This action, resulting from the Act of
March 3, 1887, created a momentous precedent. The escheated
property was held by the Government until 1896 and meanwhile, the
Mormon Church submitted to the law and made a formal declaration
that it had abandoned polygamy.
Another instance in which a lack of agreement between the
executive and the legislative branches of the Government
manifested itself, arose out of a scheme which President Arthur
recommended to Congress for the improvement of the waterways of
the Mississippi and its tributaries. The response of Congress was
a bill in which there was an appropriation of about $4,000,000
for the general improvements recommended, but about $14,000,000
were added for other special river and harbor schemes which had
obtained congressional favor. President Arthur's veto message of
August 1, 1882, condemned the bill because it contained
provisions designed "entirely for the benefit of the particular
localities in which it is proposed to make the improvements." He
thus described a type of legislation of which the nation had and
is still having bitter experience: "As the citizens of one State
find that money, to raise which they in common with the whole
country are taxed, is to be expended for local improvements in
another State, they demand similar benefits for themselves, and
it is not unnatural that they should seek to indemnify themselves
for such use of the public funds by securing appropriations for
similar improvements in their own neighborhood.
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