Production Note
Cornell University Library produced this volume
to replace the irreparably deteriorated
original. It was scanned using Xerox software
and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution
and compressed prior to storage using CCITT
Group 4 compression. The digital data were used
to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper
that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1984. The
production of this volume was supported in part
by the New York State Program for the
Conservation and Preservation of Library
Research Materials and the Xerox Corporation.
Digital file copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.CORRESPONDENCE
Between the
HON. JOHN C. SPENCER
AND A1
COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS 0^ THE
G-E N ER A/L ADMIN I S T R A>T I O N ,
AT ROCHESTER! N. T.
&C T O B ER THE 1*9- T H ,< 1 8 4 2. *
tfEW-YORK:
PRINTEID'BY JONAS BOOTH, SEN5R.
1557IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE.
The following letter from several distinguished supporters
of the administration in western New-York, to their friend and
former neighbor and associate, the Hon. John C. Spencer,
Secretary of War, and his reply, will be read with deep interest;
not only by the citizens of our own State, but by those of every
other State in the Union. A production containing matter of
such great interest to the whole country, should be extensively
communicated to the people in every form. The present has
been adopted under the hope that it will tend more widely to
circulate the important truths it contains. Where Mr. Spencer
is known, and who, in his own State, does not know him per-
sonally or by reputation ? what he says, upon any subject, will
receive attention, and be regarded with respect. This masterly
letter is a most lucid and satisfactory exposition of the course
and policy of the administration of President Tyler, and the
most triumphant testimony of the purity of his motives and
the consistency of his political life. Although nothing offen-
sive towards the whigs is said, yet every blow struck for the
President falls with terrible effect upon them. How, after
such an exposition, can they go before the people with any
hope of being sustained in their assaults upon John Tyler,
who has proved himself upon all occasions a consistent
republican of the Jeffersonian school—an unflinching
DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION—and an HONEST MAN.
New- Yor&, Nov. 1st. 1842.Rochester, Oct. 14/A, 184?.
Hon. John G. Spencer,
Sir,
The friends of the administration of President Tyler*
in Western New York, are very desirous to obtain, from some
one capable and willing to give it, an explanation of the course
of the Administration, and an exposition of its policy. They
know of no one upon whom they could call with so much confi-
dence, as upon one who has so long been identified with their
interests and their sentiments, and who has the means of fur-
nishing the information they desire. They also feel, from
long association, a natural interest in your own position,
which has been, as we conceive., misunderstood and misrepre*
sented. Learning that you are about to visit our State, we
would respectfully invite you to extend your journey to the
western part of it, and then afford us the opportunity of hear*
ing the expositions we desire; or should you be unable to
afford us the pleasure of a personal interview, we should be
much gratified to receive a communication from you on the
subject referred to.
We are, Sir, your friends,
Joseph Strong, ) Presiding Officers at the late Pub*
eTwh^. |	* Meeting* msCity.
Lewis K. Faulkner,
William C. Storrs,
Monroe County
General Com-
mittee.
A. H. Jones,
Enos Stqne,
Lewis Bixby,
W. A. Welles.REPLY
New York, Oel. 19, 1842.
'Gentlemen,
I have received your communication of the 14th inst.,
inviting me to extend my journey into Western New York—
a region hallowed in my affections—to give an explanation of
.the course of the administration, and an exposition of its
policy; and to remove misapprehension or misrepresentation
in .reference to my own position. When I consider the state
of the public press, one portion of it employed in continual
assaults upon the President and many of the measures of his
administration, and the other portion rendering equivocal
idefence of some of those measures only, and condemning
.others, I cannot be surprised that you and your intelligent
fellow-citizens should desire other sources and means of infor-
mation to enable them to form an impartial judgment. I am
not aware of any rule of official duty that forbids a compliance
with your request, but on the contrary it seems to me congenial
.to the spirit of our institutions, that those to whom the powers
of government are intrusted should, on all proper occasions,
and when it can be done without interference with official
.obligations, be willing to give an account of the execution of
their trust to those who ask it in the spirit of fair inquiry.
Although it would give me the greatest pleasure to gratify
you and myself by a personal visit, for the purpose indicated
by you, yet my duties at the seat of government forbid an
absence so protracted as would be required to perform a jour-
ney of such extent. I shall endeavor, therefore, to comply
with the substance of your wishes, by a written instead of a
personal communication, which I trust will be nearly, if not
quite, as acceptable,6
The policy of the administration is indicated by the mea-
sures which the President has adopted when the power rested
with him, or has recommended to Congress when legislation
was necessary. Its general scope and aim have been, equal
and exact justice to each and every portion and interest of the
whole country. He takes these interests as he finds them,
secured and protected by the Constitution and laws, and his
greatest pleasure consists in his greatest duty, to uphold and
maintain that Constitution as it was delivered to us by our
fathers, and to execute those laws in their fair and full force
and spirit.
The course of the administration of President Tyler cannot
be understood without adverting to the history of its com-
mencement. By a dispensation of Providence which plunged
the whole nation in grief, the individual who had been chosen
for the Vice Presidency, succeeded to the Presidency. The
disappointment which such an event would naturally produce
in the minds of the party who had fixed their hopes and ex-
pectations on another, the derangement of schemes and com-
binations, which had been formed for a different contingency;
and it may be, the want of that confidential intercourse and
unreserved consultation with the leaders of the party which
would necessarily exist with the anticipated Chief Magistrate,
placed the Vice President in a peculiar and most trying situa-
tion. Not having been the leader during the contest, he could
not be said to be the acknowledged head of the party that had
attained power. That post was vacant. As I mean to abstain
from any mere partisan reflections, I forbear to enumerate the
actual political consequences of such a state of things. They
are doubtless familiar to you.
But the fact, that the actual President was without an
organized party in Congress, was as extraordinary as it was
new. It was the first time in our history that an opportunity
had been presented to test the strength of our institutions, and
ascertain whether the country could be governed simply by
means of the powers conferred by the Constitution and the
laws, or whether the adventitious aid of a Presidential partyf
in Congress was necessary to carry on the government suc-
cessfully. President Tyler has been compelled to try that
experiment. The most portentous consequences depend upon
the result. If it fails, then will it be deemed settled for all
future time, that whoever succeeds to the Presidency in any
of the modes prescribed by the Constitution, other than a direct
election by the people, must make terms with one or other of
the parties in Congress, and probably with that which at the
time has the majority. Thus Congress will in fact govern the
country, by an union of the Legislative and Executive powers.
The system which was tried under the Confederation, and
was universally condemned, will be revived ; and like powers
will be exercised by Congress in a form the more dangerous,
because it will be indirect and irresponsible. I am sure I need
not pursue the considerations which this topic suggests. Dis-
order and anarchy must follow the destruction of any one of
the important balances and checks of the Constitution; and as
we would avoid the horrors which have elsewhere attended
the abolition of the Executive power, we must endeavor to
preserve it here, in the last citadel of freedom.
Such were the difficulties of his position when the President
assumed the administration of the government. Reared at the
feet of Jefferson and of Madison in the strictest principles of the
Republican faith, those principles had become a portion of
himself, and he could no more depart from them than he
could sever himself from his moral nature.*
* To support the assertion in the text that the political character
and principles of the President must have been known by the highly
intelligent delegates who selected him for the Vice Presidency, the
following account of the public stations he has held, is made from
such authentic sources that its accuracy may be relied upon.
In April, 1811, and immediately after attaining the age of twenty-*
one, Mr. Tyler was elected a member of the Legislature of Virginia,
and was thereafter annually re-elected, during the four succeeding
yiears, with almost entire unanimity. In the winter of 1815 and
1816, while a member of the House of Delegates, he was elected by8
When selected as a candidate by the party that elected1
him, no other pledge was expected or asked, than such as his*
whole public life afforded. The party was composed of men*
the joint ballot of the two branches of the Legislature, a member of
the Executive Council of the State, in which capacity he served
until November, 1816. At that time a vacancy occurred in the
office of Representative in Congress from the Richmond district, by
the death of that true and faithful republican, John Cloptori. Mr.
Tyler, and Andrew Stevenson our late minister to England, became
competitors, although both belonging to the republican party. It
was, of course, a question of personal popularity, and Mr. Tyler
succeeded. He continued to represent the same district in Congress,
with little or no opposition, until the spring of 1821, when he with-
drew in consequence of ill health, and betook himself to the cultiva-
tion of a small farm. The people of his native county, however,
insisted on his representing them in the State Legislature, and ac-
cordingly he was returned as a delegate in the spring of 1822. He
continued to serve in the Legislature until the winter of 1825 and
1826,	when he was elected Governor* of the State of Virginia. To
this distinguished station he was re-elected in the winter of 1826—
1827,	without a dissenting vote. In the same winter, contrary to
the express declaration of his wishes, he was elected to the Senate
of the United States, where he served the regular term of six years;
and was re-elected in 1833. After three years service of this second
term, in 1836, he resigned his seat in that body rather than obey the
instructions of the Legislature of the State to perform an act which
he believed violated the Constitution. In the same year he was
nominated as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, by the Legislature
of Maryland, on the same ticket with General Harrison, and by
Tennessee and other States on the same ticket with Judge White.
He remained on his farm until 1838, when he was returned to the
Legislature from the county of James City and City of Williamsburg,
without having presented himself as a candidate. It thus appears
that from 1811 to 1836, a period of twenty-five years, with the in-
termission of a single year, Mr. Tyler occupied the most distinguish-
ed stations in the state and nation, in which he was neither silent
nor inactive. This continued and so often expressed confidence-of9
of various creeds on many points, but those professing the
republicanism of Jefferson, are believed to have constituted a
very considerable portion, if not a majority. When, therefore,
he met the representatives of this party in Congress, he had a
right to suppose that an administration conducted upon his
well-known principles, wuuld at least receive fair and just, if
not ardent support. He was soon called to bring those prin-
ciples into action. Among them, and one of the most cherish-
ed, was a denial of the constitutional power of Congress to in-
corporate a National Bank. He admitted its authority, as a
local Legislature, to establish a Bank in the District of Colum-
bia, and he conceded that such Bank would possess the same
authority to send agencies and branches into the several states,
which the Supreme Court had decided appertained to a state
institution;—that is, with the assent, express or implied, of
those states. This view was distinctly presented in the bill
submitted by the then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Ewing, at
the request of the Senate, was maintained by the President in
all his communications, and particularly and specially noted
by him, on an amendment to a bill submitted to his considera-
tion by a member of Congress, during the discussion of the
matter.
I do not deem the occasion a fit one to enter into an exami-
nation of the various statements and controversies that have
arisen on this subject. The foregoing explanation of the im-
mediate occasion of the open outbreak which ensued between
the President and the greater portion of the Representatives
in Congress of the party that elected him, is deemed sufficient.
But I should do injustice to my own feelings, if I did not
express the deep conviction produced in my mind from a
thorough investigation of the subject, and from having be-
his fellow citizens, is a proof, which he and his friends have a right
to cherish, of their estimation of his ability and his patriotism. Can
it he believed that the political principles of such a man were un-
known, or misunderstood, by those who nominated him for the Tice
Presidency ?
210
come familiar with the statement of all parties, that there was
much of mistake and misapprehension between those who
were honestly willing to understand each other; some of acci-
dental, and more of intentional misrepresentation of the lan-
guage of the President in the various conversations held with
him; and that throughout he manifested a sincere, honest,
and steadfast adherence to the great constitutional objection
which he had for years repeatedly, in public and in private,
announced as a fundamental article of his political creed,
Nor can I permit myself to doubt that, if similar frankness had
been exhibited by others, if a spirit of peace and harmony had
prevailed, and if a small portion of the liberality and forbear-
ance for dissenting views and opinions, which the whigs
claimed as the attributes of the party, had been exercised to-
wards the President, the violent scenes we have witnessed,
and which have scandalized free government, would not have
occurred; and the relations between the President and the
Representatives who were elected on the same ticket with him,
would have been such as to produce a peaceful, vigorous, and
successful administration of the government, and accomplish
all that the interests of the country required.
In proof of the absence of all selfish, interested, or ambitious
motives, on the part of the President, in the course which his
convictions of duty prompted, I may now advert to a fact long
known to me, which has been promulgated in the newspapers
of the day, vouched for by at least one whig editor, and by a
representative in Congress from Massachusetts, in a speech
lately delivered at Newburyport, upon authority, and hitherto
not denied. That fact is, that previous to returning the second
bank bill to Congress with his objections, in full view of the
assaults to be made upon him, and with the purpose of remov-
ing all causes of agitation, as well as to secure himself against
unjust imputations, the President submitted to his then Cabi-
net, whether he should, in the message then about to be trans-
mitted to Congress, announce a resolution to retire from public
life at the expiration of the existing term ; and that against his
doing so, all the members of the Cabinet then present, pro-11
tested, on the ground that such an annunciation would not
have the effect to produce peace or quiet, but would only
change the direction of faction; that no one had a right to ex-
pect such a step from him, as he had not been elected Presi-
dent, and no obligation existed that should interpose any bar-
rier between him and a direct vote of the people.
In connection, and yet in contrast with the preceding, is
another fact of an extraordinary character, which though
known by many, has lately been distinctly promulgated. It
is shadowed in a letter of Mr. Ewing’s in the statement by
him of a proposition having been made to the President, that
the majority who had passed the first bank bill, would consent
to postpone the second to the next session of Congress, if they
could receive assurances that in the meantime no hostile move-
ment would be made on the part of the President. The full
meaning of this statement has now been developed by the de-
claration of a member of Congress, that a message was carried
from the Whig leaders in Congress to the President, to the
effect that if he would engage not to disturb any members of
his then Cabinet in the enjoyment of their offices, the second
Bank Bill should be postponed. The answer to such a propo-
sition may be easily conceived. The effect of that proposition
was to prove the identity of the members of the Cabinet, whose,
places were deemed in jeopardy with the hostile members of
Congress, and if the design was to precipitate matters, it was
most effectual.
You will require no aid to determine which of the actors in
these scenes exhibited a lofty disinterested patriotism, and
which evinced any tenacity for place, or desire for power.
These facts are full of instruction, and furnish a key to many
mysterious transactions.*
* Since the publication of this letter, there has appeared in the
Albany Evening Journal, the report of a speech made by the Hon. D.
D. Barnard, a Representative in Congress, known to be the devoted
friend of Mr. Clay, in which, speaking of the pendency of the second
bank bill, Mr. Barnard says: “ Mr. Tyler became greatly distressed,12
After the outbreak referred to, the President remodelled his
Cabinet, and from that time his administration may be said to
have commenced. It began, and has been continued thus far,
without the support of any party acknowledging him as its
political chief, or bound to him by those political associations,,
which, under every preceding administration, had enabled the
Executive to look at least for favorable predispositions in a
large portion of the members of Congress to sustain his mea-
sures. The same course of events which deprived him of this
usual and accustomed aid of an administration, also liberated
him from those mere party influences and party obligations
which become reciprocal from party service. He was at full
liberty to consult the interests of the whole people, of the great
masses, without reference to the extreme views of the bigots
of any party—and he determined to do so. An examination
of the measures adopted by him, and of those recommended to
Congress, will show how far he has succeeded. He pursued
the even tenor of his way amid the conflicts of contending
parties, adhering scrupulously to the principles that he had
always avowed, so far as they were applicable to the questions
that presented themselves.
The annual message at the opening of the last session of
and he was accustomed, with the most solemn conjurations, to beg
and beseech every whig that approached him, that they would give
the subject of the bank the go by for that session, and at once adjourn
and go home.” Here then is authentic evidence, which cannot be
questioned, of the great efforts made by the President to gain time
which would allow the abatement of excited feeling, secure calm
and deliberate consideration, and afford opportunity for harmonious
action, by the postponement of the question in dispute, for little more
than two months, when a regular session of Congress would be con?
vened. A stronger proof of the desire of the President to avoid that
collision which he has been charged with having desired to bring
about, could not be afforded. It will not be difficult to decide which
course was the most wise and patriotic—that of consideration, or
that of violence and rashness.13
Congress, and the messages during the session, furnish a chart
of the measures of the administration, and enable us to discern
the policy of the President from the most authentic and un-
questionable sources. An enumeration of these measures, and
the fate of the recommendations by which they were urged
upon the attention of Congress, will enable you to perceive
how far that policy has been carried out, where it failed, and
the cause of such failure.
1st. The first point to which the President called the atten-
tion of Congress in the annual message, was the danger to
which the country was exposed, by the want of suitable pro-
visions in our judicial code to enable the general government
to perform the duties with which it is charged, of maintaining
peace and preserving amicable relations with all the nations
of the earth, and he suggested the propriety of providing by
law for the removal, from the State Court to the Federal Judi-
ciary, of all such causes as might involve the faithful observ-
ance and execution of our international obligations. Such a
law was passed, and hereafter the relations of peace and war
•with other nations, will not be dependant upon any other tri-
bunals than those created by the Constitution, for the decision
of all cases arising under it^ or under the laws made in pursu-
ance of it. And thus has been removed a prolific source of
-disquiet between the States and the General Government, and
of hazard to the peace of the nation.
2d. The next matter referred to in the message was the
affair of the Caroline, which the President reprobated in terms
becoming the Chief Magistrate of a free people, and he insisted
that an atonement should be made for the invasion of our ter-
ritory, and a renunciation by the British Government, of the
precedent as a rule of future action. Without giving or claim-
ing for the published correspondence between the Secretary of
;£>tate and Lord Ashburton, any other authenticity than what
may be inferred from the fact that its correctness has not been
denied, I conceive it proper in me to allude to it, as it is for
other citizens to canvass it. By reference to that correspon-
dence, you will perceive that after a delay of four years, what14
the President insisted was due us, has been amply rendered,
and that in this matter the honor of the country has been
vindicated.
3d. Another point in our foreign relations, which the mes-
sage brought to the attention of Congress and the people,
was the claim of the British Government to visit and detain
vessels sailing under the American flag, for the purpose of
executing their laws and treaties in relation to the slave trade.
Against this claim the President remonstrated in firm and de-
cided language, and declared that it must be resisted. This
claim in effect is withdrawn by the British Government, and
her Envoy has precluded her from renewing it, by the stipula-
tion in the published treaty, for the employment of vessels on
the coast of Africa by the two countries, separately and inde-
pendently, to act under the instructions of their respective go-
vernments, for the enforcement of their respective municipal
laws only. The very omission of any recognition of an
authority to visit the vessels of the one country by the officers
of the other, is in itself an exclusion of all such authority, and
leaves the matter precisely where the President had placed it
—a total, absolute, and unqualified denial of any such claim.
The insertion of such a denial in the treaty would have been
absurd. Treaties contain the affirmative stipulations of par-
ties, not the negations or protests of either. By refusing any
allusion to the claim, we deny on our part that it can become
a subject of compact, reserving to ourselves the vindication of
our rights (of which fair and explicit notice has been given)
whenever they shall be assailed. Thus has a pretension which
threatened the renewal of a practice that had brought on one
war, been abandoned, and the sanctity of our national flag se-
cured—at the same time the most effectual means have been
provided for the utter destruction of an accursed trade.
4th. Upon that most difficult and perplexing topic, a tariff
of duties on imports, the language of the message defines with
great accuracy, clearness, and precision, the true principles of
protection consistent with revenue. After speaking of the
repugnance of the people to the imposition of burdens not15
really necessary to the support of Government, the President
says:—“ In imposing duties, however, for the purpose of
revenue, a right to discriminate as to the articles on which
the duty shall be laid as well as the amount, necessarily
and most properly exists ” After showing that the imposition
of duties indiscriminately on all articles would defeat the very
purpose of obtaining a revenue, he remarks:—“ So, also, the
Government may be justified in so discriminating, by reference
to other considerations of domestic policy connected with our
manufactures. So long as the duties shall be laid with dis-
tinct reference to the wants of the Treasury, no well-founded
objection can exist against themand he concludes the re-
marks on that subject by urging the importance of certainty
and permanence in the system which should be adopted. It
is believed that no just man who regards the various interests
of the whole country--who would not compel that portion of
our fellow-citizens who have no manufactures, to pay taxes for
the support of those who have them, without any equivalent,
and who yet would protect American industry from foreign
cheap labor, in those articles which are essential to us in
peace and in war, and for which we ought not to be dependant
on any other nation. It is believed that no just man who will
take such an enlarged and patriotic view of the subject will
hesitate to approve the principles promulgated in the message.
"While they are adverse to prohibitory duties on the one hand,
they provide for abundant incidental protection on the other.
They are those, and those only, that will secure harmony as
well as justice, in the adjustment of a matter involving so
many and such various conflicting interests, and produce that
permanence which in this country can be attained only by the
general acquiescence of the people in the equity and honesty
of any system. And if the liberality, so unusual, thus evinced
by a statesman coming from that portion of our Union which
has no manufactures, be reciprocated and met in the same
spirit by those who are most anxious to promote those inter-
ests, a unity of feeling will exist throughout the confederacy,
which will afford more stable, and therefore more real and16
substantial protection to our own industry, than any laws that
may be passed under occasional and spasmodic excitements,
which will be sure to intermit with the cessations of the sti-
mulants that produced them.
Should the Tariff Law that has been passed and received
the signature of the President, be found in practice to differ in
important particulars from the just and liberal principles ad-
vanced by him, he will doubtless be found ready to sanction
such necessary amendments as may be proposed by that body
in which the Constitution has exclusively vested the authority
to originate and pass revenue bills.
5th. The recommendations of the annual message on the
subject of Currency and Exchanges, next claim our attention.
After pointing out the necessity of a medium of Exchange
approximating to uniformity of value in the different parts of
the country, the President proceeds to redeem the pledge he
had given at the previous session of Congress, by submitting
the outlines of a plan for the safe keeping and disbursement of
the public revenue, which shall at the same time furnish a
currency, and thus indirectly regulate exchanges. The limits
which I have assigned to this communication forbid a repeti-
tion of the details of the Exchequer plan, as developed in the
message, and afterwards more fully exhibited in the Bill sub-
mitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury. This
is the more regretted, because I am confident it has not been
sufficiently considered by my fellow-citizens generally, to be
thoroughly understood. It is emphatically the plan of the
President, originated and matured by him. with a single modi-
fication introduced on the advice of his Cabinet. It proposes
to attain its objects by the application of powers acknowledged
in practice to exist in the Government from its foundation.
The Treasury Department was instituted for the collection of
the public revenue, its safe keeping, and its disbursement, ac-
cording to acts of appropriation by Congress. To a board of
control under the superintendence of that department, there-
fore, was given the immediate charge of this business, with
authority to establish agencies, or employ State banks in itstr
transactions. To these was added the power of issuing Trea-
sury notes to the amount of .fifteen millions, selling drafts, re-
ceiving deposits, and purchasing bills of a certain description.
These were the general features; and the President invited a
discussion of its merits, while he expressed a readiness to con-
cur in any modifications that did not violate its essential prin-
ciples, particularly such as should, by any Constitutional means,
relieve the Chief Executive Magistrate from any controlling
power over the public Treasury. You perceive how entirely
this plan avoided all Constitutional objections, by providing
that the functions of purchasing and selling drafts other than
for the purposes of the Government, should be exercised in
any State, only when not prohibited by such State. All conflict
with State jurisdiction was prevented ; the banking privileges
of the States were left without interference—the operations of
the Treasury simplified and facilitated, and the great interests
of the Union promoted by the introduction of the currency,
founded on the revenues of the country, and yet so limited as
to be always, at all times, equivalent to specie. This plan has
been approved by some of the most competent financiers of
this country and of England, and pronounced to be adequate
to all our wants, safe in its operations, and calculated to furnish
the most perfect currency that could be devised. So far as the
opinion of an individual who has had some experience in such
matters, and who it is known to you has had occasion- to be-
come acquainted with the abuses to which a National Bank is
from its nature exposed ; so far as- the opinion of such an in-
dividual is of any value, it is unhesitatingly given, that this
plan, in its essential features, is far preferable toany other that
has been submitted, and that it will accomplish all the purposes
for which it was designed, without hazard to the Government,
without, danger to the people, and without stimulating anew
the reckless spirit of speculation, whose excesses we have all
such cause to mourn.
If, as seems to be generally conceded, the question lies be-
tween this plan and a National Bank, there cannot be much
room for doubt or hesitation. Waiving for the present the
3insuperable difficulties presented by the Constitutional objec-
tions to such a bank operating through the whole Union—
objections so long entertained by a large portion of our fellow-
citizens, and strengthened rather than diminished by discus-
sion, and by the sad experience of the tremendous power, and
the still more tremendous corruptions of such an institution—
waiving these, the very fact of the existence of such objections,
and of others of a different character, will effectually prevent
a subscription to the stock by those sound and prudent capi-
talists, whose countenance and whose real wealth can alone
give it vitality. Such men will never consent to place their
property in a position to be the sport of the alternate triumphs
and defeats of parties. The chartering a bank under such
circumstances, would but invite the cupidity of those who in-
tend to become borrowers rather than lenders, and who by
means of the irresponsibility of a corporation, and with the
impunity that has marked former transactions of similar insti-
tutions, would plunder those whose confidence they had in-
vited but to betray it. Whatever may have been our opinions
heretofore of the utility of a National Bank—however we may
have been compelled to acquiesce in its supposed necessity,
the history of the last few years has, I should hope, convinced
all who are open to conviction, that any evils which may be
anticipated from the want of such an institution, however
great, are more tolerable than the certain, positive, and im-
measurable injuries, which we now know have flowed from
the existence of one that was instituted under the most favor-
able auspices, and was committed to the charge of men at the
time esteemed the most honorable and trustworthy in the land.
Within four years of its existence, the last Bank of the United
States became little better than a den of robbers. Its man-
agers, with few exceptions, pursued a systematic scheme of
plunder and fraud, which was arrested by the investigations
of a Committee of Congress.
Clemency, now believed to have been mistaken, towards in-
nocent stockholders, and a hope that the example which had
been made of the offenders would deter others from similar19
practices, saved the bank from dissolution. It was allowed to
proceed under new restrictions designed to prevent the recur*
rence of similar frauds. In a few years, it was found at open
war with the Government of the country, seeking the renewal
of its charter, subsidizing presses and editors, squandering its
treasures in partisan elections, and openly purchasing the sup-
port of the venal in all directions. The moral corruption
which flooded the country was in itself an evil of the most
fearful magnitude. It struck deep at the roots of public faith
and private honor, and prepared the way for that reckless and
unbounded extravagance, which the bank itself stimulated by
the profuse distribution of its money, and the consequences of
which we are now reaping in individual sufferings from
which a Bankrupt Law affords but slight relief, and in the de-
gradation of the character of our country by the fraudulent
insolvencies of our public corporations, and by the shameless
refusal of sovereign States to fulfil their obligations.
The final extinction of the same institution under a State
charter, but managed by the same individuals, and the conse-
quent inevitable exposition of its affairs, have disclosed scenes
of depravity and fraud at which the whole country stands
aghast. Who can look back at the immense amounts of public
funds which have been entrusted to the fidelity of the same
men, without a feeling of horror at the abyss which we have
escaped ? And who would again venture the Treasury of the
nation upon the integrity of any body of individuals in an
associate capacity, when we have before us such reiterated
examples of the feebleness of the most unspotted public or
private character to resist the temptations which attend the
control of enormous wealth and inordinate power ? How can
any Government justify itself in thus transferring to corporate
individuals, the functions with which it is entrusted for the
welfare of the people ? The collection, the preservation and
the disbursement of the public revenue is the business of the
Government itself, through its own agencies, with all the
responsibilities of office, and with the securities of oaths, bonds
and constant check and supervision. It might with equal20
propriety relieve itself of the burden of governing its Territories,
by employing the agency of corporations, and the Post Office
and other Departments, might likewise be consigned to their
care. If the Government is inadequate to the entire manage-
ment of its fiscal affairs, should we not be better employed in
seeking and providing the necessary powers to enable it to
discharge one of its highest duties, than in creating artificial
bodies to whom this same and still greater powers must be
confided? If there be danger in the exercise of such powers
by the public agents of the people, directly and periodically
responsible to them for all their acts, is the danger lessened by
transferring their exercise with the secrecy which invariably
attends the proceedings of corporations, to those who are not
selected by the people, and not responsible to them, but who hold
their chartered rights for a longer or shorter term, by an im-
mutable law. which even the will of the people cannot rescind?
Is not the only plausible objection which has been urged to the
Exchequer plan, then, that it will increase the power of the
government, and particularly of the Executive Department—is
it not unfounded and irrational ? All power is liable to per-
version for improper purposes, but since it must exist—the true
question is, where can it be most safely lodged ? The
American people have answered this question by declaring
that their own representatives and officers chosen by them-
selves, are the most safe depositories of those powers with
which Government must be clothed for the protection and
defence of all. If the Constitution would permit the selection
of the superintending officers by other means than the appoint-
ing power which it has created, let those means be adopted
according to the invitation of the President. But until they
can be devised or obtained by the consent of the States and the
people, we have the same and even greater security against
the abuse of such powers, than we have against the abuse of
any other power vested in the Executive. The means of obtain-
ing full and perfect knowledge of all the operations of the Ex-
chequer Board and its agencies, at any time and at all times by
Congress and by the people, are prov ided. The system is capa-21
bleofany modification or improvement which experience may
suggest—and if, after all, serious evils should be felt or justly
anticipated, no vested rights of any corporation can be inter-
posed to prevent its instant repeal. No human institution is
or can be free from liability to abuse; and the fair question is,
whether the advantages to be gained by furnishing a sound
currency to the country, are so important as to justify the em-
ployment of the powers given by the Constitution to obtain
them ? The ability of the Government to accomplish this great
object has never yet been fully and fairly tried.
I have dwelt on this subject, my friends, because it has
received so little examination in or out of Congress, and
because it involves the most momentous interests of the nation
and its citizens. In the election of Representatives to Congress,
you are called upon to determine whether the Exchequer Plan
shall prevail, or whether a National Bank shall he established,
or whether the whole matter shall remain unregulated and
unprovided for. A respectable portion of your fellow-citizens
avow their desire for the incorporation of a Bank of the United
States, and have rallied under the name and banner of a dis-
tinguished Statesman, who is pledged to effect that object by all
the political power which may he placed in his hands. The
appeal to the electors of the country, to confer such power
upon him and those who concur with him, is rightfully and
fairly made. Against the creation of any such institution, the
President and his administration have contended, and mean to
contend, until the people in their wisdom shall deprive them of
the power of further resistance. Confiding in the intelligent
virtue and firmness of that people, they cheerfully abide the
issue.
The policy of the administration of President Tyler, is
further indicated by the special Messages, which, during the
session of Congress, he deemed it his duty to transmit to that
body. The first of these of general interest, related to the
condition of the Treasury, and the imperative necessity of
speedy provision for fulfilling our obligations to the public
creditors, and defraying the current and unavoidable ex*22
penses of the government. A loan had been authorized for
an amount scarcely equal to one-half our ordinary annual
revenue, and this sum, relatively so insignificant, it had been
found impracticable to obtain. The President believed that a
pledge of specific funds for the payment of the interest and the
redemption of the principal of the loan, would at once relieve
the country from the odium of such a failure, and replenish
the Treasury until adequate revenues should be provided by the
passage of proper laws. In the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands, he perceived such a fund already provided, and
he recommended to Congress the temporary appropriation of
it to the great public exigency which presented itself. He was
well aware of the claim which had been interposed in behalf
of the States to a distribution among them of these proceeds.
But on examining the act of September, 1841, providing for
that distribution, he found the principles on which it should
be made, settled by those who had been the warmest advocates
for the claim. The whig majority in Congress, had, by that
act, determined that such distribution should not take place
when the country was engaged in war with a foreign power,
nor when an economical administration of the Government
required the imposition of duties exceeding twenty per cent, on
the value of the articles taxed. Congress had thus, in accord-
ance with the constant practice which had prevailed from the
foundation of the Government, solemnly re-asserted its authority
to control the distribution of those proceeds, and to direct their
employment for the benefit of the nation whenever its exigen-
cies demanded them. In his judgment, that exigency had
arrived; and his recommendation was made accordingly to
meet it. The recommendation was disregarded, and the loan
is not yet taken.
These views of the President were not new. In his first
message to Congress at the extra session in June, 1841, he said,
“among such, a distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands, provided such distribution does not force upon
Congress the necessity of imposing upon commerce heavier
burdens than those contemplated by the act of 1833, would act
as an efficient remedial measure, by being brought directly in23
aid of the States.” These sentiments were expressed to a new
Congress, in which there was a known majority in favor of a
distribution, and at a time when no collision had taken place
between the President and that majority. The doctrines and
principles of that Message met with universal favor from the
whig press, and no exception was at the time taken to the
passage above quoted. The act of September, 1841, for the
distribution of the proceeds of the land sales was passed, and
embodied the identical principle thus stated by the President
Notwithstanding Congress was thus distinctly apprised of
the views of the President, which they had sanctioned and
adopted, and of his determination to adhere to them, that body
passed two bills in succession, in direct conflict with the prin-
ciples which it had thus solemnly recognized. The last of
these bills bore conclusive evidence on its face, that the con-
tingency contemplated by the compromise act of September,
1841 had arrived, that rates of duties exceeding twenty-per
cent;, had become necessary for an economical administration
of the Government, and therefore a suspension of the distribu-
tion of the proceeds of the land sales, for which that act had
provided, followed as a necessary and inevitable consequence;
and yet, the Bill directed that distribution to be made. Could
the approbation of the President to such a bill, have been ex-
pected by any rational man ? Nothing had occurred between
September, 1841 and July, 1842, which could affect the prill*
eiples on which distribution should take place. Congress had
been premonished that an empty Treasury, and a dishonored
credit demanded the application of all the means of the Govern-
ment to the supply of the one and the restoration of the other.
Is the conclusion an unfair one, that the proposition to violate
the principles of the act of September, was made with the
design to compel its rejection, in order to continue the agitation
which had been commenced by Mr. Clay, at an early day of
the Session, against the veto power, and that it was coupled
with provisions for levying duties on imports, in the expecta-
tion that the interests and feelings of those who were to be
benefitted by those provisions would thus be connected with24
the agitation already existing; so that by these means, the
double purpose of gaining friends for the abolition of the Veto,
and of aggravating to the utmost extent, hostile feelings against
the President, would be accomplished? Could the effort to
pass a tariff law, containing a distribution clause, under such
circumstances, have been a sincere one?
To the President’s mind, the portentous alternatives were
presented, of sanctioning a distribution of public money in
violation of a compact to which he had been a party, and
when every dollar of that money was imperiously demanded
by the necessities of the Treasury—or of incurring the hazard
of leaving the country without adequate revenue by the refusal
of Congress to pass a bill confined to that subject alone. Upon
this question be did not ask the opinions of his cabinet. He
considered the path of duty too clear to he mistaken: between
principle on the one side, and expediency on the other, he had
no hesitation ; and he determined to return the bill with his
objections. His firmness triumphed, and the same Congress
passed the same bill without the distribution clause, which he
instantly and cheerfully signed. Thus was dissipated in a
breath, the allegations of his hostility to a tariff. It is passing
strange, that while competitors are springing up in all direc-
tions, among the members of Congress, for the honor of having
saved this bill, no credit, no applause, is bestowed on him who
not only saved it by the intrepidity of his course, but who gave
vitality to it by his signature, and who also saved the proceeds
of the land sales from a diversion that would have been most
injurious to the credit of the country.
The question of the disposal of those proceeds now remains
where it was left by the whig Congress of September, 1841.
But in the mean while, they, like the other means and resources
of the country, will be applied to its wants. To the people it
can be of little advantage, that what is paid to them in the
shape of distribution, shall be taken back in the shape of duties
on articles which they are obliged to consume. The distribu-
tion cannot be beneficial unless it be absolute—and that can
be only when a rate of duties that shall not be oppressive, shall25
also be adequate to the support of a prudent and careful ad-
ministration of the government.
I have dwelt somewhat at large upon this topic, because the
considerations that have usually been addressed to the people,
in relation to it, have been confined to one view only, and that
a sordid one. State interest and State feelings have been
appealed to, and the advantage of having money in the State
Treasuries, has been pressed, as if the source from which, and
the means by which that money1 was to be obtained, were um
worthy of inquiry, or as if the mere form of receiving with one
hand and paying back with another, was to confer some great
and substantial benefit. It seems to have been forgotten, that
the citizens of the States are also citizens of the United States,
and that whatever they may gain in one character, they lose in
another. If the public monies of the United States must be
taken to relieve the States, then the citizens of the United States
must supply the deficiency.
In a review of the measures of the Administration, we cannot
overlook that great work of pacification which has adjusted,
on terms honorable to both nations, the difficulties which have
so long subsisted between this country and Great Britain. I
have already had occasion to advert to one of its provisions,
carrying out the views of the President in relation to the claim
by the British Government, of a right to visit and detain vessels
sailing under the American flag. It is bare justice to the
President to* say, that in the negociation of the various, and
some of them exceedingly complicated provisions of the recent
treaty, his suggestions and advice were frequently of the most
important character, and facilitated the labors of the distin-^
guished negociator on the part of the United States; and that
to those suggestions, and to the readiness with which he devo-
ted himself to the task of assisting in the removal of difficulties,
and to the constant, steady, and firm support which he render-
ed to the American representative, may justly be ascribed the
success which crowned the negociation. Of course I shall not
be understood as diminishing in the least, the honor and praise
which belong to the unwearied and most able efforts of the
426
Secretary of State. I do but reiterate the acknowledgments
he has publicly made of the assistance rendered by the Presi-
dent. In truth, no one acquainted with the multifarious opera-
tions of this Government, expects the President, on any occasion,
to do more than preside over them—lay down the principles
on which they are to be conducted—and supervise their execu-
tion. The Secretary of the proper Department does the rest,
and if it be done with ability, an evidence is afforded to the
country that in administering the Government, the President
has selected competent agents. By this treaty, a controversy
respecting our North Eastern Boundary, which, on one occa-
sion, had nearly kindled into war, and which has baffled all
former efforts for its adjustment, has been settled to the mutual
satisfaction of the States directly interested in the territory in
dispute. The United States has acquired a strip of land oii
the northern boundary of New-York and Vermont, upon which
a fortification had been commenced of vital importance to the
defence of that frontier. The right of navigating the channel
of St. John, and of other straits, exclusively within the British
territory, has been guaranteed, and a reciprocal provision for
the delivery of fugitives from justice, so long refused by Great
Britain, has been made by which our northern and north
western borders will be relieved from the hordes of felons who
made them their refuge, and by which the hope of impunity,
heretofore held out to criminals from our territory, is ex-
tinguished. This is, in itself, a great triumph of law, order,
and justice, over licentiousness and crime. The hardy pioneer
of the frontiers now shares with his fellow-citizens the protec-
tion of his Government, and his life and property will no longer
be held or enjoyed at the will of marauders and incendiaries.
In Florida, the success of our forces under the gallant
Worth and his associates, in an unceasing warfare upon the
hostile Indians, had so reduced their numbers and disheartened
those who remained, that the security of the territory justified
what humanity demanded, a pacification. A miserable con-
test, which was unworthy the name of a war, on the part of
this nation, has been terminated. The sluices of reckless and27
extravagant expenditure which had been opened, and through
which the treasure of the country had been poured out in a
profusion almost boundless, have been closed. Strict accoun-
tability and rigid economy have been enforced, and have been
practised ; and this drain upon our resources has been dried
up, it is hoped, for ever. A hardy population, capable of tak-
ing care of themselves, has been invited to occupy the rich
lands of the territory, by offers of gratuitous grants, fully ade-
quate to their support.
The same determination to settle existing difficulties, has
caused an adjustment of one in which, from your local posi-
tion, you have taken an interest. I allude to the recent treaty
with the Senecas, by which a controversy that had excited
the sympathies of the whole country, and which threatened
endless litigation, has been settled on terms of justice to ail
parties.
While thus cultivating peace, and seeking to establish order
and justice, the Executive has not been unmindful of threat-
ened indignities or violations of our rights. The signal re-
buke which the Govern ment of Mexico received for its ground-
less complaints and its empty menaces, seems to have been
as effectual as it was satisfactory to our fellow-citizens.
Other measures might be enumerated of less general im-
portance, but all evincing the sedulous care of the President
and his Administration, in watching the great interests in-
trusted to their charge. The quiet and regular operations of
the different departments, moving in their appropriate spheres
with order, accuracy, and despatch—disposing of the vast
amount of business which our extended country, with its
various interests, constantly presents, without embarrassment
or difficulty, although not calculated to arrest attention, are
yet of more importance to the permanent and steady welfare
of the people, that many of those single and brilliant acts
which attract the notice of men. I may be permitted to
remark, that the manner in which these operations have been
conducted, throughout a year, during three-fourths of which
a Congress has been in session, distinguished for its numerous28
calls, requiring extraordinary labor, may be inferred from the
fact, that the voice of complaint on the subject has not been
heard.
You haye had the kindness, Gentlemen, to allude to my
own position, and to say that it has been the subject of misap-
prehension and of misrepresentation.. Reluctant as I am to
prolong a communication already too extended, I have no
right to disregard that reputation which is the property of my
children, and to some extent of my country—and I am there-
fore compelled to speak of myself. With respect to my accep-
tance of a seat in the Cabinet, it is proper to state, that it was
made after consultation with the prominent men of the State
of New York, then my political associates, comprising the
State officers, with one exception—all the members of the
Senate to whom access could be had—many members of the
Assembly, and a large number of our most esteemed citizens ;
and upon their advice, without a single dissenting opinion.
The press throughout the country, particularly the whig
press, spoke favorably of the appointment, and furnished evi-
dence of the general sentiment of that party. Nothing has
occurred to change my own conviction of the propriety of
accepting an office which was tendered without solicitation,
nor to render the reasons and motives which induced that
course, less obligatory in requiring a continuance in the same
station. Facts which came to my knowledge, before I com
eluded to accept the offer of the President, and some of which
have been stated in this communication, satisfied me that the
impressions produced by the manifesto of certain Whig mem-
bers of Congress, which did not receive the sanction, and was
unknown to very many of those whose views it appeared to
express, were erroneous and unjust towards the President, and
that motives and objects had been ascribed to him, with the
semblance, but without the reality of truth. And between his
principles, as explained to me, and my own, I found no incon-
gruity that could prevent a hearty co operation. We had co-
operated in Congress on all important occasions; and on the
same committee that conducted the memorable investigation,29
in 1819, into the affairs of the Bank of the United States,
where we had stood shoulder to shoulder, battling against the
frauds, the corruption and the power of that institution, on
common grounds and congenial principles. We had together
been Republicans of the old school—maintaining the same
doctrines, and combating the same political enemy, long pre-
vious to, during, and after the war of 1812. In 1828 and
1829 ,we had made common cause against the Administration of
John Quincy Adams, and had united our efforts to bring
General Jackson into power. When the measures of his Ad-
ministration, in our judgment, evinced a departure from what
we conceived the principles upon which he had been elected,
however pure and upright may have been his intentions, we
together avowed our opposition to those measures, and went
into a minority against the strongest party, and the most popu-
lar leader of it, that has existed in this country since the days
of Washington. During these scenes there had been a general
similarity of sentiments and congeniality of views. With him
I denied, that in the contest of 1840, a National Bank had been
the test of political orthodoxy; and although the occasions for
presenting my views had not been so frequent or so public as
those which the President had possessed, yet were they well
known to political friends and opponents. There were, there-
fore, between the President and myself, political affinities as
strong and as numerous as could well exist between persons
living so remote from each other.
In the conduct of his Administration, he has not departed
from the principles which we held in common. He has carried
out, or attempted to carry out, all the views and objects which
were avowed as the designs of the reformation of the Govern-
ment in 1840. He has refused to assist in measures which
are claimed by some to have been among those objects, but
which he and I, and thousands of others, deny to have been
such. In all this, I have found no cause for refusing to con-
tinue such advice and assistance in the administration of the
Government as the President may require, and a sincere desire30
to promote the best interests of a beloved country, may enable
me to render.
These views and sentiments are presented to you, Gentle-
men, in explanation of my position, and in defence against the
reproaches which have been cast upon me, for not resigning
the office I hold. I cannot lend myself to the vindictive feel-
ings which Whig members of Congress, and their associates,
entertain towards the President: I cannot be a party to the
torrent of vituperation which has been poured out upon him.
I cannot consent to aid, in any manner, the success of a party
which goes before the people, demanding that it may be in-
trusted with power, for the purpose of incorporating a National
Bank. I am not in favor of an alteration of the Constitution,
to abolish the Executive Power of returning to Congress, for
their more mature consideration, bills which may have passed
in haste, or inadvertently, or upon mistaken principles. 1
deny that few and unimportant abuses of conservative and
suspensive power like this, even if they existed, which in their
nature must be temporary, furnish any good reason for abol-
ishing the power itself, and leaving all legislation without
check, and without opportunity for revival, to a multitudinous
Congress. I am not for a distribution of the proceeds of the
land sales, when that distribution will cause the imposition of
taxes beyond the wants of the Government, merely to supply
the very deficiency it causes. Finally, I will not consent to
have any man forced upon me, as my candidate for the Pre-
sidency, by associated clubs, to forestall the action of a con-
vention, or by the denunciations of personal partisans. I doubt
not but this exposition of opinions will be deemed, by those
partisans, but a continuation of the sin committed in 1839, in
having used my best exertions to prevent the nomination of
Mr. Clay, at the Harrisburg Convention. That sin has already
been deemed sufficient cause, by those assuming to speak for
the party in our State, for pronouncing a sentence of excom-
munication against those who committed it. With regard to
some, that sentence has been promulgated, while it is sus-31
pended over the heads of others. Freedom of thought and
independence of opinion, in the choice of a candidate, even
before a nomination, have become deadly crimes in the esti-
mation of those whose severest reproach against their oppo-
nents, within a few years, was their slavish adherence to party,
and their blind devotion to one man. So be it. A party which
commences with the proscription of all who will not worship
the same idol, at the very time when it is seeking to gain
strength and numbers to its ranks, gives us a foretaste of the
sacrifices to be offered on the same altar when power shall
serve inclination.
The occasion seemed to demand this exposition of my
views, as I desire to deceive no one, by wearing, or appearing
to wear, colors that do not belong to me. Regretting that 1
have not been able to command more time in the preparation
of this letter, and trusting that the fact will be received as an
apology for whatever imperfections of language may appear,
I subscribe myself,
With great respect,
Your friend and fellow-citizen,
JOHN C. SPENCER.
To Messrs.
Lewis K. Faulkner,
William C. Storrs, Monroe County General Com-
A. H. Joses,	' miltee.
Enos Stone,
Lewis Bixby,
Joseph Strong,
Jared Newell,
E. B. Wheeler.