Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/272

216 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Buchanan answered that he "preferred his position as a senator from Pennsylvania ; that nothing could induce him to waive this preference except a sense of public duty, and that he felt that he could render a more efficient support to the principles" of the administration "on the floor of the senate than he could in an executive office." The great com mercial distress of the country produced, in the elections of 1840, a political revolution, and on March 4, 1841, the whigs came into power under President Harrison. His death in April placed in the executive chair Mr. Tyler, who proved to be opposed to a national bank, and vetoed two bills : the first for a national bank, and the second for a "Fiscal Corporation of the United States." Mr. Clay made frequent attacks upon Mr. Tyler s vetoes, and even proposed a joint resolution for an amendment of the constitution requiring but a bare majority, instead of two thirds, of each house of congress to pass a bill over the president s objections. Mr. Buchanan, on February 2, 1842, replied to Mr. Clay in a speech that may be ranked very high as an exposition of one of the most important parts of our political system. He showed that the president s veto was the people s safeguard, through the officer who "more nearly represents a majority of the whole people than any other branch of the government," against the encroachments of