The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-01 00:00:00

SECOND- EDITIo
SUN OPFICE, QuaPter past Three.

AM EP. 'CAN NEWS.
(FURTHER PARTICULARS.)

PRESIDEN T'S MESSAGE.

V No. .
TO THE HOUSE OETFO REP RE lISENTATIVES OF
TIM UNITED STATES.
'• It is with extreme regret that I feel myself con-
strained by the duty, faithfully to execute the office of
President of the United States, and to the best of my
ability " to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu-
. thm of the United States," to return to that House in
• which it originated, the 13111 "to provide for the bettlecr
•:• collection, safe keeping, and disbursement of the public
t_lo
.pu bi
revenue by means of a Corporation to be
_sts
" Fiscal Corporation of the United States," with my
written objections.
In my message sent to the Senate on the IGth day of
August last, returning- the Bill " to incorporate the sub-
scribers is • to the. Fiscal Bank of the United States,"
I dis-
tinctly declared that " my own opinion has been uni-
, formly proclaimed to be against the exercise of the power
• of Con„e-ress to create a National Bank to operate per se
• over the Union," and entertaining that opinion, my main
_ objection to that Bill was based upon. the highest moral
and religious obligations of conscience and the Consti-
tution.
- I readily admit that, while the qualified veto with
which the Chief Magistrate isinvested, should be
regarded, and was intended by the wise men who
made it a part of the Constitution, as a great conser-
vative principle of our syste:n, without the exercise of
which, on important Occasions, a mere representative
majority might urge the Government, in its legislation,
beyond the limits fixed by its framers, or might exert
its just powers too hastily or oppressively, yet, it is
a power which ought to tie most cautiously exerted,
and perhaps never except in a case eminently involving
the public interest, or one in which the oath of the Pre-
sident, acting under his convictions, both mental and
moral, imperiously requires its exercise. In such a case
be has no alternative. He must either exert the negative.
power entrusted to him by the Constitution chiefly for
its own preservation, protection, and defence, or commit
an act of gross moral turpitude. Mere regard to the
will of the majority must not, in a constitutional repub-
lic like ours, control this sacred and solemn duty of a
• sworn officer.
The Constitution itself I regard and cherish as the
embodied and written will of the whole people of
the , United States. It is their fixed and fundarnen-
tat law, which they unatihnously prescribe to the
• public functionaries, their mere trustees and ser-
vants. This their will, and the law which they
have given us as the rule of our action, has no guard,
no guarantee of preservation, protection and defence,
but the oaths which it prescribes to public (officers—
the sanctity with which they shall religiously observe
those oaths, and the patriotism. with which the people
shall shit ld it by their own sovereigntt , which has made
the constitution supreme. • It must be exerted against
the will of a mere representative majority, or not
at all. It is alone in pursuance of that will that
any measure can ever reach the President ; and
to say that because a majority in Congress have
passed a Bill. the President should therefore sanction
it, is to abrogate the power altogether, and to render its
insertion in the constitution a work of absolute superero-
- kation. The duty is to guard the fundamental will of
the people themselves front—in this case I admit unin-
tentional—change or infraction by a majority in Con-
gress ; and in that light alone do I regard the constitu-
tional
Is this Bill, now presented for my approval or disap-
proval, such a Bill as I have already declared could not
receive my sanction ? Is it such a Bill as calls fur
the exercise of the negative power under the Constitu-
tion ? Does it violate the Constitution by creating a
National Bank to operate per se over the Union ? Its
title, in the first place, describes its general character.
It is " An Act to provide for the better colltction,
safe keeping, and disbursement, of the public revenue,
by means of a corporation, to be styled the 'Fis-
cal Corporation of ,the United States."' In style,
en, it is plainly national in its character. Its powers,
functions and duties, are those pertaining to the collect-
ing, keeping and disbursing the public revenue. The
Means by which these arc te be exerted is a corporation,
to he styled the "Fiscal Corporation of the United
mates." • It is a corporation created by the Congress of
the United States, in its character of a National Legisla-
ture for the whole Union, to perform the fiscal purposes,
meet the fiscal wants and exigencies, supply the fiscal
uses, and exert the fiscal agencies of the Treasury of the
United States. Such is its own description of itself. Do
its provisions contradict its own title? They do not.
It is true, that by its first section it provides, that it
shall be established in the district of Columbia, but the
amount of its capital—the manner in which its stock is
to be subscribed for and held—the persons • and bodies
Corporate and politic by whom its stock may be held—
the. appointment of its Directors, and their powers
and duties—its fundamental articles, especially that
to establish agencies in any part of the Union
—the corporate powers and business of such
agencies—the prohibition of Congress to estab-
lish any other corporation with similar Powers, for
twenty years, with express reservation, in the same
clause, to modify or create any batik for the district
or Columba so that the aggregate capital shall not ex-
"A five millions—without enumerating other features
Which are equally distinctive and characteristic—clearly
the that it cannot be regarded as other than a bank of
United States, with powers seemingly more limited
n have heretofure been greeted to such an institu-
tion. It
' b virtue' of
the operates per se over the L mon, y
ommiaided, and, in in my view, assumed authority of
rote
`'PPss as a national Legislature, as distinguished,
bank created by Congress for the districtf Co-
- 'ver 'a a, as the local Legislature of tne district.
o
iY United States Bank heretofore created has
diiastetotints. potter to deal in bills of exchange as well as local
Both were trading. privileges conferred,
• and both exercised by virtue of the aforesaid power
of Congress, over the whole Union. The question of
Power remains unchanged without reference to the
este'
' le of privilege granted. If this proposed corpo-
' Iti-e.t6nofisCottilunbiebiar,egarded as a local bank of the Lis-
oirers to Operate over
invested by Congress with general
the Union, it is obnoxious
tat. may
tee grass
still stronger objections. It assumes that Con-
invest a local institution with general or
meek'n,al powers. With the same propriety that it
•.' LT this in reeard to a bank of the District of
• uf-rnula, it may as to a State bank. Yet who can
111(atls,.e the idea that this Government can rightfully, by
lalial",ng, a State Bank its fiscal agent, invest it with the
Wiseate and unqualified powers conferred by this Bill ?
~ n I come to look to the' details of sthe Bill,
d° not recommend it strongly to my adoption. A
notice of some of its provisions will suffice :
4t' It may justify substantially a system of dis-
eel
of the most objectionable character. It is to
deal in bills of exchange drawn in one State and
Payable in another, without any restraint. The bill
• it.. exchange may have an unlimited term to run, and
in rcret<abiltty is rowLere guarded against. It may,
0 '4O, asstime the most objectionable form of cc-
. re..""atiol'. It is not required to rest on any actual,
substantial lexchange basis. A drawer in one
,Place becomes the acceptor in another, and so in
Th`ntirn the acceptor may become the drawer, upon a
uui
,tuesal
iu understanding. It may, at the same time,
mere local discounts, under the name of
t'Oft
in-
bills of exchange. A bill drawn on Philadelphia on
willilen, New Jersey—at New York on a border
tuck in New Jersey—at Cincinnati on Newport, 'Ken-
theK,Y, not p
t multil other example, might, for any
h 1 thiso Bill to rey strain it, becomes a mere matter of
;ea! accommodation. Cities thus relatively situated
6,,,°stnd Possess advantages over cities otherwise situated,
.0
etion
decided a character as most justly to excite dissa-
usra
.
bee econd. There is no limit proscribed to the pre-
. Initun in the purchase of bills of exchange, thereby
etvreeting none of the evils under which the cont-
. 114nity now labour, and operating most injuriously
"oil the agricultural States, in which the Mequon-
@S in the rates of exchange are most severely felt.
4-Nor are these the only consequences ; a resumption
of_specie payments by ' the banks of those States
Would be liable to indefinite. postponement—fur, us
the operation of the agencies of the interior would
-• °licitly consist' in selling bills of exchange, and the
Parehases Could only be made in specie or the notes
hanks paying specie, the State banks would either
Thlate to continue with their doors closed, (Sr exist at the
.this national monopoly of brokerage. Nor
• be passed over without remark, that, whilst-the
b:Titciiet of Columbia is made the esat of the principal
k's„ kits, citizens are excluded from all participation in
tnefit it might affiml, by a positive prohibition on
from all discounting within the district.
c are some of the objections which proud-
:tee..l,3,S exist. against the details of the bill ; others.
he urged of' much force, but it would be
,:tfiil.teatMile to dwell upon them. Suffice it to add.
Ses'yetiieSlis charter is designed to continue for 'twenty
‘:likt;,`,.,4out competitor-Htlist the defects to which
Oise teZtl!nded being found, in the fundamenterlaw u.
, ett!aition, aro irrevocable—and that. if the objets
011 e j.O1-founded it would be over-hazardous to pass
, („ into a law.
61.1clusion, I take leave most respectfully to say,
H' iliaeyo felt the most anxious solicitude to meet
.‘,4l•ltit 3or Congress in the adoption of a Fiscal
lv,itlieb, avoiding all constitutional objections,
"s• feel. !nionize conflicting opinions: Actuated b 3
Pg,'l .
lase been ready tte yield inueb, in a
it •witi"onediation, to the opinions of others. And
dorse ex, I great pain that I now . feel compelled
tt
• • t the °elloleCongress a second time in the same session.
„Itiores Minenceinent of this session, inclined from
Veeere
," 1"I'r to the Legislative I submitted t,
Whel ,S 3 he so o.
P putty of adopting. a Fiscal Agent
tarotusiseretral't,, without violating the Constitution, would
trot - the publ.*
pesecirm
the le money from the Executive con-
ng.' beet! operations of the Treasury, without
:LgteeDttle: tensotne to the people, or incoacnient or
e1k.,771!" the Government. It is deeply to be re-
-3.t.,;1"110t„ a this department of the Government can-
s'aPti°n coustitutienal rrounds
.I,6liio,aca_tt,,en'ethesepadvitea,cct. in
tti
oetwe,,n :s.ra concur with the
this las't measure proposed
oie objects. Owing to the brief
seessor
an, • period of the . death of my lamented
eeo-:11.1 ieit time to
t s." my o‘,l • • •.! installation into office, I was, in
girt endatimi
of pare and submit a definite re-
uy. own, in my regular message ; and
has been wholly
ans.' InY mind
wiiiious attempt to conform my occupied in a most
s comimmicatio action to tine legislative
ti •
my obsectione,l am confined by the Con-
., • tiot
to ss, n,
simply to this Bill, but the