ution to its power and authority. Some of the provisions of this
bill are not subject to the objections stated, and did they stand alone
I should not feel it to be my duty to withhold my approval.

If no constitutional objections existed to the bill, there are others of
a serious nature which deserve some consideration. It appropriates
between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 for objects which are of no pressing
necessity, and this is proposed at a time when the country is engaged in
a foreign war, and when Congress at its present session has authorized a
loan or the issue of Treasury notes to defray the expenses of the war,
to be resorted to if the "exigencies of the Government shall require
it." It would seem to be the dictate of wisdom under such circumstances
to husband our means, and not to waste them on comparatively unimportant
objects, so that we may reduce the loan or issue of Treasury notes which
may become necessary to the smallest practicable sum. It would seem to
be wise, too, to abstain from such expenditures with a view to avoid the
accumulation of a large public debt, the existence of which would be
opposed to the interests of our people as well as to the genius of our
free institutions.

Should this bill become a law, the principle which it establishes will
inevitably lead to large and annually increasing appropriations and
drains upon the Treasury, for it is not to be doubted that numerous
other localities not embraced in its provisions, but quite as much
entitled to the favor of the Government as those which are embraced,
will demand, through their representatives in Congress, to be placed on
an equal footing with them. With such an increase of expenditure must
necessarily follow either an increased public debt or increased burdens
upon the people by taxation to supply the Treasury with the means of
meeting the accumulated demands upon it.

With profound respect for the opinions of Congress, and ever anxious, as
far as I can consistently with my responsibility to our common
constituents, to cooperate with them in the discharge of our respective
duties, it is with unfeigned regret that I find myself constrained, for
the reasons which I have assigned, to withhold my approval from this
bill.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _August 8, 1846_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I return to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An
act to provide for the ascertainment and satisfaction