EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 30, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
I return without approval Senate bill No. 63, entitled "An act to
authorize the construction of a highway bridge across that part of the
waters of Lake Champlain lying between the towns of North Hero and
Alburg, in the State of Vermont."
On the 20th day of June, 1884, a bill was approved and became a law
having the same title and containing precisely the same provisions and
in the exact words of the bill herewith returned.
The records of the War Department indicate that nothing has been done
toward building the bridge permitted by such prior act. It is hardly
possible that the bill now before me is intended to authorize an
additional bridge between the two towns named, and I have been unable to
discover any excuse or necessity for new legislation on the subject.
I conclude, therefore, that Congress in passing this bill acted in
ignorance of the fact that a law providing for its objects and purposes
was already on the statute book.
My approval of the bill is withheld for this reason and in order to
prevent an unnecessary and confusing multiplicity of laws.