Year: 1879

IRE AhM1 DAAAs

 THE PRESIDENT vEToEs IT AND GIVES HIS REASONS FOR so DOING.

 The message from the President of the United States was sent to the House returning the bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the sup port of the army for the fiscal year end ing June 30, 1880, and for other pur- poses" The message is quite lengthy and gives the Presidents reasons for vetoing the bill. They are-That the law. as it stands gives no such authority, as is asserted, to place troops at the polls in advance of riot or disturbances, and that there is no such authority given anywhere in the statutes; that the posse comltatus law of 1878 now on the statutes, already forbids even the fed eral marshals, when they call on the posse to put down riots or resistance to federal laws, to include the army as part of their summons j; that the rider to the Army bill does not, in fact, do what has been pretended, keep troops from the polls, but that it prohibits civil officers, under penalty from using the civil power to execute | the laws of the land, and that this, so long as these laws stand, is an interfer- ence with the constitutional duty of the Executive, who has sworn to faithfully execute these laws that when this law was passed there were no federal elec- ton laws, and the Congressional elec- tions were entirely in the hands of the States that the federal Executive had, therefore, no duties imposed on him by law in regard to the elections of Con gressmen, such as are now required of him, and that the plain purpose of the law was to prevent any such federal interference in the States as had been used during the war, and to prohibit even the State governments from using troops at the polls, except to keep the peace. That Congress having under taken, and that the President holds con- additionally and properly, to guard federal elections-elections that is to say of Representatives in Congress-the supervision and scrutiny properly pre- scribed by Congress must be executed

 by the President and his subordinates, and to do that they must if necessary use force against the violators of these

 laws that 1t is not necessary to use

 troops for this purpose, and hence, it is

 maintained, their use has not been

 authorized by Congress, but is, in point

 of fact, forbidden, as before said, but

 that the civil arm must be left free and

 that the Army bill not merely interferes

 with this civil arm, but totally strikes il

 down.

 After summing up his points of objec-

 tion to the Army Bill the President con-

 cludes his messags as follows

 Upon the assembling of this Congress,

 in pursuance of call for an extra ses

 sion, which was made necessary by the

 failure of the Forty-6fth Congress to

 make the needful appropriations for the

 support of the Government, the question

 was presented whether the attempt made in the last Congress to engraft by con

 structlon new principle upon the Con

 stitution should be persisted in or not This Congress has ample opportunity and time to pass the Appropriation bills and also to enact any political measures

 which may be determined upon in sepa

 rate bills, by the usual and orderly methods of proceeding. But the ma

 jority of both Houses have deemed il wise to adhere to the principle asserted

 and maintained in the last Congress bJ

 the majority of the House of Represents

 tives.I That principle is that the House

 of Representatives has the sole right te originate bills for raising revenue, anG therefore has the right to withhold ap

 propriations upon which the existence of the Government may depend, unless

 the President and the Senate shall givt } their assent to any legislation which the House may see fit to attach to appropri ation bills.

 To establish this principle is to make radical, dangerous and unconstitution al change in the character of our insti tuitons. The various departments O the government and the army and navy

 are established by the Constitution or by laws passed in persuance thereof. Ihel duties are clearly defined and their sup port IS carefully provided for by law The money required for this purpos' has been collected from the people, an( is now in the Treasury ready to be pait out as soon as the appropriation bill are passed. Whether appropriations ar : made or not, the collection of the taxe : will go on. The public money will ac cumulate in the Treasury. It was not tn intention of the framers of the Con stitution that any single branch of tn

 government should have the power t

 dictate conditions upon which thi

 treasure should be applied to the pur

 poses for which it was collected. An. : such intention, if 1t had been maintained would have been plainly expressed il F the Constitution. That 8 majority o the Senate now concurs in the claim c a the House adds to the gravity of tn ? situation, but does not alter the ques tion at issue. The new doctrine, f maintained, will result in consolids , tion of unchecked and despotic power il !, the House of Representatives. A bar . majority of the House will become tn . government.

 : The Executive will no longer be whs V the framers of the Constitution intended

 an equal and independent branch of th

 Government. It is clearly the constitr . honal duty of the President to exercis F his discretion and judgment upon a ' bills presented to him without constrai1

 or duress from any other branch of tE Q Government. To say that majority D either or both Houses of Congress ma ' insist on the approval of bill under Il > penalty of stopping all of the operation U of the Government for want of the nece ;, sary supplies is to deny to the Executi7 that share of the legislative power whic 7 is plainly conferred by the second sectic of the seventh article of the Con ,tlt1 s' tion. It strikes from the Constitute yz yr the qualified negative of the Presiden W It is said that this should be done b o Y. cause it is the peculiar function of u e House of Representatives to represe 4 'f the will of the people. But no sing 'l branch or department of the Cover y ment has exclusive authority to spef l. for the American people. The most a

 thentic and solemn expression of the