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So far as the treaties between the United States and China stipulate for the treatment of the Chinese subjects actually in the United States as the citizens or subjects of "the most favored nation" are treated, they create no new status for them; they simply recognize and confirm a general and existing rule, applicable to all aliens alike, for none are favored above others by domestic law, and none by foreign treaties unless it be the Chinese themselves in some respects. For by the third article of the treaty of November 17, 1880, between the United States and China it is provided that

ART. III. If Chinese laborers, or Chinese of any other class, now either permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of the United States, meet with ill treatment at the hands of any other persons, the Government of the United States will exert all its power to devise measures for their protection and to secure to them the same rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions as may be enjoyed by the citizes or subjects of the most favored nation, and to which they are entitled by treaty.

This article may be held to constitute a special privilege for Chinese subjects in the United States, as compared with other aliens; not that it creates any peculiar rights which others do not share, but because, in case of ill treatment of the Chinese in the United States, this Government is bound to "exert all its power to devise measures for their protection," by securing to them the rights to which equally with any and all other foreigners they are entitled.

Whether it is now incumbent upon the United States to amend their general laws or devise new measures in this regard I do not consider in the present communication, but confine myself to the particular point raised by the outrage and massacre at Rock Springs.

The note of the Chinese minister and the documents which accompany it give, as I believe, an unexaggerated statement of the lamentable incident, and present impressively the regrettable circumstance that the proceedings, in the name of justice, for the ascertainment of the crime and fixing the responsibility therefor were a ghastly mockery of justice. So long as the Chinese minister, under his instructions, makes this the basis of an appeal to the principles and convictions of mankind, no exception can be taken; but when he goes further, and, taking as his precedent the action of the Chinese Government in past instances where the lives of American citizens and their property in China have been endangered, argues a reciprocal obligation on the part of the United States to indemnify the Chinese subjects who suffered at Rock Springs, it became necessary to meet his argument and to deny most emphatically the conclusions he seeks to draw as to the existence of such a liability and the right of the Chinese Government to insist upon it.

I draw the attention of the Congress to the latter part of the note of the Secretary of State of February 18, 1886, in reply to the Chinese minister's representations, and invite especial consideration of the cogent reasons by which he reaches the conclusion that whilst the United States

Government is under no obligation, whether by the express terms of its treaties with China or the principles of international law, to indemnify these Chinese subjects for losses caused by such means and under the admitted circumstances, yet that in view of the palpable and discreditable failure of the authorities of Wyoming Territory to bring to justice the guilty parties or to assure to the sufferers an impartial forum in which to seek and obtain compensation for the losses which those subjects have incurred by lack of police protection, and considering further the entire absence of provocation or contribution on the part of the victims, the Executive may be induced to bring the matter to the benevolent consideration of the Congress, in order that that body, in its high discretion, may direct the bounty of the Government in aid of innocent and peaceful strangers whose maltreatment has brought discredit upon the country, with the distinct understanding that such action is in no wise to be held as a precedent, is wholly gratuitous, and is resorted to in a spirit of pure generosity toward those who are otherwise helpless.

The correspondence exchanged is herewith submitted for the information of the Congress, and accompanies a like message to the House of Representatives. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 27th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared in the Office of Indian Affairs, for the purpose of securing to the Cherokees and others, citizens of the Cherokee Nation by adoption and incorporation, a sum equal to their proportion of the $300,000, proceeds of lands west of 96° in the Indian Territory, appropriated by the act of March 3, 1883.

The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of 25th ultimo from the Secre tary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill recommended by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the payment of money claimed under alleged existing treaty stipulations and laws by such Eastern Cherokee Indians as have removed or shall hereafter remove themselves to the Indian Territory.

The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

4972

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of 26th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, with inclosures, requesting legislation to provide for the reappraisement and sale of a small tract of land in the State of Nebraska belonging to the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation.

The matter is presented for the action of Congress.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 3 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, the seventeenth annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, for the year 1885, submitted to the Secretary of the Interior in pursuance of the act of May 17, 1882.

The report accompanies the message to the House of Representatives. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 5th instant from the Secreary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared in the Office of Indian Affairs, "for the relief of the Omaha tribe of Indians in the State of Nebraska."

The matter is presented for the consideration of Congress.

GROVER CLEVELAND,

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, the report of the National Board of Health for the year 1885.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 17, 1886.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, being a revised list of papers on file in the Department of State touching the unpaid claims of citizens of the United States against France for spoliation prior to July 31, 1801. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 17, 1886.

To the Senate of the United States:

In response to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th of February, requesting to be furnished with a copy of the report made by the consulgeneral of the United States at Berlin upon the shipping interest of Ger. many, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State upon the subject.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, March 17, 1886.

To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate in executive session of the 27th of January, I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State and the papers accompanying it, relating to the emigration of Chinese to the United States. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of 16th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, providing for the use of certain funds, proceeds of Indian reservations, covered into the Treasury under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1883, for the benefit of the Indians on whose account the same is covered in.

The subject is recommended to the favorable consideration and action of Congress. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 16th instant from the Secretary of the Interior, submitting, with accompanying papers, a draft of a bill, prepared by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "to authorize the purchase of a tract of land near Salem, Oreg., for the use of the Indian training school."

The subject is presented for the consideration and action of Congress. GROVER CLEVELAND.

To the Senate:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 18, 1886.

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of February 9, 1886, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with its accom

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