by a large portion of the people as an admission of the
unconstitutionally of the act on which its judgment may be forbidden or
forestalled, and may interfere with that willing acquiescence in its
provisions which is necessary for the harmonious and efficient execution
of any law.

For these reasons, thus briefly and imperfectly stated, and for others,
of which want of time forbids the enumeration, I deem it my duty to
withhold my assent from this bill, and to return it for the
reconsideration of Congress.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _June 20, 1868_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I return without my signature a bill entitled "An act to admit the State
of Arkansas to representation in Congress."

The approval of this bill would be an admission on the part of the
Executive that the "Act for the more efficient government of the rebel
States," passed March 2, 1867, and the acts supplementary thereto were
proper and constitutional. My opinion, however, in reference to those
measures has undergone no change, but, on the contrary, has been
strengthened by the results which have attended their execution. Even
were this not the case, I could not consent to a bill which is based
upon the assumption either that by an act of rebellion of a portion
of its people the State of Arkansas seceded from the Union, or that
Congress may at its pleasure expel or exclude a State from the Union,
or interrupt its relations with the Government by arbitrarily depriving
it of representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. If
Arkansas is a State not in the Union, this bill does not admit it as
a State into the Union. If, on the other hand, Arkansas is a State
in the Union, no legislation is necessary to declare it entitled
"to representation in Congress as one of the States of the Union." The
Constitution already declares that "each State shall have at least one
Representative;" that the Senate "shall be composed of two Senators from
each State," and "that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived
of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

That instrument also makes each House "the judge of the elections,
returns, and qualifications of its own members," and therefore all that
is now necessary to restore Arkansas in all its constitutional relations
to the Government is a decision by each House upon the eligibility of
those who, presenting their credentials, claim seats in the respective
Houses of Congress.