50; in 1880, $8,976,500; and in 1881, $11,451,000; while
by the present act there is appropriated $18,743,875.
While feeling every disposition to leave to the Legislature the
responsibility of determining what amount should be appropriated for
the purposes of the bill, so long as the appropriations are confined to
objects indicated by the grant of power, I can not escape the conclusion
that, as a part of the lawmaking power of the Government, the duty
devolves upon me to withhold my signature from a bill containing
appropriations which in my opinion greatly exceed in amount the needs of
the country for the present fiscal year. It being the usage to provide
money for these purposes by annual appropriation bills, the President
is in effect directed to expend so large an amount of money within so
brief a period that the expenditure can not be made economically and
advantageously.
The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be
measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
They sustain a greater injury in the demoralizing effect produced upon
those who are intrusted with official duty through all the ramifications
of government.
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