Letter, 22 Jan. 1842, from a woman residing in upstate South Carolina, in which she urges President John Tyler to prevent any efforts by the current U.S. Congress to repeal recent legislation that allowed individuals to declare bankruptcy. Mrs. Powell apologizes for what might be viewed as her forwardness in writing to the President, especially since "I am aware that it is out of the sphere of Women to interfere in politics," but appeals to him for his support of the bankruptcy laws enacted by Congress the previous year and asks that he exercise his power to veto any action of the new Congress that threatened to repeal the legislation. Noting that such laws were "of vital importance not only to myself and my i[n]nocent & helpless children but to thousands of others similarly situated," the writer alludes to the indebtedness of her husband, "a sober, Industrious, and enterprizing Man," whose indebtedness had placed her family at the mercy of creditors. When he was imprisoned for debt, "the Sheriff entered my mansion and sold my cooking utensils while on the fire with the viands in them." In upholding the laws, the letter suggests, President Tyler would be hailed as "the messenger of mercy to thousand[s] who have been ground to dust by merciless creditors & their agents"; in a postscript, Mrs. Powell requests that the letter be forwarded to [James Gordon] Bennett of the New York Herald. This letter reflects recent legislation of the day; the U.S. Congress enacted the first set of standard bankruptcy laws in the United States in Aug. 1841, which allowed citizens the right to voluntarily declare for bankruptcy. President John Tyler used the presidential veto ten times on a variety of legislation during his administration.
