Is George W. Bush the first President to issue signing statements?
NO. Several sources trace signing statements back to James Monroe. Interesting early statements that include discussions about presidential doubt about legislation and the issue of how the president should proceed are found from Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Ulysses Grant. A brief overview can be found in the ABA Task Force cited below. Monroes messages did not look like what are today considered signing statement. Rather he informed Congress in a message January 17, 1822, that he had resolved what he saw as a confusion in the law in a way that the thought was consistent with his constitutional authority. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=66281 Even more forcefully, Monroe sent another message dated April 6, 1822, (that refers to his January 17, 1822 message as having imperfectly explained his concerns) stating If the right of the President to fill these original vacancies by the selection of officers from any branch of the whole military establishment wa
