A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 4

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