Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-07-05
PENSION vEToEs.


Report From the Pensions Committee al
of Certain Bills Over the Presidents Ve-
toes and Criticising the Free Use of the
Veto Power.
WASHINGTON, June 2S.-From the Senate
committee on pensions Chairman Davis
to-day reported back to the Senate, with
recommendations that they be passed over
the Presidents vetoes, Senate bills
granting pensions to David A. Servis
WnA-Sackman, ST., Johanna Loewinger,
Hannah R. Langdon, Charles A. Mertz
Betsie Mansfield and Mary Sullivan. In
his report Senator Davis says:
Since the sth Of May, 1886, 1856 special pension
acts have been dsapproved by the President
Legislation of this character has been mat.
ter OF settled and favored policy for very long
period, commencing before the civil war.
These disapprovals, based in a great majority
OF the cases upon the expressed opinion of the
President that Congress had erred in Its judg-
ment upon mere questions of fact, such as the
incurrence of disability in the service, or
whether death from disease or casualty as
serted to be the secondary result OF some dis
ease incurred in the service, ought to be held
upon the testimony to be referable, or
whether the proof before Congress showed the
existence of any disability whatever. 1t is,
of course, impossible for The President to
examine the mass OF documentary
evidence upon which each case depends, and
which is invariably examined by the commit
tee, and it follows that when he diSagreeS with
Congress upon the question of fact in these
cases his judgment must be based, not upon
the reports of committees in which the facts
are always stated with sufficient fullness, but
upon the report of some subordinate in the Bu-
reau of Pensions. This bureau, whose action
Congress has reversed, is thus enabled to re-
view the action of Congress by the express di-
rection of the President. These reports of the
bureau can not, in the nature of things, posi-
bly, be made by any one person within the time
during which the President can hold bills for
consideration when they are received by him
in such numbers. This explains the numerous
inconsistencies of executive action which are
hereinafter fully exposed. The method of con-
sideration is an abridgment by the Executive
of the exercise of the right of Congress to waive
that strict proof which is properly re-
Quired in ordinary cases in the depart.
ment, under the somewhat technical
rules that have grown up out of re-
peated precedents. This results plainly from
the practice that executive disapproval follows
In any case where the records of the bureau are
deemed by the President not to sustain the
action of Congress. This invasion upon the
province of Congress goes further. 1t annuls
Its undOubted power in the cases which have
been subjected to executive diSapproval to de-
termine by the will of its majority that the
public money shall be appropriated for a legiti-
mate ana CONSTITUTIONAL purpose 1t can not be
maintained upon any fair construction of the
Constitution that the power of executive dis
approval ought to be exercised upon acts Of
this character for the sole reason that the
President differs in opinion from Congress upon
mere question Of the weight of testimony, or
upon the expediency of special act which sub
serves proper general purpose and which i'm
perils no power of any other department.
Usurpatlons move rapidly in republics from
small objects to those of greatest concern.
That the power exists in the Executive to
disapprove any legislative measure can not be
1enied, but the duty undenably exists that it
shall not be used in such manner, or upon
any occasion or pretext as to make its exercise
operate as an encroachment upon the powers
of other departments Of the Government
1t is the theory of our Government that the
great body of power shall rest in the legislative
department, as the most immediate represent
alive of the people OF the 1872 bills disapproved
by the President, 1876 are bills granting PEN
sons to individuals. All of his predecessors
vetoed but 1873 bills. None of his predecessors
disapproved any acts of this character, except
ing President Grant, who disapproved but five,
and none of these were uns sanctioned on ac-
count of any difference of opinion upon tie
facts.