The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1848-10-24


ures of Legislation Not being placed here (where, if
be an executive power the whole order and arrange
nent oil the topics would require to be- but being. on
the other hand placed in the very midst of the descrp
lion of the Legislative power the inference, upon every
principle of construction is irresistible, that the veto
power of the President be considered not as par
of the executive but as part OF the Legislative authority
Of the people
II may be urged in opposition to this posluon' thai
the constitution in its first clause Congress call
legislative powers which it grants This is So The
veto power is not polcer to legislats it is power
check legislation But not that account the less
part and parcel of the public Legislative authority Ii is
one of the balance wheels of the mechanism of egsla
ion 1t surely is not the less on that part Of
that Legislative mechanism. The wing party, then. are
palming off gross fraud upon the people when they at
tack and when they persuade General Taylor to attack
the veto power, under the pretenee of assang and limit
ing the Executive power II is not the Executive author
y which they assal is of the guards and checks
OF our Legislative sysem-of law making power
which they would pull down. In pulling it down in
relation to the large classes of laws specified in the ALI
son letter, they violate both the spirit and letter of the
constitution just completely if they went into
vass upon the issue that the Supreme Court should not
have the right to determine the consttuonay of par
cular classes of laws, that House of Congress
should pass some classes of laws without the
renee of the other.
To show with how little justification the wings claim
that their assault upon the veto power is an attempt TO
limit the power of the Executive alone. it is necessary
only remember that the President must still execute
every law which he refuses TO ueto Gen Taylor, if made
President, while he sedulousy refrains. coordinate
department of the Legislative authority, from doing any
thing which the constitution empowers and enjons him
to do to check vicious legislation, must still continue to
WELD all the aggregated and increased executive patron
age and power which that very Legislation places in his
hands He must make all the appointments which
the due execution Of these laws requires He must
the agents who handle all the pubicmoney which
these laws require to be dispensed In word, he must
control all the ramed and extended executive machine
ry which these laws call into being. Thus. by refu-
sing to veto vicious legislation, the President instead
of giving up, in fact aiding vastly to augment, his
merely Executive influence and authority. 1t is
checking part of the legislative power only, that plain
violation of his constitutional character and duty, be
makes his Office a snecure and himself puppet And
reward for this scandalous abandonment of that part
of his constitutional power which conferred upon
him in order that he might, to the best of his official
Judgment, protect the people from bad laws-n reward
for the abandonment of this high conservative power and
duty, our non uetog automaton President is find his
executive arm immensely elongated and strengthened
Such is the notable scheme which the wing party
from its very commencement known as the party of pow
and prvilegehas devised in order at to sweep
away the constitutional bulwarks against system OF
legislation which the people have repeatedly condemned.
and at the time to augment the patronage and power
of the Executive By crying down the veto power, they
hope to attain both these objects Their President upon
this theory becomes dwarf in his powers for good and
giant in his powers of evil Impotent for any attempt
prevent corrupt laws from being fastened upon the peo
ple he becomes most formidable in his executive capaci
y from the power which those very laws confer upon
him
We shall resume the subject.