Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1832-05-31

mOntn, nc was hot at ol"uciphid, o"t
on visit to the City of Washington, on
the business of the bank. For these dis
crepancies from the testimony of MIR.
Whitney, as upon his examination he
termed them, he did not attempt to ac-
count. He withdrew, however, the
statement that he had ordered the entries
Of the two sums of 10000 and $4,000
dollars to be made upon the books, and
placed the allirmance in an alternative
position, to meet the evidence as il APP
peared in fact upon the books. He now
said he had ordered the entries to be
made, or had found them already made
and confirmed them. But he never at
tempted to show to the committee
whence or how he, as single director,
had derived the authority of ordering the
keepers of the respective books to make
any entry upon the books whatever;
an authority which all the keepers
ofthe books denied to belong to direc-
tor.
The question was put to MIR. Whitney,
whether, upon his making his discover
les, he had considered himself as having
fully discharged his own duty, as u di-
rector, by IA mere private expostulation
with the president, without making
known the transaction to the Board of
Directors at all; to which he answered
that lac had not considered the subject
in that point of view.
Mr.. Whitney, to sustain his character,
produced evidence that he had been
very extensively engaged in busiress;- =
had paid large sums for duties on import
ed articles to the Government Of the
United States; that while diredor of
the bank, he had been a very actve and
ind ustrious member of the board, and
that he had been employed by the board
in confd ential trusts, which he haf faith
fully executed.
The subscriber, in charity to the in
frmites Of human nature, would wiling
ly believe that the testimony Of Mr. Whit
ney, upon his first examination, was the
result of selfdelusion, produced by long
cherished and pampered suspicious of
trivial error, till Imagination, supplying
the place of memory, had swoln them in
to imputations of embezzlemeM and
fraud. MIR Whitney had been stimula-
ted to bear testimony against the bank
from abroad. The more aggravated the
charges which he could bring to bear on
public opinion against the president Of
the bank, the fairer would be the pros
pect of success in defeating the renewal
of the charter, and the more accepta-
BILE to the spirit of party would be the
service he might render by the testi-
mony he should give. The defaced and
tattered memorandum, taken in years
long past from tho books, would give
sort Of mysterious pre-emption right or
lcredibility to any colorable detail of cir
cumstantial narrative to be connected
with it. The instinct of calumny is in
ventive of details, precisely because de-
tails make their way most easily to the
credit Of the hearer, and it has long been
remarked by keen observers of human
action, that he who accustoms himself to
make truant Of his memory, IS often
times the first to credit his own lie.
Whether it was So with mr Whitney,
the subscriber cannot undertake to say
with certainty; but certain it is that an
affirmation most material, and most con.
fidently made, in the first examination Of
mr. Whitney, that the notes which he had
discovered in the Teller's drawer had
not been entered on his books when he
discovered them, and that they were 50
entered by his direction, was retracted
by himself after it had been blasted by
the production Of the entries upon the
face of the books themselves. Yet the
retraction itselfwas not frank and candid.
1t was by assuming an alternative, which,
while it abandoned all pretence Of sus-
tanning the fact, was yet unwilling to a.
bandon the offensive imputation. When
the impossibility of his pretended inter-
view with the esident, of rebuke on
the part Of mr. Biddle was demonstrated
by the Presidents absence from Phila
delphia at the time, Mr. Whitney was
not prepared with any substituted inven-
ton of details to supply its place. He
admitted that there was a discrepa
between this demonstration and his pre-
vious asseverance, but he neither attempt
ed to reconcile them, nor to fortify his
own statement by explanation or commu-
tation Of its terms. His dshonored me-
morandum found no endorsement for the
honor Of the drawer.
IMPORTANCE OF THE BANK TO THE CON-
MUNITY-JUsTICE AND PRopRIETY OF |
RENEWING THE CHARTER.
In considering the numerous and inn
portant public services, and the large
contributions of the present Bank to the
Government and People of the United
States, he thinks the least return which
they are justly authorized to expect from
the equity of the nation, is the renewal
of their charter. The benefits and pro-
fits of the Bank have been enjoyed byI|