Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-09-10
REPORT
of the Select Committee Of the House Of
Representatives on the Veto Message.

OF the Select Committee Of the House Of
Representatives on the Veto Message.
Mr.. ADAMS rose, and in firm and
distinct tone Of voice. audible in every part
of the Hall, read his report as follows:
The Select Committee, to whom was re.
ferred the Message of the President of the
United States returning to this House the
act, which originated in it, ito provide rev.
enue from imports, and to change and mod
ify existing laws imposing duties on i'm
ports, and for other purpose" with his OBJ.
iections to it, with instructions to report
thereon to the House, have attended to
that service and respectfully report:
The Message is the last of series of
Executive measures the result of which has
been to defeat and nuify the whole action
of the legislative authority of this Union,
upon the most important interests of the
nation.
At the accession of the late President
Harrison, by election of the People, to the
Executive chair, the finances, the revenue,
and the credit of the country were found
in condition so greatly disordered and so
languishing that the first act of his Admin
istration was to call special session of
Congress to provide remedy for this dis
tempered state of the great body polite
1t was even then disease of no sudden &C.
currence, and of no ordinary malignity.-
Four years before, the immediate predeces-
sor of General Harrison had been con-
strained to resort to the same expedient, a
special session of Congress, the result OF
which had only proved the first of a sue.
cession of palliatives, purchasing momenta.
ry relief at the expense of deeper seated
disease and aggravated symptoms, growing
daily more intense through the whole four
years of that Administration. 1t had been
expended, from year to year. from eight to
ten millions of dollars beyond its income
absorbing in that period nearly ten million:
pledged for deposite with the States, eight
ted States, from five to six millions of trust
funds, and as much Treasury notes; and
was sinking under the weight of its owr
improvdence and incompetency.
The sentence of suffering People, had
commanded change in the Administration
and the contemporaneous elections through
out the Union had placed in both House:
of Congress maorties, the natural expo
nents of the principles which it was the
will of the Peoples should be substituted ir
the administration of their Government
instead of those which had brought the
country to condition of such wretched
ness and shame. There was perfect har
mony of principle between the chosen
President of the People and this majority
thus constituted in both Houses Congress
and the first act of his Administration was
to call a special session of Congress fo
their deliberation and action upon tn,
measures indispensably necessary for re
lief to the public distress, and to retriev,
the prosperity of the great community o
the nation.
On the 3lst day of May, ls4l, within
three months after the Inauguration o
President Harrison, the Congress assem-
bled at his call. But the reins Of the Elk
! ecutive car were already in other hands,
By an inscrutable decree of Providenc
the chief of the Peoples choice, in harmc
ny with whose principles the maorities @
both Houses had been constituted, was lai
e low in DEATH The President who ha
r called the meeting of Congress was n
}, longer the President when the Congre!
met. A successor to the office had assun
;. ed the title, with totally different prime
;, pies, though protesting the same at II
g time of his election. which, far from ha
: moniting, like those of his immediate pre-,
y ecessor, with the majority of both Hous
G of Congress, were soon disclosed in di
e metrical opposition to them.
% The first development of this new, at
o most unfortunate, condition Of the Gener
6 Government, was manifested by the falur
r. once and again, of the first great measu
intended by Congress to restore the cred
of the country, by the establishment of
National Bank--a failure caused exclusiv
D ly by the operation of the veto power
* the President. In the spirit of the Cons
tuition of the United States, the Executi
,f is not only separated from the Legislati
f power, but made dependent upon and re
lie ponsble to it. Until very recent peric
W of our history, all reference in either Hou
of Congress to the opinions or wishes
lie the President, relating to any subject in {
he liberation before them, was regarded as
I'd outrage upon the rights of the delberati
body, among the first of whose duties it
at to spurn the influence of the dispenser
I'd patronage and power. Until very recel
rs ljv. IL WAS sufficient greatly TO imnair I