in part thereof.
30. Implements, utensils, and tools for agriculture, exclusive of cutlasses and forks.
31. Iron, galvanized.
32. Iron for roofing.
33. Lamps and lanterns, not exceeding 10 shillings each in value.
34. Lime of all kinds.
35. Locomotives, railway rolling stock, rails, railway ties, and all materials and appliances for railways and tramways.
36. Marble or alabaster, in the rough or squared, worked or carved, for building purposes or monuments.
37. Paper of all kinds for printing.
38. Paper of wood or straw for wrapping and packing, including surface coated or glazed.
39. Photographic apparatus and chemicals.
40. Printers' ink, all colors.
41. Printing presses, types, rules, spaces, and all accessories for printing.
42. Proprietary or patent medicines, recommended by their proprietors as calculated to cure disease or alleviate pain in the human subject.
43. Quicksilver.
44. Resin, tar, pitch, and turpentine.
45. Sewing machines and all parts and accessories thereof.
46. Shipbuilding materials and accessories of all kinds, when used in the construction, equipment, or repair of vessels or boats of any kind, except rope and cordage of all kinds, including wire rope, and subject to specific regulations to avoid abuse in the importation.
47. Shocks and staves.
48. Starch of Indian corn or maize.
49. Steam and power engines, and machines, machinery, and apparatus, whether stationary or portable, worked by power or by hand, for agriculture, irrigation, mining, the arts and industries of all kinds, and all necessary parts and appliances for the erection or repair thereof or the communication of motive power thereto.
50. Steam boilers and steam pipes.
51. Sugar, refined.
52. Sulphur.
53. Tallow and animal greases.
54. Tan bark of all kinds, whole or ground.
55. Telegraph wire, telegraphic, telephonic, and electrical apparatus and appliances of all kinds for communication or illumination.
56. Trees, plants, vines, and seeds and grains of all kinds for propagation or cultivation.
57. Varnish, not containing spirits.
58. Wall papers.
59. Watches when not cased in gold or silver, and watch movements uncased.
60. Water pipes of all classes, materials, and dimensions.
61. Wire for fences, with the hooks, staples, nails, and the like appliances for fastening the same.
62. Yeast cake and baking powders.
63. Zinc, tin, and lead, in sheets, asbestus, and tar paper, for roofing.

It is understood that the packages or coverings in which the articles named in the foregoing schedule are imported shall be free of duty if they are usual and proper for the purpose.

SCHEDULE B.

Articles to be admitted at 50 per cent reduction of the duty designated in the customs tariff now in force:

1. Bacon and bacon hams.
2. Bread and biscuit.
3. Butter.
4. Cheese.
5. Lard and its compounds.

Lumber of pitch pine, in rough or prepared for buildings, to be reduced to 9 shillings per 1,000 feet.

SCHEDULE C.

Articles to be admitted at 25 per cent reduction of the duty designated in the customs tariff now in force:

1. Beef, salted or pickled.
2. Corn and maize.
3. Corn meal.
4. Oats.
5. Petroleum and its products, crude or refined.
6. Pork, salted or pickled.
7. Wheat.

And whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given the assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain at Washington that this action of the Government of Great Britain in granting remissions and alterations of duties in the British colonies above mentioned is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff laws of the aforesaid British colonies to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of February, 1892, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports and for other purposes," the attention of the Government of the German Empire was called to the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3 to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the chargé d'affaires of the German Empire at Washington has communicated to the special plenipotentiary of the United States the fact that, in view of the act of Congress above cited, the German Imperial Government has by due legal enactment authorized the admission, from and after February 1, 1892, into the German Empire of the articles or merchandise the product of the United States of America named in the following schedule, on the terms stated therein:

Schedules of articles to be admitted into Germany.

And whereas the special plenipotentiary of the United States has, by my direction, given assurance to the chargé d'affaires of the German Empire at Washington that this action of the Government of the German Empire in granting exemption of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America on their importation into Germany is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff laws of the German Empire to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of February, 1892, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas it is provided by section 24 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes"—

That the President of the United States may from time to time set apart and reserve in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations; and the President shall by public proclamation declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof.

And whereas the public lands in the State of Colorado within the limits hereafter described are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by section 24 of the aforesaid act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that there is hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart as a public reservation all those certain tracts, pieces, or parcels of land lying and being situate in the State of Colorado and particularly described as follows, to wit:

Commencing at the northeast corner of section four (4), township eleven (11) north, range sixty-seven (67) west of the sixth (6th) principal meridian; thence proceeding westerly along the township line between townships ten (10) and eleven (11) south to the northwest corner of section six (6), township eleven (11) south, range sixty-eight (68) west; thence southerly along the range line between ranges sixty-eight (68) and sixty-nine (69) west to the southwest corner of section eighteen (18), township thirteen (13) south, range sixty-eight (68) west; thence westerly along the section line to the northwest corner of section nineteen (19), township thirteen (13) south, range sixty-nine (69) west; thence southerly along the range line between ranges sixty-nine (69) and seventy (70) west to the southwest corner of section thirty-one (31), township thirteen (13) south, range sixty-nine (69) west; thence east along the township line between townships thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) south to the half-section corner on said township line of section two (2), township fourteen (14) south, range sixty-nine (69) west; thence southerly through the middle of sections two (2), eleven (11), and fourteen (14) to a point in the middle of the north line of section twenty-three (23) of said township and range; thence easterly along said northern section line to the northeast corner of said section; thence southerly between sections twenty-three (23) and twenty-four (24) to the middle of the east line of section twenty-three (23); thence easterly through the middle of section twenty-four (24) to the middle of the east line of said section twenty-four (24), township fourteen (14) south, range sixty-nine (69) west; thence southerly along the range line between ranges sixty-eight (68) and sixty-nine (69) west to the southwest corner of section thirty-one (31), township fifteen (15) south, range sixty-eight (68) west; thence east along the township line between townships fifteen (15) and sixteen (16) south to the southeast corner of section thirty-four (34), township fifteen (15) south, range sixty-seven (67) west; thence northerly along the section line to the northeast corner of the southeast quarter of section twenty-two (22), township fifteen (15) south, range sixty-seven (67) west; thence westerly to the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of section twenty-one (21) of said last-named township and range; thence southerly to the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of section twenty-eight (28) of said township and range; thence westerly along the section line to the corner common to sections twenty-five (25), thirty-one (31), and thirty-six (36) of said township and range; thence northerly on the section line to the corner common to sections one (1), six (6), and twelve (12) of said township and range; thence easterly along the section line to the corner common to sections five (5), six (6), and eight (8); thence southerly along the section line to the southwest corner of section eight (8) of said township and range; thence easterly along the section line to the corner common to sections ten (10), eleven (11), and fourteen (14) of said township and range; thence northerly along the section line to the northeast corner of section three (3); thence westerly to the northwest corner of section three (3) of said township and range; thence northerly along the section line to the corner common to sections sixteen (16), twenty-one (21), twenty-two (22), and fifteen (15), township fourteen (14) south, range sixty-seven (67) west; thence westerly along the section line to the northwest corner of section nineteen (19) of said township and range; thence northerly along the range line between ranges sixty-seven (67) and sixty-eight (68) to the northeast corner of section one (1), township fourteen (14) south, range sixty-eight (68) west; thence easterly along the township line between townships thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) south to the southeast corner of section thirty-three (33) of township thirteen (13) south, range sixty-seven (67) west; thence northerly along the section line to the place of beginning.

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all surveyed land which may have been prior to the date hereof embraced in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly made in the proper United States land office, all unsurveyed lands on which valid settlement has been made under any law of the United States, and all mining Claims duly located and held according to the laws of the United States and rules and regulations not in conflict therewith.

Provided, That this exception shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entry man, settler, or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the entry, filing, settlement, or location was made.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to enter or make settlement upon the tract of land reserved by this proclamation.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 11th day of February, A.D. 1892, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The following provisions of the laws of the United States are hereby published for the information of all concerned:

Section 1956, Revised Statutes, chapter 3, Title XXIII, enacts that— No person shall kill any otter, mink, marten, sable, or fur seal, or other fur-bearing animal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof; and every person guilty thereof shall for each offense be fined not less than $200 nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both; and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, found engaged in violation of this section shall be forfeited; but the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to authorize the killing of any such mink, marten, sable, or other fur-bearing animal, except fur seals, under such regulations as he may prescribe; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary to prevent the killing of any fur seal and to provide for the execution of the provisions of this section until it is otherwise provided by law, nor shall he grant any special privileges under this section.

SEC. 3. That section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States is hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters of Bering Sea; and it shall be the duty of the President at a timely season in each year to issue his proclamation, and cause the same to be published for one month at least in one newspaper (if any such there be) published at each United States port of entry on the Pacific coast, warning all persons against entering said waters for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section; and he shall also cause one or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said waters and arrest all persons and seize all vessels found to be or to have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States therein.

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, pursuant to the above-recited statutes, hereby warn all persons against entering the waters of Bering Sea within the dominion of the United States for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section 1956, Revised Statutes; and I hereby proclaim that all persons found to be or to have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States in said waters will be arrested and punished as above provided, and that all vessels so employed, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargoes, will be seized and forfeited.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed,

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of February, 1892, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of Nicaragua the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3 to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and

Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Nicaragua at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in reciprocity for the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Nicaragua will by due legal enactment admit free of all duty, from and after April 15, 1892, into all the ports of entry of Nicaragua the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product of the United States:

SCHEDULE OF ARTICLES WHICH THE REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA WILL ADMIT FREE OF ALL KIND OF DUTY.

1. Animals, live.
2. Barley, Indian corn, wheat, oats, rye, and rice.
3. Seeds of all kinds for agriculture and horticulture.
4. Live plants of all kinds.
5. Corn meal.
6. Starch.
7. Beans, potatoes, and all other vegetables, fresh or dried.
8. Fruits, fresh or dried.
9. Hay, bran, and straw for forage.
10. Cotton-seed oil and all other products of said seed.
11. Tar, resin, and turpentine.
12. Asphalt, crude or manufactured in blocks.
13. Quicksilver for mining purposes.
14. Coal, mineral or animal.
15. Fertilizers for land.
16. Lime and cement.
17. Wood and lumber, in the rough or prepared for building purposes.
18. Houses of wood or iron.
19. Marble, in the rough or dressed, for fountains, gravestones, and building purposes.
20. Tools and implements for agricultural and horticultural purposes.
21. Wagons, carts, and handcarts.
22. Iron and steel, in rails for railroads and other similar uses, and structural iron and steel for bridges and building purposes.
23. Wire, for fences, with or without barbs, clamps, posts, clips, and other accessories of wire, not less than 3 lines in diameter.
24. Machinery of all kinds for agricultural purposes, arts, and trades, and parts of such machinery.
25. Motors of steam or animal power.
26. Forgers, water pumps of metal, pump hose, sledge hammers, drills for mining purposes, iron piping with its keys and faucets, crucibles for melting metals, iron water tanks, and lightning rods.
27. Roofs of galvanized iron, gutters, ridging, clamps, and screws for the same.
28. Printing materials.
29. Books, pamphlets, and other printed matter, and ruled paper for printed music, printing paper in sheets not less than 29 by 20 inches.
30. Geographical maps or charts and celestial and terrestrial spheres or globes.
31. Surgical and mathematical instruments.
32. Stones and fire bricks for smelting furnaces.
33. Vessels and boats of all kinds, fitted together or in parts.
34. Gold and silver in bullion, bars, or coin.

It is understood that the packages or coverings in which the articles named in the foregoing schedule are imported shall be free of duty if they are usual and proper for the purpose.

And that the Government of Nicaragua has further stipulated that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedule are the product of the United States of America shall impose no undue restrictions on the importer nor additional charges on the articles imported; and

Whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Nicaragua at Washington that this action of the Government of Nicaragua in granting freedom of duties to the products of the United States of America on their importation into Nicaragua is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff laws of Nicaragua to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 12th day of March, 1892, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
Acting Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas in section 3 of an act passed by the Congress of the United States entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," approved October 1, 1890, it was provided as follows:

That with a view to secure reciprocal trade with countries producing the following articles, and for this purpose, on and after the 1st day of January, 1892, whenever and so often as the President shall be satisfied that the government of any country producing and exporting sugars, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides, raw and uncured, or any of such articles, imposes duties or other exactions upon the agricultural or other products of the United States which, in view of the free introduction of such sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides into the United States, he may deem to be reciprocally unequal and unreasonable, he shall have the power and it shall be his duty to suspend, by proclamation to that effect, the provisions of this act relating to the free introduction of such sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides the production of such country for such time as he shall deem just; and in such case and during such suspension duties shall be levied, collected, and paid upon sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides the product of or exported from such designated country—

the duties hereinafter set forth; and

Whereas it has been established to my satisfaction and I find the fact to be that the Government of Colombia does impose duties or other exactions upon the agricultural and other products of the United States which, in view of the free introduction of such sugars, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides into the United States, in accordance with the provisions of said act, I deem to be reciprocally unequal and unreasonable:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 3 of said act, by which it is made my duty to take action, do hereby declare and proclaim that the provisions of said act relating to the free introduction of sugars, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides the production of Colombia shall be suspended from and after this 15th day of March, 1892, and until such time as said unequal and unreasonable duties and exactions are removed by Colombia and public notice of that fact given by the President of the United States; and I do hereby proclaim that on and after this 15th day of March, 1892, there will be levied, collected, and paid upon sugars, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides the product of or exported from Colombia during such suspension duties as provided by said act, as follows:

All sugars not above No. 13 Dutch standard in color shall pay duty on their polariscopic tests as follows, namely:

All sugars not above No. 13 Dutch standard in color, all tank bottoms, sirups of cane juice or of beet juice, melada, concentrated melada, concrete and concentrated molasses, testing by the polariscope not above 75°, seven-tenths of 1 cent per pound, and for every additional degree or fraction of a degree shown by the polariscopic test two-hundredths of 1 cent per pound additional.

All sugars above No. 13 Dutch standard in color shall be classified by the Dutch standard of color and pay duty as follows, namely:

All sugars above No. 13 and not above No. 16 Dutch standard of color, 1-3/8 cents per pound.

All sugars above No. 16 and not above No. 20 Dutch standard of color, 1-5/8 cents per pound.

All sugars above No. 20 Dutch standard of color, 2 cents per pound.

Molasses testing above 56°, 4 cents per gallon.

Sugar drainings and sugar sweepings shall be subject to duty either as molasses or sugar, as the case may be, according to polariscopic test.

On coffee, 3 cents per pound.

On tea, 10 cents per pound.

Hides, raw or uncured, whether dry, salted, or pickled; Angora-goat skins, raw, without the wool, unmanufactured; asses' skins, raw or unmanufactured, and skins, except sheepskins, with the wool on, 1-1/2 cents per pound.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of March, 1892, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
Acting Secretary of State.