in accordance with
the political preferences of a majority of Congress. 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. Both would rest upon
the radical error that Congress has the power to prescribe terms and
conditions to the right of the people of the States to cast their votes
for President and Vice-President.

For the reasons thus indicated I am constrained to return the joint
resolution to the Senate for such further action thereon as Congress
may deem necessary.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, _July 25, 1868_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

Believing that a bill entitled "An act relating to the Freedmen's
Bureau, and providing for its discontinuance," interferes with the
appointing power conferred by the Constitution upon the Executive, and
for other reasons, which at this late period of the session time will
not permit me to state, I herewith return it to the Senate, in which
House it originated, without my approval.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas in the month of July, A.D. 1861, in accepting the condition
of civil war which was brought about by insurrection and rebellion in
several of the States which constitute the United States, the two Houses
of Congress did solemnly declare that that war was not waged on the
part of the Government in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose
of conquest or subjugation, nor for any purpose of overthrowing or
interfering with the rights or established institutions of the States,
but only to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution of the
United States and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality,
and rights of the several States unimpaired, and that so soon as those
objects should be accomplished the war on the part of the Government
should cease; and

Whereas the President of the United States has heretofore, in the spirit
of that declaration and with the view of securing for it ultimate and
complete effect, set forth several proclamations offering amnesty and
pardon to persons who had been or were concerned in the aforenamed
rebellion, which proclamations, however, were attended with prudential
reservations and exceptions then deemed necessary and proper, and which
proclamations were