VETO MESSAGE.[93]
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."