The lines of communication between distant parts of the Union are to a great extent occupied by railroads, which, in the nature of things, possess a complete monopoly, and the Department is therefore liable to heavy and unreasonable…
John Tyler
The Public Record
John Tyler was the 10th President of the United States, serving from April 4, 1841, to March 4, 1845. He was the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of a sitting president, William Henry Harrison. A member of the Whig Party, Tyler's presidency was marked by significant political conflict, particularly with his own party, as he often vetoed legislation that aligned with Whig principles, leading to his expulsion from the party. His administration is noted for the annexation of Texas, which would later contribute to the Mexican-American War.
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The transmission of the mail must keep pace with those facilities of intercommunication which are every day becoming greater through the building of railroads and the application of steam power, but it can not be disguised that in order to…
Economy in all branches of the public service is due from all the public agents to the people, but parsimony alone would suggest the withholding of the necessary means for the protection of our domestic firesides from invasion and our…
Our extended and otherwise exposed maritime frontier calls for protection, to the furnishing of which an efficient naval force is indispensable.
For myself, I disclaim all desire to have any control over the public moneys other than what is indispensably necessary to execute the laws which you may pass.
I can not abandon this subject without urging upon you in the most emphatic manner, whatever may be your action on the suggestions which I have felt it to be my duty to submit, to relieve the Chief Executive Magistrate, by any and all…
Nor will the plan be submitted in any overweening confidence in the sufficiency of my own judgment, but with much greater reliance on the wisdom and patriotism of Congress.
To argue against any proposed plan its liability to possible abuse is to reject every expedient, since everything dependent on human action is liable to abuse.
If a fear be indulged that the Government may be tempted to run into excess in its issues at any future day, it seems to me that no such apprehension can reasonably be entertained until all confidence in the representatives of the States…
If all these assurances are not sufficient to make them available, then the idea, as it seems to me, of furnishing a sound paper medium of exchange may be entirely abandoned.
The country is full of resources and the people fall of energy, and the great and permanent remedy for present embarrassments must be sought in industry, economy, the observance of good faith, and the favorable influence of time.
Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality, and nothing can be more ill judged than to look to facilities in borrowing or to a redundant circulation for the power of discharging pecuniary…
Commercial modes of exchange and a good currency are but the necessary means of commerce and intercourse, not the direct productive sources of wealth.
I must be permitted to add that no scheme of governmental policy unaided by individual exertions can be available for ameliorating the present condition of things.
It was my painful duty at your last session, under the weight of most solemn obligations, to differ with Congress on the measures which it proposed for my approval, and which it doubtless regarded as corrective of existing evils.
Such suspension is productive of the greatest detriment to the public by expelling from circulation the precious metals and seriously hazarding the success of any effort that this Government can make to increase commercial facilities and…
Whether this Government, with due regard to the rights of the States, has any power to constrain the banks either to resume specie payments or to force them into liquidation, is an inquiry which will not fail to claim your consideration.
The power exerted by the States to charter banking corporations, and which, having been carried to a great excess, has filled the country with, in most of the States, an irredeemable paper medium, is an evil which in some way or other…
He has to look at things as they are, to take them as he finds them, to supply deficiencies and to prune excesses as far as in him lies.
The practical statesman has a very different task to perform.
The speculative philosopher might find inducements to prosecute the inquiry, but his researches could only lead him to conclude that the paper system had probably better never have been introduced and that society might have been much…
No country can be in the enjoyment of its full measure of prosperity without the presence of a medium of exchange approximating to uniformity of value.
At your late session I invited your attention to the condition of the currency and exchanges and urged the necessity of adopting such measures as were consistent with the constitutional competency of the Government in order to correct the…
While the people of no portion of the Union will ever hesitate to pay all necessary taxes for the support of Government, yet an innate repugnance exists to the imposition of burthens not really necessary for that object.
The Government under which it is our happiness to live owes its existence to the spirit of compromise which prevailed among its framers; jarring and discordant opinions could only have been reconciled by that noble spirit of patriotism…
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