Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1879 — VETO MESSAGE. [ARTICLE]

VETO MESSAGE.

Full Text of the President’s Objections to the Judicial Expense# Bill. To the House ot Representative#: , After a Careful examination of the bill entitled “ An act making appropriations for certain judicial expenses,” I return it herewith to the Houee of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections to its approval :

The general purpose of the bill is to provide for certain judicial expenses of the Government for tho fiscal year ending June 30, 1680, for which the eum of #2,690,000 is appropriated. These appropriations are required to keep in operation the general functions of the Judicial Department of the Government, and if this part of the bill stood alone there would be no objection to its approval. It contains, however, other: provisions to which I desire respectfully to ask your attention; At the present session Of Congress a majority of both houses, favoring a repeal of the Congressional Election laws, embraced in title 26 of the Revised Statutes, passed a measure for that purpose as part of a bill entitled “An act making appropriations for the legislative, execusive and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and for other purpose#.* Unable to concur with Congress In that measure, ou the 29th of May last, I returned the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, without my approval, tor that further consideration for which the constitution provides. On reconsideration tne bill wa# approved by less than two thirds of the House, ftnd failed to become a law. The election laws, therefore, remain Valid enactments, and the supreme law of the land, binding not only upon all private citizens, but also alike and equally binding upon all who are charged with duties and responsibilities of the ’ -islative, executive and judicial departments of ihe Government It is Dot sought by the bill before me to repeal election laws. Its object is to defeat their enforcement The last clausa of the first section, is as follows: “And no part of the hereby appropriated is appropriated to pay any sa aries, compensation, fees, or expenses, under or in virtue of title 20 of the Revised Statutes or any provision of said title.” A,.. Title 26 of the Revised Statutes, rex . - red to in the foregoing clause, relates tqiibrA. lective franchise, and contains the laws D. , m force regulating Congressional elections. The second section of the bill reaches much further. It is as follows: Section 2. That the sums appropriated In this act for the persons and public service embraced in its provisions are in full for such persons and public service for the fiscal year ending June 80,1880, and no departin' nt or officer of the Government shall, during said fiscal year, make any contract, or incur any liability for the future payment of money under any of the provlsiohs of title 2(5 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, authorizing the appointment or payment of general orspecial Deputy Marshals for service ih cohuection with an election or oh elefctibli day until an appropriation sufficient to meet such contract or pay such liability shall have first been made by law.

Tlii 8 section ot the bill is intended to make an extensive and essential change in the existing laws. The f illowing are the provisions of the statutes on the same subject which are now in force; Section 2.679. No department of the Government shall expend, in any one fiscal year, any sum in excess of the appropriations made by congress for that fiscal year, or involve the Government in any Contract for the future payment of money in excess of such appropriation. Section 2,732. No contract or purchase on bn'nalf of the United States shall be made unless the same is authorized by law, or is under an appropriation adequate to its fnlfillmefft, except in the War and Na; y Departments for clothing, subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters or transportation, which, however. shall not exceed the necessaries of the current year;

Ihe object ol these sections or the Revised Statutes is plain. It is, first-, to prevent any money from being expended unless an appropriation has been made therefor; and, second, to prevent the Government from being bound by a contract not previously authorized by law except for certain necessary purposes in the War and Navy Departments. Under the existing laws, the failure of Congress to make the appropriations required for the execution of the provisions of the election laws would not prevent their enforcement. The right and duty to appoint general and special Deputy Marshals, which they provide for, would still remain, and the Executive Department of the Government would also be empowered to incur the requisite liability for their compensation. But the second section of this bill contains a prohibition not found in any previous legislation. It* design is to render the election laws inoperative and a dead loiter during the next fiscal year. It iB sought to accomplish this by omitting to appropriate the money for their enforcement, and by expressly prohibiting any department or officer of the Government from incur i ing any liability under any of the provisions of title 26 of the Revised Statutes, authorizing the appointment or payment of general or special Deputy Marshals for service on election days, until an appropriation sufficient to pay such liability shall have first been made. The President is called upon to give his affirmative approval to a positive enactment which, in effect, would deprive him of the ordinary and necessary means of executing the laws, still left on the statute book and embraced within his constitutional duty to see that laws are executed. If he approves this bill, and thus gives to such positive enactments the authority of law, he participates in a curtailment of his means of teeing that the law is faithfully executed, while the obligation of law and of his constitutional duty remains unimpaired. The appointment of special Deputy Marshals is not made by the statute a spontaneous act of authority on the part of any executive or judicial officer of the Government, but is accorded as the popular right of citizens to call into operation this agency for securing the freedom of elections in any city or town having 20,000 inhabitants or upward. Sortion 2,021 of the Revised Statutes puts it iu the power of any two citizens of such city or town to require of the Marshal of the district the appointment of these special Deputy Marshals. Thereupon the duty of the Marshal becomes imperative and its non-performance will expose him to a judicial mandate or punishment, or to removal from office by the President, as the circumstances of his conduct might require. The bill now before me neither revokes this popular right of citizens nor relieves the Marshals of the duty imposed by law, nor the President of his duty to see that this law is faithfully executed. I forbear to enter again upon any general discussion of the wisdom and necessity of the e ection laws, or the dangerous and unconstitutional principle of this bill; that the power vested in Congress to originate appropriations involves the right to compel the Executive to approve any legislation wnich Congress may see fit to attach to such bills under the penalty of refusing the means needed to carry out essential functions of the Government.

My views on these subjects have been sufficiently presented in special messages sent by me to the House of Representatives during its present session. What was said in those messages I regard as conclusive to my duty in respect to the bill before me. The argument urged in these communications against a repeal of the electicn laws and against the right of Congress to deprive the Executive of that separate and independent discretion and- judgment which the constitution confers and requires are equally cogent in opposition to this bill This measure leaves the powers and duties of the Supervisors of Elections untouched. The compensation of these officers is provided for under the permanent law, and no liability for which an appropriation is now required would, therefore, be incurred by their appointment; but tne power of the National Government to protect them in the discharge of their duty at the polls would be taken away. States may employ both the civil and military power at the elections; but by this bill even the civil authority to protect Congressional elections is denied us. The object is to prevent any adequate control by the United States over national elections by forbidding the payment of Deputy Marshals, the officers who are clothed with authority to enforce the election laws. The fact that those laws are deemed objectionable by a majority of both houses of Congress is urged as a sufficient warrant for this legislation. There are two ways always to overturn legislative enactments. One is their repeal; the other is the decision of a competent tribunal against their validity. The effect of this bill is to deprive the Executive Department of the Government of the means to execute the laws which are not repealed, which have not been declared invalid, and which it is, therefore, the duty of the Executive and of every other department of the Government to obey and to enforce. I have in my former messages on this sub{ect expressed a willingness to concur in suita>le amendments for the improvement of the election laws, but I cannot consent to their absolute and entire repeal, and I cannot approve

legislation which seeks toprevent their enforce, men! RuthebFobd B. Hates. Executive Maksioe, June si, 1879.