ut it must be absolutely
true that no development is genuine or valuable based upon the violence
and cruelty of individuals or the faithlessness of a government.

While it might not result in exact justice or precisely rectify the
wrong committed, it may well be that in existing circumstances the
interests of the allottees or their heirs demand an adjustment of the
kind now proposed. But their lands certainly are worth much more than
they were in 1873, and the settlers, if they are not subjected to a
reappraisement, should at least pay the price at which the lands were
appraised in that year.

If the holders of the interests of the allottees have such a title as
will give them a standing in the courts of Kansas, I do not think they
need fear defeat by being charged with improvements under the occupying
claimants' act, for it has been decided in a case to be found in the
twentieth volume of Kansas Reports, at page 374, that--

Neither the title nor possession of the Indian owner, secured by
treaty with the United States Government, can be disturbed by State
legislation; and the occupying claimants' act has no application in
this case.

And yet the delay, uncertainty, and expense of legal contests should be
considered.

I suggest that any bill which is passed to adjust the rights of these
Indians by such a general plan as is embodied in the bill herewith
returned should provide for the payment by the settlers within a
reasonable time of an appraised value, and that in case the same is not
paid by the respective occupants that the lands be sold at public
auction for a price not less than the appraisement.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 9, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 4357, entitled "An act to erect
a public building at Allentown, Pa."

The accommodation of the postal business is the only public purpose for
which the Government can be called on to provide, which is suggested as
a pretext for the erection of this building. It is proposed to expend
$100,000 for a structure to be used as a post-office. It is said that a
deputy collector of internal revenue and a board of pension examiners
are located at Allentown, but I do not understand that the Government is
obliged to provide quarters for these officers.

The usual statement is made in support of this bill setting forth the
growth of the city where it is proposed to locate the b