_No Power to Veto Items in Appropriation Bills._--Unlike the governors of many of the states, he cannot veto particular items in appropriation bills, as a result of which he is sometimes confronted with the embarrassing duty of signing a bill carrying certain appropriations to which he objects, or of vetoing the entire bill. President Cleveland on one occasion vetoed the rivers and harbors bill carrying an appropriation of many millions of dollars rather than approve certain items in it which he considered wasteful and extravagant. If the President had the power to veto particular items in appropriation bills he could prevent useless and extravagant appropriations in many cases without being under the necessity of defeating at the same time those which are desirable and necessary. _Use of the Veto Power._--The early Presidents either did not make use of the veto power at all, or employed it sparingly. Neither John Adams, nor Thomas Jefferson, nor John Quincy Adams, while in the presidential chair, vetoed any bills; and Washington, Madison, and Monroe together vetoed only eight. Many of the later Presidents used the veto power more freely. No bill was passed over the veto of a President until the administration of Tyler, when one was so passed. Four bills were passed over the vetoes of Pierce, fourteen over those of Johnson, three over those of Grant, one over a veto of Hayes, one over a veto of Arthur, two over the vetoes of Cleveland, one each over the vetoes of Harrison, Taft, and Wilson. _Joint Resolutions_ as well as bills are usually presented to the President for his signature, and must be approved before they have any validity, though it has not been the practice to submit to the President, for his approval, joint resolutions proposing amendments to the Constitution. Concurrent resolutions, which do not have the force of law, but are merely expressions of the sense of the legislative department on some question of interest to it alone, do not require the approval of the President.[84] [84] The distinction between bills, joint resolutions, and concurrent resolutions is discussed on p. 204. _Importance of the Veto._--The threat of the President to employ the veto may be used to great effect. A strong President who has positive ideas in regard to the kind of legislation which the country needs and which public opinion demands, may compel the adoption in whole or in part of those ideas by the threatened use of the veto. The necessity of obtaining the approval of the President really gives him a powerful share in legislation. Roosevelt, for example, on a number of occasions threatened to veto bills about to be passed by Congress unless they were changed so as to embody the ideas which he advocated, and the threats were not without effect.