ies.

A third objection may be mentioned, as it exemplifies the spirit in
which special privileges are sought by incorporated companies.

Land subject to Indian occupancy has always been scrupulously guarded by
law from preemption settlement or encroachment under any pretext until
the Indian title should be extinguished. In the fourth section of this
act, however, lands held by "Indian title" are excepted from prohibition
against the patent to be issued to the New York and Montana Iron Mining
and Manufacturing Company.

The bill provides that the patent "shall convey no title to any mineral
lands _except iron and coal_, or to any lands held by right of
possession, or by any other title, _except Indian title_, valid at
the time of the selection of the said lands." It will be seen that by
the first section lands in "Indian reservations" are excluded from
individual preemption right, but by the fourth section the patent may
cover any Indian title except a _reservation_; so that no matter what
may be the nature of the Indian title, unless it be in a reservation,
it is unprotected from the privilege conceded by this bill.

Without further pursuing the subject, I return the bill to the Senate
without my signature, and with the following as prominent objections to
its becoming a law:

First. That it gives to the New York and Montana Iron Mining and
Manufacturing Company preemption privileges to iron and coal lands on a
large scale and at the ordinary minimum--a privilege denied to ordinary
preemptors. It bestows upon the company large tracts of _coal_ lands at
one-sixteenth of the minimum price required from ordinary preemptors.
It also relieves the company from restrictions imposed upon ordinary
preemptors in respect to _timber lands_; allows double the time for
payment granted to preemptors on offered lands; and these privileges are
for purposes not heretofore authorized by the preemption laws, but for
trade and manufacturing.

Second. Preemption rights on such a scale to private corporations are
unequal and hostile to the policy and principles which sanction
preemption laws.

Third. The bill allows this company to take possession of land, use it,
and acquire a patent thereto before the Indian title is extinguished,
and thus violates the good faith of the Government toward the aboriginal
tribes.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _July 16, 1866_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

A careful examination