The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-14 00:00:00

AMERICAN NEWS.

LATEST from the UNITED STATES.
New York Papers of the 21st of August have
been received by the New York packet, Captain
CROPPER, which arrived at Liverpool at seven
o'clock last night. They bring the highly im-
portant intelligence that the PRESIDENT has
vetoed the Bank Bill after its having passed
the House of Representatives and the Senate.
This has created a most extraordinary sensation
in all the great commercial cities of the United
States. We are not surprised at this. Out
of the 26 States of the Union, 17 elected
President HARRISON, because he was be-
lieved to be favourable to this. measure. Death

moves him from an office which no man was

worthier to fill with advantage to his country,
and his successor, whom the Constitution, and
not the people, raised to supreme power, con-
siders it his duty to oppose the very question
to carry which General HARRISON was elected!
We have only space to-day for the following ex-
tracts from the American papers :
MESSAGE

OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES RETURNING, WITH HIS OBJEC-
TIONS, THE BILL TO INCORPORATE THE
FISCAL BANK OF THE UNITED STATES,
AUGUST 16, 1841.
To the Senate of the United States :
The Bill. entitled " An Act to Incorporate the Sub-
scribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States," which
originated in the Senate, has 'been considered by me,
with a sincere desire to conform my action in regard to
it, to that of the two Houses of Congress. By the Con •
stitution it is made my duty either to approve the Bill
by signing it or to return it with my objections to the
House in which it originated. I cannot conscientiously
give it my approval, and I proceed to discharge the duty
required of me by the Constitution—to give my reasons
for disapproving.
The power of Congress to create a National Bank to
operate per se over the Union has been a question of
dispute from the origin of our Government. Men most
justly and deservedly esteemed for their high intellectual
endowments, their virtue and their patriotism, have, in
regard to entertained different and conflicting
opinions. 'Congresses have differed. The approval of
one President has been followed by the disapproval of
another. The people at different times have acquiesed
in decisions both for and against. The country has been
and still is deeply agitated by this unsettled question.
It will suffice for me to say that my own opinion has been
uniformly proclaimed to be against the exercise of any
such power by this Government. On all suitable occa-
sions, during a period of twenty-five years, the opinions
thus entertained have been unreservedly expressed. I
declared it in the legislature of my native State. In the
House of Representatives of the United States it has
been openly vindicated by me.
In the Senate Chamber, in the presence and hearing
of many who are at this time members of that body, it
has been affirmed and re-affirmed, in speeches and re-
ports there made, and by votes there recorded. In
popular assemblies I have unhesitatingly announced it ;
and the last public declaration which I made, and that,
but a short time before the late Presidential election, I
referred to my previously expressed opinions as being
those then entertained by me; with a full knowledge of.
the opinions thus entertained, and never conceded, I was
elected by the people Vice-President of the United
States. By the occurrence of a contingency provided
for by the constitution, and arising under au impressive
dispensation of Providence, I succeeded to the Presi-
dential office. Before entering upon the duties of that
office I took an oath that I would "preserve, protect,
and defend the constitution of the United States."

Entertaining the opinions alluded to, and having taken
this oath, the Senate and the country will see that I
could not give my sanction to a measure of the character
described, without surrendering all claim to the respect
of honourable me—all confidence on the part of the
people—all self-respect—all regard for moral and reli-
gious obligations, without an observance of which no
Government can be prosperous, and no people can be
happy. It would be to commit a crime which I would
not wilfully commit to gain any earthly reward, and
which would justly subject me to the ridicule and scorn
of all virtuous men. _

I deem it entirely unnecessary at this time to enter
upon the reasons which have brought my mind to the
convictions I feel and entertain on this subject. They
have been over and over again repeated. If some of
those who have preceded me in this high office have en-
tertained and avowed different opinions, I yield all con-
fidence that their convictions were sincere. I claim only
to have the same measure meted out to myself. Without
going further into the argument, I will say that, in look-
ing to the powers of this Government to collect, safely
keep, and disburse the public revenue, and incidentally
regulate the commerce and enchanges, I have not been
able to satisfy myself that the establishment by this Go-
vernment of a bank of discount, in the ordinary accep-
tation of that term, was a necessary means, or one de-
manded by propriety, to execute those powers. What
can the local discounts of a bank have to do with the col-
lecting, safe-keeping, and disbursing of the revenue?
So far as the mere discounting of paper is concerned,
it is quite immaterial to this question, whether the dis-
count is obtained at a Stateßank or a United States Bank.

They are both equally local—both beginning and both
ending in a local accommodation. What influence have
local discounts, granted by any form of banks, in the re-
gulating of the currency and the exchanges? Let the
history of the late United States Bank aid us in answer-
ing this inquiry.
For several years after the establishment of that in-
stitution it dealt almost exclusively in local discounts,
and during that period the country was, for the most
part, disappointed in the consequences anticipated from
its incorporation. A uniform currency was not pro-
vided, exchanges were not regulated, and little or no-
thing was added to the general circulation ; and in 1820
its embarrassments had become so great that the Direc-
tors petitioned Congress to repeal that article of the
charter which made its notes receivable every where, in
payment of public dues.
It had, up that period, dealt to but a very small extent
in exchar.ges, either foreign or domestic ; and as late as
1823, its operations in that line amounted to a little more
than 7,000,000 doll. per annum ; a very rapid augmenta-
tion soon after occurred, and in 1833 its dealings in
the exchanges amounted to upwards of 100,000,000 dols.,
including the sales of its own drafts ; and ull these im-
mense transaction were effected without the employment
of extraordinary means. The currency of the country
became sound, and the negotiations in the exchanges
were carried on at the lowest possible rates.
The circulation was increased to more than 22,000,000
dollars, and tha notes of the bank were regarded as equal
to specie all over the country, thus showing, almost con-
clusively, that it was their capacity to deal in exchanges,
and not in local discounts, which furnished these faci-
lities and advantages. It may be remembered, too, that
notwithstanding the immense transactions of the bank,
in the purchase of exchange, the losses sustained were
merely nominal, while in the time of discounts the sus-
pended debt was enormous, and found most disastrous to
the bank and country. Its power of local discount has,
in fact, proved to be a fruitful source of favouritism and
corruption, alike destructive to the public morals and to
the general weal.
The capital invested in banks of discount in the United
States, created by the States, at this time exceeds
350,000 dollars; and if the discounting of local paper
could have produced any beneficial effects, the United
States ought to possesses the soundest currency in the
world, but the reverse is lamentably the fact.
Is the measure now under consideration of the objec•
tionable character to which I have alluded? It is
clearly so, unless by the 16th fundamental article of the
11th section it is made otherwise. That article is in the
following words :
" The Directors of the said Corporation shall establish
one competent office of discount and desposit in any state
in which 2,000 shares shall have been subscribed, or may
be held, whenever, upon application of the Legislature of
such State, Congress may, by law, require the same.
And the said Directors may also establish one or more
competent offices of discount and deposit in any terri-
tory or district of the United States, and in any State,
with the asst-nt of such State ; and when established, the
said office or offices shall only be withdrawn or removed
by the said Directors prior to the expiration of this
charter, with the previous assent of Congress :
" Provided, in respect to any State which shall not, at
the first Sessions of the Legislature thereof, held after
the passage of this Act, by resolution, or other usual
legislative proceeding, unconditionally assent or dissent
such
eu
the establishment n
isteisvetena bc6f
1 is ltrimi e ent
said of
State such
shall h
officee
thoerreoaffifteeer presumed,
slvithinit
coati: r g
the s into States
es executionmthatei,er,
the constitution, to esta-
blishany
of the powers granted by
ctionmdep rnoetesda
I.l)i.evaenrdthperl
oesps::rn
afrol:r3h.at whenever it shall be-
come
an office or offices
and the establishment thereof shall be directed by law,
it shall be the duty of the said Directors to establish such
office or offices accordingly."
It will be seen that by this clause the Directors are in-
vested with the fullest power to establish a branch in any
yielded its assent, and having once esta-
Su
sanctioneh assen
0t
fr is
netngoy.i bs
actuallye
expressed assent, "provided
not afterwards be withdrawn,
ch
aSttuait.ee
iblarasnch, it shall awn,
except by order of Congress.
hS
ltias thee
dw
such
and to have the force and
im-
plied,
which shall not, at the first
sinessrioesnpoecftthteo
La
unconditionally as-
or other usual legislative proceeding,
f such office or
thereof held after the passage of this Act, by resolution
sent or dissent to the establislunent
offices within it, such assent of said State shall be there-
afters to be ex-
pressed unconditionally at the first Session o
presumed." The assent or dissent 1.
the
Legis-
lature by some formal legislative act ; and
ex-
pressed, its assent is to be implied, and the Directors are
if not so
therefore invested with power, at such time thereafter as
they may please to establish branches, which cannot after-
wardso
be drawn, except by resolve of Congress--no
matter what may be cause which may operate with the
Legislature, which either prevents it from speaking, or
addresses itself to its wisdom to induce delay, its assent
is to be implied—binding and inflexible—it is the law-
giver of the master to the vassal, an unconditional an-
swer is claimed forthwith, and delay, postponement, or
incapacity to answer, produces an implied assent, which
is ever after irrevocable.

Many of the State elections have already taken place,
without any knowledge on the part of the people that
such a question was to come up. The representatives
may desire a submission of the question to their consti-
tuents preparatory to final action upon it, but this high
privilege is denied. Whatever may be the motives and
views entertained by the representatives of the people to
induce delay, their assent is to be presumed, and is ever

afterwards binding, unless their assent shall be uncondi-
tionally expressed at their first Session after the passage
of this Bill into a law.

They may by formal resolution declare the question of
assent or dissent to be undecided and postponed, and
yet, in opposition to their express declaration to the con-
trary, their assent is to be implied. Cases innumerable
might be cited to manifest the irrationality of such an in-
ference. Let one or two in addition sutfice—the popular
. branch of the Legislature may express the dissent by a
unanimous vote, and its resolution may be defeated by
the vote of the Senate ; and yet the assent is to be im-
plied. Both branches of the Legislature may concur in
a resolution of decided dissent, and yet the Governor
may exert the veto power conferred on him by the State
constitution, and the legislative action may be defeated ;
and yet the assent of the legislative authority is
and the Directors of this contemplated institution are atu-
thorised to establish a branch or branches in such State,
whenever they may find it conducive to the interest of
the stockholders to do so; and having once established
it, they can, under no circumstances, withdraw it, except
by an Act of Congress.
The State may afterwards protest against any such un-
just inference--but its authority is gone. Its assent is
implied by its failure or inability to act at its first ses-
sion, and its voice can never afterwards be heard. To.
inferences so violent and, as they seem to sue, irratknal,
I cannot yield my consent. No court of justice would or
could sanction them, without reversing all that •is esta-
blished in judicial proceeding, by introducing presump-
tions at variance to the fact, and inferences at the expense
of reason. A State in a condition of duress would be
presumed to speak, as an individual manacled and impri-
soned might be presumed to be in the enjoyment of free-
dom. Far better to say to the States boldly and frankly
—Congress wills, and submissi6n is demanded.
It may be said that the Directors may not establish
branches under such circumstances ; but this is a ques-
tion of power, and this Bill invests them with full power
to do so. If • the Legislature of New, York or Pennsyl-
vania, or any other State should be found in such con-
dition as I have supposed, could there be any security
furnished against such a step on the part of the Direc-
tors ? Nay, is it not fairly to be presumed that this
proviso was introduced foe-the sole purpose of meeting
the contingency referred to ? Why else should it have
been introduced ?

And I would submit to the Senate, whether it can be
believed that any State would be likely to sit quietly
down under such a state of things ? In a great measure
of public interest their patriotism may be successfully
appealed to, but to infer their assent from circumstances
at war with such inference, I cannot but regard as cal-
culated to excite a feeling at fatal enmity with the peace
and harmony of the country. I must, therefore, regard
this clause as asserting. the power to be in Congress to
establish offices of discount in a State, not only without
its assent, but against its dissent ; and so regarding it I
cannot sanction it.

On general principles, the right in Congress to pre-
scribe terms to any State implies a superiority of power
and control, deprives the transaction of all pretence to
compact between them, and terminates, as we have
seen, in the total abrogaion of freedom of action on the
part of the States. But further, the State may express,
after the most solemn form of legislation, its dissent,
which may from time to time thereafter be repeated, in
full view of its own interest, which can never be sepa-
rated from the wise and beneficent operation of this Go-
vernment ; and yet Congress may, by virtue of the last
proviso, overrule its law, and upon grounds which to
such State will appear to rest on a constructive neces-
sir d propriety, and nothing mom
e and the Bill as asserting for Congress the right
to inct rporate a United States Bank, with power and
right to establish offices of discount and deposit in the
several States of this Union, with or without their con-
sent, a principle to which I have already heretofore been
opposed, and which can never obtain my sanction. And
waiving all other considerations growing out of its other
provisions, I return it to the House in which it origi-
nated, with these my objections to its approval,
Washington, Aug. 16, 1841.

.RiflN TYLER.

(From the Courier and Inquirer, Aug. 20.)
:PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS.

The effects of the veto, if we are to judge from the
proceedings in Congress on Tuesday, are destined to be
most disastrous to the country, and utterly destructive
to the Whig party.
We have a clear majority in both Houses—a majority
of Whigs, elected by the people of the United States to
carry out certain measures, knd not intended to be the
mere automatons of any man ; and yet, because Mr.
Tyler has proved himself reckless and unprincipled, and
set at defiance the will of the people and his own
pledges, both direct and implied, the representatives of
the people assume the right of walking in his footsteps ;
and because he has vetoed one bill, they deliberately de-
termine to veto three !

Our motto is, " Principles, not men ;" and we speak
the general voice of the country. when we say, that indig-
nant as the people justly are against the President, they
will be far more indignant against those who having the
power shall fail to exercise it in behalf of the great ob-
jects for which they were elected—the adoption of the
measures of the Whig party. True, we, do not believe
that it is quite certain Congress will adjourn, guilty of
the insanity of striving to render themselves as odious,
nay, far more odious, than the executive ; but if they
should, they may as well be prepared for such a recep-
tion as faithless and unprincipled public servants should,
ever receive from an insulted and abused constituency.
Mr. Tyler has endeavoured to destroy the hopes of
the country in regard to a bank ; but what is the value
of that measure compared with the distribution among
the States of the proceeds of the public domain, or
with the adoption of a bankrupt law ? And shall
the treachery, or folly, or conscientious scruples of
Mr. Tyler, furnish an excuse for the representatives
of the people to be guilty of treachery or folly still
more disastrous to the country ? Shall the people's
representatives be permitted to vent upon the people, their
honest indignation against John Tyler) and in the hope
of annoying him, prove recreant to their trusts and to
the great principles upon which they asked and received
the suffrages of their constituents ? We hope not, and
we believe not ; but if such is to be the practice of the
Whig party when years of honest efforts by the people
have placed it in the ascendancy, the sooner we repass
under the yoke of our old masters, the better for the
country. From them we know exactly what to expect,
and may accommodate ourselves to their tyranny ; and
any tyranny is preferable to being ruled by men who do
not know their own minds from day to day, or who are
liable to be carried hither and thither by every breeze
that blows.

One word to Mr. Clay. He has always acted nobly
and won the enthusiastic encomiums of all men of all
political parties. He can pass all our great measures if
he thinks proper so to do, and makes the necessary effort.
Will lie falter at this crisis ? The country looks to him
for the success of the Land Bill and the Bankrupt Bill ;
and it is idle to conceal the fact, that he will receive the cre-
dit of the measures if they pass, and be held strictly re-
sponsible for their failure. Most(assuredly he will not disap-
point the just expectations of his friends and the country
at large in this emergency. We have perfect confidence
both in his ability and desire to do all that is required of
him.

(From the American.)
The doings at Washington on Tuesday were painfully
interesting. In the Senate, owing to uncertainty as to
the course which it might be deEmed expedient for the
Whigs to adopt, the discussion of the veto was again laid
over till yesterday.
In the House the effect of the veto was seen in the
postponement of the Bankrupt Bill, and the adjourning
of the House in a state almost of despair on the part of
the Whig Members. Subsequently, however, a consul-
tation was had, and the result was altogether conciliatory
and encouraging.

Our Washington letter, written after the breaking up
of the consultation, speaks with confidence that the lead-
ing Whig measures will yet be carried, including the
Bankrupt Bill, the Land Bill, and a bank of deposits,
issues, and exchanges. We repeat our earnest :onvie-
don, that the Whigs in both Houses will disappoint the
just expectations of the country, if they permit passion
or resentment to interfere with the legislation required
by the public interests. • They must bear and forbear,
well assured that such a course will be abundantly appre-
ciated by the nation.
(Correspondence of New York American.)
WASHINGTON, TUESDAY NIGHT.
The bank veto was adjourned over in the Senate from
yesterday until twelve o'clock to-day, and again over till
to-morrow, to give time for the Whigs to rally. In fact
the two Houses have been thrown into, and still remain
in, the state which printers call pie. The compositors
have been two nights at work distributing, but the pie is
not yet assorted. The Members cannot get back into
their places so as to set up a new scheme. Mr. Tyler is
understood to have become indifferent to any
fiscal agent, and some of our friends having
compromised all old principles, without success, know not
what to try next. The Senate wish the Huse to take the
lead with anew Bill, and the House is not yet agreed within
itself. In the nwantime the Locofocos are in ecstasies—
not doubting that the confusion of their opponents is
inextricable. Nevertheless, I still believe that the Whigs,
with a majority in both Houses, will, befbre adjournment,
agree upon a fiscal agent which Mr. Tyler cannot but
sign—a bank endowed with the power of establishing
offices of deposit everywhere of dealing in foreign and
domestic exchanges ; of thence issuing notes sufficient
for remittances, and by the receivability of thos", and
other notes of specie-paying banks, of soon bringing up
the local currency to the specie standard.
Such a project, notwithstanding the discouragements
alluded to, will, I repeat, be brought forward in a day or
two, perhaps to-morrow, with success in the Capitol and
the White House. Whether it will meet the wants of the
country is not so certain; but on this point lam not with-
out hope also. At any rate, no better experiment (and they
will have the power of amendment) is left to the Whigs.
These views, I know, are gaining ground rapidly, not
only in Congress but in other high quarters. Save the
YlANlElGllnCTl:lLTlNlcEslayeSs.—weAretrotuosTa
fairl9. extent
republic, no matter what individuals may be lost! C.
THURCSIT
at the Board to-day, but most descriptions fell off. Ti.
S. Bank Shares closed at 14-?,-, a decline of per cent. ;
Vicksburg declined ; Mechanics' Banking Association
2,and auto Catonroved Co, 2i ; Paterson ; Harlem -1 ; Long
Isl
The sales of State Stocks were, Indiana Bonds at 54k,
a decline of per cent. Corporation Loan, 1870, sold
at 844 ; Kentucky Sixes at 85.
There has been a fair demandfor sterling Bills at 83 a
9 per cent, and francs at 5.25. Some drawers are now 5.24. The supply of Bills is moderate. The
rate of Amsterdam is 39i a 40 ; Hamburg 35i- a 35i ;
Bremen 76 a 761.
The cotton buyers have been very quiet to-day. In
flour there is no further improvement, and, as is usually
the case after an advance, there are some sellers willing
to accept a shade less than the maximum price. The
receipts to-day are light, and large sales have been
made of Western at 6 18t a 625 dols. for Genesee fresh,