The right of permitting or vetoing an interpellation rests with the chamber.
His first suggestion that a council nominated by the estates should be set up with the power of vetoing the acts of the king was abandoned because of the strenuous opposition of Maximilian; but Bertold was successful in getting the diet to proclaim an eternal Landfriede, that is, to forbid private war without any limitation of time, and it was agreed that the diet should meet annually to advise the king on matters of moment.
This result revolted public opinion; the bishops acquired the habit (rendered easier by the personal expense involved in setting the law in motion) of vetoing, under the power given to them in the act, all prosecutions; and the act became a dead letter.
He appoints numerous officers with the concurrence of the Senate, has the usual power of vetoing legislative bills, and has authority to inspect the records of officers, or to employ accountants to do so, and to suspend, during a recess of the General Assembly, any executive officer at the seat of government except the lieutenant-governor; he must, however, report to the General Assembly at its next session the cause of any suspension and that body determines whether the suspended officer shall be restored or removed.
After the Civil War he vigorously opposed the Congressional plan of reconstructing the late Confederate states, and himself drafted the message of President Johnson, vetoing the Reconstruction Act of the 2nd of March 1867.
