A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler by Compiled by James D. Richardson

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A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS

BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON

John Tyler

April 4, 1841, to March 4, 1845

John Tyler

JOHN TYLER, second son of Judge John Tyler, governor of Virginia from
1808 to 1811, and Mary Armistead, was born at Greenway, Charles City
County, Va., March 29, 1790. He was graduated at William and Mary
College in 1807. At college he showed a strong interest in ancient
history; was also fond of poetry and music, and was a skillful performer
on the violin. In 1809 he was admitted to the bar, and had already begun
to obtain a good practice when he was elected to the legislature. Took
his seat in that body in December, 1811. Was here a firm supporter of
Mr. Madison's Administration; and the war with Great Britain, which
soon followed, afforded him an opportunity to become conspicuous as
a forcible and persuasive orator. March 29, 1813, he married Letitia,
daughter of Robert Christian, and a few weeks afterwards was called
into the field at the head of a company of militia to take part in the
defense of Richmond, threatened by the British. This military service
lasted but a month. He was reelected to the legislature annually until,
in November, 1816, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States
House of Representatives. Was reelected to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Congresses. In 1821, his health being seriously impaired, he declined
a reelection and retired to private life. In 1823 he was again elected
to the Virginia legislature. Here he was a friend to the candidacy of
William H. Crawford for the Presidency. In 1824 he was a candidate to
fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, but was defeated. He opposed
in 1825 the attempt to remove William and Mary College to Richmond, and
was afterwards made successively rector and chancellor of the college,
which prospered signally under his management. In December, 1825, he was
chosen by the legislature to the governorship of Virginia, and in the
following year was reelected by a unanimous vote. In December, 1826, the
friends of Clay and Adams combined with the Democrats opposed to John
Randolph and elected Mr. Tyler to the United States Senate. In February,
1830, after taking part in the Virginia convention for revising the
State constitution, he returned to his seat in the Senate, and found
himself first drawn toward Jackson by the veto message (May 27) upon the
Maysville turnpike bill; supported Jackson in the Presidential election
of 1832, but broke with the Administration on the question of the
removal of the deposits from the United States Bank, and voted for Mr.
Clay's resolution to censure the President. He was nominated by the
State-rights Whigs for Vice-President in 1835, and at the election on
November 8, 1836, received 47 electoral votes; but no candidate having
a majority of electoral votes, the Senate elected Richard M. Johnson,
of Kentucky. The legislature of Virginia having instructed the Senators
from that State to vote for expunging the resolutions of censure upon
President Jackson, Mr. Tyler refused to obey the instructions, resigned
his seat, and returned home February 29, 1836. On January 10, 1838,
he was chosen president of the Virginia Colonization Society. In the
spring of 1838 he was returned to the Virginia legislature. In January,
1839, he was a candidate for reelection to the United States Senate;
the result was a deadlock, and the question was indefinitely postponed
before any choice had been made. December 4, 1839, the Whig national
convention, at Harrisburg, Pa., nominated him for Vice-President on the
ticket with William Henry Harrison, and at the election on November 10,
1840, he was elected, receiving 234 electoral votes to 48 for Richard M.
Johnson, of Kentucky. By the death of President Harrison April 4, 1841,
Mr. Tyler became President of the United States. He took the oath of
office on April 6. Among the more important events of his Administration
were the "Ashburton treaty" with Great Britain, the termination of
the Indian war in Florida, the passage of the resolutions by Congress
providing for the annexation of Texas, and the treaty with China. On May
27, 1844, he was nominated for President at a convention in Baltimore,
but although at first he accepted the nomination, he subsequently
withdrew his name. On June 26, 1844, Mr. Tyler married Miss Julia
Gardiner, of New York, his first wife having died September 9, 1842.
After leaving the White House he took up his residence on his estate,
Sherwood Forest, near Greenway, Va., on the bank of the James River. Was
president of the Peace Convention held at Washington February 4, 1861.
Afterwards, as a delegate to the Virginia State convention, he advocated
the passage of an ordinance of secession. In May, 1861, he was
unanimously elected a member of the provisional congress of the
Confederate States. In the following autumn he was elected to the
permanent congress, but died at Richmond January 18, 1862, before
taking his seat, and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, in that city.

* * * * *

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

WASHINGTON, _April 9, 1841_.

_To the People of the United States_.

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful
communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several
Departments of the deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison,
late President of the United States. Upon him you had conferred your
suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had selected him as
your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses
as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical
operation of the Government. While standing at the threshold of this
great work he has by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence been
removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of the Constitution the
efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important
task have devolved upon myself. This same occurrence has subjected the
wisdom and sufficiency of our institutions to a new test. For the first
time in our history the person elected to the Vice-Presidency of the
United States, by the happening of a contingency provided for in the
Constitution, has had devolved upon him the Presidential office.
The spirit of faction, which is directly opposed to the spirit of
a lofty patriotism, may find in this occasion for assaults upon my
Administration; and in succeeding, under circumstances so sudden
and unexpected and to responsibilities so greatly augmented, to the
administration of public affairs I shall place in the intelligence and
patriotism of the people my only sure reliance. My earnest prayer shall
be constantly addressed to the all-wise and all-powerful Being who
made me, and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office
of President of this Confederacy, understandingly to carry out the
principles of that Constitution which I have sworn "to protect,
preserve, and defend."

The usual opportunity which is afforded to a Chief Magistrate upon his
induction to office of presenting to his countrymen an exposition of the
policy which would guide his Administration, in the form of an inaugural
address, not having, under the peculiar circumstances which have brought
me to the discharge of the high duties of President of the United
States, been afforded to me, a brief exposition of the principles which
will govern me in the general course of my administration of public
affairs would seem to be due as well to myself as to you.

In regard to foreign nations, the groundwork of my policy will be
justice on our part to all, submitting to injustice from none. While
I shall sedulously cultivate the relations of peace and amity with one
and all, it will be my most imperative duty to see that the honor of the
country shall sustain no blemish. With a view to this, the condition of
our military defenses will become a matter of anxious solicitude. The
Army, which has in other days covered itself with renown, and the Navy,
not inappropriately termed the right arm of the public defense, which
has spread a light of glory over the American standard in all the waters
of the earth, should be rendered replete with efficiency.

In view of the fact, well avouched by history, that the tendency of all
human institutions is to concentrate power in the hands of a single man,
and that their ultimate downfall has proceeded from this cause, I deem
it of the most essential importance that a complete separation should
take place between the sword and the purse. No matter where or how the
public moneys shall be deposited, so long as the President can exert the
power of appointing and removing at his pleasure the agents selected for
their custody the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy is in fact the
treasurer. A permanent and radical change should therefore be decreed.
The patronage incident to the Presidential office, already great, is
constantly increasing. Such increase is destined to keep pace with the
growth of our population, until, without a figure of speech, an army
of officeholders may be spread over the land. The unrestrained power
exerted by a selfishly ambitious man in order either to perpetuate his
authority or to hand it over to some favorite as his successor may lead
to the employment of all the means within his control to accomplish his
object. The right to remove from office, while subjected to no just
restraint, is inevitably destined to produce a spirit of crouching
servility with the official corps, which, in order to uphold the hand
which feeds them, would lead to direct and active interference in the
elections, both State and Federal, thereby subjecting the course of
State legislation to the dictation of the chief executive officer and
making the will of that officer absolute and supreme. I will at a proper
time invoke the action of Congress upon this subject, and shall readily
acquiesce in the adoption of all proper measures which are calculated to
arrest these evils, so full of danger in their tendency. I will remove
no incumbent from office who has faithfully and honestly acquitted
himself of the duties of his office, except in such cases where
such officer has been guilty of an active partisanship or by secret
means--the less manly, and therefore the more objectionable--has given
his official influence to the purposes of party, thereby bringing the
patronage of the Government in conflict with the freedom of elections.
Numerous removals may become necessary under this rule. These will
be made by me through no acerbity of feeling--I have had no cause to
cherish or indulge unkind feelings toward any--but my conduct will be
regulated by a profound sense of what is due to the country and its
institutions; nor shall I neglect to apply the same unbending rule
to those of my own appointment. Freedom of opinion will be tolerated,
the full enjoyment of the right of suffrage will be maintained as the
birthright of every American citizen; but I say emphatically to the
official corps, "Thus far and no farther." I have dwelt the longer upon
this subject because removals from office are likely often to arise,
and I would have my countrymen to understand the principle of the
Executive action.

In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be resorted to,
and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace be sedulously
avoided. A wise and patriotic constituency will never object to the
imposition of necessary burdens for useful ends, and true wisdom
dictates the resort to such means in order to supply deficiencies in the
revenue, rather than to those doubtful expedients which, ultimating in
a public debt, serve to embarrass the resources of the country and to
lessen its ability to meet any great emergency which may arise. All
sinecures should be abolished. The appropriations should be direct
and explicit, so as to leave as limited a share of discretion to the
disbursing agents as may be found compatible with the public service.
A strict responsibility on the part of all the agents of the Government
should be maintained and peculation or defalcation visited with
immediate expulsion from office and the most condign punishment.

The public interest also demands that if any war has existed between
the Government and the currency it shall cease. Measures of a financial
character now having the sanction of legal enactment shall be faithfully
enforced until repealed by the legislative authority. But I owe it to
myself to declare that I regard existing enactments as unwise and
impolitic and in a high degree oppressive. 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
reestablish 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.

The institutions under which we live, my countrymen, secure each person
in the perfect enjoyment of all his rights. The spectacle is exhibited
to the world of a government deriving its powers from the consent of the
governed and having imparted to it only so much power as is necessary
for its successful operation. Those who are charged with its
administration should carefully abstain from all attempts to enlarge
the range of powers thus granted to the several departments of the
Government other than by an appeal to the people for additional grants,
lest by so doing they disturb that balance which the patriots and
statesmen who framed the Constitution designed to establish between the
Federal Government and the States composing the Union. The observance
of these rules is enjoined upon us by that feeling of reverence and
affection which finds a place in the heart of every patriot for the
preservation of union and the blessings of union--for the good of our
children and our children's children through countless generations.
An opposite course could not fail to generate factions intent upon
the gratification of their selfish ends, to give birth to local and
sectional jealousies, and to ultimate either in breaking asunder the
bonds of union or in building up a central system which would inevitably
end in a bloody scepter and an iron crown.

In conclusion I beg you to be assured that I shall exert myself to carry
the foregoing principles into practice during my administration of the
Government, and, confiding in the protecting care of an everwatchful and
overruling Providence, it shall be my first and highest duty to preserve
unimpaired the free institutions under which we live and transmit them
to those who shall succeed me in their full force and vigor.

JOHN TYLER.

[For proclamation of President Tyler recommending, in consequence of the
death of President Harrison, a day of fasting and prayer, see p. 32.]

SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _June 1, 1841_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

FELLOW CITIZENS: You have been assembled in your respective halls of
legislation under a proclamation bearing the signature of the
illustrious citizen who was so lately called by the direct suffrages of
the people to the discharge of the important functions of their chief
executive office. Upon the expiration of a single month from the day of
his installation he has paid the great debt of nature, leaving behind
him a name associated with the recollection of numerous benefits
conferred upon the country during a long life of patriotic devotion.
With this public bereavement are connected other considerations which
will not escape the attention of Congress. The preparations necessary
for his removal to the seat of Government in view of a residence of four
years must have devolved upon the late President heavy expenditures,
which, if permitted to burthen the limited resources of his private
fortune, may tend seriously to the embarrassment of his surviving
family; and it is therefore respectfully submitted to Congress whether
the ordinary principles of justice would not dictate the propriety of
its legislative interposition. By the provisions of the fundamental law
the powers and duties of the high station to which he was elected have
devolved upon me, and in the dispositions of the representatives of the
States and of the people will be found, to a great extent, a solution of
the problem to which our institutions are for the first time subjected.

In entering upon the duties of this office I did not feel that it would
be becoming in me to disturb what had been ordered by my lamented
predecessor. Whatever, therefore, may have been my opinion originally as
to the propriety of convening Congress at so early a day from that of
its late adjournment, I found a new and controlling inducement not to
interfere with the patriotic desires of the late President in the
novelty of the situation in which I was so unexpectedly placed. My first
wish under such circumstances would necessarily have been to have called
to my aid in the administration of public affairs the combined wisdom of
the two Houses of Congress, in order to take their counsel and advice as
to the best mode of extricating the Government and the country from the
embarrassments weighing heavily on both. I am, then, most happy in
finding myself so soon after my accession to the Presidency surrounded
by the immediate representatives of the States and people.

No important changes having taken place in our foreign relations since
the last session of Congress, it is not deemed necessary on this
occasion to go into a detailed statement in regard to them. I am happy
to say that I see nothing to destroy the hope of being able to preserve
peace, The ratification of the treaty with Portugal has been duly
exchanged between the two Governments. This Government has not been
inattentive to the interests of those of our citizens who have claims on
the Government of Spain founded on express treaty stipulations, and a
hope is indulged that the representations which have been made to that
Government on this subject may lead ere long to beneficial results.

A correspondence has taken place between the Secretary of State and the
minister of Her Britannic Majesty accredited to this Government on the
subject of Alexander McLeod's indictment and imprisonment, copies of
which are herewith communicated to Congress.

In addition to what appears from these papers, it may be proper to state
that Alexander McLeod has been heard by the supreme court of the State
of New York on his motion to be discharged from imprisonment, and that
the decision of that court has not as yet been pronounced.

The Secretary of State has addressed to me a paper upon two subjects
interesting to the commerce of the country, which will receive my
consideration, and which I have the honor to communicate to Congress.

So far as it depends on the course of this Government, our relations of
good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations.
The true American policy will be found to consist in the exercise of
a spirit of justice, to be manifested in the discharge of all our
international obligations to the weakest of the family of nations as
well as to the most powerful. Occasional conflicts of opinion may arise,
but when the discussions incident to them are conducted in the language
of truth and with a strict regard to justice the scourge of war will for
the most part be avoided. The time ought to be regarded as having gone
by when a resort to arms is to be esteemed as the only proper arbiter
of national differences.

The census recently taken shows a regularly progressive increase in
our population. Upon the breaking out of the War of the Revolution
our numbers scarcely equaled 3,000,000 souls; they already exceed
17,000,000, and will continue to progress in a ratio which duplicates in
a period of about twenty-three years. The old States contain a territory
sufficient in itself to maintain a population of additional millions,
and the most populous of the new States may even yet be regarded as but
partially settled, while of the new lands on this side of the Rocky
Mountains, to say nothing of the immense region which stretches from
the base of those mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River, about
770,000,000 acres, ceded and unceded, still remain to be brought into
market. We hold out to the people of other countries an invitation to
come and settle among us as members of our rapidly growing family, and
for the blessings which we offer them we require of them to look upon
our country as their country and to unite with us in the great task of
preserving our institutions and thereby perpetuating our liberties. No
motive exists for foreign conquest; we desire but to reclaim our almost
illimitable wildernesses and to introduce into their depths the lights
of civilization. While we shall at all times be prepared to vindicate
the national honor, our most earnest desire will be to maintain an
unbroken peace.

In presenting the foregoing views I can not withhold the expression of
the opinion that there exists nothing in the extension of our Empire
over our acknowledged possessions to excite the alarm of the patriot for
the safety of our institutions. The federative system, leaving to each
State the care of its domestic concerns and devolving on the Federal
Government those of general import, admits in safety of the greatest
expansion; but at the same time I deem it proper to add that there will
be found to exist at all times an imperious necessity for restraining
all the functionaries of this Government within the range of their
respective powers, thereby preserving a just balance between the powers
granted to this Government and those reserved to the States and to the
people.

From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury you will perceive that
the fiscal means, present and accruing, are insufficient to supply the
wants of the Government for the current year. The balance in the
Treasury on the 4th day of March last not covered by outstanding drafts,
and exclusive of trust funds, is estimated at $860,000. This includes
the sum of $215,000 deposited in the Mint and its branches to procure
metal for coining and in process of coinage, and which could not be
withdrawn without inconvenience, thus leaving subject to draft in the
various depositories the sum of $645,000. By virtue of two several acts
of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue on and
after the 4th day of March last Treasury notes to the amount of
$5,413,000, making an aggregate available fund of $6,058,000 on hand.

But this fund was chargeable, with outstanding Treasury notes redeemable
in the current year and interest thereon, to the estimated amount of
$5,280,000. There is also thrown upon the Treasury the payment of a
large amount of demands accrued in whole or in part in former years,
which will exhaust the available means of the Treasury and leave the
accruing revenue, reduced as it is in amount, burthened with debt and
charged with the current expenses of the Government.

The aggregate amount of outstanding appropriations on the 4th day of
March last was $33,429,616.50, of which $24,210,000 will be required
during the current year; and there will also be required for the
use of the War Department additional appropriations to the amount of
$2,511,132.98, the special objects of which will be seen by reference
to the report of the Secretary of War. The anticipated means of the
Treasury are greatly inadequate to this demand. The receipts from
customs for the last three quarters of the last year and first quarter
of the present year amounted to $12,100,000; the receipts for lands
for the same time to $2,742,450, shewing an average revenue from both
sources of $1,236,870 per month.

A gradual expansion of trade, growing out of a restoration of
confidence, together with a reduction in the expenses of collecting and
punctuality on the part of collecting officers, may cause an addition
to the monthly receipts from the customs. They are estimated for the
residue of the year from the 4th of March at $12,000,000. The receipts
from the public lands for the same time are estimated at $2,500,000, and
from miscellaneous sources at $170,000, making an aggregate of available
fund within the year of $15,315,000, which will leave a probable deficit
of $11,406,132.98. To meet this some temporary provision is necessary
until the amount can be absorbed by the excess of revenues which are
anticipated to accrue at no distant day.

There will fall due within the next three months Treasury notes of
the issues of 1840, including interest, about $2,850,000. There is
chargeable in the same period for arrearages for taking the Sixth Census
$294,000, and the estimated expenditures for the current service are
about $8,100,000, making the aggregate demand upon the Treasury prior
to the 1st of September next about $11,340,000.