There was no force save the
militia, and for their use the approval of the two houses of the
Legislature was needful. The conservative and aristocratic Senate
might alone have favored a harsh course, but it could do nothing
without the House, which fully sympathized with the people. The result
was a compromise by which the Legislature at its extra session, ending
the middle of November, passed laws giving the people the most of what
they demanded, and then threatened them with the heavy arm of the law
if they did not thereafter conduct themselves peaceably.
To alleviate the distress from the lack of circulating medium, the
payment of back taxes in certain specified articles other than money
was authorized, and real and personal estate at appraised value was
made legal tender in actions for debt and in satisfaction for
executions. An act was also passed and others were promised reducing
the justly complained of costs of legal processes, and the fee tables
of attorneys, sheriffs, clerks of courts and justices, for, according
to the system then in vogue, most classes of judges were paid by fees
from litigating parties instead of by salary. The complaint against
the appropriation of so large a part of the income from the import and
excise taxes to the payment of interest on the state debt was met by
the appropriation of one-third of those taxes to government expenses.
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