The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-08-20
SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE PRE-
SIDENT'S VETO

REPORT OF THE MAJORITY OF THE
SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE PRE-
SIDENT'S VETO.
Mr. ADAMS, from the Select Committee appoint,
ed on the subject, made the following report
Thu Select Conuittee 10 ,ohom referred The Message
Of the President Of the United States returning to this
House the act, sOhch originated in il, O provide
penwe from imports, and to chargs and modify eristing
la.os imposing duties imports and for other ptupos
esq., wi his objections TO it, aoith instructions to report
thereon TIE House, hare attended to that ssrpics and
respectfully report
The Message is the last of series of Executive
measures the result of which has been to defeat and
nullify 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 tho Executive chair, the
finances, tn revenue and the credit OF the country,
were found in condition greatly disordered, and so
languishing that the first act of his administration
was to call special session of Congress- to provide
remedy for this distempered state of the greatbody
polite. 1t was even then disease Of no sudden
currence and of no ordinary malignity. Four years
before, the immediate predecessor of General Harr-
son had been constrained resort to the expo
dent-a special session of Congress; the result Of
which had only proved the first of succession Of
paliatives purchasing momentary relief at the ex-
pense of deeperseated disease and aggravated symp
toms, growing daily more intense through the whole
four years of that administration 1t had expended,
from year to year, from S8,0O0,OOO to ylQ,0OO,OO
beyond its income: absorbing, in that period, nearly
$4,000 900 pledged for deposites with the States,
$1,000 900 of stock in the Bank of the United States
from $5OOO,O0O to $60O0O 900 Of trust funds, and
much Treasury notes; and was sinking under the
weight of its own improvidence and incompetency.
The sentence of suffering people had command
ed change in the administration, and the contempt
elections throughout the Union had placed in
both Houses of Congress majorities, the natural
ponents of the principles which it the will of the
people should be substituted IN the administration of
their Government instead of those which had brought
the country to condition of such wretchedness and
shame. There perfect harmony Of principle be-
tween the chosen President of the people and this
majority, thus constituted in both Houses of Con-
gress and the first act of his administration was, to
call special session of Congress- for their delibera
ton and action upon the measures ndispensably
cessary for relief to the public Distress and to re-
trieve the prosperity of the great community of the
nation
On the 3lst day of May, l84l, within three months
after the inauguration of President Harrison, the
Congress assembled at his call. But the rens of the
Executive car were already in other hands. BY an
inscrutabe decree of Providence, the chief of the
peoples choice, in harmony with whose principles
the majorites of both Houses had been constituted
was laid low in DEATH The President who had call
ed the meeting of Congress- no longer the Pres-
dent when the Congress met. successor to the Of
fee had assumed the title, with totally different prn
a. H.
election, which far from harmonizing, like those Of
his immediate predecessor, with the majority OF both
Houses of Congress, disclosed in diametr-
cal opposition to them.
The first development of this and most unfor-
tunate condition of the General Government
manifested by the failure and again. Of the first
great measure intended by Congress to restore the
credit Of the country, by the establishment Of ma
tional bank-a failure caused exclusively by the ope
ration Of the veto power by the President. In the
spirit of the Constitution ofthe United States the
ecuve is not only separated from the legislative pow
Ell, but made dependent upon, and responsible to It,
Until very period of history, all reference
in either House of Congress, to the opinions wishes
of the President relating to any subject in delibera
ton before them, was regarded as an outrage upon
the rights of the deIiberative body, among the first Of
whose duties it is to spurn the influence of the dis
penser Of patronage and power. Until very recently
it sufficient greatly TO impair the influence of any
member to be suspected of personal subserviency
bate, was deemed departure not less from deceney
than from oider. An ANXIOUS desire to accommodate
the action of Congress to the opinions and wishes Of
Mr. Tyler had led to modihca tons of the first bill fol
the establishment of national bank, presented tc
him for his approval, widely differing from the opin
ions entertained ofther expediency by the majority
Of both Houses Of Congress; but which failed to OBJ
tain that approval for the sake of which they had been
reluctantly adopted A second attempt ensued, un
der Of the indispensable necessity of a fsca
OF the and credit of the nation
prepare act to which informal intercourse and
communication between a member of the House
charged with the duly of preparing the bill, and the
President of the United States himself might secure
by compliance with his opinions, pledge in advance
of his approval of the bill, when it should be pre-
sened to him. That pledge obtained. The bill
presented to him in the very terms which he had
prescribed necessary to obtain his SANCTION and il
met the same fate with its predecessor and it is
markabe that the assigned for the refusal tc
approve the second bill are in direct and immediate
conflict with those which had been assigned for the
refusal to sign the first.
Thus the measure first among those deemed by the
Legislature of the Union ndispensaby necessary
the salvation of its highest interests and for the resto
ration of its credit its honor its prosperity pros
trated, defeated, annulled by the weak and waverins
obstinacy of one man, accidentally, and not by tn,
will of the people, invested with that terrible power
if prophetically described by of his chosen
minister's at this day, "the right to deprive the
pie of self government"
The first consequence of this executive legislation
was not only to PROSTATE the efforts of the Legislature
ITSELF to relieve the people from their Distress
penish the exhausted treasury, and call forth the
of the country redeem the public faith the
fulhment of the national engagements, but to leave
all the burdens and endorsements of the public trea
sury brought upon by the improvdence of the pre-
ccdng administration bearing upon the people with
aggravated pressure. The fatal of the proceed
ing administration had been an excess of expenditure
beyond It's income That excess had been an average
of eight millions of dollars year, at least during the
four years of its existence The practical system of
its fiscal operations had been continued increase OF
expenditures and diminution Of revenues and it left
bequest to its successor effective reduction OF
expenses but a double reduction of revenue TO the