Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/293

Rh consideration was submitted to me), whereby the increased rank assigned to the Quartermaster General is restricted to the Provisional Army only, I infer that the act, now returned to you, no longer expresses the legislative will, and that it is, therefore, unnecessary to specify the objections which it would, otherwise, have been my duty to submit as the reasons which prevented my approval of the bill.

 To the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America. I return herewith, without my approval, an act which originated in your body, entitled "An Act to amend an act for the establishment and organization of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America," approved March 6th, 1861. The act requires revision, as an error exists in the title, there being no such act on the statute book as that recited in the title. There is also an inconsistency between the first and second sections, which is probably the result of inadvertence or haste. The first section seems to refer to the Permanent Army, and the second to the Provisional Army.

I therefore return the act for such action as you may deem proper to take in relation to the errors above mentioned. Executive Office, Richmond, Oct. 6th, 1862.

 October 13, 1862. To the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America. I regret to find myself compelled to return, without my signature, an act which originated in your body entitled "An Act to reorganize and promote the efficiency of the Medical Department of the Provisional Army." I entirely concur in the desire to accomplish the objects contemplated in the act, and have delayed its return in the hope that some additional legislation might obviate the difficulties that would embarrass the operation of the act in its present form.

The act seems to be based on the assumption that there exists a "Medical Department of the Provisional Army," and this fact is not only set forth in the title, but some of the provisions are so worded as to be inoperative by reason of this assumption. Thus 