Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-09-10


of personal subserviency TO the Executive;
and any aluson to his wishes in debate
was deemed a departure not less from
decency than from order. An anxious de-
sire to accommodate the action OF Con-
gress to the opinions and wishes of Mr..
Tyler had led to the notifications Of the
first bill for the establishment of Nation
al Bank, presented to him for his approval,
widely differing from the opinions enter
tanned of their expediency by the majority
of both Houses of Congress, but which
failed to obtain that approval for the sake
Of which they had been reluctantly adopt
ed. A second attempt ehsued, under a
sense of the indispensable necessity of a
fiscal corporation to the revenues and cred
it Of the nation, to prepare an act, to which
an informal intercourse and communica-
ton between a member of the House,
charged with the duty of preparing the
bill, and the President of the United States
himself, might secure by compliance with
his opinions pledge in advance Of his APP
proval of the bill. when it should be pre-
sented to him. That pledge was obtained.
The bill was presented to him in the very
terms which he had prescribed as necessa-
~ to obtain his sanction, and it met the
same fate with its predecessor: and it is
remarkable that the reasons assigned for
the refusal to 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 measures. first among those
deemed by the Legislature of the Union
indispensably necessary for the salvation
of its highest interests, and for the restora-
ton of its credit, its honor, its prosperity,
was Frustrated, defeated, annuled, by the
weak and wavering obstinacy of one man,
accidentally, and not by the will of the
people, invested with that terrible power,
as if prophetically described by one of his
own chosen ministers, at this day, as "the
right to deprive the People of self-govern-
ment."
The first consequence of this Executive
legislation was not only to PROSTATE the eff
forts of the Legislature itself, to relieve
the People from their distress, to repenish
the exhausted Treasury and call forth the
resources of the country, TO redeem the
public faith to the fulflment of the national
engagements, but to leave all the burdens
and embarrassments of the public Treasu.
ry, brought upon it by the improvidence
of the preceding Administration, bearing
upon the People with aggravated pressure
The fatal error of the preceding Admins
tration had been an excess of expenditure
! beyond its income. That excess had beef
; an average of eight million of dollars
year, at least during the four years of it
existence. The practical system of its ifs
cal operations had been a continued in
> crease of expenditures and diminution o
revenues, and if left as bequest to its sue
cessor no effective reduction of expenses
but double reduction of revenue to tn,
) amount of millions, to occur, of course, b,
the mere lapse of time, unless averted
within fifteen months, by subsequent legis
lation.
By the double exercise of the Presden
"a tial interdict upon the two bills for estab
;, fishing National Bank this legislation wa
prevented. The excess of expenditure
. beyond the revenue continued and increas
: ed. The double reduction of revenue
= prescribed by the compromise of 1885
. was suffered to take its full effect-no re
duction of the expenditures had been pre-
months, since the Inauguration of Pres
u dent Harrison, an addition of at least fiji
y teen millions to the enormous deficit a
> ready existing in the Treasury at the clos
> of the last Administration, is now charge,
! upon the prevailing party in Congress, b
{ those who had made it the law, while tn
: exercise of the veto power alone disable
c the Legislature itself from the power c
u applying the only remedy which it wa
within the competency of legislation itse
n to provide.
If The great purpose for which the specis
J. session of Congress had been called wa
e thus defeated by the exercise of the vet
= power At the meeting of Congress, 6
'e the regular annual session, the majoritie
D. of both Houses, not yielding to the di
u, couragement of disappointed hopes an
ID bahed energies, undertook the task of ra
ID sing, by impost duties, revenue adequat
10 to the necessities of the Treasury. and I
IS to the fulfment of the national obligation
n By the assidious and unremitting labor
l. of the committees of both Houses charge
ne with the duties of providing for the nece
r. sites Of the revenue, and for the gre
d. manufacturing interest of the Northel
es Central, and Western States, which mu
"a be so deeply affected by any adjustment
a Tariff, to raise exclusively revenue ad
nd quate to the necessary expenses of I
raj Government from duties on imports, ia
re, if bill believed to be nearly if not Who'll
ire sufficient for that purpose, was elaborat
lit and amply discussed through long SER
a of weeks in both branches of the Legis