proper for fulfilling its stipulations.

JAMES MADISON.




VETO MESSAGES.


FEBRUARY 21, 1811.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act incorporating
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the
District of Columbia," I now return the bill to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections:

_Because_ the bill exceeds the rightful authority to which
governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and
religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the
Constitution of the United States which declares that "Congress shall
make no law respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into
and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative purely to
the organization and polity of the church incorporated, and
comprehending even the election and removal of the minister of the same,
so that no change could be made therein by the particular society or by
the general church of which it is a member, and whose authority it
recognizes. This particular church, therefore, would so far be a