S. Statutes at
Large, p. 52), and there appears to be no reason for the refunding by
the United States to the assignees of said Cheatham the salary of this
storekeeper that would not apply with equal force to similar payments by
all other distillers who were operating their distilleries or had
spirits in their warehouses at that time."
The facts above stated are considered by this office valid and serious
objections to the approval of this bill, and they would have been
communicated to the Congressional committee before the passage of the
bill had they called the attention of this office to the subject.
The bill is herewith returned.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
B.H. BRISTOW, _Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 18, 1876_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
Herewith I return Senate bill No. 172, entitled "An act fixing the
salary of the President of the United States," without my approval.
I am constrained to this course from a sense of duty to my successors in
office, to myself, and to what is due to the dignity of the position of
Chief Magistrate of a nation of more than 40,000,000 people.
When the salary of the President of the United States, pursuant to the
Constitution, was fixed at $25,000 per annum, we were a nation of but
3,000,000 people, poor from a long and exhaustive war, without commerce
or manufactures, with but few wants and those cheaply supplied.
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