If the bill contained no other provisions, no objection
to its approval would be made. It embraces, however, a number of
clauses, relating to subjects of great general interest, which are
wholly unconnected with the appropriations which it provides for.
The objections to the practice of tacking general legislation to
appropriation bills, especially when the object is to deprive a
coordinate branch of the Government of its right to the free exercise
of its own discretion and judgment touching such general legislation,
were set forth in the special message in relation to House bill No. 1,
which was returned to the House of Representatives on the 29th of last
month. I regret that the objections which were then expressed to this
method of legislation have not seemed to Congress of sufficient weight
to dissuade from this renewed incorporation of general enactments in
an appropriation bill, and that my constitutional duty in respect of
the general legislation thus placed before me can not be
discharged without seeming to delay, however briefly, the necessary
appropriations by Congress for the support of the Government. Without
repeating these objections, I respectfully refer to that message for
a statement of my views on the principle maintained in debate by the
advocates of this bill, viz, that "to withhold appropriations is a
constitutional means for the redress" of what the majority of the
House of Representatives may regard as "a grievance.
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