Last year an Executive proclamation[10] was issued directing the removal
of fences which inclosed the public domain. Many of these have been
removed in obedience to such order, but much of the public land still
remains within the lines of these unlawful fences. The ingenious methods
resorted to in order to continue these trespasses and the hardihood of
the pretenses by which in some cases such inclosures are justified are
fully detailed in the report of the Secretary of the Interior.
The removal of the fences still remaining which inclose public lands
will be enforced with all the authority and means with which the
executive branch of the Government is or shall be invested by the
Congress for that purpose.
The report of the Commissioner of Pensions contains a detailed and most
satisfactory exhibit of the operations of the Pension Bureau during the
last fiscal year. The amount of work done was the largest in any year
since the organization of the Bureau, and it has been done at less cost
than during the previous year in every division.
On the 30th day of June, 1886, there were 365,783 pensioners on the
rolls of the Bureau.
Since 1861 there have been 1,018,735 applications for pensions filed, of
which 78,834 were based upon service in the War of 1812. There were
621,754 of these applications allowed, including 60,178 to the soldiers
of 1812 and their widows.
The total amount paid for pensions since 1861 is $808,624,811.
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