Andrew Jackson vetoed more bills than all his predecessors combined. Nowhere near some of his successors, but still enough to catch the attention of Congress. In 1830, Andrew Jackson shared his principles for when to use the executive veto power. Don't be swayed by public opinion but trust the judgement of the people. Don't abuse the power of the veto, and most of all veto any bill that increases the national debt or delays it's retirement. Just imagine how many bills Jackson would veto today.
Just before adjourning in 1830, Jackson's opponents sent two internal improvement bills to President Jackson for his signature. The first was an act to authorize the purchase of stock in the Portland Canal Company, and the second "An act for making appropriations for building light houses, light boats, beacons, and monuments, placing buoys, and for improving harbors and directing surveys". Jackson vetoed the first because it contained too many "direct" appropriations for localized projects or pork belly spending, and the other because it required the federal government to purchase shared in a private company.
In the second paragraph of Article 1, Section 7 of the constitution, the power of the President to veto a bill is outlined. Here it specifies that every order, resolution or vote which required the concurrence of both the Senate and the House shall be presented to the President of the United States to be approved or disapproved. Those bills disapproved shall only become law with approval of two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Prior to Andrew Jackson, only 10 bills were vetoed. Two by George Washington, seven by James Madison and one by James Monroe. So, when Jackson, vetoed these two bills it was a big deal. Jackson the explained the specifics of why he pocket-vetoed two appropriation bills to Congress in his second State of the Union Address. Then, a little later in his written address, President Andrew Jackson, never shy of sharing his wisdom and knowledge, shared what he called some "observations of a general character" or principles that he followed when deciding to approve or veto a spending bill. These were principles, Jackson followed in cases where a bill was deemed constitutional, but of a serious matter concerning the national interest of the country.
"Although the motives which have influenced me in this matter may be already sufficiently stated, I am, never the less, induced by its importance to add a few observations of a general character."
1. Pay off the national debt first. President Jackson agreed that Congress had the constitutional authority to appropriate funds for internal improvement projects, even those that were of local character, but not until the national debt is paid. Jackson absolutely hated debt.
"In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the Maysville and Rockville road companies I expressed my views fully in regard to the power of Congress to construct roads and canals within a State of to appropriate money for improvements of a local character. I at the same time intimated me belief that the right to make appropriations for such as were of a national character had been so generally acted upon and so long acquiesced in by the Federal and State Governments and the constituents of each as to justify its exercise on the ground of continued and uninterrupted usage, but that it was, never the less, highly expedient that appropriations even of that character should, with the exception made at the time, be deferred until the national debt is paid, and that in the mean while some general rule for the action of the Government in that respect ought to be established."
2. Trust the judgement of the people. Let the will of the people be the ultimate judge on policies which "are destined to exert a powerful influence upon the future operations of our political system". In times of difficulty, Jackson wrote that there is no "greater advantage or more propriety" then to appeal to the "judgment of the people".
"These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then before me, and were, I readily admit, intended to awake the attention and draw forth the opinion and observations of our constituents upon a subject of the highest importance to their interests, and 1 destined to exert a powerful influence upon the future operations of our political system. I know of no tribunal to which a public man in this country, in a case of doubt and difficulty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety than the judgment of the people; and although I must necessarily in the discharge of my official duties be governed by the dictates of my own judgment, I have no desire to conceal my anxious wish to conform as far as I can to the views of those for whom I act."
3. Do not rule by public opinion. Sudden changes in public opinion must be received with caution and watch out for fake news. Sudden spikes in public opinion does not reflect the nation as a whole, and objections to a bill are often influenced by those who hold an immediate financial interest in the outcome. Nevertheless, Jackson did not discount such objections, because he believed that the time was far off when those who are "intrusted with power to be exercised for the good of the whole will consider it either honest or wise to purchase local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good."
"All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with some doubt as to their accuracy, but making full allowances on that account I can not, I think, deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to, as well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make in relation to their bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been approved by the great body of the people. That those whose immediate pecuniary interests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should shrink from the application of a rule which prefers their more general and remote interests to those which are personal and immediate is to be expected. But even such objections must from the nature of our population be but temporary in their duration, and if it were otherwise our course should be the same, for the time is yet, I hope, far distant when those intrusted with power to be exercised for the good of the whole will consider it either honest or wise to purchase local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good."
4. Do not abuse the power of the Veto. The right to veto a bill that is deemed constitutional should never be "exercised on slight occasions", but only on bills that involve matters of deep interest impacting the whole country. Nevertheless, the veto had historical precedence. Despite the cries of fear over the encroachment of Executive power, history has proven that here is little danger from exercising the power of avoiding the influence and patronage of special interest groups.
"It is due to candor, as well as to my own feelings, that I should express the reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in exercising the undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from bills on other grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should not be exercised on slight occasions all will admit. It is only in matters of deep interest, when the principle involved may be justly regarded as next in importance to infractions of the Constitution itself, that such a step can be expected to meet with the approbation of the people. Such an occasion do I conscientiously believe the present to be.
In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I am sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed consistent with the obligation of official duty by several of my predecessors, and by the persuasion, too, that what ever liberal institutions may have to fear from the encroachments of Executive power, which has been every where the cause of so much strife and bloody contention, but little danger is to be apprehended from a precedent by which that authority denies to itself the exercise of powers that bring in their train influence and patronage of great extent, and thus excludes the operation of personal interests, every where the bane of official trust."
6. Pay off the national Debt first. This one was important enough to Jackson, that it deserves repeating. So long as Jackson was sitting in the White house, he could think of no better way to save the nation from misuse of public funds, but to pay off the national debt. So long as Jackson was president, he was going to make paying off the national debt a priority. If the people disagreed, they could use their constitutional powers to vote him out of office.
"I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection that if I have mistaken the interests and wishes of the people the Constitution affords the means of soon redressing the error by selecting for the place their favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with their own. I trust, in the mean time, the interests of the nation will be saved from prejudice by a rigid application of that portion of the public funds which might otherwise be applied to different objects to that highest of all our obligations, the payment of the public debt, and an opportunity be afforded for the adoption of some better rule for the operations of the Government in this matter than any which has hitherto been acted upon."
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