sband of the beneficiary named in this bill,
enlisted on the 22d day of August, 1862, and was discharged February 13,
1863, for disability which was certified to arise from chronic
rheumatism contracted prior to enlistment.

He appears to have been sick with rheumatism a large part of the time
he was in the service, and because of that fact never reached a point
nearer the front than the city of Washington.

He died May 13, 1873, of consumption.

His widow filed in 1884 a declaration executed by the deceased shortly
before his death, in which he alleged that he was first attacked with
rheumatism at Capitol Hill, in the District of Columbia, in October,
1862. The soldier never applied for a pension.

It is strenuously disputed that he had this complaint before enlistment.
However this may be, it is certain that he died of consumption, and I
can find no proof that this disease was contracted in the service or had
any relation thereto.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 26, 1888_.

_To the Senate_:

I return without approval Senate bill No. 2644, entitled "An act
granting the right of way to the Fort Smith, Paris and Dardanelle
Railway Company to construct and operate a railroad, telegraph, and
telephone line from Fort Smith, Ark., through the Indian Territory, to
or near Baxter Springs, in the State of Kansas."

This bill grants a right of way 100 feet in width, with the use of
adjoining lands for stations and other purposes, through the eastern
part of that portion of the Indian Territory occupied by the Cherokee
Indians under a treaty with the United States.

By the terms of the treaty concluded between the Government and the
Cherokee Nation in 1866 these Indians expressly granted a right of way
through their lands "to any company or corporation which shall be duly
authorized by Congress to construct a railroad from any point north to
any point south, and from any point east to any point west of, and which
may pass through, the Cherokee Nation."

There are excellent reasons why this clause in the treaty should be
construed as limiting the railroads which should run through these
lands, at least without further permission of the Indians, to only one
from north to south and one other from east to west.

It is evident, however, that the Congress has either not so interpreted
this provision of the treaty or has determined that it should be
disregarded, for there have been six or seven railroads