WASHINGTON, _March 3, 1835_.
_To the Senate_:
I respectfully return to the Senate, where it originated, the "act to
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to compromise the claims allowed
by the commissioners under the treaty with the King of the Two Sicilies,
concluded October 14, 1832," without my signature.
The act is, in my judgment, inconsistent with the division of powers
in the Constitution of the United States, as it is obviously founded on
the assumption that an act of Congress can give power to the Executive
or to the head of one of the Departments to negotiate with a foreign
government. The debt due by the King of the Two Sicilies will, after the
commissioners have made their decision, become the private vested
property of the citizens of the United States to whom it may be awarded.
Neither the Executive nor the Legislature can properly interfere with it
without their consent. With their consent the Executive has competent
authority to negotiate about it for them with a foreign government--an
authority Congress can not constitutionally abridge or increase.