The Constitution provides that—­

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States.  If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their Journal and proceed to reconsider it.

The preservation of the Constitution from infraction is the President’s highest duty.  He is bound to discharge that duty at whatever hazard of incurring the displeasure of those who may differ with him in opinion.  He is bound to discharge it as well by his obligations to the people who have clothed him with his exalted trust as by his oath of office, which he may not disregard.  Nor are the obligations of the President in any degree lessened by the prevalence of views different from his own in one or both Houses of Congress.  It is not alone hasty and inconsiderate legislation that he is required to check; but if at any time Congress shall, after apparently full deliberation, resolve on measures which he deems subversive of the Constitution or of the vital interests of the country, it is his solemn duty to stand in the breach and resist them.  The President is bound to approve or disapprove every bill which passes Congress and is presented to him for his signature.  The Constitution makes this his duty, and he can not escape it if he would.  He has no election.  In deciding upon any bill presented to him he must exercise his own best judgment.  If he can not approve, the Constitution commands him to return the bill to the House in which it originated with his objections, and if he fail to do this within ten days (Sundays excepted) it shall become a law without his signature.  Right or wrong, he may be overruled by a vote of two-thirds of each House, and in that event the bill becomes a law without his sanction.  If his objections be not thus overruled, the subject is only postponed, and is referred to the States and the people for their consideration and decision.  The President’s power is negative merely, and not affirmative.  He can enact no law.  The only effect, therefore, of his withholding his approval of a bill passed by Congress is to suffer the existing laws to remain unchanged, and the delay occasioned is only that required to enable the States and the people to consider and act upon the subject in the election of public agents who will carry out their wishes and instructions.  Any attempt to coerce the President to yield his sanction to measures which he can not approve would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution, palpable and flagrant, and if successful would break down the independence of the executive department and make the President, elected by the people and clothed by the Constitution with power to defend their rights, the mere instrument of a majority of Congress.  A surrender on his part of the powers with which the Constitution has invested his office would effect a practical alteration of that instrument without resorting to the prescribed process of amendment.