The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-04-06
POWER IN A VETO
HEATED DISCUSSIONS OVER THE
PRESIDENTS PRERoGATIVE.
liz viii Fifty Times Stronger Than That
u Queen-Yet This Power Must Be
Hrumept
Especial Correspondence

Lodged Somewhere In All Forms of Gov
ernment
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, April 2.-The presidential
veto is under very heated discussion just
now in this city, and we hear the same old
arguments, the same old denunciations re-
peated in the same old way and the usual
frantic protests against the one man pow
or. 1t does seem absurd at first view that a
nation OF nearly 10000, 900 of people and
majority of both houses Of congress should
hang almost breathless for week or so on
the will of one man, but all these things
were very carefully considered when the
constitution was formed and every time
the matter has been reargued the final
Judgment of statesmen has been that the
veto is good thing.
Furthermore. it would take an uncom-
monty smart man to prove that any one of
the vetoes, from Washington's first-but |
will not come down later than 1880, lest |
''run it into politicians really done any
permanent harm. The arguments are eX-
ectly the same as were employed when the
English convention of 1859 was debating
whether William III should have the veto,
and it is worth noting that the defenders of
the power have always urged that it would
be used moderately.
Relation Of the Veto to Popularity.
Now, the amusing feature of the power
In this country is that it has been used
most unsparingly by men who achieved
their political success by protesting the
most radical democracy, and that the num-
Der of vetoes issued by any president bears
no sort of relation to the amount of abuse
he has received therefor. Very few people
remember even now that Grant issued AZ
vetces, just twice as many as did Andrew
johnson, although Johnson was abused
about 40 times as much for his vetoes as
was Grant. The one stupendous fact is that
Grover Cleveland has issued more vetoes
: than all the presidents before him and all
the kings of England since parliaments were
first established there.
Another very curious fact is that the We
toes of the early presidents were extremely
mild in character and bear throughout an
apologize tone, and that the congresses TO
which they were addressed accepted them
30 completely as to almost entirely reverse
their votes, while as the number of vetoes
increased their aggressive-nay, almost de-
fiant-tone increased likewise and finally
congress ceased 10 be influenced thereby,
and in the subsequent voting it was very
seldom that any member changed his posi-
ton. In his eight years George Washing
ington sent in but two vetoes. both on
measures of no special Importance.
Neither John Adams nor Thomas Jeffer-
son vetoed any act, but James Madison
made up for it by sending in six vetoes.
james Monroe sent but one, j ohn Quincy
Adams none, and then came the boss veto
list of the lot, the man who was supposed
at the time to have outdone ali who were
ever to come after him and who was so saw
agely denounced therefor-namely, Andrew
Jackson, whose vetoes numbered -.
The First Veto Overruled by Congress.
With him personal government ended in
the United States as it did with George III
In England, though / would by no means
fnsinuate any similarity between the per-
sons. Martin Van Buren, signed every act
Of congress without protest or veto. Will
liam Henry Harrison did not live long
enough to develop a personal policy. Then
came John Tyler with 10 vetoes, and James
K. Polk with three, but the two Wing pres
iGents which followed contented themselves
with mild protests. Franklin Pierce, per-
s0nally one of the most genial men who
ever held high Office in this country, sent in
10 yetoes and he was the first president to
have a veto overruled by congress.
Ii is almost forgotten now, but the 10Th
of May, 1856, was counted memorable day
al the time, because on that day An act
to remove distractions to navigation in the
mouth of the Mississippi river at the South
west pass and Pass a. FOutre," which had
been vetoed by President Pierce, was pass
ed over the veto by very large majorities in
both houses. Buchanan issued s vetoes;
Lincoln, /; Johnson, p; Grant, 40; Hayes,
10, and Arthur 4, and, as to Grover Cleve-
land, it doth not yet appear whether he in
tends to stop at 500 and something or go
right along for the rest of his term and
make it an even thousand just for luck.
Andrew Johnson's Able vetoes.
It is also fact worth noting that there
IS no other collection of state papers in our
archives In which the reasoning is more
profound and the ability displayed greater
than in these veto messages. taken as a
whole. In fact, it may be said that there
is not really weak paragraph in one Of
them. and old readers who remember how
they felt when certain yetoes were issued
of their favorite measures might well read
these papers in the cold, clear light of ex-
perience and profit by the reasoning dis
played. 1t is too soon to write a defense OF
Andrew johnson. vet | will say this: Ii any
old radical of 1869 will in the calm at
mosphere of retrospection read the princi-
pal vetoes of that president, he will be as
tonshed ut their ability. He will be richly
repaid for his trouble, and he will wonder
why such able state papers, even in that
heated time, were passed by with mere
mort of contempt.
But it is in the vetoes Of James Madison
and James Monroe that the solid meat is
found. The present generation can form
but feeble conception by reading history
OF the intense interest excited by the very
brief yetoes of the acts to incorporate the
Protestant Episcopal church in the town of
Alexandria and the act creating United
States bank. 1t is alleged that the able rea-
soning in the veto message of James Mon
roe on the act for continuing the Cumber-
land road is really the reasoning of Madi-
SON. Be that as ii may, it certainly eN-
hausts the subject. There is nothing in the
papers of Madison and Hamilton in the old
Federalist TO exceed his exposition of the
so called general welfare clause" in the
constitution. He lays down the true con-
stitutionRl doctrine OF states rights so clear
" that, considering that be was one who
helped to make it and received his argu-
ments direct from the principal author OF
it. it seems surprising that the separatists
on one side and the centrslists on the other
should ever have departed from his con-
elusive reasoning.
Defeated by q Woman.
The first veto message on April 5, 1.S9,
merely requested congress 10 change the
system of representation provided fer in
the bill. and the second, five years later,
c-sly insisted that company of dragoc"s
should be kept in service few years long
Or. In everything else Washington yielded