Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/82

 56 LIVES OF, THE PRESIDENTS of the constitution. If congress could thus impose one restriction upon a state, where was the exercise of such power to end? Once grant such a power, and what was to prevent a slave-holding majority in congress from forcing slavery upon some terri tory where it was not wanted? Mr. Tyler pursued the argument so far as to deny &quot;that congress, under its constitutional authority to establish rules and regulations for the territories, had any control whatever over slavery in the territorial domain.&quot; (See life, by Lyon G. Tyler, vol. i., p. 319.) Mr. Tyler was unquestionably foremost among the mem bers of congress in occupying this position. When the Missouri compromise bill was adopted by a vote of 134 to 42, all but five of the nays were from the south, and from Virginia alone there were seventeen, of which Mr. Tyler s vote was one. The Richmond &quot;Enquirer&quot; of March 7, 1820, in de nouncing the compromise, observed, in language of prophetic interest, that the southern and western representatives now &quot;owe it to themselves to keep their eyes firmly fixed on Texas; if we are cooped up on the north, we must have elbow-room to the west.&quot; Mr. Tyler s further action in this congress re lated chiefly to the question of a protective tariff, of which he was an unflinching opponent. In 1821, finding his health seriously impaired, he declined a re-election, and returned to private life. His re-