Special Message

To the Senate of the United States:

I respectfully submit to the Senate, in answer to their legislative resolution of the 20th ultimo, in relation to the sales of land at the Crawfordsville land office in November last, reports from the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Concurring with the Secretary of the Treasury in the views he has taken of the treaties and act of Congress touching the subject, I can not discover that the President is invested with any power under the Constitution or laws to withhold a patent from a purchaser who has given a fair and valuable consideration for land, and thereby acquired a vested right to the same; nor do I perceive that the sole legislative resolution of the Senate can confer such a power, or suspend the right of the citizens to enter the lands that have been offered for sale in said district and remain unsold, so long as the law authorizing the same remains unrepealed.

I beg leave, therefore, to present the subject to the reconsideration of the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON