As a substitute for the present rule, which requires the two Houses by
consent to fix the day of adjournment, and in the event of disagreement
the President to decide, it is proposed to fix a day by law to be
binding in all future time unless changed by consent of both Houses of
Congress, and to take away the contingent power of the Executive which
in anticipated cases of disagreement is vested in him. This substitute
is to apply, not to the present Congress and Executive, but to our
successors. Considering, therefore, that this subject exclusively
belongs to the two Houses of Congress whose day of adjournment is to be
fixed, and that each has at that time the right to maintain and insist
upon its own opinion, and to require the President to decide in the
event of disagreement with the other, I am constrained to deny my
sanction to the act herewith respectfully returned to the Senate.
I do so with greater reluctance as, apart from this constitutional
difficulty, the other provisions of it do not appear to me
objectionable.
ANDREW JACKSON.
PROCLAMATION.
[From Statutes at Large (little, Brown & Co.
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