case, found that he was "laboring under
general debility, the effect of intermittent fever acting upon an
originally delicate constitution," and he was thereupon placed upon the
retired list of the Navy.

On the 10th day of August, 1873, he was accidentally shot and killed by
a neighbor, who was attempting to shoot an owl.

As long as there is the least pretense of limiting the bestowal of
pensions to disability or death in some way related to the incidents of
military and naval service, claims of this description can not
consistently be allowed.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 7, 1888_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without approval House bill No. 1406, entitled "An act to
provide for the sale of certain New York Indian lands in Kansas."

Prior to the year 1838 a number of bands and tribes of New York
Indians had obtained 500,000 acres of land in the State of Wisconsin,
upon which they proposed to reside. In the year above named a treaty was
entered into between the United States and these Indians whereby they
relinquished to the Government these Wisconsin lands. In consideration
thereof, and, as the treaty declares, "in order to manifest the deep
interest of the United States in the future peace and prosperity of
the New York Indians," it was agreed there should be set apart as a
permanent home for all the New York Indians then residing in the State
of New York, or in Wisconsin, or elsewhere in the United States, who
had no permanent home, a tract of land amounting to 1,824,000 acres,
directly west of the State of Missouri, and now included in the State
of Kansas--being 320 acres for each Indian, as their number was then
computed--"to have and to hold the same in fee simple to the said tribes
or nations of Indians by patent from the President of the United
States."

Full power and authority was also given to said Indians "to divide said
lands among the different tribes, nations, or bands in severalty," with
the right to sell and convey to and from each other under such rules and
regulations as should be adopted by said Indians in their respective
tribes or in general council.

The treaty further provided that such of the tribes of these Indians as
did not accept said treaty and agree to remove to the country set apart
for their new homes within five years or such other time as the
President might from time to time appoint should forfeit all interest
in the land so set apart