uity.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 11, 1886_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return herewith without approval, and with a statement of my
objections thereto, Senate bill No. 150, entitled "An act to quiet title
of settlers on the Des Moines River lands in the State of Iowa, and for
other purposes."

This proposed legislation grows out of a grant of land made to the
Territory of Iowa in the year 1846 to aid in the improvement of the
navigation of the Des Moines River.

The language of this grant was such that it gave rise to conflicting
decisions on the part of the Government Departments as to its extent,
and it was not until 1860 that this question was authoritatively and
finally settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. Its decision
diminished the extent of the grant to a quantity much less than had been
insisted on by certain interested parties and rendered invalid the
titles of parties who held, under the Territory or State of Iowa, lands
beyond the limit of the grant fixed by the decision of the court.

For the purpose of validating such titles and to settle all disputes so
far as the General Government was concerned, the Congress, in the year
1861, by a joint resolution, transferred to the State of Iowa all the
title then retained by the United States to the lands within the larger
limits which had been claimed, and then held by _bona fide_
purchasers from the State; and in 1862 an act of Congress was passed for
the same general purpose.

Without detailing the exact language of this resolution and statute, it
certainly seems to be such a transfer and relinquishment of all
interests in the land mentioned on the part of the United States as to
relieve the Government from any further concern therein.

The questions unfortunately growing out of this grant and the
legislation relating thereto have been passed upon by the United States
Supreme Court in numerous cases, and as late as 1883 that court,
referring to its many previous decisions, adjudged that "the act of 1862
(12 U.S. Statutes at Large, ch. 161, p. 543) transferred the title from
the United States and vested it in the State of Iowa for the use of its
grantees under the river grant."

Bills similar to this have been before Congress for a number of years
and have failed of passage; and at least on one occasion the Committee
on the Judiciary of the Senate reported adversely upon a measure
covering the same gr