On this head your excellency is pleased to observe that the same
reasons, drawn from the usual course of administration, which rendered
the presentation of the law in the session of July impossible applied
with nearly the same force to a call before the end of the year; and
you appeal to the President's knowledge of the "fixed principles of a
constitutional system" to prove that the administration under such a
government is subject to regular and permanent forms, "from which no
special interest, however important, should induce it to deviate." For
this branch of the argument it unfortunately happens that no regular
form of administration, no fixed principle, no usage whatever, would
have opposed a call of the Chambers at an early day, and the rule which
your excellency states would not be broken "in favor of any interest,
however important," has actually been made to yield to one of domestic
occurrence. _The Chambers have just been convened before the period
which was declared to be the soonest at which they could possibly meet_.
Your excellency will also excuse me for remarking that since the first
institution of the Chambers, in 1814, there have been convocations
for every month of the year, without exception, which I will take the
liberty of bringing to your recollection by enumerating the different
dates.
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