US Presidency
1842

To the House of Representatives of the United States: It is with unfeigned regret that I find myself under the necessity of returning to the House of Representatives with my objections a bill entitled An act to provide revenue from imports, and to change and modify existing laws imposing duties on imports, and for other purposes. Nothing can be more painful to any individual called upon to perform the Chief Executive duties under our limited Constitution than to be constrained to withhold his assent from an important measure adopted by the Legislature. Yet he would neither fulfill the high purposes of his station nor consult the true interests or the solemn will of the people the common constituents of both branches of the Government by yielding his well considered, most deeply fixed, and repeatedly declared opinions on matters of great public concernment to those of a coordinate department without requesting that department seriously to reexamine the subject of their difference.