ON THE VETO OF THE FISCAL BANK BILL BY PRESIDENT TYLER.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, AUGUST 19, 1841.
[A FEW days after the inauguration of general Harrison as president of the United States—on the seventeenth of March, 1841—he issued a proclamation convening an extra session of congress on the thirty-first of May, on which day both houses assembled, and formed a quorum. President Harrison having died on the fourth of April, was succeeded by the vice-president Tyler, who, in his message to congress, recommended, among other matters, the adoption of measures to create a fiscal agent for the convenience of government, and the regulation of the currency. A bill to establish a fiscal bank of the United States was reported, and, after discussion, passed the senate by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-three, and the house, by one hundred and twenty-eight to ninety-one. On the sixteenth of August, president Tyler, much to the surprise and regret of those to whom he owed his election, returned the bill to the senate, with his objections, and on the nineteenth, the executive message being under consideration, Mr. Clay addressed the senate as follows; to which Mr. Rives replied, and the same day Mr. Clay made his rejoinder to Mr. Rives, in the remarks following this speech.]
MR. PRESIDENT, the bill which forms the present subject of our deliberations, had passed both houses of congress by decisive majorities, and, in conformity with the requirement of the constitution, was presented to the president of the United States for his consideration. He has returned it to the senate, in which it originated, according to the direction of the constitution, with a message announcing his veto of the bill, and containing his objections to its passage. And the question now to be decided is, shall the bill pass, by the required constitutional majority of two thirds, the president’s objections notwithstanding?
Knowing, sir, but too well that no such majority can be obtained, and that the bill must fall, I would have been rejoiced to have found myself at liberty to abstain from saying one word on this painful occasion. But the president has not allowed me to give a silent vote. I think, with all respect and deference to him, he has not reciprocated the friendly spirit of concession and compromise which animated congress in the provisions of this bill, and especially in the modification of the sixteenth fundamental condition of the bank. He has commented, I think, with undeserved severity, on that part of the bill; he has used, I am sure unintentionally,harsh if not reproachful language; and he has made the very concession, which was prompted as a peace-offering, and from friendly considerations, the cause of stronger and more decided disapprobation of the bill. Standing in the relation to that bill which I do, and especially to the exceptionable clause, the duty which I owe to the senate and to the country, and self-respect, impose upon me the obligation of at least attempting the vindication of a measure which has met with a fate so unmerited, and so unexpected.
On the fourth of April last, the lamented Harrison, the president of the United States, paid the debt of nature. President Tyler, who, as vice-president, succeeded to the duties of that office, arrived in the city of Washington, on the sixth of that month. He found the whole metropolis wrapped in gloom, every heart filled with sorrow and sadness, every eye streaming with tears, and the surrounding hills yet flinging back the echo of the bells which were tolled on that melancholy occasion. On entering the presidential mansion, he contemplated the pale body of his predecessor stretched before him, and clothed in the black habiliments of death. At that solemn moment, I have no doubt that the heart of president Tyler was overflowing with mingled emotions of grief, of patriotism, and of gratitude—above all, of gratitude to that country, by a majority of whose suffrages, bestowed at the preceding November, he then stood the most distinguished, the most elevated, the most honored of all living whigs of the United States.
It was under these circumstances, and in this probable state of mind, that president Tyler, on the tenth day of the same month of April, voluntarily promulgated an address to the people of the United States. That address was in the nature of a coronation oath, which the chief of the state in other countries, and under other forms, takes, upon ascending the throne. It referred to the solemn obligations, and the profound sense of duty, under which the new president entered upon the high trust which had devolved upon him, by the joint acts of the people and of Providence, and it stated the principles, and delineated the policy, by which he would be governed in his exalted station. It was emphatically a whig address, from beginning to end—every inch of it was whig, and was patriotic.
In that address the president, in respect to the subject matter embraced in the present bill, held the following conclusive and emphatic language.
‘I shall promptly give my sanction to any constitutional measure, which, originating in congress, shall have for its object the restoration of a sound circulating medium, so essentially necessary to give confidence in all the transactions of life, to secure to industry its just and adequate rewards, and to reëstablish the public prosperity. In deciding upon the adaptation of any such measure to the end proposed, as well as its conformity to the constitution, I shall resort to the fathers of the great republican school for advice and instruction, to be drawn from their sage views of our system of government, and the light of their ever glorious example.’