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a safe and ample fund to secure the currency which it authorizes. With this addition, the plan recommended by the Governor is the same, substantially, as the one adopted by the Assembly the year before.

The Senate this year originated no bill on the subject; but awaited the action of the other House. All they did, till a late day in the session, was to appoint a committee on this part of the Governor's message, which consisted of Mr. Young, Mr. Willes, and Mr. Lacy.

The Assembly took up the measure in earnest and with spirit. They appointed a committee of five, as early as the 6th of January, on so much of the Governor's message as related to the restraining laws and a general banking law, consisting of Mr. J. Miller, Mr. G. W. Patterson, Mr. Bostwick, Mr. Nellis and Mr. Wallace.*

Mr. Patterson, from this committee, reported on the 3d February, and presented a bill, "to authorize associations to carry on the business of banking." The committee disclaim an intention to discuss at large the subject of currency and banking, but give, in a brief report, filled with good sense, the principal reasons in favor of the bill. A few extracts will suffice:

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"The system of banking, as at present established in this State, under the provisions of the safety fund law, is considered by many as a monopoly, and as such, has become odious to a large class of our fellow-citizens ;" "it cannot be denied, that a privilege is enjoyed by the few, which the great body of the people do not, and, under the existing laws, cannot enjoy. "By throwing open the business of banking to all who will give the bill-holder the necessary security, the jealousies now existing, will, in a great measure, be overcome, and capitalists will seek invest

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*Mr. Jedediah Miller, of Schoharie; George W. Patterson, of Livingston; William F. Bostwick, of Madison; Jeremiah Nellis, of Montgomery and Hamilton; and James Wallace, of Rensselaer.

ment for their capital where it can be most profitably employed; and thus the business of banking will be rendered secure to the pub. lic, and the competition sufficient to afford to the borrower, all the accommodations he can reasonably desire."

"The committee are well aware of the objections urged by the Attorney-General against the constitutionality of a bill for a general banking law that was before the last House of Assembly; but the committee, without attempting to decide whether the opinion of the Attorney-General was well founded or otherwise, know that many eminent individuals of the legal profession are clearly of opinion that the bill above referred to was constitutional, and might have become a law with the assent of a majority of the Legislature; still in preparing a bill for the consideration of the House, the committee have studiously avoided every thing that would constitute associations to be formed under its provisions, corporations, and they therefore think the constitutional objection cannot, with any propriety, be raised." [Assembly Doc. 1838, No 122, p. 3.]

The Assembly took up this bill, in committee of the whole, on the 14th of February, and were engaged almost daily upon it until the 28th of that month, when, on motion of Mr. Ogden, the committee of the whole were discharged from the bill, and it was referred to a select committee of nine. That committee consisted of Mr. G. W. Patterson, Mr. Ogden, Mr. J. Miller, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Ruggles, Mr. Mann, Mr. Hurd, Mr. Culver and Mr. Hoard.*

*This was, in many respects, a remarkable committee. Mr. Patterson and Mr. Miller were on the committee who reported the bill. The other gentlemen were Mr. David B. Ogden, of the City of New York; Daniel D. Barnard, of the City of Albany; Samuel B. Ruggles, of the City of New York; Abijah Mann, jun., of Herkimer; Davis Hurd, of Niagara; Erastus D. Culver, of Washington; and Charles B. Hoard, of Jefferson.

Mr. PATTERSON, the Chairman, had already distinguished himself as a friend of the measure. He was in the Assembly the year before, as we have seen, and one of the Select Committee to whom was referred the bill of that year, with the opinion of the Attorney General thereon. He aided in stripping it of all corporate attributes. He read, and doubtless wrote, the sensible report of 1838, from which extracts have been given. A mechanic by trade, he is self-educated, and the builder of his own fortune. Although hardly yet, I should suppose, in middle age, he is the Speaker of the Assembly for the present year, and lately was selected from a body of four hundred of the most respectable citizens of this State to preside over their deliberations, in a convention, held at Ithaca, to promote the construction of the New York and Érie Railroad. He is a striking instance of the fostering influence of our institutions, in elevating to distinction and usefulness, natural talents and worth. It is to be hoped, that the public will continue to enjoy the benefit of his services.

DAVID B. OGDEN, who moved the appointment of this committee, and of course, by parliamentary etiquette, entitled to be its chairman, I venture to say from my knowledge of the generosity of his nature, though I know nothing of the fact, gave

A committee could scarcely have been formed, with the whole State to select from, better qualified and assorted for the duty assigned them.

On the 10th of March following, the committee reported, by

way, and requested that Mr. Patterson should fill that place. A note like this, were the time and occasion proper, could not even approach a just notice of the character of this truly distinguished gentleman.

He is well known, not only in this State, but the United States. He has for many years stood near, if not at the very head, of the Bar of this State, and in the very first rank of the Bar of the United States. His practice has been principally in the Supreme Court of the U. S., for several years, and he is the only member of our Bar, who attends regularly the sessions of that Court at Washington. His professional engagements have directed his attention particularly to constitutional questions, and he may justly be considered, the constitutional lawyer of this State. Of all the men in the State, who could have been selected, for the revision and construction of such a bill as our General Banking Law, none could have been found better qualified than Mr. Ogden. It was most fortunate, that we had his services that year in our Legislature. He approved of the Statute, and it has, consequently, the full sanction of his deliberate judgment.

DANIEL D. BARNARD. This gentleman is also well known in this State, by several forensic efforts, of great beauty and power, in our higher courts, and by numerous literary addresses and other classical publications, which display ripe scholarship, and a highly cultivated taste.

Mr. Barnard is also distinguished for his political services and papers. He was a Representative in Congress from this State some years since, and is also a Representative, in the present Congress, of the District, in which he resides. The Assembly of 1838 committed the important subject of the surplus revenue and public instruction to a select committee, of which he was chairman, and during the session, received from him a report, which was universally admired, and greatly added to the high reputation he already enjoyed, for correct scholarship, and liberal and enlightened views on the subject of education. He took an active part in all the debates in the Assembly, on the General Banking Law.

SAMUEL B. RUGGLES. Few gentlemen, of Mr. Ruggles' age, have a higher repu tation, or enjoy more fully the public confidence. His report on the financial resources of this State, made to the Assembly of 1838, as chairman of their committee of ways and means, has deservedly given him an enviable fame, in this Country and Europe. He is now one of our Canal Commissioners, and has charge of one of our most difficult and important public works. Though several years short of the full maturity of middle age, it was delightful to observe the general satisfaction which was expressed, on his appointment to his present office. That appointment was singularly honorable to him He supplied the place left vacant by the death of the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer. And this honor was not the humiliating and hard-earned reward of political management, but the spontaneous offering of a grateful community. He was an ardent and persevering friend of the General Banking Law, and he and his friends have taken large pecuniary interests in several of the associations, but principally in the Bank of Commerce. His views of banking and finance, are admitted to be enlarged and sound, and to him the Public are greatly indebted, for the liberal and enlightened provisions of that Statute.

Mr. R. is, besides, a well educated and good lawyer. Though not distinguished as an advocate, he deservedly commanded a large practice while engaged in his profession. His professional opinions were always treated with great respect, and received their full share of confidence. This State has good right to expect valuable services

from such an officer.

ABIJAH MANN, JUNIOR. There is not, probably, a gentleman in this State more familiar with our legislation than Mr. Mann. He has been many years in the Assembly, and once, certainly, if not oftener, a Representative in Congress. He has enjoyed the confidence of his political friends for a long time, and received many evidences of their approbation..

their chairman, that they had gone through the bill, amended, and agreed to it. It was then committed to the committee of the whole, and restored to its former place in the order of business. Four days afterwards, the committee of the whole took it up, and were engaged nearly every day upon it until the third of April following, when they reported to the House, that they had gone through the bill, amended it, altered its title, to "An Act to authorize the business of banking," (the one it now bears,) and agreed to it. The House then took up the bill by sections, and adopted them separately, after amending two or three of them, and at last approved the whole bill, by a vote of seventy-nine to twenty-two, and ordered it engrossed for a third reading. On the fifth of April, it came from the committee on engrossed bills, and was passed by a vote of eighty-six to twenty-nine, and sent to the Senate.

As the Assembly of 1838, is admitted by all, to have possessed an unusual amount of talent and moral worth, and especially of juridical talent, it seems proper that this Court should know, what gentlemen, in that House, and particularly the profession, gave their sanction under oath to this bill. They were the following:

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The Senate received this bill from the Assembly, on the 16th of April, and read it a first and second time.

Three days afterwards, viz., on the 9th of April, Mr. Young, from "the select committee, to which was referred that part of the Governor's message which relates to the repeal of the restraining law, and the introduction of free competition in the business of banking," made an elaborate report, which is principally occupied with a history of the fluctuations of trade in England and this Country, and a discussion of the elementary principles of currency.* A few quotations from it will answer the purposes of this argument.

*This report is written with great spirit and force; and exhibits extensive research, and a familiar acquaintance with the subjects treated; but the imagination of Senator

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