Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith, with its accompaniments, a report from the
Secretary of the Navy of the Results of the survey made pursuant to
the act of March 2, 1891, "to enable the President to cause careful
soundings to be made between San Francisco, Cal., and Honolulu, in the
Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, for the purpose of determining the
practicability of the laying of a telegraphic cable between those
points."

BENJ. HARRISON.

VETO MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 19, 1892_.

_To the Senate_:

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 2729) entitled
"An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to establish circuit courts of
appeals, and to define and regulate in certain cases the jurisdiction
of the courts of the United States, and for other purposes.'"

The original act to which this amendment is proposed, constituting an
intermediate court of appeals, had for its object the relief of the
Supreme Court by limiting the cases which might be brought up for
hearing in that court. The first section of the bill under consideration
allows appeals in criminal cases where the sentence imposes no
imprisonment and the fine is as much as $1,000. The effect of this
provision will be to bring to the Supreme Court many cases that in my
opinion should be finally determined in the intermediate appellate
court, and so in part to defeat the general purpose of Congress in
constituting the intermediate court. But this objection would not alone
have sufficient weight in my mind to induce me to return the bill.
Section 3 of the bill is as follows:

That no appeal shall hereafter be allowed from judgments of the Court
of Claims in cases under the act of March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to
provide for the adjudication and payment of claims arising from Indian
depredations," except where the adjudication involves the construction
or application of the Constitution or the validity or construction of
a treaty or the constitutionality of a law of the United States:
_Provided, however_, That upon such appeal it shall be competent for
the Supreme Court to require, by certiorari or otherwise, the whole
case to be certified for its review and determination upon the facts
as well as the law.

I am advised by the Attorney-General that under the Indian-depredations
act 8,000 cases, involving an aggregate of damages claimed of about
$30,000,000, have already been file