[Footnote 93: Pocket veto.]
WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1842_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
Two bills were presented to me at the last session of Congress, which
originated in the House of Representatives, neither of which was signed
by me; and both having been presented within ten days of the close of
the session, neither has become a law.
The first of these was a bill entitled "An act to repeal the proviso of
the sixth section of the act entitled 'An act to appropriate the
proceeds of the sales of the public lands and to grant preemption
rights,' approved September 4, 1841."
This bill was presented to me on Tuesday, the 30th August, at
twenty-four minutes after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. For my opinions
relative to the provisions contained in this bill it is only necessary
that I should refer to previous communications made by me to the House
of Representatives.
The other bill was entitled "An act regulating the taking of testimony
in cases of contested elections, and for other purposes." This bill was
presented to me at a quarter past 1 o'clock on Wednesday, the 31st day
of August. The two Houses, by concurrent vote, had already agreed to
terminate the session by adjournment at 2 o'clock on that day--that is
to say, within three-quarters of an hour from the time the bill was
placed in my hands. It was a bill containing twenty-seven sections, and,
I need not say, of an important nature.
On its presentment to me its reading was immediately commenced, but was
interrupted by so many communications from the Senate and so many other
causes operating at the last hour of the session that it was impossible
to read the bill understandingly and with proper deliberation before the
hour fixed for the adjournment of the two Houses; and this, I presume,
is a sufficient reason for neither signing the bill nor returning it
with my objections.
The seventeenth joint rule of the two Houses of Congress declares
that "no bill or resolution that shall have passed the House of
Representatives and the Senate shall be presented to the President of
the United States for his approbation on the last day of the session."
This rule was evidently designed to give to the President a reasonable
opportunity of perusing important acts of Congress and giving them some
degree of consideration before signing or returning the same.
It is true that the two Houses have been in the habit of suspending this
rule toward the close of the session in relation to particular bills,
and it appears by the printed Journal that by concurrent votes of the
two Houses passed on the last day of the session the rule was agreed to
be suspended so far as the same should relate to all such bills as
should have been passed by the two Houses at 1 o'clock on that day. It
is exceedingly to be regretted that a necessity should ever exist for
such suspension in the case of bills of great importance, and therefore
demanding careful consideration.
As the bill has failed under the provisions of the Constitution to
become a law, I abstain from expressing any opinions upon its several
provisions, keeping myself wholly uncommitted as to my ultimate action
on any similar measure should the House think proper to originate it
_de novo_, except so far as my opinion of the unqualified power of
each House to decide for itself upon the elections, returns, and
qualifications of its own members has been expressed by me in a paper
lodged in the Department of State at the time of signing an act entitled
"An act for the apportionment of Representatives among the several
States according to the Sixth Census," approved June 22, 1842, a copy
of which is in possession of the House.