“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.”

— President Franklin Pierce in an 1854 veto.

  3:32 pm  |   September 21 2010   |  18 notes