CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 5, 1885.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of the 2d instant from the Secretary of the Interior, inclosing certain papers in relation to the present condition of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians in the Indian Territory, and recommending that some provision of law be enacted for disarming those and other Indians when such action may be found necessary for their advancement in civilized pursuits, and that means be provided for compensating the Indians for the weapons so taken from or surrendered by them.

The subject is commended to the favorable consideration and action of the Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 12, 1885.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, the annual report of Government directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company for the year 1884.

The report accompanies the message to the House of Representatives.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 13, 1885.

To the Senate:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, respecting the compensation for special electoral messengers to be appointed under the provisions of existing law.

I earnestly invite the attention of Congress to this communication and recommend that an appropriation be made without delay, to be immediately available, for the purposes indicated.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 13, 1885.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of War, dated January 9, 1885, inclosing a copy of one dated January 5, 1885, from Lieutenant-Colonel William P. Craighill, Corps of Engineers, who was charged with the building of the monument at Yorktown, reporting the completion of the monument and recommending that the balance of the appropriation for building the same be used in paying the wages of a watchman and erecting a suitable keeper’s dwelling on the site.

The matter is commended to the consideration of Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 16, 1885.

To the United States Senate:

I transmit herewith a copy of a letter addressed to the Secretary of War by General W.T.  Sherman, under date of January 6, 1885, as called for by resolution of the Senate of January 13, 1885, as follows: 

That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, requested, if in his opinion it be not incompatible with the public interest, to communicate to the Senate a historical statement concerning the public policy of the executive department of the Confederate States during the late War of the Rebellion, reported to have been lately filed in the War Department by General William T. Sherman.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.