_To the House of Representatives_:
The act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the
Army for the year ending June 30, 1868, and for other purposes" contains
provisions to which I must call attention. Those provisions are
contained in the second section, which in certain cases virtually
deprives the President of his constitutional functions as Commander in
Chief of the Army, and in the sixth section, which denies to ten States
of this Union their constitutional right to protect themselves in any
emergency by means of their own militia. Those provisions are out of
place in an appropriation act. I am compelled to defeat these necessary
appropriations if I withhold my signature to the act. Pressed by these
considerations, I feel constrained to return the bill with my signature,
but to accompany it with my protest against the sections which I have
indicated.