PEOPLE'S RIGHT OF VETO.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—It was ray intention to refer to the forty-six States of the Union, not " forty-nine," as my letter in your issue of April 23rd states. There are only forty-six. The error is of small importance. But falsua in uno falsus in omnibus. Moreover, this correction -lessens the number of States in
which the Gubernatorial veto on behalf of the people does not exist. There are not more than five such States, and I think not more than four. One State (Rhode Island) amended its Constitution within the past year by conferring the veto power upon the Governor.
This correction gives me the opportunity of adding that the right of veto by the people is further secured in the United States by the short intervals of time between elections,—Presidential elections occur every four years, Congressional every two years, Gubernatorial and State Legislative at least once in four years, in most cases every two years, and in two cases annually. President Cleveland vetoed no less than three general laws and three hundred and one special Acts of Congress during his first term of office, and always on the ground that the proposed legislation was an invasion of the rights of the people as a whole.—I am,
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