VETO MESSAGES BY GOVERNOR BAKER.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
INDIANAPOLIS, March 13,
1867.
Enrolled act of the Senate, No. 47, passed by the General Assembly of the State, at its late session, and entitled, "An Act authorizing Boards of County Commissioners to make appropriations in aid of the construction of manufacturing establishments or machine shops," was presented to me on Saturday, the 9th day of March, 1867, and on the succeeding Monday, (March 11, 1867,) the General Assembly adjourned without day.
By the 14th section of the 5th article of the Constitution, under the circumstances above stated, this bill would become a law unless within five days next after the adjournment of the Legislature, I should file the same with my objections thereto in the office of the Secretary of State.
In pursuance of this provision of the Constitution, I now file said bill in the office of the Secretary of State, with my objections thereto, as the same are hereinafter stated, to the end that the Secretary of State may lay said bill, with these objections, before the General Assembly at its next session, as required by the Constitution.
This bill enacts "that the Board of County Commissioners of any county in this State, whenever they may deem it best for the interests of such county, and, whenever a majority of the resident tax payers thereof shall petition therefor in writing, may make appropriations at any regular or special session of said Board to aid in the construction of manufacturing establishments or machine shops in such county, and to order such appropriations to be paid for out of the County Treasury; Provided, however, That such appropriation shall not be made until three consecutive notices thereof shall have been published in some weekly newspaper of such county, or in case there be no newspaper, by posting up written notices in three public places in such county, including one at the door of the Court House, stating the amount of the appropriation asked for, and the purpose to which such appropriation is to be applied."
The above is the entire bill, except the emergency clause, and a declaration that it shall be in force from and after its passage.
I respectfully object to this legislation, because it is unwarranted by the Constitution, and might be made the instrument of the grossest injustice and oppression. It proposes to take property from all the taxpayers of the county, first gathered into the County Treasury by the coercive power of taxation, and then donate it to, or bestow it upon, a few individuals of a very small class to aid them in carrying on their own private business. The justification for this implied in, if not expressed by, the bill is, first that the Board of Commissioners shall deem it best for the interests of the county. Secondly, that a majority of the resident tax payers shall petition for the appropriation. Are these valid reasons for the diversion of public moneys to private uses? I think not. The Board of Commissioners might well deem that the appropriation of money to many objects would be conducive to the best interests of the county; and yet the Legislature not have the right to authorize appropriations to such objects. The erection of good churches, barns or blacksmith shops, might correctly be considered conducive to the best interests of a county, but does it follow from this that the Legislature may authorize taxes collected for public objects to be applied to such private enterprises? The bill, however, requires that a majority of the resident tax payers should petition for the appropriation. Does this supply the want of authority to take property in the shape of taxes from one man to give it to another man? Surely not Majorities have, and may most appropriately exercise certain rights and powers, but this is not one of them. They may choose their representatives and other officers of government through whom the laws may be made and administered, and so long as the laws thus made and administered do not transcend the limits prescribed by the Constitution the minority have no right to complain. The idea, however, that there is a sovereign power in the people of each county or township which will enable a majority of them at pleasure to vote money out of one man's pocket, and by passing it through the public treasury deposit it in the pockets of another man, under the plea that thereby the public interests are promoted is a perversion of the rights and powers of majorities.
The construction of manufacturing establishments and machine shop deserves encouragement, but each citizen must be permitted to decide for himself how much, if page: 4[View Page 4] anything, he will contribute to such undertakings. On such a question no number of men have a right to vote so as to prescribe for another what his action shall be.
The 23d section of the Bill of Eights provides ''that the General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens." This bill proposes to grant to a few persons of one or two small classes the privilege of receiving donations from the County Treasurer without making any provision for the enjoyment of the same privilege by other citizens and classes on the same terms.
To the extent of these donations the donees are granted immunity from taxation, for it is manifest that there is no difference in principle between exempting a man and his property from taxation, and bestowing upon him out of the taxes collected from his neighbors an amount of money equal to his quota of these taxes.
Another section of the bill of rights provides, that "no man's particular services shall be demanded without just compensation; no man's property shall be taken by law without just compensation, nor, except in case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered."
This bill proposes to take the proceeds of the labor and property of the citizen, gather it into the treasury, and then appropriate it to the private use of another citizen without any compensation, except the purely conjectural benefits which the person so despoiled, in common with the public, may derive from the carrying out of the purposes to which the donor may apply it. I recognize the principle that all doubts should be cast in favor of the constitutionality and propriety of the action of the General Assembly, but in my judgment this bill is so vicious in principle and so dangerous in its tendencies that positive duty requires me to prevent its having a place on the statute book until the General Assembly shall have had an opportunity to reconsider its provisions. CONRAD BAKER,
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, acting as Governor thereof.
