Home › Tyler's First Annual Message, December 6, 1841 › Tyler's First Annual Message, December 6, 1841: Britain

Tyler's First Annual Message, December 6, 1841: Britain

Great Britain having made known to this government that the expedition, which was fitted out from Canada for the destruction of the steamboat Caroline in the winter of 1837, and which resulted in the destruction of said boat and in the death of an American citizen, was under-taken by orders emanating from the authorities of the British government, in Canada, and demanding the discharge of McLeod upon the ground that, if engaged in that expedition, he did but fulfil the orders of his government, has thus been answered in the only way in which she could be answered by a government, the powers of which are distributed among its several departments by the fundamental law. Happily for the people of Great Britain, as well as those of the United States, the only mode by which an individual, arraigned for a criminal offence, before the courts of either, can obtain his discharge, is by the independent action of the judiciary, and by proceedings equally familiar to the courts of both countries. If in Great Britain a power exists in the crown to cause to be entered a nolle prosequi, which is not the case with the executive power of the United States upon a prosecution pending in a state court; yet there, no more than here, can the chief executive power rescue a prisoner from custody without an order of the proper tribunal directing his discharge. The precise stage of the proceedings at which such order may be made, is a matter of municipal regulation exclusively, and not to be complained of by any other government. In cases of this kind, a government becomes politically responsible only when its tribunals of last resort are shown to have rendered unjust and injurious judgments in matters not doubtful. To the establishment and elucidation of this principle, no nation has lent its authority more efficiently than Great Britain. Alexander McLeod, having his option either to prosecute a writ of error from the decision of the Supreme Court of New York, which had been rendered upon his application for a discharge, to the Supreme Court of the United States, or to submit his case to the decision of a jury, preferred the latter, deeming it the readiest mode of obtaining his liberation; and the result has fully sustained the wisdom of his choice. The manner in which the issue submitted was tried, will satisfy the English government that the principle of justice will never fail to govern the enlightened decision of an American tribunal. I cannot fail, however, to suggest to Congress the propriety, and, in some degree, the necessity, of making such provisions by law, so far as they may constitutionally do so, for the removal at their commencement and at the option of the party, of all such cases as may hereafter arise, and which may involve the faithful observance and execution of our international obligations, from the State to the Federal Judiciary. This government, by our institutions, is charged with the maintenance of peace and the preservation of amicable relations with the nations of the earth, and ought to possess, without question, all the reasonable and proper means of maintaining the one and preserving the other. Whilst just confidence is felt in the judiciary of the states, yet this government ought to be competent in itself for the fulfilment of the high duties which have been devolved upon it under the organic law, by the states themselves.