The true Democrat., 1854-05-30
VETO MESSAGE.
Wushanoto,1. May 3

'""'''SeO'',
 SENATE.-The following message from the President of the United States was presented by his private secretary:
 To the Senate of the United States:
 The bill entitled "An act making a grant of public lands to the several States for the bene- it of indigent insane persons" which was pre- sented to me on the 27th ultimo, has been ma turely considered and is returned to the Senate. the House in which it originated, with a state ment of the objections which have required me to withhold from it my approval.
 In the performance of this duty prescribed by the constitution, 1 have been com mpelled to resist the deep sympathies of my own heart in favor the humane purposes sought to be accomplish ed, and to overcome the reluctance with which dissent from the conclusion of the two Houses ot Congress, and present my own opinions in opposition to the action of a coordinate branch of the government, which possesses so fully my confidence and respect.
 If, in presenting my objections to this bill, 1 should say more than strictly belongs to the measure, or is required for the discharge of my official obligations, let it be attributed to sin cere desire to justify my act before those whose good opinion I so highly value, and to that earnestness which springs from my deliberate conviction, that strict adherence to the terms and purposes of the federal compact offers the best, if not the only, security for the preserva- tion of our blessed inheritance of representa- tive liberty
 The bill provides in substance:
 lSt. That ten million of acres of land be granted to the several States to be apportion- ed among them in the compound ratio of the geographical area, and representation of said States in the House of Representatives. End. That wherever there are public lands in State subject to sale at the regular price of private entry, the proportion of said ten mil lions of acres falling to such State, shall be se- lected from such lands within it; and that to the States in which there are no such pubic lands, land scrip shall be issued to the amount of their distributive shares, respectively; said scrip not to be entered by said States, but to be sold by them, and subject to entry by their as- signees, provided that none of it shall be sold at less than one dollar per acre, under penalty of forfeiture of the same to the United States
 3rd. That the expense of the management and superintendence of said lands, and of the moneys received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may belong, out of the treasury of said States.
 4th That the gross proceeds of the sales of such lands or land-scrp so granted, shall be invested by the several States in safe stocks, to constitute perpetual fund, the principal of which shall remain forever undiminished, and the interest to be appropriated to the mainte- nance of indigent insane within the several States.
 5th. That annual returns of lands or scrip sold shall be made by the States to the secreta- " of the Interior, and the whole grant be sub- Jcct to certain conditions and limitations prescrb ed In the bill, to be assented to by legislative acts of said States
 1hs bill, therefore, proposes that the fede- raj government shall make provision to the amount of the value of ten millions of acres of land, TOT an elemosynary object within the seve- ral States, to be administered by the political authOrity o1 the same; and it presents at the threshhold, the question, whether such act on the part o1 the federal government is warrant ed and sanctioned by the constitution, the pro- visions ana princlples of which are to be pro- tected and sustained as first and naramount duty.
 It cannot be questioned that if Congress have power to make provision for the indeent insane without the limits of this district. it has the same power to provide for the indieent who are not insane; and thus transfer to the federal oo. vernment the charge of all the poor in all the States. It has the same power to provide hos pitals and other local establishments for the care and cure of every species of human mfr mity, and thus to assume all that duty of either public philanthropy, or public necessity to the dependent, the orphan, the sick, or the needy, which is now discharged by the States them selves, or by corporate institutions, or private endowments existing under the legislation of the States. The whole field of public bene- 6cence is thrown open to the care and culture of the federal government Generous impul-