ow concurs in the claim of the House
adds to the gravity of the situation, but does not alter the
question at issue. The new doctrine, if maintained, will result in
a consolidation of unchecked and despotic power in the House of
Representatives. A bare majority of the House will become the
Government. The Executive will no longer be what the framers of
the Constitution intended--an equal and independent branch of the
Government. It is clearly the constitutional duty of the President to
exercise his discretion and judgment upon all bills presented to him
without constraint or duress from any other branch of the Government.
To say that a majority of either or both of the Houses of Congress may
insist upon the approval of a bill under the penalty of stopping all
of the operations of the Government for want of the necessary supplies
is to deny to the Executive that share of the legislative power which
is plainly conferred by the second section of the seventh article
of the Constitution. It strikes from the Constitution the qualified
negative of the President. It is said that this should be done
because it is the peculiar function of the House of Representatives to
represent the will of the people. But no single branch or department
of the Government has exclusive authority to speak for the American
people. The most authentic and solemn expression of their will
is contained in the Constitution of the United States. By that
Constitution they have ordained and established a Government whose
powers are distributed among coordinate branches, which, as far as
possible consistently with a harmonious cooperation, are absolutely
independent of each other. The people of this country are unwilling to
see the supremacy of the Constitution replaced by the omnipotence of
any one department of the Government.

The enactment of this bill into a law will establish a precedent which
will tend to destroy the equal independence of the several branches
of the Government. Its principle places not merely the Senate and the
Executive, but the judiciary also, under the coercive dictation of
the House. The House alone will be the judge of what constitutes a
grievance, and also of the means and measure of redress. An act of
Congress to protect elections is now the grievance complained of; but
the House may on the same principle determine that any other act of
Congress, a treaty made by the President with the advice and consent
of the Senate, a nomin