I have in my former message on this subject expressed a willingness to concur in suitable amendments for the improvement of the election laws; but I can not consent to their absolute and entire repeal, and I can not approve legislation which seeks to prevent their enforcement.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 27, 1879.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I return without approval Senate bill No. 595,[28] with the following objection to its becoming a law: 

Doubts have arisen upon consideration of the bill as to whether Major Collins will be required under it to refund to the United States the pay and allowances received by him at the time he was mustered out of the service.  Believing that it was not the intention of Congress to require such repayment, the bill is returned without my signature to the House in which it originated.

R.B.  HAYES.

[Footnote 28:  “An act to amend ’An act for the relief of Joseph B. Collins, approved March 3, 1879.’”]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 30, 1879.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, the bill entitled “An act making appropriations to pay fees of United States marshals and their general deputies,” with the following objections to its becoming a law: 

The bill appropriates the sum of $600,000 for the payment during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, of United States marshals and their general deputies.  The offices thus provided for are essential to the faithful execution of the laws.  They were created and their powers and duties defined by Congress at its first session after the adoption of the Constitution in the judiciary act which was approved September 24, 1789.  Their general duties, as defined in the act which originally established them, were substantially the same as those prescribed in the statutes now in force.

The principal provision on the subject in the Revised Statutes is as follows: 

SEC. 787.  It shall be the duty of the marshal of each district to attend the district and circuit courts when sitting therein, and to execute throughout the district all lawful precepts directed to him and issued under the authority of the United States; and he shall have power to command all necessary assistance in the execution of his duty.

The original act was amended February 28, 1795, and the amendment is now found in the Revised Statutes in the following form: 

SEC. 788.  The marshals and their deputies shall have in each State the same powers in executing the laws of the United States as the sheriffs and their deputies in such State may have by law in executing the laws thereof.

By subsequent statutes additional duties have been from time to time imposed upon the marshals and their deputies, the due and regular performance of which