It also appears from the records of the Treasury Department that among the effects taken from the Louisiana State Bank of New Orleans was the sum of $1,729 of Confederate money, and that the said sum stood upon the books of said bank to the credit of J.F.  Hanks.  It is but justice, however, to the executors of the estate of Dr. Hanks to state that there is every reason to believe that the money deposited by Dr. Hanks in the Louisiana State Bank was in current funds, and that when application was made to Congress for the recovery of the same they believed, and had evidence to satisfy them, that such funds had found their way into the Treasury of the United States.  There has unquestionably been a mistake made, either by the officers of the Louisiana State Bank or the persons engaged in removing the funds of that bank, by which the estate of Dr. Hanks is loser to the amount of relief afforded by House bill No. 1550.

Accompanying this I send the statement furnished by the Secretary of the Treasury of the funds covered into his Department, and accounted for through it, arising from the seizure of funds of the Louisiana State Bank of New Orleans in the month of August, 1862.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1872.

To the House of Representatives:

I return herewith, for the further consideration of Congress, House bill No. 1867, “An act for the relief of James T. Johnston,” without my approval, for the reason that the records of the Treasury Department show that the lot sold in the name of J.T.  Johnston, situate on Prince street, Alexandria, Va., for taxes due the United States, is numbered 162, instead of 163, as represented in this bill.  With the exception of this discrepancy in the number of the lot there is no reason why the bill should not receive my approval.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 1872.

To the House of Representatives:

I have received and taken into consideration the bill entitled “An act for the relief of the children of John M. Baker, deceased,” and, pursuant to the duty required of me by the Constitution, I return the same with my objections to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.

The bill proposes to pay a sum of money to the children of John M. Baker, deceased, late United States consul at Rio Janeiro, for services of that person as acting charge d’affaires of the United States in the year 1834.  So far as it can be ascertained it is apprehended that the bill may have received the sanction of Congress through some inadvertence, for upon inquiry at the proper Department it appears that Mr. Baker never did act as charge d’affaires of the United States at Rio Janeiro, and that he was not authorized so to act, but, on the contrary, was expressly forbidden to enter into diplomatic correspondence with the Government of Brazil.

The letter of the 8th of February, 1854, a copy of which is annexed, addressed by William L. Marcy, then Secretary of State, to James M. Mason, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, specifies objections to the claim, which it is believed have not since diminished, and in which I fully concur.