The premiums received on these policies were large, and the losses were precisely those within the contemplation of the insurers.  It is well known that the business of insurance is entered upon with the expectation that the premiums received will pay all losses and yield a profit to the insurance in addition; and yet, without any showing that the business did not result in a profit to these insurance claimants, it is proposed that the Government shall indemnify them against the precise risks they undertook, notwithstanding the fact that the money appropriated is not to be paid except “by way of gratuity—­payments as of grace and not of right.”

The appropriations to indemnify against insurance losses rest upon weaker grounds, it seems to me, than those of owners; but in the light of all the facts and circumstances surrounding these spoliation claims, as they are called, none of them, in my opinion, should be paid by the Government.

Another item in this bill which seems to me especially objectionable is an appropriation in favor of Charles P. Chouteau, survivor, etc., of $174,445.75, in full satisfaction of all claims arising out of the construction of the ironclad steam battery Etlah.

The contract for the construction of this battery was made by the Government with Charles W. McCord during the war, and he was to be paid therefor the sum of $386,000.  He was paid this sum and $210,991 for extras, and in May, 1866, gave his receipt in full.  The assignee of McCord in bankruptcy assigned to Chouteau and his associates in 1868 all claims of McCord against the United States for the precise extras for which he had receipted in full two years before.  Chouteau brought suit in the Court of Claims for such extras and was defeated.  I can not gather from the facts I have been able to collect concerning this appropriation that it is justified on any ground.

In 1890 my immediate predecessor vetoed a bill allowing the matter to be examined again by the Court of Claims.[33]

If the additional payment proposed in this bill was made, the cost of the battery in question would be almost double that of the contract price.

I have determined to submit this incomplete presentation of my objections to this bill at once in order that the Congress may act thereon without embarrassment or the interruption of plans for an early adjournment.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

[Footnote 31:  See Vol.  IV, pp. 466-469.]

[Footnote 32:  See Vol.  V, pp. 307-322.]

[Footnote 33:  See p. 93]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 10, 1896.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return without my approval House bill No. 225, entitled “An act to provide for the lease of Fort Omaha Military Reservation to the State of Nebraska.”