Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1837-08-10
[FOr the Herald Of the Times.

/ In my last communication, il was my pur-
pose to expose the unprincipled conduct of
the administration party in our General As
sembly, by structure upon the course pur-
sued by their leader, the Speaker Of the House,
on the subject Of so far amending the Elec-
ton law as to enable the Freemcn to be rep
resented in Congress on the first day of the
Extra session. 1t is now my purpose to speak
OF the same gentleman, in relation to the bill
which finally prevailed in both branches for
the protection Of our Banking Institutions, and
again to identify Mr.. Pearce with the party,
and make him accountable to the people for
an. attempt to embarrass and ruin the monied
institutions of the State. II will not be ne
cessary for me to 20 into detailed state
mcnt Of that important debate, further than
to give synopsis from two or three of the
principal points of discussion and the first
which suggests itself to my mind is the a.
mendment offered and advocated by Mr.. At
well, to COMPEL the Banks to give a certif-
cate Of deposte, to any person requiring the
same, who should produce their bills which
certificate should be negotiable and entitle
the holder to receive the amount thereof on
demand, ,Oith interest at sir per cent. per an.
mum. Mr.. A. went into q long argument in
explanation of his views, and, as usual, closed
justice Of the House to sustain an amendmen mt
which he considered as indispensably due to
the people during the suspension Of specie
payments. The keen eye Of Mr.. Curtis, ,how-
ever, Immediately discovered his real object
and exposed his dupicity,by enquiring Of the
honorable Speaker il the ame endment prevail
ed, whether it would not have the effect Of
driving our bills from circulation and substitut.
ing these dcposite certificates, and the bills of
the banks Of other States and he pressed the
enquiry still further by bis eloquent appeal to
the House, to consider we'll Of a measure
which threatened the annihiation Oft curren-
cy, now under the immediate eontrol Of the
General Assembly and known to be perfectly
safe, for a substitute, the value Of which we
could not ascertain, and over which we could
have no control. lie then forcibly drew a
comparison between the currency supplied
by the Banks of this State to our people, and
the miserable policy Of the Legislature Of
New York, the people Of which State are in
the midst of an "experiment," similar TO the
one this amendment would inevitably pro-
duce f; and, finally appealed to the Speakers
candor to answer, whether the grounds he
had assumed were not correct TO which Mr..
A. gave reluctant asscn stat ating,at the same
time, his determination to oppose tho whole
Dill WHICH ne uiu on its maj passage: a
gam was Mr.. Atwcll's hatred TO these institu.
tions manifested in his labored defence of the
right Of every individual to recover costs of
suit on any sum they chose to prosecute, CEN
tending, that deprving an individual Of the
right to recover costs under twenty dollars,
was depriving the poor man Of his remedy |!
,Oouid be unconstitutional! aud mol submitted
10 by the people the reply Of his political but
more honorable friend Mr.. Blake Of Bristol,
sustained and made unanswerable by Mr..
Randolph again deprived the gentleman Of
his power to do harm, and left him and anoth-
er Of his darling schemes in miserable mi
nority. The next and only other subject to
which shall sllude at present is one so con-
tcmptible rs hardly to merit passing notice,
the resolu,ion offered by Mr.. 7. 7. Hazard Of
West Greenwich to compel the Banks to re-