This exercise of the veto power by the President, produced a great sensation both in congress and elsewhere throughout the country. With the political friends of the President, that is, with those to whom he owed his elevation to power, it was generally a subject of extreme regret; and it was even rumored that, in consequence of the veto, the cabinet would be dissolved, and an open separation would ensue between the President and the whig party. By the anti-administration party, on the other hand, the veto was hailed with joy, and the President, it was said, had saved his country. The message, however, met with a milder reception from the dominant party in congress than had generally been anticipated. The President seemed to be generally regarded as honest in his convictions and conscientious in his scruples, and a desire was soon manifested, on the part of those whose views differed from his, to have a new bill introduced into congress which should be free from what the President regarded as constitutional objections. The reasoning of the President in regard to the bill which he had returned, seemed to be directed mainly against the power to discount, and the power to establish offices of discount in the different states. In regard to the power to deal in exchanges, he expressed himself with more favor, and it was pretty generally inferred by those who read the message, that he would not disapprove a bill to establish a bank whose object should be to deal in exchanges. Accordingly, in a few days after the reception of the veto, a bill to establish such a bank under the title of the “Fiscal Corporation of the United States,” was introduced into the house of representatives, by the Hon. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, soon passed, sent to the senate, there confirmed, and transmitted to the President for his signature. This bill, it was supposed, had been drawn up by those well acquainted with the President’s views, and in such a manner that he would surely give it his sanction. It was supposed that the party in power would not hazard a second experiment of the kind without having satisfactorily ascertained that such was the fact. But rumor soon began to whisper, that this bill also was to meet the fate of its predecessor. Nothing, however, was definitely known on the subject, until the 9th of September, when the President fully confirmed all that rumor had said, by returning the bill to the house of representatives with his veto.
This was a result sufficiently mortifying to the party, which had contributed to the election of Mr. Tyler as the associate of the lamented Harrison,and tended, in no small degree, to weaken the confidence which that party had reposed in him. From this time, it was obvious, that the President and his former political friends could no longer act in concert.
On the 13th of September, congress adjourned. Two days before, the whig members of the senate and of the house of representatives held a meeting in the city of Washington, at which it was resolved to publish an address to the people of the United States, containing a succinct exposition of the prominent proceedings of the extra session.
In that address, after speaking of the repeal of the sub-treasury law—the enactment of the land bill—and the passage of the bankrupt act—on account of which, considering their importance, they might well congratulate themselves and the country—they proceeded to profess their “profound and poignant regret,” that they had been defeated in two attempts to create a fiscal agent, of the necessity and importance of which they had satisfactory proof. “Twice have we,” said they, “with the utmost diligence and deliberation matured a plan for the collection, safe-keeping, and disbursing of the public moneys through the agency of a corporation adapted to that end, and twice has it been our fate to encounter the opposition of the President, through the application of the veto power. The character of that veto in each case, the circumstances in which it was administered, and the grounds upon which it has met the decided disapprobation of your friends in congress, are sufficiently apparent in the public documents, and the debates relating to it. This subject has acquired a painful interest with us, and will doubtless acquire it with you, from the unhappy developments, with which it is accompanied. We are constrained to say that we find no ground to justify us in the conviction that the veto of the President has been interposed on this question solely upon conscientious and well considered opinions of constitutional scruples as to his duty, in the case presented.” In another part of that address they say, “It is with profound sorrow we look to the course pursued by the President. He has wrested from us one of the best fruits of a long and painful struggle, and the consummation of a glorious victory; he has even, perhaps, thrown us once more upon the field of political strife, not weakened in numbers nor shorn of the support of the country, but stripped of the arms which success had placed in our hands, and left us again to rely upon that high patriotism, which, for twelve years, sustained us in a conflict of unequal asperity, and which finally brought us to the fulfilment of those brilliant hopes which he had done so much to destroy.”
The dissatisfaction thus manifested by the dominant party in congress soon extended itself to the cabinet of the President, which, in less than a week following the second veto of the President, was dissolved; the different members, with the exception of the secretary of state, resigning their places. The reasons for this step were given in detail, in a letter addressed to the President by Mr. Ewing, the secretary of the treasury, and published in the public journals. These reasons mainly referred to the exercise of the veto power by the President, and more especially to the course which Mr. Ewing stated the President had pursued in relation to the bill for the establishment of a fiscal corporation. This bill, Mr. Ewing says, was drawn up at the President’s request, considered and approved by him, and at his instance introduced into congress. On the resignation of his cabinet, the President nominated the following gentlemen to fill their places, viz.: Walter Forward, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury; John M’Lean, of Ohio, secretaryof war; Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, secretary of the navy; Hugh S. Legare, of South Carolina, attorney-general; and Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, postmaster-general; which nominations the senate confirmed.
It may be here added, that great surprise was manifested, and deep regret expressed, that Mr. Webster, the secretary of state, still continued to occupy his place in the cabinet. His political friends, while they believed he was actuated by pure and patriotic motives, would have been better pleased, had he by resignation borne signal testimony against a course pursued by the President, subversive of some of the most favorite measures of the party, which had elevated him to the high office he held. The continuance of Mr. Webster in office proved, however, of signal advantage to the country, as through his instrumentality, more than that of any other man, that long agitated and most vexatious question, relative to the north-eastern boundary, was settled to the satisfaction of both the governments, interested therein.
On the 6th of December following, the twenty-seventh congress commenced its second session. In his message on the following day, the President adverted to several topics of national interest—the principal of which were our relations with Great Britain—the Florida war—the census—the tariff—and the adoption of some plan for the safe-keeping of the public funds.
Great Britain had made known to this government, the President said, that the expedition, which was fitted out from Canada for the destruction of the steamboat Caroline, in the winter of 1837, and which had resulted in the destruction of said boat, and the death of an American citizen, was undertaken by order from the authorities of the British government; and that if Alexander M’Leod, a British subject, indicted for that murder, was engaged in that expedition, that government demanded his release, on the ground that he was acting under orders of the government. Fortunately for the peace of the two countries, before this demand was made, M’Leod had been tried in the state of New York and acquitted. The affair of the Caroline, however, remained unadjusted; and, having now been publicly sanctioned by the British government, it would become a matter of grave negotiation with that government.
The war with the Indian tribes on the peninsula of Florida during the summer and fall, had been prosecuted with untiring activity and zeal. In despite of the sickness incident to the climate, our troops had penetrated the fastnesses of the Indians, broken up their encampments, and harassed them exceedingly.
The census for 1840, had been completed, and exhibited a grand total of 17,069,453; making an increase over the census of 1830, of 4,202,646, and showing a gain in a ratio exceeding thirty-two and a half per cent., for the last ten years.