The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1842-08-30

} receive back in payment of debt no small
part of the same sums allotted to the State
as their respective portions of the distrlbu
) ton.
The committee regret that the shortnes
oftime which they have allowed themselve
for the preparation of this report constrain
them to pass over numerous other cOnside
rations amounting to the clearest demon
stration that the distribution among the
States of the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands will be infinitely more condu
Give to the ends of Justice and to the RELIEF
of the people from their than
the devotion of the same funds to be swal
lowed up in the insatiate gulph of the ordi'
nary annual expenses of the Federal Gov.
ernment-to perish in the using like the
nine millions of the fourth instalment prom
lsed 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.
| The review of the reasons of the President
for Directing to the passage of the bill
might be extended 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 final pas
sage Of the bill, and as the majority of the
committee cannot indulge, even hypotheti'
cally, the absurd hope of majority either
in this or the other House of Congress CON-
petent to the enactment of the bill into a
law, th " leave the House TO dete m ne what
further measure they may deem necessary
and practicable by the legisla tive authority
in the present calamitous C ondtion of the
country.
They perceive that the whole Legislative
power Of the Union has been for the last
fifteen months, with regard 10 the action of
Congress upon measures ofvital importance
in state suspended animation, strangled
by the five times repeated structure of the
Executive cord. They observe that, under
these unexampled distractions TO the exer-
else 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 CON-
mon welfare, they have forborne even the
the expression of their resentment for these
multiplied insults and injuries-,hev believ-
ed they had high destiny to fulfil, by ad
ministering to the People in the form of
law remedies for the sufferings which they
had long endured. The will of one man
has frustrated all their labors and Frustrated
all their powers.
The majority of the Committee believe
that the case has occurred in the annals of
our Union, contemplated by the founders of
the Constitution by the grant to the House
of Representatives of the power to impeach
the President Of the United States; but
they are aware that the resort to that expe
dent might, in the present condition of
public affairs prove abortive. They see
that the irreconcilable difference of opinion
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 of the struggle !
must be left. In the sorrow and mortifica !
ton under the failure of all their Iabors to
redeem the honor and prosperity of their !
country, is cheering consolation to them
that the termination of their own official
existence is at hand that they are even
now about to return to 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 people, into other hands, upon whom
will devolve the task of providing that rem
sdv for the public distempers which their
OWN honest and agonizing energies have IN
vain endeavored to supply. i
The power of the present Congress to
,nact laws essential to the welfare of the ,
People has been struck with appoplexy .
" the Executive hand. Submission to bis
will is the only condition upon which he
will permit them to act. For the enact |
nent off measure earnestly recommended .
" himself he forbids their action unless T
oupLed with condition declared by him /
elf to be on a subject totally different that c
e will not suffer them to be coupled in the e
anne law. With that condition Congress v
annot comply. In this state of things he
as assumed, as the Committee fully be- p
eve, the exercise of the whole Legislative J
over to himself, and is Ievying millions Of
honey upon the People without any author c.
" of law but the final decision Of this ques 81
on depends neither upon legislative nor ft
xecutive, but upon Judicial authority, nor a
an the final decision of the Supreme Court
pom it be pronounced before the close of
he present Congress. In the mean time
lie abusive exercise of the constitutional
over of the President to arrest the action
F Congress upon measures vital to the well
ire of the People, has wrought conviction g
BON the minds Of majority of the Com =
ittee that the veto power itself must be A
strained and modified by an amendment ir
the Constitution itself, resolution for to
hich they accordingly herewith respect
lily report.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, L.
JNO. NJ. Bolts, CO
JAMES COOPER, tn
X. RAYNER by