U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 29, 1873.

To the Senate of the United States:

I have the honor to return herewith Senate bill No. 490, entitled “An act for the relief of the East Tennessee University,” without my approval.

This claim, for which $18,500 are appropriated out of the moneys of the United States, arises in part for the destruction of property by troops in time of war, and therefore the same objections attach to it as were expressed in my message of June 1, 1872, returning the Senate bill awarding $25,000 to J. Milton Best.

If the precedent is once established that the Government is liable for the ravages of war, the end of demands upon the public Treasury can not be forecast.

The loyalty of the people of the section in which the university is located, under circumstances of personal danger and trials, thus entitling them to the most favorable construction of the obligation of the Government toward them, is admitted, and nothing but regard for my duty to the whole people, in opposing a principle which, if allowed, will entail greater burdens upon the whole than the relief which will be afforded to a part by allowing this bill to become a law, could induce me to return it with objections.

Recognizing the claims of these citizens to sympathy and the most favorable consideration of their claims by the Government, I would heartily favor a donation of the amount appropriated by this bill for their relief.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, February 8, 1873.

To the House of Representatives:

I have the honor to return herewith House bill (H.R. 2852) entitled “An act for the relief of James A. McCullah, late collector of the fifth district of Missouri,” without my approval, for the following reasons: 

It is provided in section 34 of the act of June 30, 1864, as amended by the act of July 13, 1866, that it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue that due diligence was used by the collector, who shall certify the facts to the First Comptroller.  This bill, should it become a law, clearly excuses Mr. McCullah, late collector, from showing that he used due diligence for the collection of the tax in question while the lists remained in his hands.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 11, 1873.

To the Senate of the United States:

I return herewith without my approval Senate bill No. 161, entitled “An act for the relief of those suffering from the destruction of salt works near Manchester, Ky., pursuant to the order of Major-General Carlos Buell.”

All the objections made by me to the bill for the relief of J. Milton Best, and also of the East Tennessee University, apply with equal force to this bill.