Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-10-01
rrora the Boston Daily Advertiser.
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT

are, by Americans al least loudly celebrated; but scarcely the most zealous admirers of our institutions can think that law wise, which, when men are ca pablo of work, obges them to beg; or just which exposes the liberty of to the passion of another
 The prosperity of people is proportionste Co the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, seditiOn is fever, corruption is a gangrene, and idleness an atrophy.
 Whatever body, and whatever society, wastes more than it acquires, must gradually decay; and every being that continues to be fed, and to labor, takes away something from the public stock.
 The confinement, therefore, of any man in the sloth and darkness of prson is loss to the nation, and no gain to the creditor. For of the mutitudes who pnng in those cells of misery, very small part is suspected of any fraudulent act by which they retain what belongs to others. The rest are imprisoned by the wantonness of pride, the malig- nty of revenge, the acrimony of disappointed pectation
 If those who thus vigorously exercise the power which the law has put into their hands, be asked, why they continue to imprison those whom they know to be unable to pay them; one will answer, that his debtor once lived better than himself ano. ther, that his wife looked above her neighbors, and his children went in silk clothes to the dancing school and another that he pretended to be joker and wit. Some will reply, that if they were in debt, they should meet with the same treatment; some, that they owe no more than they pay, and need therefore give account of their actions.- Some will confess their resolutions, that their debt shall rot in jail; and some will discover that they hope, by cruelty, to win the payment from their friends. The end ofa civil regulations is to secure private happiness from private malignity; to keep individuals from the power of one another; but this witn oa, IS aow6d to Se ,n1 jaage " Ui ,s S@n cause and to assign the punishment of his own pain when the distinction between guilt and happiness, between casualty and design, is entrusted to eyes blind with interest, to understandings deprared by resentment.
 Since poverty is punished among us as crime, h ought dt ieast to be treated ,oih the same lenity as other crimes; the offender ought not to languish at the will of him whom he has offended but to be al. lowed some appeal to the justice of his country.- There can be reason why any debtor should be imprisoned, but that he may be compelled to pay ment and term should therefore be fixed in which the creditor should exhibit his accusation of conceal ed property. If such property be discovered let it be given to the creditor; if the charge is not of fered, cannot be proved, lei the prisoner be dis missed
 Those who have made the laws, have apparently supposed, that every deficiency of payment is the crime of the debtor But Me truth is Mat the credi tor atcays shares the act and often more han shares the gu'h cf improper trust, It seldom happens that any man imprlsons another but for debts which he suffered 10 be contracted in hope of advantage to himself and for bargains in which he proportioned his profit to his opinion oithe hazard; and there is no reason, why one should punish the other for contract in which both concurred
 Many of the inhabitants of prisons may justly complain of harder treatment. He that once owes more than he can pay, is often obliged to brbe his creditor to patience by increasing his debt. Worse and worse commodities, at a higher and higher price, are forced upon him he is impoverished by compulsive traffic, and at last overwhelmed, in the common receptacles of misery, by debts, which, without his consent accumulated on his head To the relief of this distress, no other obiec
 ton can be made, but that by an easy dissolution of debts fraud will be left without punishment, and m- prudence without awe; and that when insolvency shall be no longer punishable, credit will cease.
 The motive to credit, is the hope of advantage - Commerce never be at stop, while one man wants what another can supply; and credit will ne- yer be denied, while it is likely to be repaid with profit He that trusts one whom he designs to sue is criminal by the act of trust the cessation of such nsidious traffic is to be desired, and can be given why change of the law should impair any other.
 We see nation trade with nation, where no pay ment can be compelled Mutual convenience pro duces mutual confidence: and the merchants con- tnue to satisfy the demands of each other, though they have nothing to dread but the loss of trade. It is vain to continue an institution which experience shews to be intellectual. We have now imprisoned one generation of debtors after another but we do not find that their numbers lessen. We have now learned that rashness, and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit let us try whether fraud and avarce may be more easily restrained from givingit