These provisions
are contained in the second section, which in certain cases virtually
deprives the President of his constitutional functions as Commander in
Chief of the Army, and in the sixth section, which denies to ten States
of the Union their constitutional right to protect themselves in any
emergency by means of their own militia. These provisions are out of
place in an appropriation act, but I am compelled to defeat these
necessary appropriations if I withhold my signature from the act.
Pressed by these considerations, I feel constrained to return the bill
with my signature, but to accompany it with my earnest protest against
the sections which I have indicated.
Respondent, therefore, did no more than to express to said Emory the
same opinion which he had so expressed to the House of Representatives.
_Answer to Article X_.--And in answer to the tenth article and
specifications thereof the respondent says that on the 14th and 15th
days of August, in the year 1866, a political convention of delegates
from all or most of the States and Territories of the Union was held
in the city of Philadelphia, under the name and style of the National
Union Convention, for the purpose of maintaining and advancing certain
political views and opinions before the people of the United States, and
for their support and adoption in the exercise of the constitutional
suffrage in the elections of Representatives and Delegates in Congress
which were soon to occur in many of the States and Territories of the
Union; which said convention, in the course of its proceedings, and
in furtherance of the objects of the same, adopted a "Declaration of
principles" and "An address to the people of the United States," and
appointed a committee of two of its members from each State and of one
from each Territory and one from the District of Columbia to wait upon
the President of the United States and present to him a copy of the
proceedings of the convention; that on the 18th day of said month of
August this committee waited upon the President of the United States
at the Executive Mansion, and was received by him in one of the rooms
thereof, and by their chairman, Hon.
Pages:
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057