g remains of the bill under
consideration if this person is not to be appointed. The office is an
important one, connected with the active civil administration of the War
Department. I can not agree that the selection of the officer shall be
taken out of the discretion of the Executive, where the responsibility
for good administration necessarily rests. It is probably true that the
officer intended to be benefited is peculiarly deserving and has had
remarkable success in the discharge of the duties of the office; but
these are considerations for the appointing power, and might safely have
been left there.

If this particular appointment was backed by reasons so obvious as
to secure the support of both Houses of Congress, it should have been
assumed that these reasons could have been made obvious to the Executive
by the ordinary methods. In connection with the Army and Navy retired
lists, legislation akin to this has become quite frequent, too frequent
in my opinion; but these laws have been regarded as grants of pensions
rather than of offices.

If it is to be allowed that active places connected with the Executive
Departments can be created upon condition that particular persons are or
are not to be designated to fill them, the power of appointment might be
wholly diverted from the Executive to the Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 2, 1891_.

_To the Senate_:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 3270) "for the relief
of the administratrix of the estate of George W. Lawrence."

If I rightly construe this bill, it authorizes the Court of Claims to
give judgment in favor of the contractor with the United States for
the construction of the vessels named (_Agawam_ and _Pontoosuc_) for
the difference between the contract price and the actual cost to the
contractor of building the vessels, subject only to the condition that
nothing shall be allowed for any advance in the price of labor or
material unless such advance occurred during the prolonged term for
completing the work rendered necessary by delay resulting from the
action of the Government. The bill is somewhat obscure, but I have,
I think, correctly stated the legal effect of it.

Undoubtedly in contracts made for army and navy supplies and
construction during the early days of the war there was not infrequently
loss to the contractor by reason of the advance in the cost of labor
resulting from the withdrawal of so large