State journal & flag., 1846-08-21
Presidents NEesSa ge.
Vetoing t.e Riuer ana Harbor Bill. To the House Of Representatives.,

l have considered the bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the improve
 ment of certain harbours and rivers," with the care which its importance demands, and now return the same to the House of Representatives in which it originated, with my objections to it's becoming a law The bill proposes Inappropriate $l, ,s7s,l5O to be applied to more than forty distinct and seperale objects of improvement. On examining it's provisions, and the variety of objects of improvement which 1t embra- ces, many of them of local character, it is difficult to. conceive, if it shall be sanctioned and become law, what practical conslitu. tional restraint can hereafter be imposed upon the most extended system ot internal improvements by the federal government in all parts of the Union. The consiiu. ton has not, in my ju lgment, conferred upon the federal government the power 10 construct works of internal improvement
 within the States, or to appropriate money
 rom the treasury for that purpose. That this bill assmes for the federal government the right to exercise this power. cannot, think, be doubted. The approved course of government, and the deliberately expressed judgment of the people, have denied the ex- Isience of such power under the consti- ton. Several of my predecessors have denied is existence in the most solem forms.
 The general propositions that the federal government does not posses thes power Is So well settled, and has for considerable period been so generally acquesed in that 1t Is not deemed necessary 10 reiterate the arguments by which it is sustained. Nor do deem II necessary, after the full and elaborate discussions which have taken place before the country on this subject, to do more than state the general conditions which have satisfied me ofthe unconstitu 'ional'y and nexpediency of the exercise O. such power.
 It is not questioned that Inc federal gov ernment is one of the limited powers. It's 1 powers are such, and such only as are ex- pressly granted in the constitution, are pro. perIy incident to the expressly granted powers, and necessary to their execution. In determining whether given power has been granted a sound rule of construction has been laid down by Mir. Madison. That rule IS, that "whenever question arises con. cernng particular power, the first ques. ton Is whether the power be expressed in the constitution. If it be, the questioo is decided. lift be not expressed, inc next inquiry must be, whether it is properly an incident 10 an expressed power and necessa. ry toEts execution If be, it may be exerci. sed by Congress. If itbe not. Congress can- not exercise it." Il is not pre.ended that there IS any express grant in the constitution con. ferrng on Congress the power necessary and proper for the execution or any of the granted powerl All the granted powers it is confdentaly affirmed, may be effect> ually executed without the aid of such an incident. IA power to be incidental must not be exercised for ends which make it principal, or substantive power independent of the principal power to which it is an in cident." It Is not enough that it may be regarded by Congress as coaueRieft, or that it's exercise would advance the public veal. It must be necessary and proper to the principal expressed power to which it is an incident, and without which such principal
 power cannot be carried into effect. The whole frame of the federal constitution proves that the government which it creates wns intended 10 be one of limited and spe. ,lH2d powers. A construction of the constitution So brold as Ina, by which the power in question is defended, tends i'm
 perceptibly 10 d consolidation of power in government intended by it's framers to be thus limited in it's authority. "The obvious tendency and inevitable result of consoli dation of the State into one sovereignty would be to transform the republican system of the United States into a monaIchy." To guard against the assumption of all powers which encroach upon the reserved sover- eighty the States. and which consequently tend to consolidation, is the duty of all tho true friends of our political system. That the power in question Is not properly an incident to any of the granted powers, l am fully satisfied but if there were doubts on this subject, experience has de. monslrated the wisdom of the rule that all the tunctionares of the federal government should abstain from the exercIs of all questionable or doubtful powers. If an en. largement of the powers of the federal Coy ernment should be deemed proper, it is safer and wiser to appeal to lhe State and people in the mode prescribed by the con. sthution for the grant desired, than to assume its exercise without an amendment of .he constitution. If Congress does not possess the generalpower to construct the works of internal improvement within lhe States or 10 appropriate money from the treasury for that purpose, what Is there to exempt some at least. of the objects of appropriation in- cloded in this bill form the operation of the general rule ?-This bill assumes the ex.. lstence of the power, and in sone its pro. visions asserts the principle, that Congress may exercise it as fully as though the ap- propriations which itproposes were applica. ble to the construction of roads aud canals. IT there be distiacion in principle, it is not perceived, and should be clearly defended. Some efthe objectionable appro. prlaton contained in this bill are local in their character, snd lie within the limis of a single State; and though in the language of the bill, they are called har6ors, they are not connected with foreign commerce, nor are they places of refuge or shelter for our navy, or commercial mariae- on the ocean or lake shores To call the mo uth of a creek or d shallow inlet on our coast, a barber cannot confer the authority 10 expend the' public money in it's simprovement.-(son-