I have felt it to be an imperative obligation to withhold my
constitutional sanction from two bills which had passed the two Houses
of Congress, involving the principle of the internal-improvement branch
of the "American system" and conflicting in their provisions with the
views here expressed.
This power, conferred upon the President by the Constitution, I have on
three occasions during my administration of the executive department of
the Government deemed it my duty to exercise, and on this last occasion
of making to Congress an annual communication "of the state of the
Union" it is not deemed inappropriate to review the principles and
considerations which have governed my action. I deem this the more
necessary because, after the lapse of nearly sixty years since the
adoption of the Constitution, the propriety of the exercise of this
undoubted constitutional power by the President has for the first time
been drawn seriously in question by a portion of my fellow-citizens.
The Constitution provides that--
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the
Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of
the United States.
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