The first session of the Fortieth Congress adjourned on the 30th day
of March, 1867. This bill,[29] which was passed during that session,
was not presented for my approval by the Hon. Edmund G. Ross, of the
Senate of the United States, and a member of the Committee on Enrolled
Bills, until Monday, the 1st day of April, 1867, two days after the
adjournment. It is not believed that the approval of any bill after
the adjournment of Congress, whether presented before or after such
adjournment, is authorized by the Constitution of the United States,
that instrument expressly declaring that no bill shall become a law the
return of which may have been prevented by the adjournment of Congress.
To concede that under the Constitution the President, after the
adjournment of Congress, may, without limitation in respect to time,
exercise the power of approval, and thus determine at his discretion
whether or not bills shall become laws, might subject the executive and
legislative departments of the Government to influences most pernicious
to correct legislation and sound public morals, and--with a single
exception, occurring during the prevalence of civil war--would be
contrary to the established practice of the Government from its
inauguration to the present time. This bill will therefore be filed
in the office of the Secretary of State without my approval.