ns for that opinion were elaborately set forth
in the message which accompanied the return of the bill, which no
constitutional majority appears to have been found for passing into
a law.

The bill which is now before me proposes in its twenty-seventh section
the total repeal of one of the provisos in the act of September,
and, while it increases the duties above 20 per cent, directs an
unconditional distribution of the land proceeds. I am therefore
subjected a second time in the period of a few days to the necessity of
either giving my approval to a measure which, in my deliberate judgment,
is in conflict with great public interests or of returning it to the
House in which it originated with my objections. With all my anxiety for
the passage of a law which would replenish an exhausted Treasury and
furnish a sound and healthy encouragement to mechanical industry, I can
not consent to do so at the sacrifice of the peace and harmony of the
country and the clearest convictions of public duty.

For some of the reasons which have brought me to this conclusion I refer
to my previous messages to Congress, and briefly subjoin the following:

1. The bill unites two subjects which, so far from having any affinity
to one another, are wholly incongruous in their character. It is both a
revenue and an appropriation bill. It thus imposes on the Executive, in
the first place, the necessity of either approving that which he would
reject or rejecting that which he might otherwise approve. This is a
species of constraint to which the judgment of the Executive ought not,
in my opinion, to be subjected. But that is not my only objection to the
act in its present form. The union of subjects wholly dissimilar in
their character in the same bill, if it grew into a practice, would not
fail to lead to consequences destructive of all wise and conscientious
legislation. Various measures, each agreeable only to a small minority,
might by being thus united--and the more the greater chance of
success--lead to the passing of laws of which no single provision could
if standing alone command a majority in its favor.

2. While the Treasury is in a state of extreme embarrassment,
requiring every dollar which it can make available, and when the
Government has not only to lay additional taxes, but to borrow money
to meet pressing demands, the bill proposes to give away a fruitful
source of revenue--which is the same thing as raising money by loan
and t