situation and mode of appointment more independence and freedom from
such influences might be expected. Such a one was afforded by the
executive department constituted by the Constitution. A person elected
to that high office, having his constituents in every section, State,
and subdivision of the Union, must consider himself bound by the most
solemn sanctions to guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of
every portion, great or small, from the injustice and oppression of the
rest. I consider the veto power, therefore, given by the Constitution
to the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power,
to be used only first, to protect the Constitution from violation;
secondly, the people from the effects of hasty legislation where their
will has been probably disregarded or not well understood, and,
thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of the rights
of minorities. In reference to the second of these objects I may
observe that I consider it the right and privilege of the people to
decide disputed points of the Constitution arising from the general
grant of power to Congress to carry into effect the powers expressly
given; and I believe with Mr. Madison that "repeated recognitions under
varied circumstances in acts of the legislative, executive, and
judicial branches of the Government, accompanied by indications in
different modes of the concurrence of the general will of the nation,"
as affording to the President sufficient authority for his considering
such disputed points as settled.

Upward of half a century has elapsed since the adoption of the present
form of government. It would be an object more highly desirable than
the gratification of the curiosity of speculative statesmen if its
precise situation could be ascertained, a fair exhibit made of the
operations of each of its departments, of the powers which they
respectively claim and exercise, of the collisions which have occurred