The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 1, July 1843Various
General
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 1, July 1843
Various
Periodicals
In the dead of the night the inhabitants of the President's square
were aroused by the shouts of a drunken mob, who, with discordant
fife and old tin-pans for drums, proceeded to the executive mansion
and yelled, in consequence of the veto, those insults in the ears
of the President and his family, among whom was the wife of the
President, then in extremely delicate health. The day after all
this, I met Mr. Robert Tyler in the street, as I was proceeding to
my dinner, who invited me to dine with him, observing that there
was nobody at the house but the family. We entered the White House
at the southern front, and found the President seated with his son
Tazwell by his side, a lad of fourteen, whom the President was
teaching his lesson. It instantly struck me that there was a moral
energy in the President of which his enemies little dreamed.
'Peace has her victories,
As well as war;'
says Milton, in his splendid lines to Cromwell, and this is one of
them. For months every persuasion to which eloquence could give
power, had been exerted on the President, to obtain his veto on the
one hand, and his signature on the other. The Whig party, in the
plenitude of its power, personified in the person of their bold
leader, the 'lord of the lion heart and eagle eye,' and standing
on the grave of General Harrison, hallowed by his death, and full
of the dictation of success, felt themselves like Olympian Jove
with thunderbolt in hand ready to strike down to endless political
perdition the 'Acting President' if he dared to veto. The threat
was made in tones of thunder, by their great champion. But, lo! the
veto came, and calm amidst the breaking of the storm, the President
was teaching his little son his lesson. It was a Roman one. In
the battle-field a moment often decides the victory. A moment of
decisive action which requires no wear and tear of spirit for
days, weeks, and months--amidst imprecations and execrations--but
an energy which springs to life on the instant, such as Napoleon
exerted at Lodi, but which exhibits no greater powers of purpose
than President Tyler exhibited--for none but those who witnessed
it, can have any idea of the many and the powerful influences which
were brought to bear, to obtain the President's signature to the
Bank Bill--influences exerted not only by the distinguished and
the powerful, face to face with the Chief Magistrate, but through
the portentous threatenings of anonymous letters, of the most
assassin-like and dastardly character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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