It seems absolutely certain that within a few years a great volume of shipping will extend to that location, which would be seriously embarrassed by such obstruction.

I hereby return without my approval House bill No. 3289.

At the same time, it is a plain dictate of wisdom and expediency that the commerce of the river be not unnecessarily interfered with by bridges or in any other manner.

It is certainly very questionable whether piers should be permitted at all in the North River at the point designated for the location of this bridge.

I transmit herewith dispatches received yesterday from our minister at Hawaii.

The objection to piers in the river for the purpose of supporting bridges is in any event so serious that...should not in such an indirect manner as is done by this bill be applied to a like structure at Twenty-third street.

It seems to me that the language of the bill under consideration...is equivalent to a new grant to that company.

I fully concur in the objections made to this bill by the officers having charge of the public lands.

I am convinced that such a relaxation of our existing land laws as is contemplated by the bill under consideration would not be in the interest of good administration.

I return without my approval House bill No. 71.

In transmitting certain correspondence with my message dated December 18, 1893, I withheld a dispatch from our present minister, numbered 3 and dated November 16, 1893, and also a dispatch from our former minister, numbered 70 and dated…

Inasmuch as the contents of the dispatch of November 16, 1893, are referred to in the dispatches of a more recent date, now sent to Congress, and inasmuch as there seems no longer to be sufficient reason for withholding said dispatch, a…

The dispatch numbered 70 and dated October 8, 1892, above referred to, is still withheld for the reason that such a course still appears to be justifiable and proper.

To test fitness for the classified departmental service there shall be a clerk-copyist examination and such supplementary and special examinations as the Commission may provide to meet the special requirements of the service.

The direct tax levied in 1861 is not even suspected of invalidity.

It is cause for congratulation that watchfulness and care and fidelity to its purposes are all that are necessary to insure to the Government and our people all the benefits which its inauguration promised.

I regard the cause of civil service reform as so firmly established and its value so fully demonstrated.

It will hardly do to say that the States and Territories who are the recipients of these large gifts may be trusted to do justice to its citizens.