nce, had
maintained their former relations with them, subsequently voting for
Thomas for treasurer of state, and for Southwick as regent of the
State University. As positive proof of bribery was limited in each
case to the prosecuting witness, we may very well accept the
defendants' repeated declarations of their own integrity and
uprightness, although the conditions surrounding them were too
peculiar not to leave a stigma upon their memory.

These charges of crime, added to the bank's possession of a solid
majority in both branches of the Legislature, aroused the opposition
into a storm of indignation and resentment. Governor Tompkins had
anticipated its coming, and in a long, laboured message, warned
members to beware of the methods of bank managers. Such institutions,
he declared, "facilitate forgeries, drain the country of specie,
discourage agriculture, swallow up the property of insolvents to the
injury of other creditors, tend to the subversion of government by
vesting in the hands of the wealthy and aristocratic classes powerful
engines to corrupt and subdue republican notions, relieve the wealthy
stockholder from an equal share of contribution to the public service,
and proportionally enhance the tax on the hard earnings of the farmer,
mechanic and labourer." He spoke of the "intrigue and hollow
pretences" of applicants, insisting that the gratification of
politicians ought not to govern them, nor the "selfish and
demoralising distribution of the stock." "Nor ought we to be
unmindful," he continued, "that the prominent men who seek the
incorporation of new banks, are the very same men who have deeply
participated in the original stock of most of the previously
established banks. Having disposed of that stock at a lucrative
advance, and their avidity being sharpened by repeated gratification,
they become more importunate and vehement in every fresh attempt to
obtain an opportunity of renewing their speculations." As if this were
not reason enough, he exhorted them not to be deceived by the apparent
unanimity of sentiment about the capital, since it "is no real
indication of the sentiments of the community at large," but so to
legislate as "to retain and confirm public confidence, not only in the
wisdom, but also in the unbending independence and unsullied integrity
of the Legislature."[162]

[Footnote 162: _Governors' Speeches_, January 28, 1812, pp. 115-8.]

The Governor's arguments were supplemented by oth