rong reasons for believing that the amount of
damage in this case has been greatly overestimated. If this be true,
it furnishes an illustration of the danger of trusting entirely to
_ex parte_ testimony in such matters.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 7, 1872_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I have the honor to return herewith Senate bill No. 569, an act entitled
"An act for the relief of Thomas B. Wallace, of Lexington, in the State
of Missouri," without my approval.

This claim, for which $11,250 are appropriated by this bill, is of the
same nature and character as the claim of Dr. J. Milton Best, which was
returned to the Senate on the 1st instant without my signature.

The same reasons which prompted the return of that bill for
reconsideration apply in this case, which also is a claim for
compensation on account of the ravages of war, and comes under the same
general principle of both international and municipal law, that all
property is held subject not only to be taken by the Government for
public uses, in which case, under the Constitution of the United States,
the owner is entitled to just compensation, but also subject to be
temporarily occupied, or even actually destroyed, in times of great
public danger, and when the public safety demands it; and in the latter
case governments do not admit a legal obligation on their part to
compensate the owner.

The temporary occupation of, injuries to, and destruction of property
caused by actual and necessary military operations are generally
considered to fall within the last-mentioned principle, and if a
government makes compensation under such circumstances it is a matter of
bounty rather than of strict legal right. If it be deemed proper to make
compensation for such losses, I renew my recommendation that provision
be made by general legislation for all similar cases.

U.S. GRANT.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas satisfactory information has been received by me, through Don
Mauricio Lopez Roberts, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
of His Majesty the King of Spain, that the Government of that country
has abolished discriminating duties heretofore imposed on merchandise
imported from all other countries, excepting the islands of Cuba and
Porto Rico, into Spain and the adjacent islands in vessels of the United
States, said abolition to take effect from a