The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1855-04-04
5 ~: 33.

A SUPPLEMENTARY LEGIsLAToR.-The presi-
dent of the United States seems to have been
determined to signalize his administration as
the administration, par excellence, of vetoes2
On the 15th of February, the house of repre-
sentatives resolved itself into the committee of
the whole, and the ocean mail steamship ap-
preparation bill was taken up. The bill pro-
posed to terminate the agreement BY which the
government allowed to E. K. Collins the sum
of $35, 900 per trip for carrying the mails from
New York to Liverpool. Mr.. OIds submitted an
amendment proposing to give to Collins and his
associates S858,o00 for transporting the mails
as formerly, provided that Collins and his asso-
ciates shall build another steamphip and have
it ready in two years. On the 10th, this bill
was agreed to, and reported to the house, and
on the 18th, after debate, it was concurred in,
and passed by yea and nay vote of SO to 82
1t was then sent to the senate, and after refer
ence to the proper committee, who reported in
its favor, it was taken up by that body and
passed On its being sent to the president for
his signature, he, on the Sd inst, the last day
of the session, vetoed it, on account says
telegraphic li patch, Of the Collins amendment.
The bill, says the same authority, was then
passed, with that amendment struck out
| As We understand the position of the bill, it
is that in which it was originally reported to
the house, and terminates the agreement Of tue
government with the Collins line to carry the
mails of the United States from New York to
Liverpool. Mr.. Olds amendment proposed to
continue that agreement, and this it is which
the president has seen fit, in his wisdom, to
veto.
| This action Of the executive we hold to be
another instance of his assumption of power
not given to him by the constitution of the Uni
ted States-a power purely legislative. There
can be no pretence that the action of congress
in passing this bill, was not perfectly within
their constitutional discretion, and the question
of its expediency was one clearly theirs, aut
only theirs, to decide. 1t could not witt any
sense be called an act of hasty Legislation for
the subject appears to have been we'll consid-
cred in the house committee, in commit "
| the whole. and in the senate
Here is the fourth act of this congress, after
due deliberation, which the president, erecting
the executive into branch of the legislative
power, has taken the bold step of vetoirs. The
INDECENT insane bill, the river and harbor bi}l
the bill for the payment of the French spoiia-
ton claims, and now the bill to authoriza the
continuance of the Collins contract for carrying
the trans Atlantic mails This congres5 has
not passed more than eight Or ten importani acts
and the four we have named are among them,
and these are annulled by the simple ipae diEis
of one man. A power but incidentajIy and
qualifedly given to the executive by the consti-
tuition is here seized upon by one of not The
most enlightened of our fourteen presidents, and
exercised with degree of boldness that no one
of his predecessors has ever presumed upon 4
power that Washington, during the eight years
&c Al e
was new, welded but twice, that John Adams
and Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams never
used, and that Mr. Monroe only exercised q
single time. Including the six vetoes in Mr..
Madison's term of eight years, there were only
nine acts OF congress vetoed in the frs fifty
years of the government, and here, in The first
half of Mr. Pierce's term, we have four, and
what specimens of the use, or rather the abuse
of the veto they are!
! The first was Of a measure too clearly with.
in the power of congress to pass it, to demand
a word Of proof, an act in the adoption Of which
congress was fully sustained by countlcss pre-
, cedents, the rest was measure involYiHe lhc
commercial interests of the country to az tEtent
absolutely ncalculable, and the right to pass
which the constitution gives them, totidam ycr.
bis, the third was bill of which contemporary
truly remarks, that its Justice has been adml5tc5
by our wisest jurists and statesmen from thc>
time the claims on which it was founded orig
mated, which has been investigated and Iavoyt~
bly, reported upon by no less than tiftecn com
mittees in the senate at different periods since
1926, and eleven committees in the hous3, and
in no one instance has ever been unfa OraDig
reported upon, and now, for the fourth instance
we have this bill to carry into further execution
one of the most advantageous and honorable
| arrangements this government has ever cntcrcd
into, which both branches of congres. hare
deliberately decided upon, and againsg which
there can be no pretext of an objeetion. upca
the grounds of unconstitutionality, ineErCdion.
cy or hasty legislation
We know not how this may strike olh.rs,ba:
to us it seems to be clear usurpator Of IN
authority not delegated to the exccutiyl nv the
constitution, but in palpable derog stj5u af
powers specifically given by that instrument .5
congress, in the very first section of the FIRST
article, which vests call legislative power in
congress- which shall consist of a senayc ard
house of representatives" 1t strikes Is SIS Il
most daring assumption of power purciv Crs-
lative in its character, the virtual settng un u(
a third branch of the legislature, a conversion
Of the executive into what at the head r( t79
article VIC have desi gnated him-a sunriyuon-
tary legislator.
We took occasion few days ago, rbjt
viewing the veto of the French spoliaton a..i
to examine this question by the lgN .l"o
constitution, and with the two section ~ N
first article, containing the specific grant OF
call Legislative power'' to congress, ard them
cidental and qualified grant of the rjsft
veto to the executive, for our texts. We Ha7g
nothing more at present to add to whaJ sesai
then on this point, excepting the remara l"'
we think the veto in this case is as fayrart. IN
abuse Of those grants as was that in 'he oIh"1
AS to the utility, the justice, the e1pcd5rral
and the absolute necessity of such ce01a"
as that which congress has just passed 2u1
which the president has assumed the rjg5."f
vetoing, we shall have something to say 11o
after. We believe it was an emineutIv T2,=
and just measure, one needed by the country.
called for by the people, whose interests II
aro;no,t1v cuhser,ed and bv tho comma, A.