nate that Hon. John Sherman, Senator
elect from the State of Ohio, has resigned the position of Secretary
of the Treasury, and that said resignation has been accepted to take
effect at the close of the present day.

R.B. HAYES.

VETO MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 3, 1881_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

Having considered the bill entitled "An act to facilitate the
refunding of the national debt," I am constrained to return it to the
House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following
statement of my objections to its passage:

The imperative necessity for prompt action and the pressure of public
duties in this closing week of my term of office compel me to refrain
from any attempt to make a full and satisfactory presentation of the
objections to the bill.

The importance of the passage at the present session of Congress of a
suitable measure for the refunding of the national debt which is
about to mature is generally recognized. It has been urged upon the
attention of Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury and in my last
annual message. If successfully accomplished, it will secure a large
decrease in the annual interest payment of the nation, and I earnestly
recommend, if the bill before me shall fail, that another measure for
this purpose be adopted before the present Congress adjourns.

While, in my opinion, it would be unwise to authorize the Secretary of
the Treasury, in his discretion, to offer to the public bonds bearing
3-1/2 per cent interest in aid of refunding, I should not deem it my
duty to interpose my constitutional objection to the passage of the
present bill if it did not contain, in its fifth section, provisions
which, in my judgment, seriously impair the value and tend to the
destruction of the present national banking system of the country.
This system has now been in operation almost twenty years. No safer or
more beneficial banking system was ever established. Its advantages
as a business are free to all who have the necessary capital. It
furnishes a currency to the public which for convenience and security
of the bill holder has probably never been equaled by that of any
other banking system. Its notes are secured by the deposit with the
Government of the interest-bearing bonds of the United States.

The section of the bill before me which relates to the national
banking system, and to which objection is made, is not an essential
part of a refundi