VE MANSION, _February 26, 1887_.

_To the Senate_:

I herewith return without approval Senate bill No. 2210, entitled "An
act granting a pension to Anna Wright."

The beneficiary named in this bill was granted a pension on the 17th day
of November, 1886, dating from May 25, 1863, and is now under the
general law receiving precisely the pension which she would receive
under the bill herewith returned if the same should be approved.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 26, 1887_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return without approval House bill No. 6976, entitled "An act
to erect a public building at Portsmouth, Ohio."

It is represented in support of this bill that Portsmouth by its last
census had a population of 11,321, and that, it contains at present
not less than 15,000 inhabitants; that it is a place of considerable
manufacturing and commercial importance, and that there is no public
building for the transaction of the business of the General Government
nearer than Columbus or Cincinnati, both about 100 miles distant.

It is further stated in a communication from the promoter of this bill
that--

There is not a Federal public building in the State of Ohio east of the
line drawn on the accompanying map from Cleveland through Columbus to
Cincinnati; and when wealth and population and the needs of the public
service are considered, the distribution of public buildings in the
State is an unfair one.

Here is disclosed a theory of expenditure for public buildings which I
can hardly think should be adopted. If an application for the erection
of such a building is to be determined by the distance between its
proposed location and another public building, or upon the allegation
that a certain division of a State is without a Government building,
or that the distribution of these buildings in a particular State
is unfair, we shall rapidly be led to an entire disregard of the
considerations of necessity and public need which it seems to me should
alone justify the expenditure of public funds for such a purpose.

The care and protection which the Government owes to the people do
not embrace the grant of public buildings to decorate thriving and
prosperous cities and villages, nor should such buildings be erected
upon any principle of fair distribution among localities.

The Government is not an almoner of gifts among the people, but an
instrumentality by