eater incubus can rest upon the energies of a people in the
development of a new country than that resulting from unsettled land
titles.

The necessity for legislation is so evident and so urgent that I venture
to express the hope that relief will be given at the present session of
Congress.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 2, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

In compliance with the provisions of section 14 of the act of March 2,
1889, I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, an
agreement concluded between the commissioners appointed under that
section on behalf of the United States, commonly known as the Cherokee
Commission, and the Sac and Fox Nation of Indians in the Indian
Territory on the 12th day of June last.

The Sac and Fox Nation have a national council, and the negotiation was
conducted with that body, which undoubtedly had competent authority to
contract on behalf of the tribe for the sale of these lands. The letter
of the Secretary of the Interior and the accompanying papers, which are
submitted herewith, furnish all the information necessary to the
consideration of the questions to be determined by Congress.

The only serious question presented is as to that article of the
agreement which limits the distribution of the funds to be paid by the
United States under it to the Sac and Fox Indians now in the Indian
Territory. I very gravely doubt whether the remnant or band of this
tribe now living in Iowa has any interest in these lands in the Indian
Territory. The reservation there was apparently given in consideration
of improvements upon the lands of the tribe in Kansas. The band now
resident in Iowa upon lands purchased by their own means, as I am
advised, left the Kansas reservation many years before the date of this
treaty, and it would seem could have had no equitable interest in the
improvements on the Kansas lands, which must have been the result of the
labors of that portion of the tribe living upon them. The right of the
Iowa band to a participation in the proceeds of the sale of the Kansas
reservation was explicitly reserved in the treaty; but it seems to me
upon a somewhat hasty examination of the treaty that the reservation
in the Indian Territory was intended only for the benefit of those who
should go there to reside. The Secretary of the Interior has expressed a
somewhat different view of the effect of this treaty; but if the facts
are,