I have stated these facts in order that it may be seen what further appropriations are involved in a settlement for all these lands upon the basis which Congress has adopted.  It does not seem to me to be a wise policy to deal with this question piecemeal.  It would have been better, if a remnant of title remains in the Choctaws and Chickasaws to the lands in the leased district, to have settled the whole matter at once.  Under the treaty of 1855 the Choctaws and Chickasaws quitclaimed any supposed interest of theirs in the lands west of the one hundredth degree.  The boundary between the Louisiana purchase and the Spanish possessions by our treaty of 1819 with Spain was as to these lands fixed upon the one hundredth degree of west longitude.

Our treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws made in 1820 extended their grant to the limit of our possessions.  It followed, of course, that these lands were included within the boundaries of the State of Texas when that State was admitted to the Union, and the release of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, whatever it was worth, operated for the benefit of the State of Texas and not of the United States.  The lands became public lands of that State.  For the release of this claim and for the lease of the lands west of the ninety-eighth degree the Government of the United States paid the sum of $800,000.  In the calculations which have been made to arrive at the basis of the appropriation under discussion no part of this sum is treated as having been paid for the lease.  I do not think that is just to the United States.  It seems probable that a very considerable part of this consideration must have related to the leased lands, because these were the lands in which the Indian title was recognized, and the treaty gave to the United States a permanent right of occupation by friendly Indians.  The sum of $300,000, paid under the treaty of 1866, is deducted, as I understand, in arriving at the sum appropriated.  It seems to me that a considerable proportion of the sum of $800,000 previously paid should have been deducted in the same manner.

I have felt it to be my duty to bring these matters to the attention of Congress for such action as may be thought advisable.

BENJ.  HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 24, 1892.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, the annual report of the World’s Columbian Commission; a supplementary report of the same commission, submitted February 16, 1892; the report of the board appointed by me under section 16 of the act of April 25, 1890, to have charge of the exhibit to be made by the Executive Departments, the Smithsonian Institution, the Fish Commission, and the National Museum; and the report of the board of lady managers, provided for by section 6 of the act referred to.