Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1816-11-16
INDIANA TERRITORY.
Yincenries, Oct. 5.

On Monday last the Circuit Court Tor the
FIRST Circuit met at VineeRns', wnen
the following Charge to the Grand Ju'
ry was delivered by Judge Ray mend
Gentlemen Of the Grand Jury,
Ameng other considerations which
at the present moment press upon the
mind, we cannot fail to reco!lect, thai
this is the last time on which YOU will De
assembled under the authority OF the ter
ritory nor for my self can fail to recoi'
lect, that this is perhaps the last time,
that ! shall address Grand jury Oh
Knox county.
At such a fine, gentlemen, it is I'm.
possible not to look both forward and
backward, backward TO the time when the
settlement Of this country progressed be-
meath the tomahawk--and forward to a
time, when by the gradual extinction Of
Indian title, Indiana will comprehend the
from the Ohio to Michigan; When
the whole of this great and fertile state
will be cultivated by industrious farmers
and our merchants will traffic not oaly
south ON the Mississippi. but north and
east on Michigan, her sister Lakes and
the st. Lawrence
That the fabric Of republican greatnes'
may rise high and be permanent, its four
dation must be laid in justice, mercy and
enlightened policy. We all have Our pre-
objections, and some of US, doubtless, have
preiudices, but that such are the genera
provisions of our constitution few, be
iieye, will deny. Time compels me Fr
be brief, but cannot do justice to my
feelings, withuat adduciug two or three
examples.
III perusing this charter Of our rights,
vas pleased to observe provision IN Ia
vor of class of men, who have been cru,
ELY treated, even by the most enlighten'
ed nations. ahude to insslvent debt
|ors.
In Rene, they might not emily be sold
as slaves, but some inform US, that credI'
tors had the power OF cutting the body Of
the debtor in pieces, each taking share
pr portionate, presume, to his demand
In England, DIR. Johnson informs US, that
there were, on moderate estimate &c
thousand debtors confined in jails--tl,at
one quarter persisted annually by want
anxiety and disease, or in other words,
the lite Of d debtor in those unwholeseme
prisons, was curtailed to four years
Four years is indeed short space of life
for man in the yigor of his faculties
though four years OF lingering conGne,
ment, counted day by day. will be long
to thee who endure them, The unfor
tunate debtor, however honest his life
may have been, however industrious his
habits, however remote even from the sus.
picioh of fraud, after be has delivered up
every cent of his property, is confined at
the will of his creditor 1t is not till
within few years that the smallest pro-
vision han been made in England for the
debtors support; even for deficiency
to sustain the public spark of life Re
was left to the charity of the charitable
Take into view his wife and children. de
pending on his industry for bread, his
own hopeless condition, reflect that In
|solvency may be your late or mine, and
let me ask whether we have not reason
to congratulate ourselves, that we live in
a country Ia; which the g person of q
debtor, where there is no strong presump-
tion Of fraud, shall not be- continued in
prison, after delivering up his estate for
the benefit of his creditors, in such =
manner as shall be prescribed by law.''
May we not say to England, talk as
much as you please. Of the despotism of
Turks and Barbarlans. here is a species
of civil oppression, which should suffnse
the face Of an enlightened nation with
bushes.
Even in some of the states Of the u
|nion, it is not till within a few years, that
the cries of suffering humanity, have been
regarded recolleet hearing an in
stance, in the state of New York where a
debtor who had been involved by indorsine
for friend, died in prison atter sixteen
years confinement. Fell me, when he
laid down his hoary head never to lift il
again, had he reason to congratulate him
self, that he lived in land of liberty 7
! doubt not you have remarked with
pleasure, thai in our young republic, while
those who do not deserve punishment,
have a charter Ter their rights, those who
merit it, are TO be treated with mercy
that penal code is to be formed, found
ed on the principles of reformation and
not OF vindictiye justice. In order that
men may respect and love the laws, un-
der which they live, they must see and
feel that those laws are just and mercitul.
Where capital punishments are inflicted