Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-11-04


dent within ten days Sundays excepted) after il
shall have been presented TO him, the same shall
8 be law, IN Ike manner as il he had signed 1t,
unless the Congress, Iy their adjournment, pre-
: rent It's return, in which case it shall not be
law."-.4n !, Sec.7.
Whatever may be t,e true construction OF this
clause, as 10 the short sssons the 'spocket veto"
is, undoubtedly, the mott insdious form which
the Presidential negative .an assume; for it indi-
rectly converts the quafe, into an absolute ne
gative. large proportion ,r the legislation Of
Congress is often not consunfnated till within
ten days of the end of the session; and highly
important bills are often passed daring that in
terval. Indeed, as 10 many such sills, though
introduced early in the session, they give rise
to protraced discussion which postpenes the
final action of Congress till the very close of the
session the Executive having had. all the while,
full opportunity of acquainting himself with their
provisions. Only one instance Of retained bill
had occurred before the Jackson era. That was a
naturalization bill which, says President MADISON,
in his message of November 6, 1912, "was pre-
sented an hour too the close of the session
to be returned with objections for reconsideration
The reason here assigned for retaining the bill was,
beyond doubt, the true one. 1t proceeded from
man of proverbial conscientiousness-from Chief
Magistrate whose sincerity no imputed stretches
of prerogative had cast shadow of suspicion. On
the last day of subsequent session of Congress
bill was presented to him which he deemed to be
unconstitutional. Instead of availing himself of
the ten days plea to retain and thus destroy the
bill, he returned it on the same day with message
setting out his objections.
President VAN buren,, who came into Office
pledged g to perfect the work" of his illustrous
predecessor, at least three times foresalled legis
lation by threatening Congress with a Veto. And
in times more inglorious than even his own, they
have been threatened with it in debate.
1t will be recolleced that the authors Of the Fe-
deraist derived from the long slumber Of the veto
power in England an argument against the proba-
bility OF its abuse in this country Its modern advo
Gates ascribe its desuetude in England to the infu.
ence OF the Crown. which, they say, is successfully
exerted to prevent the passage of disagreeable
laws-and thus makes unnecessary the exercise Of
the veto power. 1t is true that the influence. OF
the crown has, to extent, been substituted in
England for the veto but it is also true that this
d
one time of the veto, and IFS subsequent abandon.
ment The explanation is TO be found in the
change effected in the Government by the revou.
ton Of 1858. The veto was used by the Tudor
Princes, as since by our Tudor Presidents as an
ordinary instrument of Executive power. AT a
single session of Parliament Queen Elizabeth
sented to twenty-four public and nineteen private
bills, and rejected forty-eight. But when the old
principles of Ango-Saxon freedom were restored
10 the English Constitution by the revolution Of
1858, a corresponding practice was adopted. The
veto power has since been exerted but three times
the last instance being in regard to an election bill in
1885, and, as to one of the cases, the King reraced
his steps " The exercise of the power (says BURKE)
: is WiSeiy forborne. It's repoSe may be the pre-
: servation of its existence and its existence
: may be the means Of saving the Constitution il
sell, on an occasion worthy Of bringing forth"
This great political philosopher thought, with the
trainers of our Constitution, that the veto power
should be resored TO only in extreme cases. Judge
STORY explains the disuse Of this prerogatye in
England, by saying "eifher that the influence of
: the Crown has prevented the passage Of objec-
tonabe measures, or that the exercise of the pre-
rogatve has become so odiouS that it has not been
deemed safe to exercise it, except upon the most
pressing emergencies. Probably both motives
have alternately prevailed in regard to bills
which were disagreeable to the Crowns though
for The last half century The LATTER has had The
most uniform and decisiUe operation. Com.
Const. ii. 345-346.1 But as to this influence
of the Groom, is il more operative than the influ-
ence Of our President! Let that growing little"
now an enormous big volume, the Blue Book"
(the Red Book of Monarchies,' let the fact that
OF all the bills negatiyed by our Presidents, only
one has ever received afterwards two-thirds vote,
and that little revenue cutter bill, which had been
vetoed, few days before he went out of office, by
President TYLER, who was without party, and
from whom no man had any thing to hope or to
tear; let the instances, equally notorious, in which
members OF Congress, under Executive appliances,
and the lash Of the Court Journal, have eaten their
own words and voted in the teeth Of their own
speeches; let the blind concurrence of the party
now in power, in every change Of Executive OPT
mon on almost every important question Of the day,
OF which so amusing account given in
speech of Mr. FISHER at the last session of Con-
gress See National Lateligencer September 25,
le4s let the open electioneering Of Cabinet off,