wrong would be inflicted upon the claimants who had not been so
fortunate as to have their claims taken up in preference to others.
Besides, the fund having been appropriated by law to a specific purpose,
in fulfillment of the treaty, it belongs to the Cherokees, and the
authority of this Government to direct its application to particular
claims is more than questionable.

The direction in the joint resolution, therefore, to pay the awards
of the commissioners to the amount of $100,000 seemed to me quite
objectionable, and could not be approved.

The further direction that the certificates required to be issued by the
treaty, and in conformity with the practice of the board heretofore,
shall be proper and sufficient vouchers, upon which payments shall be
made at the Treasury, is a departure from the system established soon
after the adoption of the Constitution and maintained ever since. That
system requires that payments under the authority of any Department
shall be made upon its requisition, countersigned by the proper Auditor
and Comptroller. The greatest irregularity would ensue from the mode of
payment prescribed by the resolution.

I have deemed it respectful and proper to lay before the House of
Representatives these reasons for having withheld my approval of the
above-mentioned joint resolution.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, _June 11, 1844_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I return to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, the
bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the improvement of
certain harbors and rivers," with the following objections to its
becoming a law:

At the adoption of the Constitution each State was possessed of a
separate and independent sovereignty and an exclusive jurisdiction
over all streams and water courses within its territorial limits.
The Articles of Confederation in no way affected this authority or
jurisdiction, and the present Constitution, adopted for the purpose of
correcting the defects which existed in the original Articles, expressly
reserves to the States all powers not delegated. No such surrender of
jurisdiction is made by the States to this Government by any express
grant, and if it is possessed it is to be deduced from the clause in the
Constitution which invests Congress with authority "to make all laws
which are necessary and proper for carrying into execution" the granted
powers. There is, in my view of the su