A letter of the Secretary of the Interior of the 6th instant and a copy of a communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the 2d...
I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty concluded on the 2d March, 1866, between the United States...
The powers of departmental commanders are hereby delegated to the above-named district commanders.
This is a bill passed by Congress in time of peace.
It places at his free disposal all the lands and goods in his district, and he may distribute them without let or hindrance to whom he pleas...
The bill, however, would seem to show upon its face that the establishment of peace and good order is not its real object.
I know no other way in which they can be preserved and maintained except by a constant adherence to them through the various vicissitudes of...
As the nature of government requires the power of removal, it was maintained that it should be exercised in this way by the hand capable of ...
The history of the world has been written in vain if it does not teach us that unrestrained authority can never be safely trusted in human h...
The subject was long and earnestly debated in the Senate, and the early construction of the Constitution was, nevertheless, freely accepted ...
It reduces the whole population of the ten States--all persons, of every color, sex, and condition, and every stranger within their limits--...
It should induce us to pause in a course of legislation which, looking solely to the attainment of political ends, fails to consider the rig...
The bill in this respect conflicts, in my judgment, with the Constitution of the United States.
All the information I have on the subject convinces me that the masses of the Southern people and those who control their public acts [...] ...
For these reasons I return the bill to the Senate, in which House it originated, for the further consideration of Congress which the Constit...
I submit to Congress whether this measure is not in its whole character, scope, and object without precedent and without authority.
I am unable to give it my assent, for reasons so grave that I hope a statement of them may have some influence on the minds of the patriotic...
Under these circumstances, as a depositary of the executive authority of the nation, I do not feel at liberty to unite with Congress in reve...
