Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1842-08-24


able mode of extending the mighty arm of the
Union TO relieve the people Of the States from
the pressure of the burthen bearing upon them
Ia relief consisting only of the distribution
among them of their own property--a relief fur
nishing them the means of paying TO the Uni
ted States themselves no incOnsiderable portion
of the debts due from the States to them; so that
by one and the same operation the People OF
the States will be received from the intolerable
pressure of their debt, and the common Treas
ury of the Union will receive back in payment
of debt no small part Of the same sums allotted
10 the States as their respective portions oil the
distribution.
The committee regret that the shortness OF
the time which they have allowed themselves
for the preparation ofihis report constrains them
to pass over numerous other considerations
amounting to the clearest demonstration that
the distribution among the States of the pro-
ceeds of the sales of the public lands will be
infinitely more conducive 10 the ends of justice
and 10 the relief Of the People from their en-
barrassments, than the devotion of the same
funds TO be swallowed up in the insaliate guph
of the ordinary annual expenses of the Federal
Government--to perish in the using, like the
nine millions of the fourth insialmeni promised
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
pension funds, all sunk, during the Van Buren,
Administration, without leaving a wreck behind.
This review of the reasons of the President
for oblecting to the passage of the bill might be
extended far more into detail, and all leading TO
the conclusion that they are feeble, inconsis-
tent, ard unsatisfactory. 1t remains only for
the House to take, by yeas and nays, the ques-
iion upon the final passage Of the bill, and as
the majority of the committee cannot indulge,
even alphabetically, the absurd hope of ma
jority either in this or the other House OF Con-
gress competent to the enactment of the bill in
TO law, they leave the House to determine
what further measure they may deem necessa-
ry and practicable by the legislative authority
in the present calamitous 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 measures of vital importance, in a state
of suspended animation, srangled by the five
times repeated structure of the Executive cord.
They observe that, under these unexampled
distinctions TO the exercise of their high and
| legitimate duties, they have hitherto preserved
the most respectful forbearance towards the
| Executive chief that while he has, time after
time, annulled by the mere act of his will their
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 injuries they believed
they had high destiny TO fulfil, by administer
ing to the People in the form of law remedies
for the sufferings which they had 100 long en-
dured. The will of one man has frustrated all
their labors and prostrated all their powers
The majority of the Committee believe that
the case has occurred in the annals of the Uni
on, contemplated by the founders of the Consti-
tuition by the grant to the House OF Representa-
lives of the power 10 impeach the President oi
the United States; but they are aware that the
resort TO that expedlenl might, in the present
condition fpublic affairs, prove aborliye. They
see that the irreconciable difference of opln-
ion and Of action between the Legislative and
Executive Departments of the Government is
but sympathetic with The same discordant views
and feelings among the People. To them
alone the final issue ofthe struggle must be left
In the sorrow and modification under the fail
u16 Oi t1elf IdOOTS lO Ieue6IN tIlS uOIuI dHU
prosperity of their country, ii is cheering con-
ISOLATION to them that the termination of their
own official existence is at hand; that they are
even now about 10 return 10 receive the sentence
of their constituents upon themselves; that the
legislative power of the Union, crippled and
disabled as it may now be, is about TO pass.
renovated and revivifed by the will Of the Peo
pie, into other hands, upon whom will deyolve
the task of providing that remedy for the public
distempers which their own honest and agoni.
zing energies have in vain endeavored 10 supply
The power Of the present Congress to enact
laws essential to the welfare of The people has
been struck with apoplexy by the Executive
hand. Submission TO his will is the only con.
dition upon which he will permit them to act
For the enactment of measure earnestly re-
commended by himself he forbids their action
unless coupled with a condition declared by him.
self, to be on a subject so totally different thai
he will not suffer them TO be coupled in the
same law. With that condition Congress can
not comply. In this state of things he has as
sumed, as the Committee fully believe, the ex
l Il II