amount granted by it is more by upward of $55,000 than the parties
themselves demanded from the Postmaster-General in 1854, and is more by
upward of $30,000 than they demanded when before the Court of Claims.
The enormous difference in their favor between their own original
demand and the amount granted by the present bill constitutes my chief
objection to it. In presenting this objection I do not propose to enter
into the question whether the claimants are entitled in equity to any
compensation for their services beyond that which it is alleged they
have already received, or, if so, what would be "a reasonable and fair
compensation." My sole purpose is to afford Congress an opportunity
of reconsidering this case on account of its peculiar circumstances.
I transmit to the Senate the reports of Horatio King, Acting
Postmaster-General, and of A.N. Zevely, Third Assistant
Postmaster-General, both dated on the 14th of April, 1860, on the
subject of this claim.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

WASHINGTON, _June 22, 1860_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return with my objections to the Senate, in which it originated, the
bill entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the
public domain, and for other purposes," presented to me on the 20th
instant.

This bill gives to every citizen of the United States "who is the head
of a family," and to every person of foreign birth residing in the
country who has declared his intention to become a citizen, though he
may not be the head of a family, the privilege of appropriating to
himself 160 acres of Government land, of settling and residing upon it
for five years; and should his residence continue until the end of this
period, he shall then receive a patent on the payment of 25 cents per
acre, or one-fifth of the present Government price. During this period
the land is protected from all the debts of the settler.

This bill also contains a cession to the States of all the public lands
within their respective limits "which have been subject to sale at
private entry, and which remain unsold after the lapse of thirty years."
This provision embraces a present donation to the States of 12,229,731
acres, and will from time to time transfer to them large bodies of such
lands which from peculiar circumstances may not be absorbed by private
purchase and settlement.

To the actual settler this bill does not make an absolute donation,
but the price is so small that it c