A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 9

generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed
upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth
beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take
these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins
of power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the
people.
I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush
along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all.
Passion has swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new
demonstration that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic,
and law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the
expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without
protest and fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of
commerce are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our
communities, and the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting
mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation
which our next census will make of the swift development of the great
resources of some of the States. Each State will bring its generous
contribution to the great aggregate of the nation's increase. And when
the harvests from the fields, the cattle from the hills, and the ores of the
earth shall have been weighed, counted, and valued, we will turn from
them all to crown with the highest honor the State that has most
promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism among its people.
MARCH 4, 1889.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 17, 1889_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, in answer to the Senate resolution of the 11th
ultimo, a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in
regard to the case of Louis Riel, otherwise known as Louis David
Riel.[1]
BENJ. HARRISON.
[Footnote 1: Tried and executed by the authorities of British North
America for complicity in the rebellion in the Northwest Territory.]

PROCLAMATIONS.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
The following provisions of the laws of the United States are hereby
published for the information of all concerned:
Section 1956, Revised Statutes, chapter 3, Title XXIII, enacts that--
No person shall kill any otter, mink, marten, sable, or fur seal, or other
fur-bearing animal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters
thereof; and every person guilty thereof shall for each offense be fined
not less than $200 nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than
six months, or both; and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and
cargo, found engaged in violation of this section shall be forfeited; but
the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to authorize the killing
of any such mink, marten, sable, or other fur-bearing animal, except fur
seals, under such regulations as he may prescribe; and it shall be the
duty of the Secretary to prevent the killing of any fur seal and to
provide for the execution of the provisions of this section until it is
otherwise provided by law, nor shall he grant any special privileges
under this section.
* * * * *
Section 3 of the act entitled "An act to provide for the protection of the
salmon fisheries of Alaska," approved March 2, 1889, provides that--
Sec. 3. That section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States is
hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United
States in the waters of Bering Sea, and it shall be the duty of the
President at a timely season in each year to issue his proclamation, and
cause the same to be published for one month in at least one newspaper
(if any such there be) published at each United States port of entry on

the Pacific coast, warning all persons against entering such waters for
the purpose of violating the provisions of said section, and he shall also
cause one or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said
waters and arrest all persons and seize all vessels found to be or to have
been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States therein.
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States,
pursuant to the above-recited statutes, hereby warn all persons against
entering the waters of Bering Sea within the dominion of the United
States for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section 1956,
Revised Statutes; and I hereby proclaim that all persons found to be or
have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States in
said waters will be arrested and punished as above provided, and that
all vessels so employed, their tackle,