Special Message

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

The accompanying memorial in favor of the passage of a bankrupt law, signed by nearly 3,000 of the inhabitants of the city of New York, has been forwarded to me, attended by a request that I would submit it to the consideration of Congress. I can not waive a compliance with a request urged upon me by so large and respectable a number of my fellow-citizens. That a bankrupt law, carefully guarded against fraudulent practices and embracing as far as practicable all classes of society--the failure to do which has heretofore constituted a prominent objection to the measure would afford extensive relief I do not doubt. The distress incident to the derangements of some years past has visited large numbers of our fellow-citizens with hopeless insolvency, whose energies, both mental and physical, by reason of the load of debt pressing upon them, are lost to the country. Whether Congress shall deem it proper to enter upon the consideration of this subject at its present extraordinary session it will doubtless wisely determine. I have fulfilled my duty to the memorialists in submitting their petition to your consideration.

JOHN TYLER.