nt jurisdiction of all
controversies arising between the railway company and the nations
and tribes of Indians through whose territory the railway shall be
constructed, or between said company and the members of said nations or
tribes, without reference to the amount in controversy, and the civil
jurisdiction of said courts is extended within the limits of said Indian
Territory, without distinction as to the citizenship of parties, so far
as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the act.

The requirement that an Indian shall be obliged to seek a distant court
for the adjudication of his rights in his controversies, great and
small, with this railway company would result in many cases to a denial
of justice.

I am convinced of the growing necessity, in this period of change in our
relations with the Indians, of caution and certainty in the grants given
to railroads to pass through Indian lands and of the exercise of care in
allowing interference with their occupation.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 28, 1895_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 5624, entitled "An act
to authorize the Oklahoma Central Railroad to construct and operate a
railway through the Indian and Oklahoma Territories, and for other
purposes."

The railroad proposed to be built under authority of this bill commences
at a point in the Creek Nation called Sapulpa and runs through the
Indian Territory to Oklahoma City, in Oklahoma, and thence through the
Kiowa and Comanche Reservation to a point at or near the Red River, on
the west line of said reservation.

There is no provision in this bill requiring the consent of the Indians
through whose lands it is proposed to build the road.

The character and situation of these Indians are such as to make this
consent important.

The first section gives the railroad company the right to build not only
its line of road, but "such tracks, turn-outs, branches, sidings, and
extensions as said company may deem it to their interest to construct."

If under an apparent grant to build a railroad the route of which is
in a general way defined this company is to be allowed to build such
branches and extensions as it may deem it to its interest to construct,
the grant, I am sure, is more comprehensive than was intended by the
Congress.

It seems to me that the entire line of the proposed railroad should be
precisely located an