the Interior
of the 19th ultimo, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a
bill "to allow Indian homestead entries in certain cases without the
payment of fees and commissions."

The matter is presented for the consideration and action of the Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 7, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a letter from
the Secretary of War, dated the 2d instant, inclosing copies of official
correspondence, reports, etc., in relation to the military post of Fort
Sullivan, Me., and recommending such legislation as will authorize the
sale of the site to the highest bidder after public advertisement, the
same being no longer needed for military purposes.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 8, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I submit a communication from the governor of the State of Illinois,
with a copy of an act of the general assembly of that State tendering to
the United States the cession of the Illinois and Michigan Canal upon
condition that it shall be enlarged and maintained as a national
waterway for commercial purposes.

The proposed cession is an element of the subject which Congress had
under consideration in directing by the act of August 2, 1882, a survey
for a canal from a point on the Illinois River at or near the town of
Hennepin by the most practicable route to the Mississippi River at or
above the city of Rock Island, the canal to be not less than 70 feet
wide at the water line and not less than 7 feet in depth of water, and
with capacity for vessels of at least 280 tons burden; and also a survey
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and an estimate of the cost of
enlarging it to the dimensions of the proposed canal between Hennepin
and the Mississippi River.

The surveys ordered in the above act have been completed and the report
upon them is included in the last annual report of the Secretary of War,
and a copy is herewith submitted. It is estimated in the report that by
the enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the construction
of the proposed canal by the shortest route between Hennepin and the
Mississippi River a direct and convenient thoroughfare for vessels of
280 tons burden may be opened from the Mississippi River to Lake
Michigan at a cost of $8,110,286.65, and that the annual charge for
maintenance would be $138,6