n
its powers, rights, and duties. In my judgment a compliance with the
resolution which has been transmitted to me would be a surrender of
duties and powers which the Constitution has conferred exclusively on
the Executive, and therefore such compliance can not be made by me nor
by the heads of Departments by my direction. The appointing power, so
far as it is bestowed on the President by the Constitution, is conferred
without reserve or qualification. The reason for the appointment and
the responsibility of the appointment rest with him alone. I can not
perceive anywhere in the Constitution of the United States any right
conferred on the House of Representatives to hear the reasons which an
applicant may urge for an appointment to office under the executive
department, or any duty resting upon the House of Representatives by
which it may become responsible for any such appointment.

Any assumption or misapprehension on the part of the House of
Representatives of its duties and powers in respect to appointments by
which it encroaches on the rights and duties of the executive department
is to the extent to which it reaches dangerous, impolitic, and
unconstitutional.

For these reasons, so perfectly convincing to my mind, I beg leave
respectfully to repeat, in conclusion, that I can not comply with the
request contained in the above resolution.

JOHN TYLER.

WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1842_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

Notwithstanding the urgency with which I have on more than one occasion
felt it my duty to press upon Congress the necessity of providing the
Government with the means of discharging its debts and maintaining
inviolate the public faith, the increasing embarrassments of the
Treasury impose upon me the indispensable obligation of again inviting
your most serious attention to the condition of the finances.
Fortunately for myself in thus bringing this important subject to your
view for a deliberate and comprehensive examination in all its bearings,
and I trust I may add for a final adjustment of it to the common
advantage of the whole Union, I am permitted to approach it with perfect
freedom and candor. As few of the burdens for which provision is now
required to be made have been brought upon the country during my short
administration of its affairs, I have neither motive nor wish to make
them a matter of crimination against any of my predecessors. I am
disposed