Foreseeing that such a state of things might exist at the close of
the session, I stated in the annual message to Congress of December
last that--

From the practice of Congress such an examination of each bill as the
Constitution requires has been rendered impossible. The most important
business of each session is generally crowded into its last hours, and
the alternative presented to the President is either to violate the
constitutional duty which he owes to the people and approve bills
which for want of time it is impossible he should have examined, or
by his refusal to do this subject the country and individuals to great
loss and inconvenience.

* * * * *

For my own part, I have deliberately determined that I shall approve
no bills which I have not examined, and it will be a case of extreme
and most urgent necessity which shall ever induce me to depart from
this rule.


The present condition of the Treasury absolutely requires that I should
adhere to this resolution on the present occasion, for the reasons which
I have heretofore presented.

In former times it was believed to be the true character of an
appropriation bill simply to carry into effect existing laws and the
established policy of the country. A practice has, however, grown up of
late years to ingraft on such bills at the last hours of the session
large appropriations for new and important objects not provided for by