tations imposed upon the lawmaking power.

The appropriations for river and harbor improvements have, under the
influences to which I have alluded, increased year by year out of
proportion to the progress of the country, great as that has been.
In 1870 the aggregate appropriation was $3,975,900; in 1875,
$6,648,517.50; in 1880, $8,976,500; and in 1881, $11,451,000; while
by the present act there is appropriated $18,743,875.

While feeling every disposition to leave to the Legislature the
responsibility of determining what amount should be appropriated for
the purposes of the bill, so long as the appropriations are confined to
objects indicated by the grant of power, I can not escape the conclusion
that, as a part of the lawmaking power of the Government, the duty
devolves upon me to withhold my signature from a bill containing
appropriations which in my opinion greatly exceed in amount the needs of
the country for the present fiscal year. It being the usage to provide
money for these purposes by annual appropriation bills, the President
is in effect directed to expend so large an amount of money within so
brief a period that the expenditure can not be made economically and
advantageously.

The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be
measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
They sustain a greater injury in the demoralizing effect produced upon
those who are intrusted with official duty through all the ramifications
of government.

These objections could be removed and every constitutional purpose
readily attained should Congress enact that one-half only of the
aggregate amount provided for in the bill be appropriated for
expenditure during the fiscal year, and that the sum so appropriated be
expended only for such objects named in the bill as the Secretary of
War, under the direction of the President, shall determine; provided
that in no case shall the expenditure for any one purpose exceed the
sum now designated by the bill for that purpose.

I feel authorized to make this suggestion because of the duty
imposed upon the President by the Constitution "to recommend to the
consideration of Congress such measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient," and because it is my earnest desire that the public works
which are in progress shall suffer no injury. Congress will also convene
again in four months, when this whole subject will be open for their
consideration.