Preemption is itself a special privilege, only authorized by its supposed public benefit in promoting the settlement and cultivation of vacant territory and in rewarding the enterprise of the persons upon whom the privilege is bestowed.
Veto Message
Share
More from Andrew Johnson
I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitution as may remove all intermediate agency in the election of the President and Vice-President.
No power exists in the Constitution authorizing the joint resolution or the supposed law--the only difference being that one would be more palpably unconstitutional and revolutionary than the other.
The danger of a defeat of the popular choice in an election by the House of Representatives is no greater than in an election made nominally by the people themselves.
Other voices in this conversation
