A New York packet-ship, which sailed just after the last
steamer, brings President TYLER'S first message to Congress. It is emi- nently placid, pacific, and practical. A little disquisition on national banking was demanded of him ex officio, and he gives it : he gratifies the appetite of brother Jonathan for discussions on the "fiscal agent" of the community, without committing himself; for in a slight review of the past, in which he abstains from the direct condemnation of any party, he is brief to meagreness ; and he is always obscure. The JACKSON policy in finance he speaks of as sanctioned by the national voice, but now condemned by the same supreme authority ; while he avoids the utterance of any thing like an opinion of his own, and leaves the practical decision of the ques- tion to Congress. He thus eschews a difficulty which was fatal to Mr. VAN BUREN, and which probably helped actually to kill General HARRISON. On other subjects he is curt and dry.
The surmise will suggest itself on a perusal of Mr. TYLER'S message, that the degeneracy of Presidents which was deplored in the days of Mr. VAN BORER has not been redeemed. Malang Vex BORES had determined views of his own, and energy to battle for them : Jorrx TYLER speaks, not like a statesman deferring to the voice of a nation, but like a servant taking orders. If the man has in him the independence and strength of mind which have been supposed, he has not succeeded in bringing them to view in his first message. The race of JEFFERSONS has not yet come back.
Previous page
