It contains, however, other provisions, to which I desire respectfully to ask your attention.

Unable to concur with Congress in that measure, on the 29th of May last I returned the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, without my approval, for that further consideration for which the Constitution provides.

I transmit herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, in response to a resolution of that body of the 20th instant, calling for the proceedings and accompanying papers of the International Silver Conference held in Paris…

I can not consent to their absolute and entire repeal, and I can not approve legislation which seeks to prevent their enforcement.

The States may employ both civil and military power at the elections, but by this bill even the civil authority to protect Congressional elections is denied to the United States.

I transmit herewith, in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 29th ultimo, a report of the Secretary of State relative to the steps taken by this Government to promote the establishment of an interoceanic…

As I am without power, in the absence of legislation, to act upon the recommendations of the report further than by submitting the same to Congress, the proceedings and conclusions of the board are transmitted for the information of…

I have given to this report such examination as satisfies me that I ought to lay the proceedings and conclusions of the board before Congress.

The true meaning and effect of the proposed legislation are plain.

The framers of the Constitution regarded the election of members of Congress in every State and in every district as in a very important sense justly a matter of political interest and concern to the whole country.

The object of the bill is to destroy any control whatever by the United States over the Congressional elections.

If the bill contained no other provisions, no objection to its approval would be made.

The objections to the practice of tacking general legislation to appropriation bills, especially when the object is to deprive a coordinate branch of the Government of its right to the free exercise of its own discretion and judgment…

This money is needed to keep in operation the essential functions of all the great departments of the Government--legislative, executive, and judicial.

The United States election laws are not necessary, an ample reply is furnished by the history of their origin and of their results.

The great body of the people of all parties want free and fair elections.

I respectfully refer to that message for a statement of my views on the principle maintained in debate by the advocates of this bill.

The supervision of the elections will be reduced to a mere inspection, without authority on the part of the supervisors to do any act whatever to make the election a fair one.