Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1838-01-04

reported 10 The Senate. That was reported al the extra
session; and, though it had passed the Senate, it bud not
become q law. The charge, therefore, that the Commit.
tee on Finance, or the Executive had produced the pre-
sent state OF the currency, was untounded. II had been
brought about by u very different, and an opposite InHu-
ence.
"Mr. PRESTON replied, and said he regarded the COM
mitlee as the exponent OF the will Of The Executive. He
asked, how came all the silver of the county 10 be locked
up? If he had propounded this question to his friends
of the banks, those precious conservative institutions of
the country, their resolutions Suspending specie pay
ments, with their vaults lined with gold aud silver, would
have furnished him with an appropriate answer. MIR.
PREsTuN talked about the servlle adherence Of the Com
millee on Finance 10 The war against banks, paper and
credit. The srrvility to the bank ana paper system, prac.
tised by him and his political friends, Is the true cause OF
the continued arrangement in the currency oil itc coun'
try, and of the danger which now ncnaces our kePub'
licau institutions, which are in imminent peril OF being
FRUSTRATED at the feet of the bank arislocracy oil The STATES,
with the great Pennsylvania Bank OF the U. D. al lhelf
head.
MI. CLAY followed. He recapitulated the arguments
of his new ally. He called upon the Senate TO spare
the boys, 10 spare the negroes, 10 spare the girls OF lie
District, from the fatal provisions OF this bill: he was
pathetic about the poor; but this was all Tor stage e1tct,
His synpathies are entirely with the banks, The monled
aristocracy, the Bank of the u. States. MIR. Clay spoke
Of the divorce bill as San eXecruGle system, when The
people had condemned and put down, he trusted, forever
We shall see.' He intima,ed that the present Dill was
the manifestation of resentment towards Tie banks anu
The people, for the failure of the Sub.1reasury scheme.
This was n ridiculous suggestion, worthy of the charac'
teristic trickery of the great orator of the West The
bill is entirely local, and intended to suppress u local EVIL.
It could have been acted on by Congress alone, as Con.
gress alone can legisIale for The III miles square. 1t was
taken up to relieve a people, whose complaints are daily
and hourly uttered against The evils OF a miserable cur
rency of o small paper trash. go.
"The motion of MIR. PnEsroY, TO recommit the bill
to the Committee on the District oil Columbia, was OPP
posed by MIR. RoASE, the chairman OF that committee,
and was rejected the bill itself amended, in one or two
of its details, by its friends, and then passed 10 a third
reading, all The friends of the Administration voting for
it, and the Opposition members generally retiring be-
hind the pillars of the lobby, back of the chair OF the
Vice President! ,
"The debate of this day, so triumphantly conducted
and closed OIL the part Of The Democracy oil the Senate,
deserves Il separate letter, which you shall have in a day
or two.
81 have no doubt that the real motive Of this violent
opposition to the bill, was 10 countenance The declslcn
of the late Bank Parliamenta at New York, against hxing
a day for the resumption Of specie payments, and TO com
pei the people by their snferings,' to establish a Ma
tional Bank as their only means OF relief