Mobile daily commercial register and patriot., 1841-05-26
fhn Renirtol

Fur me hegiSfff. 1 The article in this mornings Advertiser, copied from the Richmond Whig, asserts the broad doctrine that precedtu should guide Congress in charteriny United States Bank. And indeed the main argi- of the whole Whg party in the south resolves itself into thsa Hank has been twice chartered by Congress, and Presidents haus approved those char ters, therefore Congress should aga,n create Bank, and President Tyler should approve it.
 This argument may be plausible, but it is spacious, and will quote an extract from speech nade by this same John Tyler, to show its falacy.
 Virg mia had sent her instructions to Senator T, Ter, requiring him to vote against bank, and for other purposes. Gen. Jackson had lately renu,ed the deposites, and his friends had attempted to jusi fy him by quoting precedeuS. During the discussion of the Virginia instructions the 24th February, 1884, Mir. Tyler made speech of which the follow ing is extract, found in Duff Greens Register of Congressional Debates.
 (" Now sir, Virginia is exactly where she has al- ways been-against the assumption of power by the Congress or by the President. Her instructions to n,e convey the information that she is against the Bank AS SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN"
 "We have been furnished, sir, with numerous ci tatons which gentlemen have called precedent jus tify the late proceeding. Secretary of the Trea- sury has introduced into his report made years ago single expression which by construction could he made to bear this question, and t has been para ded Every hiding place of the Treasury Depart meut has been ransacked for the purpose of discoye ring some Herculaueun manuscript which bears upon l this question: If gentlemen had been successful in | their researches they would have accomplished mo- thing worthy of their labor. Precedeot the poorest
 reliance under any circumstances. It may be found to justify every act however ba, in private public lo and yet What uouid De thogh of prpate citizen tcho upon being araignsd ef justic. ShoDti rest his deicnce uon the facf tha is ha had due the thing before him. If the private indi- ,iiua should thus he permitted to himself shall public agent be permitted to do 50! Sir, the strict accountability of public agents is one ofi,e se- curities of the people against maadmnstration, aud if one Secretary Is permitted 10 do wrong because another may have done wrong before him, wrong is beaped upon wrong, and error upon error, until i priety. and truth and virtue shall have been buried under the foundation of the pyramid thus erected" "This cannot, must not he To admit precedent
 o explain away the constitution and law is to elevate
 the act of the mere agent above both the constitution and the law.
 i s.The argument derived from precedent and used l by gentlemen is suicidal. How would the cotyfitu- honaty of the Bunk stand ifprecedent is to be relied on! What becomes of the praises of inc President for his veto of the Bank bill two years agol Twice has the bank been chartered by the approbation of all the constitutional organs of the governnent.- Thrice has it passed the two houses of Congress and speak of subordinate tribunals once, if no more. has it received the solemn sanction of the high l est tribunal known to judicature. If sir, the mere obtr dicta uf Secretaries added to the loose 1 expressions of members of congress in debate, be sufficient ratify the recent proceedings of the EX ecut,e hoW shaR l and others ,cho think with upon the consutonai po,cer 10 create Bank be sptaned! 1 For one utterly renounce this argument (of precedenD unsound.'
 l Now here it will he that Mir. Tyler utterly re- nounces the argument that because congress has char tered Bank--because Presidents ha,v approved a Bank-because the Supreme Court has declared q Bank to be constitutiunil that Msrsfore he should sanction such an astitution We will soon see, how ever, what he means by saving that this question he will be guided by {" the great Fathers of the Re- publican School" MACON.