Year: 1866

/ Such Is the authority or power gwen
/ to the President to veto every bill. ''or
der resolution, or vote To which the con


current action of the Senate and House OF
i Representatives may be necessary tex
/ celt on question of adjouTnmentl -
/ w Wlthout tie approval of the President,


no bill can become a law. except it be
/ passed afterwards by q wothirds vote
/ of both houses of Congress


! The origin of this provision of the
/ Constitution given by Story on the Con
/ stitution Is as follows:


/ The next clause respects the power
/ of the President TO approve, and mega


tive laws In the convention there does
not seem to have been much diversity OF
opinion on the subject of the propriety


of giving to the President negative on
the laws. The principal points OF dis
cussion seem to have been, whether the
negative should be absolute or qualified.
and if the latter, by what number OF
each house the bill should be subse-


quentlv passed, in order to become \


law; and whether the negative should in


either case he exclusively vested in the


President alone, or in him jointly with


some other department of the Govern


ment. The proposition of qualified


negative seems to have obtained gener-


al but not universal support, having


been carried by the vote Of eight States


against two. This being settled. the


question as to the number was at first


unanimously carried in the affirmative


in favor of two thirds of each house :;


at Il subsequent period it was altered to


three fouths by vote of six States


against four one being divided; and it


was ultimately restored to the two thirds


without any apparent struggle (See


vol 3, p. 343 J


Such is the history of the veto pro


vision. Its design is to he an executive


&" check upon legislative action, while


the two thirds provision is a "legislative


check to prevent an undue exercise of


it, i. G. the veto power Our fathers
designed to form compensation or
pomer balance. whereby the President
could hold Congress on the one hand.
and on the other, Congress could bring
stubborn Executive into measures.


The frequency with which the veto
power of the President has been called
into ex ercise within our nation history
We are unable to determine. but are sat
isfied much more frequently than in
England. Mr. Story says, ''this mega
tive ot the King has not been once ex
ercised since the year 1892.


We 80 not present the above facts be
cause we are for or against Mr.. John
son 5 veto of the Civil Rights bill, hut
for the purpose of refreshing the minds
of our readers on the power and its ori
Gin. and also TO lay the Foundation for
further thoughts. However much one
man may think and act differently from
al, iai, Itlt,- fn
step and reason rs to the power, posi-
ton. the thing acted upon, and wnat
would be our probable actions were We
placed in like circumstances. However
much the President or Congress may
deviate from the most judicions course
let us never be discouraged or disheart-
encd Ever remember that in our form
of Government all these errors will uiti-
mateiy right themselves.


In connection with the above. we take
the following extracts from Andrew
Johnson's speech, on the veto power,
delivered at the short session of Con
gress, whilst member of that body
from Tennessee. in 1s47, to show that
the position he then occupied on the
question, does not differ from the one
he now practically illustrates, and that
neither his honestly of purpose nor his
consistency can be questioned. In that
speech, he first runs the origin of the
veto power back to the times of the Ro
man republic, in which the ''Tribunes of
the people had the ultimate right to
approve Or disapprove any law passed
hy the Senate-inscribing upon the
parchment of the law, in case they re
solved TO adopt the latter alternative.
the word reto This remark. Mr..
j Johnson, sis the origin of the veto pow
tribunes or officers Immediately respon-
ible to the people for their election or
the end designed by the
people was successfully accomplished.
which was, resistance to all encroach-
ments on their rights. And so long as
this power was preserved in its original
purity and simplicity, it was ever exer
cised toward the advancement of the
people siHAt iBltlest> tsieu
traces this curious and delicate power
through the various stages OF its pro-
gress. from the days of Augustus down
through the rise of the modern States
and governments built upon the ruins of
the Roman Empire. In the course of
time. he shows how what was originally
a protecting shield to the liberty of the
subject, became unfortunately an lnstru-
ment of tyranny in the hands of the
monarch. Finally the American revolu-
ton bursts upon the world, and the veto
power is brought back to its original
source by the patriots and statesmen of
the time. ami is thus restored once more
in free American 10 its rightful posses
sorS THE PEoPLE.


Governor Johnson then gives graph
ic account, deeply interesting to the