Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1842-08-25

tiNHo Wntcn uRey nave allowed themselves Tor the
pre- paration Of this report constrains them ID pass
the clearest demonstration that the distribution a
mohg tho States of the proceeds OF the sales of the
public lands will be infinitely moro conducive 10
the ends ofjustice and TO the relief OF the People
from their enbarrassnents, than the devotion of
the same funds to be swallowed up in the insati-
ate gulph OF the ordinary annual expenses of the
Federal Government; to perish IN the using like
the nine millions OF the fourth instalment promis-
ed to the States, the seven or eight millions Of
stock IN the Bank OF the United States, and the
five or six millions of Indian trust and Navy PEN
sion funds. all sunk, daring the Van Buren, add
mnlstation, without leaving wreck behind.
This review Of tho reasons Of the President for
ohjectlng TO the passage of tho bill might DO ex-
tended far more into detail, and all leading to the
conclusion that they are feeble, Inconsistent, and
unsatisfactory. 1t remains only for the House to
take, by yeas and nays, the question upon the f.
nal passage OF the bill, and as the majority of the
committee cannot indulge, even alphabetically,
the absurd hope of majority either in this or the
other House OF Congress, competent to the enact
ment Of the bill into law, they leave the House
to determine what further measure they may deem
necessary and practicable by the legislative au-
thority in the present calamtous condition of the
country.
They perceive that the whole legislative power
OF the Union has been for the last fifteen months,
with regard to the action of Congress upon mea-
sures OF vital importance, in state oil suspended
animation, strangled by the five times repeated
structure Of the Executive cord. They observe
that, under these unexampled distractions to the
exercise of their high and legitimate duties, they
have hitherto preserved the most respectful fer
bearance towards tho Executive Chief; that
while he has, time after time, annulled by the
mere act of his will that commission from the
People to enact laws for the common welfare,
they have forborne even the expression Of their
resentment for these multiplied insults and iniu-
ries-they believed they had high destiny to
fulfil, by administering to the People in the form
of law, remedies for the suferngs which they
had too long endured. The will Of one man has
frustrated all their abors and FRUSTRATED all their
powers. The majority OF tho Committee believe
that the case has occurred in the annals Of our
u MON, contemplated by the founders of the Con-
stituton by the grant to the House OF Representa-
tives of tho power to impeach the President of the
United States; but they are aware that the resort
to that expedient might, IN the present condition
of public affairs, prove a5ortve. They that
the irreconclabls difference of opinion and of &C
ton between The Legislative and Executive De-
partnent Of Government is but sympathetic with
the same discordant views and feelings among
the People. To them alone the final issue of tho
struggle must be left In the sorrow and mortifi-
cation under the failure of all their abors to re-
deem the honor and prosperity of their country,
II is cheering consolation to them that the ter
minaton Of their own official existence is at
receive the sentence Of their constituents upon
themselves; that the Legislative power OF the I'm
ion, crippled and disabled as it may now be, is
about 10 pass, renovated and revivifed by the
will of the People, into other hands, upon whom
will devove the task Of providing that remedy for
the public distempers which their own honest
and agonizing energies have i'll vain endcavored 10
supply: e -, , cao. o.
laws essential to the welfare of the People has
been struck with apuplexy by the Executive hand.
Submission to his Will is the only condition up
on which he will permit them to act. For the
enactment of measure earnestly recommended
! by himself he forbids their action unless coupled
with condition declared by himself to he on a
subject totally different that he will not suffer
them to be coupled in the same law. With that
I condition Congress cannot comply. In this state
| of things he has assumed, as the Committee full
ly believe, the exercise of the whole Legislative
power to himself, and is levying millions of mo.
J tho De1,I,I ;s. 81, ssi,y % lay
I But the final decision of thi, question depends
neither upon legislative nor executive, but upon
judicial authority, nor the final decision of the
! Supreme Court upon it be pronounced before the
| close OF the present Congress. In the mean time
| the abusive exercise of the constitutional power
of the President to arrest the action of Congress
upon measures vital to the welfare of the People,
| has wrought conviction upon the minds of a ma
Jority of the Committee that the veto power itself
| must be restrained and modified by an amend
ment of the Constitution itself, resolution for
which they accordingly herewith respectfully re-
| port.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.