aggregate of damages claimed of about $30,000,000, have already been filed.  A number of these cases involve as much as $100,000 each, while a few involve as much as $500,000 each and one something over $1,000,000.  The damages which may be awarded in these cases by the Court of Claims are to be paid out of the trust funds of the Indians held by the United States, or, if there are no such funds, out of the Treasury of the United States.  The law referring these cases to the Court of Claims has had no judicial interpretation, and many novel and difficult questions are likely to arise.  It is quite a startling proposition, and a very novel one, I think, that there shall be absolutely no opportunity for the review in an appellate court, in cases involving such large amounts, of questions involving the construction of the statute under which the court is proceeding, or those various questions of law, many of them new, which necessarily arise in such cases.

Neither the claimants, the Indians, nor the Government of the United States should be absolutely denied opportunity to bring their exceptions to review by some appellate tribunal.  I would not suggest that an appeal should be allowed in all cases.  Some limitation as to amount would be reasonable, and perhaps some discretion might be lodged in the Supreme Court as to granting appeals.  The limitations, however, imposed by the section I have quoted are so severe and unreasonable, in my judgment, that I have felt compelled to return the bill to the Senate with a view to its reconsideration.

BENJ.  HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 29, 1892.

To the Senate: 

I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 1958) entitled “An act to submit to the Court of Private Land Claims, established by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, the title of William McGarrahan to the Rancho Panoche Grande, in the State of California, and for other purposes.”

This bill came to me on the 20th instant, at a time when very many other bills were submitted for my consideration, and it has not been possible for me to make such an examination of the history of Mr. McGarrahan’s claim as would be necessary to form an intelligent judgment as to its merits and just extent.  It is quite possible that he has been wronged and that he has a claim for some reparation from the Government.  I can not, however, think that this bill proceeds upon a just basis.  It provides that Mr. McGarrahan shall file his claim as the assignee of Gomez in the Court of Private Land Claims for the lands described in the title, and that if the court establishes the grant to Gomez it shall be confirmed to McGarrahan.  No evidence that he is the assignee of Gomez is, I think, required by the bill, which assumes that fact instead of submitting it to the court.  If the claim is established, it is provided in substance that all lands part of said grant which have been conveyed