The Wabash Courier, Volume 10, Number 51, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 27 August 1842 — Page 2

REPORT

OF THE MAJORITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE VETO. In the Hoase of Representatives, on Tuesday, the 16lb, Mr. ADAMS read his report, as follows:

The Select Committee, to whom was referred the Message of the President of the United States, returning to this House the Act which originated in it, to provide rev«£ue from imports, and to change and modUV existing

laws

re^e^f»sage

been

imposing.dutieson imports,

and for other purposes," with his objections 10 it with instructions to report thereon to Jhc House, have attended to that service,and

Li the last of a series of

Exe

cutive measures, the result of which have been to defeat and nullify the whole action of the Legislative authority of this Union, upon the most important interests of the nation.

At the accession of the late President Harriffcm, by election of the People, to the Executive chair, the finances, the revenue, and the credit of the country were found in a condition so greatly disordered, and so languishing, that the first act of his Administration was to call a special session of Congress to provide a remedy for this distempered stale of tlie great body politic. It was even then & disease of no sudden occurrence, and of no ordinary malignity. Four years before, the immediate predecessor of Gen. Harrison had

constrained to resort to the same expedient, a special session of Congress, the result of which had only proved the first of a succession of palliatives, purchasing momentary relief at the expense of deeper seated disease and aggravated symptoms, growing daily more intense through the whole four years of that Administration. It had expended, from year to year, from eight to ten millions of dollars beyond its income, absorbing in that period nearly ten millions pledged for deposite with the States, eight millions of slock in the Bank of the United States, from five to six millions of trust fumis, and as much Treasury notes and was sinking under the weight of its own improvidence and incompetency. *v}.

The sentence of a suffering people had commanded a change in the Administration, and the contemporaneous elections throughout the Union had placed in both Houses of Congress majorities, the natural exponents of the principles which it was the will of the people should be substituted in the administration of their government, instead of these which had brought the country to a condition of such wretchedness and shame. There was a perfect harmony of principle between the chosen President of the people and this majority, thus constituted in both Houses of Congress and the first act of his Administration was to call a special session of Congress for their deliberation and action upon tne pleasures indispensably necessary for relief to tho public distress, and to retrieve the prosperity of the great community of the nation.

On lhe 31st of May, 1841, Within three months sd&ifter the inauguration of President Harrison, the Congress assembled at liis call. But the reins of the Executive car were already in other hands. By nn inscrutable decree of Providence the chief of the

People's choice, in harmony with whose principles the majorities of both Houses had been constituted, was laid low in death. The President who had called the meeting of Congress was no longer the ^President when Congress met. A successor to the office had assumed the title, with totally different principles, though professing the same at the time of his election, which, far from harmonizing, liko thorn of his immediate predecessor, with the majority of both Houses of Congress, were soon disclosed in diametrical opposition to them.

The first dovrfopement of this new. and most (fortunate, condition of tha General Government was manifested by the failure, once and again of

tho first great measure tnunxktl by Oongree to w» store the credit of the country, by the establishment of a National Bank—a failure caused exclusively by the operation of the veto power by tho President. In the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, tho Executive is only separated from the legislative power, but made dependent upon and responsible to it. Until a very recent period of our history, all reference in eithor House of Congress to the opinions or wishes of the President relating to any sub* jeet in deliberation before them, was regarded as an outrage upon tho rights of the deliberative body, among the first of whose duties it is to spurn the influence of tho dispenser of patronage and power.

Until very recently, it was sufficient greatly to impair the influence of any member to be suspected of porsonal subserviency to the Executive and any allusion to his wishes in debate was deemed a departure not less from decency than from order. An anxious desire to accomodate the action of Congress to the opinions and wishes of Mr. Tyler had led to modifications of the first bill for establishment of a National Bank, presented to him for his approval, widely differing from the opinions entortained of their expediency by tho majority of both Houses of Congress, but which failed to obtain that approval for the sake of which they had been reluctantly ailopteil. A second attempt ensue ), under a sense of the indispensible necessity of a fiscal corporation to the revenues and credit of the nation, to prepare an act, to which an informal intercourse and communication lietwoen 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 a pledge in advance «f his approval of the bill, when it should bo proPonied to him. That pledge was obtained. The bill wai presented to him in tho very terms which he had prescribed as necessary to obtain his sanction, and it met the same fate with its predecessor si 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 measure, first among those deemed by the Legislature of the Union indispensably necessary for the salvation of its highest interests, and for the restoration of its credit, its honor, its prosperity, was prostrated, defeated, annulled, by the weak and wavering obstinacy of one matt, 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, j, as 'tho ri«ht to deprive the people of its self govem went."

The first consequence of this Executive legtsla" lion was not only to prostrate the efforts of the 1*6* fixture itself to relieve the People from their di«trosa, to replenish the exhausted Treasury and call forth the resources of the country, to redeem the public faith In the fulfilment of the national en* gagementa, but to leava all the hardens and embarrassments of the pubtie Treasury, brought upon it by the improvidence of die preceding Administration, bearing Upon the People with aggravated pressure. The fiital error of the preceding Administration had been an excess of expenditure beyond its income. That excess had been an average of eight milttoo* of dollar* a year, at least, during the four veara of its existence. The practical system of ha iWsl operations had hem a continued increase of expenditures and diminution of revenues, and it kft as a bequtwt to its successor no effective reduction of expenses, hot a double redaction of revenue ^to the amount of millions, to occur, of course, by •the mere lapse of time, union averted, within fifteen months, by subsequent legislation. «. By the doobfe exercise of the Preetdeatal inter-

r%l»ct

s'bf

upon the two bills for establishing a National Bank this legislation was prevented. Tha excess

expenditure beyond the revenue continued and increased. The double reduction of revaoots pr*. scribed by the compromise of 183$, was suffered to take its full efifrc*—no reduction of tha expenditures had been p« escribed and in On coorae of eighteen months, since the inauguration of President Harrison, an addition of at least fifteen millions to tbe enormous deficit already existing in tha Treasury at tha does of tha brt' Adminisbratioo, i» now charged noon tha prevailing party in Con* wgnea, by (hose who had made it tha law, while Ihe yxfewe of tha veto power alone disabled tha Le» fciajsture, MIT frees the powtr of applying the within t^e oompeaeoqr Jof JngniatHMi lUsif to provide.

fTr®

fee which the'lpeeial Msnon ongre*» had bean called s« thus defeated by

--3 y-

tho exercise of the veto power. At the meeting of Congress, at the regular annual session, the majorities of both Houses, not yielding to the discouragement of disappointed hopes and baffled energies, undertook the task of raising, bv impost duties, a revenue adequate to the necea$£es of the Treasury, and to the fulfilment of ths national obligations. 4 t,-

By the aasidiiotfi aml tinfemluing ItfiOTS orffit committees of both Houses charged with the duties of providing for the necessities of the revenue, and for the great manufacturing interests of the Northern, Central, and Western States, which must be so deeply affected by any adjustment of a tariflC to raise exclusively a revenue adequate to the necessary expenses of the Government from duties on imports, a tariff bill believed to be near ly, it not wholly, sufficient for that purpose, was elaborated and amply discussed through along series of weeks in both branches of the Legislature. The process of gestation through which alone such a complicated system could be organized, necessarily consumed many months of time nor were the committees or the House, exempted from severe reproach, which the purchased presses of the Executive Chief are even yet casting upon Congress, without rebuke or restraint from him. Tho delays were occasioned by the patient and unwearied investigation of the whole subject by the appropriate committees.

As the period approached when the so called compromise tariff was to be consummated, leaving the Government without any revenue tariff sanctioned by the law, the prudence of Congress, without precipitating their decision upon the permanent system which they fondly hoped to establish, provided and sent to the President a temporary expedient, limited in its operation to the space of one month, during which to avoid, as they thought, the possibility of a collision with the apprehended antipathies of the President, they had suspended for the same month the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of public lands, which by a previous law, was to take effect the day after the expiration of the compromise. Not only was this most conciliatory measure contemptuously rejected, but, in total disregard of the avowed opinions of his own Secretary of the Treasury, concurring with those, nearly unanimous, of all the most eminent lawyers of the land, in solitary reliance upon the hesitating opinion of the Attorney General, he has undertaken not only to levy taxes to the amount of .millions upon the People, but to prescribe regulations for its collection, and for ascertaining the value of imported merchandise, which the law had, in express terms, reserved for the legislative action of Congress.

And now, to crown this system of continual and unreleting exercise of Executive legislation by the alternate gross abuse of constitutional power and bold assumption of powers never vested in him by any law, we come to the Veto Message referred by the House to this committee.

A comparative review of the four several vetoes which, in the course of fifteen months, have suspended the legislation of this Union, combined with that amphibious production, the reasons for approving and signing the bill, and at the same time striking, by judicial construction, at its most important enactment, illustrated by contemporaneous effusions of temper and of sentiment divulged at convivial festivals, and obtruded upon the public eye by the fatal friendship of sycophant private correspondents, and stripped to its naked nature by the repeated and daring assumption both of legislative and of judicial power, would present anomalies of character and conduct rarely seen upon earth. Such an investigation, though strictly within the scope of the instructions embraced in the reference to this committee, would require a voluminous report, which the scantiness of time will not allow, and which, may net be necessaiy for maturing the judgment of the House upon the document now before them.

The reasons assigned by the President for returning to the House of Representatives, with his objections, the bill to provide revenue from imports, and to change and modify existing laws imposing duties and for other purposes, are preceded by a brief dissertation upon the painful sensations which any individual invested with the veto power must feel in exercising it upon impoitant acts of the Legislature. The paragraph is worded with extreme caution, and with obvious intent to avoid the assertion, made in such broad and unqualified terms in the letter read at the Philadelphia Independence daydiws»paHyt hat€ongrwacan

tuna rw fcwpwttn-

but the concurrence of the Executive. There is in this paper a studious effort to save any individual from the imputation of asserting the unqualified independence of the Executive upon the Legislature, and the impotence of Congress to enact any law without him. That assertion, made in so explicit and unqualified terms, in the Philadelphia letter, is here virtually disclaimed and "disavowed. The exercise of some independence of judgment, in regard to all acts of legislation, by any individual invested with the veto power, is here curtailed and narrowed down to the mere privilege of not yielding his well-considered, most deeply fixed, and repeatedly declared opinions on matters of great public concernment, to those of a co-ordinate department, without requesting that department seriously to re-examine the subject of their difference. The co-ordinate department to the Legislature is no longer the co-ordinate branch of the Legislature. The power of Congress to enact a law without the co-operation of any individual Executive is conceded, not merely by unavoidable inference, for the closing paragraph of the message, recurring again to the same troublesome reminisconce, observes that, after all, the effect of what he does is substantially to call on Congress to reconstdtr the subject If, on such re-consideration, a majority of two-thirds of both Houses should be in favor ofthis measure, it will become a law notwithstanding his objections. The truism of this remark may perhaps be accounted for by the surmise that it was a new discovery, made since the writing of the Philadelphia dinner-party letter and the modest presumption ascribed to the Constitution, that the Executive can commit no error of opinion unless two-thirds of both branches of the Legislature are in conflict with him, is tempered by the amiable assurance that in that event he will cheerfully acquiesce in a result which would be precisely the same whether he should acquiesce in it or not The aptitude of this hypothetical position may be estimated by the calculation of the chances that the contingency which it supposes within the verge of possibility.

The reasons assigned by the President for his objections to this bill are further preceded by a negative of his antecedent opinions and communications on the subject of distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands. He admits that at tha opening of the extra session he recommended such a distribution, but he avers that this recommendation was expressly coupled with the condition that the duties on imports should not exceed the rate of 30 per cent, provided by the compromise act of 1833.

Who could have imagined'that, alter this mot* emphatic coupling ol the revenue from dutiesof impost wiih revenue from the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, the first and paramount objeofion of the President to this bill should be that it unites two subjects, which, so far from having any affinity to one another, are wholly incongruous in their character—which two subjects are identically the same with these which It bad coupled together in his recommendation to Congress at the extra session If there waa no affinity between the parties, why did he join them together* If the onion was illegitimate, who waa ihe ministering priest of the unhallowed rites? li is objected to this bill that it is both a revenue and an appropriation bill. What timf Is not the act of Septembers 1841, approved and signed by the President himself, both a revenue and an appropriation bill I Doeait not enact that, in the event of an insufficiency of impost duties not exoeediftg twenty per cent ad valorem, to defray the currant exporters of tha Government! tha proceeds of the sales of the public lands shall b« levied as part of tbesamerevvnee, and appropriated to the of the same porpoeea? of the

parposea? The appropriation of the proceeds sales of the miWic lands to defray the ordin*. ry expenditure* of the Government is believed to be a system of fiscal management unwise, iawoJiiic, improvident, and wqaat and it is precisely K* that reason that the bill now before the House provides that they shall not be eo appropriated.

The public lands are the noble and inappreciable inheritance of the whole nation. The sale of thens to individuals is not a tax apon the parchaeer, hat an exchange of equivalents soaroely more burdensome t« the grantee than if be sboeld receive it as gratuitous donation. To appropriate the proceeds of the sales to defray the ordinary expense! of the Government is to waste and destroy ihe property. This property is held by Congress trust. Mr. Tyler speaks of the distribution as if it eras p'wf amy ihe properly. It ia precisely the reverse. It restoring it to the owner. To appropriate the proceeds to defray the current expenditures to give It BP to dilapidation and waste. It ia pehticsl economy precisely the name aa if an individual, landholder shoeid sell off, year after year, porosis ef aestategind consume ttaweeesdeia the payment of

Toe first prnscipU

cat economy neccamry for a nurn HI to turn by

taxation wit hit) the year the whole sum reqoir„ 5* the expenditures of that year. Every departure from this principle ie a step in the path of national bankruptcy and rain. The daily demands of the Treasury must be supplied by the income derived from taxation by the year, and 4gtt by the dissipation of the common property.

The second reason ofthe President for objecting to Ihe passage of this hill is not more* poaderosa than the first. Ii is the destitute and embarrassed stale of the Treasnry, and the impolicy, if not wnconstiiutionalHj", ot giving^*/*?)/ a fruitful sotnie of revenue, which iftetainci may be seized by rho Gov«tnment,antf applied ro 'meet itadaiijrwaam. But the President had jut* told us that tins fruitful source of revenue was a subject wholly dissimilar in its character from that of revenue raised by duties ul impost—so dissimilar that tire union of them formed in his mind an insurmountable objection the passage of the bill. "I moat respectfully aun"mit (savs the message) whether is a time-tb-give "away the proceeds of the land sales, when thepub"lic lands constitute a fund which of all othefik may "be made most useful in sustaining the puHlic "credit." And how could it be made thus useful? Precisely by giving them may. Bv giving them away forever! For if the principle be once established that the proceeds of the sales of the public lands shall be substituted ilt the place of revenue by taxation to defray the ordinary annual experts of the National Government, never more will thepeople of any State in this Union have the benefit of one dollar from this richest of mines of inexhaustible wealth, bestowed upon them by their bountiful Creator for the improvement of their own condition." But given away—yes, to the last cent given lieaf, forever, to pamper the reckless extravagance of a Government forever preaching retrenchment tfcnd" economy, and forever heaping^illion upon million of annual expenditures "to suckle armies and dty nurse the land."

The committee submit to the House their unhesitating opinion that the appropriation of any part of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the ordinary annual expenditures would be the only effectual and irretrievahle.yiMW away of that 'groat* and inestimable inheritance of the American People. That, if once that growing and inexhaustible fund shall be doomed to form the whole orany part of the ways and means for the annual estimates of the receipts and expenditures of the National Government, the Plople may bid farewell, a Jone farewell, to every hope of evier receiving a dollar's oaeful improvement Irom chat gift of God to tbeea. thus cruelly and perfidiously wrested from their hands. .....

Nineteen of tne Stales of this Union, in the ar-. dent,perhaps, in some cases, inconsiderately ardent,

flave

iursuH ni this improvement of their own condition, becomgAftvulved.sotne of then heavily involved, in debtTrhe greatest portion ol this debt lias been contracted for the accomplishment of stupendous works to expedite and facilitate the intercourse of travel and of trade between the remotest extr mesof this great Republic, swarming from year to year, with redoubling million's of popttfV« tion. It is no exaggerated estimate of the vaWof these works to say, that the savings of time,.of labor, and of expense to individual citizens of the Union, enjoying the benefit of these public works, more than repays,-in every single year, the whole cost of their construction.

But, while tlieseimmense benefits have been thus secured to the People, as a community of individuals, the States which have authorised them have contracted a burden of liabilities heavier than they, are able to bear. They need the assistance of a friendly ami powerful handy and wliereshould they find it but in the sympathies of National Gover» ment? in their fidelity to the trust committed to charge in this immense and almost boundless pub--lie domain! The application of the proceeds of the public lands to alleviate the burden of these debts pressing upon the people of almost all the States, is, if not the only, the most unexceptionable mode of extending the mighty arm of the Union io relieve the People of the States from the pressure, of the burden bearing upon them—a relief consisting only of the distribution among them of their own property—a relief furnishing them the means of pnying to the United 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 jvill be relieved from the intolerable pressure of their debt, and the common Treasury of tlie Union will receive back in payment •of debt no small part of the sameeums allotted to the States as their 'respective portions of the distribution.

The committee regret that the shortness of the time wfiich they have allowed themselves for the preparation of this report constrains them to pam over numerous other considerations amounting to the clearest demonstration that the distributions* mong the States of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands will be infinitely more conducive pWTrCnu IINTO flllUV«nWnXP1l| MW» JVMI ofthe same funds to be swallowed up in the insatiate gulph of the ordinary annual expenses of the Federal Government—to perish ill the using like the nine millions of the fourth instalment 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 or Navy pension funds, all sunk, during the Van Buren Administration, without leaving a wreck behind.

This review of the reasons of the President for objecting to the passage of the hill might be exten* ded fur more into detail, and all leading to the conclusion that they are feeble, inconsistent, and unsatisfactory. It remains only for the House to take by yens and nays, the question upon-the final passage of the bill, and as the majority of the committee cannot indulge, even hypothetical^, tlie absurd hope of a majority either in this or the other House of Congress competent to the enactment of the bill into a law, they leave the House to determine what further measure thoy may deem necessary nnd practicable by the legislative authority in the present calamitous condition of the country.

Thev 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, strangled by the five times repeated stricture of the Executive cord. They observe lhat, under these unexampled obstructions lo 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 wilt 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 a high destiny to fulfil, by administering to tlie People in the form of law remedies for the sufferings which they had too long endured. The will of one man has frustrated all their labors and prostmtadaM their powers. The majority of the Committee hplieve that the ease has occurred in tlie annals ototar Union, contemplated by the founders of the Constitution by the granite the House of Representatives of the power to impeach the President of tho Uhitdf States but they are awaft that the resort to that expedient might, in the present condition of public affairs, prove abortive. They see that the irreconcilable difference of opinion and of action be* tween the Legislative and Executive Departments 61 the Government is but sympathetic with tbesatfie discordant views and feelings among the People.— Tq them alone tlie final issue of the struggle most he left. In the sorrow and mortification under the failure of all their labors to redeem the honor and prosperity of their country, it is a 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 eonsfftuentp upon themselves that the legislativopow-er-of the union, crippled and drwibleri as ir may now be, ie about to piss, renovated and revivified by: the will of the People, into other hands, upon whom will devolve'the task of providing that remedy for the public distempers which their own honest and agonizing energies have vain endeavored to sup-

The power of thepresan Congress to enact laws essential to the welfare of the People has been struck with apoplexy by the Executive hand. Submission to his will "ratheonly condition upon which he will permit them to act For the enactment of measures earnestly recommended by himself be forbids their action vabas evupled with a conditio* declared by himarif to be on a subject so totally different that he will not naffer them t* be coupled Ia the same law. With that condition CongreaS cannot comply. In this state of things he has assumed, aa the Committee felly believe, the exercise of the whole legislative power to himself, and is levying millions of money upon the People withoot any authority of law. Bet the final oedstoo of

executive, bet upon indicia! maihodur, mr eao the final decision of the wspremeComrt upon it he pro-

aooneed before the ctoee of the preaant Coagrae Ia the meantime theabnaiveexercise of theootMti* tatkmal power of the President to arrest the action ol Congress upon meaner** vital to tho wetfue of the People has wnmaht conviction apen the mmds of a majority of the Committee that the Veto power itself moat he restrained and modified by aa amendmem of the Cmwtitanon itself, a resotatiea ""'j-t'r herewith: Jor which they report-

ISK!

ul -|m 'ji'iui.iTifr i* nhftWi' ftmin"Vi

reapemfally

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, JOHN M. BOTTS, JAMES COOPER, K. RAYNER, TfiOS J. CAMPBELL, tFRUMAN SMITH, *t*

F. GRANGER, H. 8. ANE. JEREMIAH MORROW,

A. FEARC&

JVCPPCVni fSiV mmm IVBSHf JUWVwWV* iteet of tke United StmUs of Aettnen Comgrou

UUad, tmo tkirds of Mk Bontot amc»rri*f therein. it the following amapment ot the Constitution of United Stales, in dp seventh section of the first article, be recommended to theJ^gidatoreaof the several Sta*ee, which on the adoption of the same by threefourths of the said Legislatures, ahall become part and 'parcel of the Constitution:

Instead of the words "two thirds," twice repeated in the second paragraph of the said seventh action substitute, In both eaaes, tlie words "a majority of the whole number."

P0B14C .SENTIMENT,

Correspondence of Ike Baltimore Patriot. RF WASHINGTON, August 12,1842, The effects of the veto hove been so extensive, and have Created so much dismay here at the Capitol, that tlie majority have not recovers! from the shock. I can see no good sign that the eflbct of this blow may be sufficiently averted as to lead to the passage of a Revenue

tingress

Bill, or the approval of one which

would be of any permanent public benefit, if it hhouJd pass. The thing is possible, barely possible, and quite improbable, unless events should bo materially changed. As I write, Ubere has been Nothing agreed upon by the 'majority and the minority in Congress, I believe, in common with the President, have no higher ambition than to head the majority in ,|tn ea rnest, determined-effort to make the country prosperous by the enactment of a wise -Jind salutary law. It could be wished it were Jptherwise, for as bad as the present condition bf things are, the times will be far worse than ithey are, if we are lo have no revenue for the ^support of the Government. Yet, I have a ^faint hope that something will be done to a-

uliorate the condition of the country, before adjourns. Congress will not yield, ought not, to the Dictator and usurper *who presides over the White House, and who ^'assumed to himself power to legislate for the -country. Congress, however, without compromising its integrity, should do all it can do, to change the present aspect of affairis, and perhaps one more effort should be made before a final separation. After all the discussion which has taken place, it can hardly be necessary to do more than state the question. An extended debate would be as impracticable as it would be disagreeable, at this period of the session, to men of all parties. Probably,

I may be able to inform you to-morrow whether any thing will be done or not» The treaties, laid before the Senate yesterday, were the subjcct of consideration until the adjournmeut. Before the adjournment, they were teferred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and ordered to be printed.— The printing will be as confidential as the consideration. I believe, however, that the public are pretty well informed upon the material provisions of the treaties, and I am quite happy to assure you that every indication is favorable to a confirmation of the treaties by the Senate,

The Housa wereln session yesterday until between five and six o'clock. The Fortification Bill give rise to tin extended debate, which had but little pertinence to the subject, t)od in the course of which allsorts of matters, personal, partizan and political, were discussed, Mr. Bowne, of Now York, a rabid Loco foco, but anew member of "The Guard," made the longest, loudest, and most sycophantic defence of the Executive. He is a poor creature and proud of wearing a collar.

The only business of importance in the ^4foMoorHaftor the onmaiiUoa rose and reported, was a motion of fir. W« W. Irwin, of Pennsylvania, to be discharged from the select committee to report upon the President's veto message. Mr. Irwin wished to state his reasons and took appeal for that purpose, which was laid upon the table, by a vote of 78 to 74. The House,, excused Mr. Irwin, and then adjourned. M. D. C.

WASHINGTON, August 10, 1842.

REPORTS UPON THE VETO MESSAGE. The veto message of the President was the subject of the next business, and tho prominent business before Congress. Mr. Adams' report was expected, and the announcement that it was to come, had again filled the Chamber to overflowing. The subjcct, in anticipation, excited great feeling and great interest among all the members, and no expectations, however highly wrought, were more fully sustained. The message was read by Mr. Adams, agreeably with the general wish of the memliers. He was requested to read from tlie Clerk's table, but declined doing so. The report was read at his seat, and the members thronged around him in crowds. The gallaries were full to overflowing, and the crowd of persons not admitted to the floor, as well as the many having that privilege, were all eyes and ears., Mr. Adafns was heard with great attention to tho end, and his report was read in a full, strong voice, showing as much of physical strength in the body of the writer, as of intellectual vigor in the mind, which, in so short a time, and amidst intense labor and a constant attendance in the House, prepared it. v.. "j-^

The report was written, I believe, for the" most part, in the Hall of the House, and amidst not only the turmoils of legislation, but the peculiar excitement growing out qf the state of public business. tc}•::.

A sketch of the Report is hardly necessary when the whole document will be laid before your readers this evening.

Mr. Adams having read tho resolution with which his report concludes, recommending an amendment of the Constitution, by inserting the word "majority," wherever the word "two thirds" occur, so as lo take from the President tho power of what is now conditional, to a supreme power.

Mr. Adams moved that the report and resolution be made the order of the day for tomorrow.

Mr. T. W Ctimer rose with ateport,slgned by T. W. Gilmer, and understood to embody his own opinions, it is very long, very submi«Hve in its notions, vary condemnatory in ilt course, very suppliant and cringing to the President, whose course of conduct, Mr. Gilmer defends with an earnestoess beyond which nothing can know.

Mr. Gilmer opens the report with an extended complaint of the manner in which the Veto Message was disposed of by the Hoase, aa argument is based upon the imaginary act of the House, which was, that the House did not intend further action upon the bill, which had been returned with the objections of the Presideai.

The report of Mr. Adams and the known wiH of the members, stated opon the floor, and privately is an answer to tins subterfuge and misrepresentation of fact,

Mr. Gilmer's report closed at ten minutes pssl 12 o'clock. It is considerably longer than the report of Mr. Adams, and about as condemnatory of Congress, and as much in

v*r

lofe:

c-*

iapps

defence ofthe President as if it tiad beenti^" tated by the President himaelf. Mr. C. J. Ingersoll followed with his report, which "was read in so low a tone of voice that it could not be heard.., looks, however, to tlie further action of Congress, aud leans to the side of the Presidents. Mr. IngersoTs report had many more words than ideas in it, and there wits an attempted display of wit Which seemed to afford amu^nnent to some of the members^

-r

JFro* tie Neto York Expijiki*

We regret that we are underline necessity of laying before our readers another veto Message tVom the President, not only on account ,of the subject matter, but more particularly because we liave no love for veto power.— This is the fourth veto of tho present Chief

Magistrate within the short space of one single year, who has unfortunately felt himself called upon within that brief time to bring into action an extreme prerogative of the Executive oftener than all the other Virginia or Massachusetts Presidents we have had, take them all together. From tkt Washington Editorial Correspondence of the tame paper.

The President of the United States has again interposed the strong arm of Executive authority against tbe^Legislalive branch of the Government. The President, Executive, Dictator, he has embodied in his own person. Never elected by the People to fill the place he holds, he has taken upon himself an authority unpiralleled in the history of our own Government, and beyond all precedent in the history of the Governments of the crowned heads of the old world. For the first time, we have a President vetoing a revenue bill, and that, too, under circumstances so peculiar and so aggravated that the mass of men will, believe the President is not in his right senses.

But denunciation and lamentation are alike idle. Men may mar, but they cannot destroy. The President may wrong the People to wreak his vengeance.upon enemies in Congress. He may withhold his assent to all that Congress does, and Congress in like manner may refuse to yield but what is the consequence? Desolation to the Republic, and the annihilation of every vestige of power in the rulers themselves. If the President could not have yielded an opinion or a principle even to Congress, why was it necessary for him to strike a far heavier blow upon the country Could he not have wreaked his vengeance upon his enemies in the two Houses of Congress, without hurling his poisonous arrows in the bosom of tlie Republic Is the whole country his enemy, that he must wound it, and at a time, too, when it needs all the fostering care of parental tenderness and affection

From the National Intelligencer.

THE VETO IN NEW YORK. The following, from the New York Herald, will serve to apprize our readers of the ecstatic delight with which the reception of the last Veto filled the breasts of the Locofocos of the city of New York in which many of the of-fice-holders united heart and soul, intoxicated with joy at the defeat of those provisions of the bill which went to regulate their number and the rate and modo of their compensation

From the New Yorh Herald, August 11. Yesterday afternoon, a few minmee before two o'clock, wefVHtivea the Great Veto Message of Captain JOBS TFTIIIYPRESIDAI^LtJie United St a tea and in half in Exjra Herald from thyOW&e!, jlWli^BllHuaiid uld in law than no time. At font e'itoek afSeSbd edition warpablwhed, and sent to all parts oi tbe country, north sod east, by the afternoon maila.

The excitement tit and about the Herald hutldtngs was tremendous during the whole afternoon. In Wall street, the great gun of the Captain fell upon the rascals and speculators there like an avalanche of fire and brimstone from the regions not to be named. In the Park, and through all the popular sections of the city, where the working men "most do congregate," it was received like a freih revdalionjrom Heaven—a presage of better limes and purer morals. Towards night the crowds met spontaneously in the Park, and opposite Tnmmnny Hall, to the extent of many thousands.— The big guns were brought up, and twenly-foe were fired off at the first breath for the three'first vetoes. A gentleman named E. E. Camp, Esq. connected with this office, who had an extra in his band, was caught by the populace, compelled to mount one of the guns, and there to read the mRssage to the thickening crowds After he had finished his tmk, a scream of delight rose up to Heaven from the assembled mass, like the voice of Niagara Falls, and they rushed like madmen to the guns and fired senty-five guns for the last, the greatest, the bravest, the boldest stand, ere yet taken by a President of the United States against the rascally speculators, politicians, nnl financiers who have disgraced, dishonored, and afflicted the country. During the whole night, up to midnight, the crowds were thick around Tammany Hall, the Park, and near the Herald buildings.

Upon this demoniac exultation at an occurrence which threatens with ruin every interest of the country, the honest and faithful "Tribune," published in the same city, speaks as follows:

From the New York Tribune, August 11. "The enemies of American industry—the advocates ot the policy which must unfailingly depress, as it hns already nearly depressed, the labor and laborers of thia country to the level of Europe—the architects of^desolation and national ruin, fired one hundred guns in the Park last night over the defeat of the Protective Tariff —a defeat which will send the families of one hundred thousand upright and worthy American artisans supperless to bed! Birmingham and Sheffield through ilied over our own workshops and which 'Opee of

treachery have triumpl

Rejoicing in New York over a despotic

act which renders New York a British port, and restores, in an important respect, the era of our colonial vassalage! Could not the enemies of American Industrial Independence have procured the firing of these guns over the Canada line, or at least from the Warsprite? Be decent, men, even in insanity aad treason."

From the Richmond fVhig. EXECUTIVE USURPATION. The last veto will make the people pause. Not so much on account of the importance of the bill to the public service, or because of its details,as for the practical assertion of a right by the Executive to dictate to the Representatives of the People a revenue bill. This is the dangerous usurpation which must give great alarm to a people jealous of their rights and liberties. It virtually involves the whole taxing power. Tbe President does not pretend to object to the bill on account of its details, but because it does not tax the people in the precise mode in which he prefers they should be taxed. Some of the features of the bill come in conflict with some of the views which be says he has fraokly submitted to Congress, and therefore he is bound by his conscience and consistency to withhold his sanction. The scope of this most extraordinary assumption cannot escape tbe simplest capacity. It is, in substance, that if the Executive says this or that tax must be laid upon tbe people, however onerous and oppressive, it most be dooe or be will not sanction laws the most wholesome and necessary to tbe public good. In a word,-it amounts to a claim of absolute legislative power in the Executive for the raajority of two-thirds, in the decision of which bis Excellency is pleased to inform Congress he would acquiesce, can rarely or never be obtained.

The taxing power has been held to pertain strictly to the People or their immediate Representatives for centuries. Since the days of

Edw&t|| Il«, in England, the exercise of this vital po#er to freedom- has been surrendered without dispute to the Commons. Now and then wicked and arbitrary monarch has attempted to usurp it, but the Stuarts who made the only systematic eflbrt lost, ahead and a crown. In this country, the power is reserved to the People by an express provision of the Constitution, which declares that every revenue bill shall originate in the popular branch of Congress—with the immediate Representatives of the PeopIe-—coming from their midst, knowing their wants, and subject to the sattie burdens they impose upon others. The Senate, representing the States, is not even permitted to introduce a tax bill—so jealous were the frarners of the Constitution of this important power. But Mr. John Tyler sets himself op to subvert what the good, the patriotic, and the wise, for ages, have deemed essential to the very existence of free institution. He asserts that tha Executive shall have an active agency in taxing the People, and if they will not consent to tax them, as he is now doing, without their consent, and, consequently, without authority of law.

The mischiefs which Mr. Tyler may effect, if indulged in the exercise of this power, may be trivial, but it is the precedent. They who come after him may be more able and as willing to do evil, and they will seize upon t^o precedent and employ lo ths utter^ subyersion of public liberty. .. tf?

ALL HAH., KINS JOHN!—John Tyler has" aimed another stab at the Constitution of his country. The revenue bill lies prostrate under Veto the IV. Of course the pretext is the refusal of Congress to surrender at his bidding the distribution policy. The President seems determined to rule or rutn the majority of that body. The means adopted to compel the majority to abandon their convictions of duty and the principles professed when they came into power are monstrous.— John Tyler recommended, at nn early period of the session, the repeal of the distribution bill. A republican President, respecting the fundamental principle of Republican Government, viz. the right of the majority to rule, would have been content with this recommendation, especially after Congress, as in the case of the temporary revenue bill, Imd signified its dissent. But not so with John Tyler. Rule or ruin-seems to be his policy, and in carrying it into execution the veto power has been abused to the extent of el||bling him to grasp the taxing power. His arrows, aimed at the independence of the majority, have pierced the Constitution of the country in this most vital part. The objects of his wrath will pass the ordeal unhurt, save what tbey will be obliged to suffer in common with the whole people, from the injury inflicted upon the country by the fool hardy conduct of the President. We cannot at this stage of the game, consent to consider the "reasons** of the President, as they are called, further than to remark that he is "taxing" tlie people most prodigiously by his vetoes. A vast sum, for which the people cannot possibly receive any return, will have been wasted in this way.— No. It is sufficient for us that they are the very opposite of the "reasons** that influence the course of the majority. The distribution policy does not positively violate the Constitution, even in the newly formed opinions of the President. His objections amount to nothing more than that distribution is inexpedient and he sbouldThave yielded this ground io thbiMp

iterated counter opinion of the majority, es» pecially as further opposition required him tp striko down a bill of supplies. His recommendution to Congress to re-examine a point which they re-considered when velo the third was laid before that body, is insulting. Moro^ §1 over, he signed a bill uniting those incongruous subjects about whioh he complains—tariff* I and distribution—at the extra session.—Fred* ericksburg (Fa) Arena.

The American Sentinel at Philadelphia, a Locofoco paper generally, but lately approving and supporting the present Administration of the General Government, is more than content with the Veto describes the majority in Congress as "banded conspirators and concludes its observations as follows: "In conclusion, we cannot pass over what we think quite important in relation to President Tyler's course on this great measure, viz. that he has led off* boldly in the footsteps of Democracy, every Democratic metnber of both Houses of Congress having voted against the bill that President Tyler has thus promptly vetoed. Mr. Tyler has on this occasion marked out his future career. His banner bears on it the significant motto, 'the Democracy invincible/^ ,. Correspondence qf the Baltimore Patriot'

Fkostburo, (Mo.) August 9, 1842. I

Since I left yon, I have been ranging about in the Allegany Mountains for recreation and health, and have paid a flvins visit to Wheeling, passing over the National Road. Whileresting at Uniontown, the swift line of Messrs. Stockton & Co. came along, I stepped in and was whirled to Wheeling with the most unexampled speed. An account of tne whole trip from Baltimore to Wheeling, I suppose you nave seen fully set' forth in tbe newspapers. It ft reported to be the shortest trip for the same spaco on record, in this or any other country. This was not accomplished by racing —the horses were kept upon a firm, steady, swift trot, and there was the greatest dexterity managed in changing one team for another, perhaps net more than a minute was lost at each stopping place. Both the great lines upon the road are now conducted with great order and regularity, and the only racing appears to bo in the scramble to see which can obtain the greater number of passengers.

In the course of my jottroey I have conversed freely with all sorts of people, on [wlitieal and other topics, and I have found the old party lines Unbroken. The Loccf apfwar to be bewildered as to who will be their Presidential candidate. The Whigs, the real Log Cabin boys of 1840, stand firm to their principles, aad go heart and soul for "Harry of ike XVeot." Tbey feel that they bave been moat shamefully betrayed by the "accidental" President, and white they are anxions for an end of bis disgraceful career, they are impatient for a not her chance of re-asserting their principles—by the elevation of one who tbey know will not only carry them oat, bat will never prove traitor to his- friem* and to Ms partj- I observe by the Madiaooiaa, that

the small rho write the puerile articles in Lhat paper, seill affect to think Mr. Tyler has* party innjie eoantry. Nothing can be mom deiasive. I liave not. sewiasiiigle nan wWwoold avow himself for Tyler. Both parties speak of him with ths greatest aversion. In conversation witfcahadfng LocoJteMid "I know Tyler baa oome over tow bodmemdbreeckea

we woold not touch htm for the President with a ten tonite aixTd

footpoU! He ones was a Jaeksonite snd^Mtrtsd —be has now served yon worse, as the power and pT

I have taken a "birds eye view" of this immense mU »9500'1"ld wosW seess to me the Mfbu nbt

bSf,

ander

-SS

is Hi

•*v

-4

POW

sgainat you.-

:-.r-

written, and

published The Coal region extends (or miles and

be transported to Baltmore to the extent that of oonveyaoee nn be toade to carry i*. The gioa above Cumberland, aad the Rail have impenetrate it as Or as Frosthartf. Iron wttrks,

tS"1*1K**®'

!li

principally

^*2? only *en one of them,

tne direction of Mr. Young,

*®. English gentleman of talent and enterprise. Everv however, languishing here lor the want of a Tan® and tbe completion ofthe Rail Road and Canal.

.IssiS