Lynchburg Virginian

THE TREASURY ORDER.

An interesting debate is now going on in the Senate, on Mr. Ewing's resolution, condemnatory of the famous Treasury Order. Messrs. Ewing, Crittenden, and Webster, in favor, and Messrs. Benton, Niles and Rives, in opposition to the resolution, have already addressed the Senate--the latter gentleman offering a substitute for Mr. Ewing's resolution, which will be found in the Congressional proceedings. We shall hereafter publish a speech or two, on each side, so as fully to possess our reader of the arguments pro and con.

We confess we are surprised at Mr. Rives's course. From what we hear of his conversations last summer, we were prepared to see him take decisive ground against the Treasury Order. If we were not misinformed, or if he was not grossly misunderstood, he expressed the unqualified opinion that that Order was illegal, and the belief that it was unconstitutional likewise. Why, then, does he now hesitate to say so? Why shift his sails to suit the breeze?

It is said that Mr. Rives, in his late speech on the Treasury Order, again assailed Mr. Benton's humbug of an exclusive metallic currency, as utterly impracticable. Did not Mr. Rives himself broach this very scheme, which he now ridicules, in his famous speech on the Removal of the Deposites? If it was practicable then, why is it not so now? Is he envious of the laurels won by "the distinguished Senator from Mississippi," (as he styles him,) in this gold crusade?