Rutherford B. Hayes

Either to allow necessary functions of the public service to be crippled or suspended for want of the appropriations required to keep them in operation, or to approve legislation which in official communications to Congress he has declared…

Believing that it was not the intention of Congress to require such repayment, the bill is returned without my signature.

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

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…

The fact that these laws are deemed objectionable by a majority of both Houses of Congress is urged as a sufficient warrant for this legislation.

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.

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.

The object of these sections of the Revised Statutes is plain.

It is not sought by the bill before me to repeal the election laws.

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

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 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…

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

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

It is confidently believed that no sound argument can be made in support of the constitutionality of national regulation of Senatorial elections.

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.

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

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.

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

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

The constitutional authority to regulate the Congressional elections which belongs to the Government of the United States, ought to be enforced by appropriate legislation.