JOHN TYLER.

JOHN TYLER, the tenth President of the United States, and the sixth incumbent of that high office whose birth-place was Virginia, was born at Charles-City, in Charles-City county, in the year 1789. His father, John Tyler, was a distinguished public man in Virginia, and governor of the commonwealth from 1808 to 1811. Mr. Tyler was educated at William and Mary College, studied law at that institution, and in the office of his father, and entered at an early age upon the practice of his profession. Scarcely had he reached the age of twenty-one years, before he was elected by the people of his native county to represent them in the State legislature. Here we find him zealous in his efforts to promote the interests of his constituents and of his ancient commonwealth. In 1816, he was elected a representative in Congress, and continued a member of that body until 1821. He here distinguished himself as a ready and fluent debater, and attracted the notice of the people of his native state by the strength and boldness of his views on the great questions of the day. In the memorable investigation of the United States Bank, in 1819, when the report and restrictions proposed by Mr. Spencer, of New York, and direct propositions for repeal of the charter, came up for debate, Mr. Tyler delivered his opinions in strong terms on the subject of the National Bank, as well as upon the whole system of banking as pursued in this country. On the 19th February, in the course of the debate, he said :

"The question whether it would be proper to direct a scire facias against the bank, divides itself into two heads of inquiry. First, whether the charter has been so violated as to insure a forfeiture ?-and if so, is it expedient to exact the forfeiture? The decision of the first would preclude me from an inquiry into the second. For, sir, inasmuch as I believe the creation of this corporation unconstitutional, I cannot, without a violation of my oath, hesitate to repair the breach thus made in the constitution, when an opportunity presents itself of doing so without violating the public faith. But believing, also, that it is expedient to put it down, and other gentlemen feeling themselves at liberty to follow up that inquiry, I propose to express to you my views on that subject.

"I think that the incorporation of the United States Bank was calculated to delay the resumption of specie payments on the part of the State banks."

"Mr. Chairman, I look to a more efficient cause for the resumption of specie payments: I look to the resolutions of the State legislatures, to the resolution of Congress, requiring the payment of all dues to the government to be made in specie, or the notes of banks paying specie, after the 20th February, 1817, as the great cause of this resumption. I am disposed to ascribe more energy to the arm of this government, than to any moneyed institution.”

"For one, 1 enter my protest against the banking system, as conducted in this country-a system not to be supported by any correct principle of political economy-a gross delusion-the dream of a visionary-a system tat has done more to corrupt the morals of society than any thing elsewhich has introduced a struggle for wealth, instead of the honorable strug. gle which governs the actions of a patriot, and makes ambition virtuewhich has made the husbandman spurn his cottage, and introduced a spirit of luxury at variance with the simplicity of our institutions."

"I call upon the warm advocates of banking, now to surrender their errors. Shall I take them by the hand, and lead them through our cities? Bankruptcy meets us at every step; ruin stares us every where in the face. Shall I be told of the benefits arising to commerce from the concen. tration of capital? Away with the delusion-experience has exposed its fallacy. True, for a moment, it has operated as a stimulus; but, like ardent spirits, it has produced activity and energy for a moment; relaxa tion has followed, and the torpor of death has ensued."

"The revenues amount to upwards of $20,000,000 annually. Require but a fourth or fifth part to be paid in gold or silver, what would be the effect? The merchants would collect the notes of banks, and demand specie for them; and thus a test would be adopted, by means of which to ascertain the solvency of each institution. The demand for specie thus produced, would have the beneficial effect of introducing more of it into the country; for money is like every other article, and will find its way to the market where it is most wanting. The system might be enlarged gradually, until your wishes should be consummated."

"I protest against the idea that the government cannot do without this bank. We are not dependent on this corporation. Wretched indeed would be our situation if such was the case."

In 1825, Mr. Tyler was elected governor of the commonwealth of Vir. ginia, and devoted himself with characteristic ardor to the developement of her resources, and to the maintenance of those republican doctrines with which her renown is identified. Educated in the Jeffersonian school of politics, Governor Tyler opposed the doctrine of internal improvements by the federal government. In his message to the General Assembly, in De

cember, 1826, he says:

"Vain and idle, indeed, was this resolution, (concerning internal improvements by the general government,) if that same government has a right to enter upon the soil of a state, whensoever and wheresoever it may please to take possession of the same, convert it to its own uses and purposes, and render subject not only the property, but the persons of the people, to the jurisdiction of its courts; for it would seem to follow that the right to create imposed the obligation to preserve, and this duty would call for the imposition of regulations, the violation or disregard of which ought of consequence to render amenable to punishment the offending individual. One usurpation always begets another and another, until at last the original form of government is lost, and liberty exists only in the records of the past. Virginia has ever been found exerting her influence against the exercise of this alarming power. Her motives cannot be misunderstood by her sister states. Her wants are as great as theirs can well be. Possess

ing a surface of territory larger than almost any other state in the Union, the moiety of which is distinguished by its irregularity, she would find many inducements in accepting, in the form of internal improvements, the largesses of the general government. But she will not surrender voluntarily her constitutional rights. She believes that liberty can only be preserved by upholding the federative principle; and she regards consolidation as the greatest of evils."

On the 13th January, 1827, Governor Tyler was elected to the Senate of the United States for six years from the fourth of March succeeding. In this exalted sphere, his talents and integrity of character secured for him, among those with whom he acted, a commanding influence; and his industrious application to the public business, the independence of his character, and the urbanity of his manners, were followed by the respect and esteem of all parties in that body. His election to the Senate of the United States, is a sufficient proof of the estimation in which he was held by the republican party. During his term of service in this body, great and momentous questions of civil policy and constitutional law were discussed and investigated. Probably at no period since the existence of the government, were weightier matters controverted, and a greater amount of talent called into requisition, than in the years of 1830, 31, 32, '33, and '34. The deepest excitement pervaded the country.

In the Senate, May 14, 1830, the bill authorizing a subscription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road, being under consideration, Mr. Tyler said:

"He did not rise to enter into a constitutional argument on the bill now under consideration. He should wait for more favorable auspices, before he ventured to detain the Senate by such an argument. The period might be near at hand, when the principles of the constitution would once more be invoked, and the true democratic party be called upon to rally around the standard which was unfurled in times long since gone by. Whenever the day should arrive in which the country would be so far relieved from the unhappy spell in which it had been bound, as to listen with attention to an exposition of this subject on constitutional grounds, he would not be wanting in his duty. I was (said Mr. T.) in that Congress which was the first to enter gravely into the discussion of the constitutional power of this government to make roads and canals. I then attentively weighed all that was urged by the advocates of the system-if system that may be called, which is none and my decision was against them. Every subsequent reflection has confirmed the opinion then expressed; and the experience of the last six years has satisfied me that, in its exercise, all that is dear, and should be considered sacred in our institutions, is put to hazard. Experience is the parent of true wisdom, and the lights which she has furnished upon this subject ought to be bright enough to conduct our footsteps back to the path from which we have strayed."

Mr. Tyler holds to what is called a strict construction of the constitution. In the Senate, February 24, 1831, the appropriation to pay the negotiators of the Turkish treaty being under consideration, he used the following language:

"It is our duty, Mr. President, under all circumstances, and however

situated, to be faithful to the constitution. Esto perpetua should be the motto of all in regard to that instrument, and more emphatically those into whose hands it is committed by the parties to the compact of union. Sir, parties may succeed, and will succeed each other; stars that shine with brilliancy to-day, may be struck from their spheres to-morrow; convulsion may follow convulsion; the battlements may rock about us, and the storm rage in its wildest fury; but while the constitution is preserved inviolate, the liberties of the country will be secure. When we are asked to lay down the constitution upon the shrine of party, our answer is, the price demanded is too great. If required to pass over its violation in silence, we reply, that to do so would be infidelity to our trust, and treason to those who sent us here. The constant effort of Virginia has been directed to its preservation: the political conflict of the hour has never led her to yield it for an instant. No matter with what solemnity the violation has been attended; although sanctioned by the two Houses of Congress and the President of the United States, and confirmed by judicial decision, she has not halted in her duty. How little, then, should we be entitled to represent her, if we could so far forget ourselves as to hobble in our course!"

In December, 1832, General Jackson issued his celebrated proclamation. It was designed to arrest the proceedings of the state of South Carolina, which were viewed as hostile to the existence of the union of the confederated states. With the view of carrying out his plans, as laid down in this state paper, he called on Congress to invest him with larger powers. By many, distinguished for their love of country, the bill commonly called "the force bill," was deemed subversive of the rights of sovereign states. At this moment, Mr. Tyler came forth with a mass of information, lucidly arranged, and carefully and logically bodied forth, at once creditable to his talents as a speaker, and confessedly useful to the cause which he espoused, and the principles which he vindicated.

On the 10th April, at the close of a very able speech, which occupied two days in the delivery, upon Mr. Clay's resolutions for a modification of the tariff, Mr. Tyler closed as follows:

"In the names of the great actors of former times under the roof of that very edifice, [Faneuil Hall,] I invoke honorable Senators to pause, long to pause, ere they decide that this grinding system shall receive no abatement. Its oppression, if that were the only circumstance, would be as nothing in comparison with the alienation of feeling which it has produced. What can compensate for the loss of that affection on the part of even a single state in this Union? Flatter not yourselves that this is exclusively a South Carolina question. No, sir; it is a Southern question. Every state on the other side of the Potomac feels alike interested in it: nor labor under the morbid apprehension that to grant relief can produce the slightest tendency to disunion. Do you seek to give perpetuity to the Union, practise not injustice; for, as certain as fate itself, they who sow injustice will reap iniquity. I have been reared in a reverential affection for the Union. My imagination has led me to look into the distant future, and there to contemplate the greatness of free America. I have beheld her walking on the waves of the mighty deep, carrying along with her tidings of great joy to distant nations. I have seen her overturning the strong places of