k it can be in any case, for a United
States officer to appeal to the local authorities for immunity from
violence in the exercise of his duties, the situation at Cedar Keys did
not suggest or encourage such an appeal, for those to whom the appeal
would have been addressed were themselves the lawless instruments of
the threatened violence. It will always be agreeable to me if the local
authorities, acting upon their own sense of duty, maintain the public
order in such a way that the officers of the United States shall have
no occasion to appeal for the intervention of the General Government;
but when this is not done I shall deem it my duty to use the adequate
powers vested in the Executive to make it safe and feasible to hold and
exercise the offices established by the Federal Constitution and laws.

The means used in this case were, in my opinion, lawful and necessary,
and the officers do not seem to have intruded upon any private right in
executing the warrants placed in their hands. The letter dated August 4
last, which appears in the correspondence submitted, appealing to me
to intervene for the protection of the citizens of Cedar Keys from the
brutal violence of Cottrell, it will be noticed, was written before the
appointment of the new collector. That the officers of the law should
not have the full sympathy of every good citizen in their efforts to
bring these men to merited punishment is matter of surprise and regret.
It is a very grim commentary upon the condition of social order at Cedar
Keys that only a woman, who had, as she says in her letter, no son or
husband who could be made the victim of his malice, had the courage to
file charges against this man, who was then holding a subordinate place
in the customs service.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 6, 1890_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant,
the House of Representatives concurring, I return herewith the bill
(S. 1293) entitled "An act for the relief of Charles F. Bowers."

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 16, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress with a view to
securing such legislation as may be appropriate, a communication from
the Secretary of the Interior, relating to the destruction by fires,
carelessly kindled or left, of the timber upon the public lands.

If proper penal