The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1839-11-02
PORTER AND RITNER.
THE DIFFERENCE.

POIEIEk AMI hllNEh.
THE DIFFERENCE.
Perhaps ne single fact more strikingly
exemplies the superior policy of the pre-
sent Executive Of our state, over that Of his
blundsring and condemned prcdecessor,t than
their relative bearing under the pecuniary
difficulties produced by the suspension Of
specie payments in the summer Of 1897,
when'the federal governor was in power,and
the suspension Of the present day, when
democratic Executive wields the helm
No sooner had the first suspension been an
nounced, than almost every petty corpora
tiou in the Commonwealth, from that Of the
city of Philadelphia, down 10 the meanest
watering company Of the most obscure viii
lage, flooded the country with irredemiable
paper promises,in the shape Of 'shinplasters'
calling for almost every intermediate sum
from three dollars down to six and a quarter
cents. This evil and pernicious example
being suffered to pass with impunity, pri-
vate individuals, influenced by the love of
"flthy lucre," deemed it worthy of imita-
ton, and in brief period we found hum
dreds of citizens, wholly irresponsible in
pecuniary point of view, adding their mite
10 the shnplaster era, and flooding their re-
spective neighborhoods with litter of a.
bomnable rag promises, which they were
unable and unwilling ever to redeem. All
these transcendant evils, it will be remem-
bered, were inflicted upon the community
in contraventlon of the positive injunctons
of an act of assembly, prohibiting the issue
Of any notes, tickets, or other papers in the
si,nlitude of bank notes, under the denomi-
nation of i've dollars, ,and making their issue
and circulation a PENAL OFFENCE
The laws were disregarded-openly and
hagranhy violated--by men in office and
out OF Office. Where stood your federal
Governor, Joseph Rtner, and his constitu-
tonal adviser, William Buckshot Reed; at
this crisis! Did they in their obligations
solemnly sttested upon the HolyEvangeIsts
step forward and I" take care thst the laws
be faithfully executed" Did they, as it
was their sworn duty, -eall-the transgressors
of the law 10 Recount, and carry It's violated
provisions into effect! Did they, as good
citizens and faithful eficeas, come to the
relief of an abandoned commonwealth"
and exercise this important branch of their
"offlcal duty" Our own experience,
alas, furnishes the answer to these interrog-
atories. 1t is yet fresh in our recollection
that for upwards Of fifteen months was the
reign Of shinplasterism permitted TO conlin'
ue in Pennsylvana-and not breath of
opposition raised against it by the patriotic
executive of the state. At the end of this
period, when we stood upon the eve Of the
election which was to decide The political
fortunes Of the Ritner dinasty, it is true the
scales seemed to have fallen as if by mira
Gle from the eyes of ouI modern Rip Van
Winkle-and specious gull trap in the
shape Of an er post facto proclamation was
put forth under his hand and the great seal
of the state, for the fist time requiring an
end to be put to these "open inf actions Of
spirit of The la,cS," and threatening those
who had issued Lotes Of less denomina-
tioa than five dollars with his royGI displeas-
ure, if they failed in redeeming them with
in given period. This, it will also be re-
membered, took place after the banks had
OF their own accord concludedto TO resume
specie payments, an event which of itself,
without the aid of the gull-trap proclamation,
would have banished shinplasters and their
concomilant evils most effectually from ex-
istence.
How strikingly different the prompt, un'
hesitating and efficient course Of Governor
PORTER, and the present Attorney General,
in the crissis which at present rests upon
us ! How marked and significant the con-
trast Do they fold their arms in supine
Indifference for year and upwards, mere
" lockers on in Venice" while the spirit Of