The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-07-10
Fitz.JOhn Porter Bill.

the Fitz John Porter bill, which was
sent to the House this afternoon, was q
surprise 10 many, though it has been
confidently expected by others. The
House lost no time in passing the bill
over the veto, as the necessary two.thirds
was secured without any difficulty,
fifteen Republicans voting with the Dem
ocrals for the passage of the bill. OF
course there is no chance of the passage
of the bill over the veto in the Senate,
the bill having originally passed that
body by but nine majority. So the result
is that it is defeated. The fate of this
bill is regarded as a guarantee that the
bill placing Grant on the retired list of
the army cannot pass.
THE VETO.
The text of the veto message is as fol-
lows:
To the House of Representatives:
After careful consideration of the bill
entitled can Act for the relief of Fitz-
John Porter" herewith return it with
my objections to the House of Congress
in which it originated. Its enacting
clause is in terms as follows THAT the
President be, and he is hereby, authorized
to nominate and, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, to appoint
Fitz. John Porter, lale major general
United State Volunteers and brevet
brigadier- general and colonel in the
army, to the position of colonel in the
Army of the United States of the same
grade held by him at the time of bis dis.
| missal from the army by sentence Of
court martial, promulgated January 81,
1862" &C., &c 1t is apparent that
should this bill become'l law it will create
new Office, which can be filled by the
| appointment of a particular individual
whom it specifies, and cannot be filled
otherwise, or it may be said with perhaps
greater precision of statement, that it
will create new Office on condition that
particular person designated shall be
chosen to fill it. Such an Act, as it
seems to me, is either unnecessary and
| ineffective, or it involves an encroach-
ment by the legislative branch of the
Government on the authority of the
executive.
As Congress has no power under the
| Constitution to nominate and appoint an
officer and cannot lawfully impose on the
President the duty of nominating and
appointing to office any particular indi.
vidual of its own selection, this bill, if it
can be fairly construed as requiring the
President to make the nomination, and
by and with the advice and consent OF
the Senate the appointment which it
authorizes, is in manifest violation of the
| Constitution. If such be not its just in
depreciation it must be regarded as the
mere enactment of advice and counsel,
which lack in the very nature of things
the force of positive law and can serve
no useful purpose on the statute books
There are other causes that deter me
from giving this bill the sanction OF my
approval. The judgment of the court
martial by which more than twenty years
since Gen. Fitz.John Porter was tried
and convicted was pronounced by trib.
unal composed of nine general officers OF
distinguished character and ability. its
investigation of tie charges, of which if
found the accused guilty, was thorough
and conscientious, and its findings and
sentence were in due course OF law ap'
proved by Abraham Lincoln, the Presi.
dent of the United States. Its legal
competency, its Jurisdiction Of the ac'
cused and of the subjects of accusation,
the substantial regularity of all its pro-
ceedings, are matters which have never
been brought in question. Its Judgment,
therefore, is final and conclusive in its
character. The Supreme Court of the
United States has recently declared that
q court martial, such as this was, is the
organism provided by law and clothed
with the duty of administering justice in
this class of cases. Its judgments, when
approved, rest on the same basis and are
surrounded by the same considerations
which give conclusiveness to the judg-
ments of other tribunals, including the
highest as we'll as the lowest" 1t fol
lows accordingly that when lawfully
constituted court-martial has duly de.
clared its findings and its sentence and
the same have been duly approved
neither the President nor Congress has
any power to set them aside. The cxis.
tence OF such power is not openly assert.
ed nor perhaps is it necessarily implied
in the provisions of the bill which is be.
fore me, but when it's enacting clauses
are read in the light of the recitals of its
preamble, it will be seen that it seeks in
effect the practical anuulment of the
findings and sentence of competent
court martial. A conclusion at variance
with those findings has been reached after
Investigations by a board consisting o1
the officers of the army. This board was
not created in pursuance of any statute
ry authority and was powerless to com
pei the attendance of witnesses or to
pronounce a judgment which could be
lawfully enforced. The officers who
composed it, in their report to the secre.
tary of war, dated March 10, 1879, stated
that in their opinion Justice requires
such action as may he necessary to annul
and set aside the findings and sentence
of the court martial in the case of Major
Gen. Fitz.John Porter, and to restore
him to the position of which their SEN
tence deprived him, such restoration TO
take effect from the date of his dismissal
from service" The provisions of the
bill now under consideration are avowed
ly based on the assumption that the find
ines of the court martial have been dis.
covered to be erroneous. But it will be
borne iu mind that the Investigation
which is claimed to have resulted in this
discovery was made many years after the
event to which these findings related, and
under circumstances that made it impos-
sible to reproduce the evidence on which
they were based. 1t seems to me that
the proposed legislation would establish
a dangerous precedent, calculated to i'm
peril in no small measure the binding
force and effect of judgments of various
tribunals established under our Constitu'
tion and laws.