Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1831-10-13
ABOLITION OF IMPRISONMENT
FOR DEBT.


ed meeiiag held al Faneuil Hall, ere"'"g
of September 90, 1881. Hon. ALEX.i.N-
DER H. EVERETT, in The Clair, j.
c. Park, Esq. Secretary.
The hall was filled at an early hour. -
AT half past seven O'clock the meeting
was called TO order by the Chairman
The proceedings Of The former meeting
were then read by the Secretary.
Mr.. BEAMAN, from the Committee APP
pointed ut tie former meeting to wait on
the Hon. Mr.. Webster, and request him
to attend tEc present meeting and express
his opinions upon the object Of it, report
ed that they had discharged this duty, g.
that Mr.. Webster was prevented by i'll
dispcnsable engagements from attending
the meeting this evening, but would with
pleasure attend and express his opinions
at some future adjourned meeting, should
such be the wish of his low-citizens.
The Chairman said that he had in the
course of the day received letter from
Mr.. " cbster, containing assurances to
the same effect. lie had also received
letter from S. NJ. Stilwell, Esq, of n.
! York, Il gentleman who had taken an ac-
tive part, as member of the Assembly,
/ in the recent abolition of Imprisonment for
Debt in that State. The letter was ad
dressed to him as Chairman of the meet
ing, and he therefore considered it his
duty to read it Oh the present occasion, *
to make it part OF the proceedings.
The Chairman then read the following
letter.
NEw-Y DIRK, Sept. ood, 1881.
Hon. .4lerGnder H. ErereH,
i Chairman of u meeting held al Bos-
ton, on the subject Of "lmprisonment for
Debt"
DEAR SlR-I saw with great pleasure,
an account of public meeting held in
the city of Boston on the subject of i'm
'prisonlncnt for debt. Believing it to be
your wish, to obtain all the information
which may tend in any degree to pro-
mote the object, | have taken the libcr-
ty of enclosing the report of Il committee
of the Legislature of this State on tina
subject, together with the law of the last
Session. 1t will be perceived, that the
act is made to take effect on the first
day of March next, consequently FROM
AND AFTER THAT PERIOD
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT"
WILL NOT BE KNOWN IN THIS
STATE. New York will have been
the FIRST State to abolish the Cdpais dd
respondendum for debt. l say the first
because upon referring to acts OF Ken
lucky, you will find, that it is the Capias
I'D suiitaciendum which is there struck
out Of exstence-the law of that State
considering the allegation as of more i'm
portance than proof of dcbt-permt-
ting an arrest on allegation and denying
it on prooC BY the act now forwarded
to you, it will be seen that VIC have struck
at the root of the evil, and denied the
right to arrest except on allegation of 0f-
fence. In the place Of the capias, we
have extended the prcreniirc system
$50 well known to our aws)-irom felony
to fraud-from a greater to Il lesser Of
fcncc-rccognisiDg no right to arrest, cX-
cept on allegation of jraud or dpprehend-
ed fraud, and giving the party arrested
for intended fraud, the same means of de-
fence and the same rules of law as in the
case of intended felony. This places
the question in its true light. The ciril
and criminal proceedings arc separate,
and do not necessarily belong togcth-
er. Grill is confined to the original
intent and meaning of the term, TO wit,
the adjusting differences between indi-
viduals in which the peace or safety cf
the community is not at all Interested
and the criminal to all sorts of crime or
offence. The difficulty in the practice
Of our Courts has grown out of the pro-
miscuous use of the civil and criminal
process, as will be seen by the report
1t is but reasonable, therefore, that we
should resort to the cause in order to re-
move the effect.
There is no great difficulty in getting
general expression of opinion in favor OF
the principle, the difficulty lies in pro-
viding the proper remedy. In 1880, |
had the honor of offering a resolution in
the house of Assembly in this State,
in these words "Resolrcd, That i'm
prisonmcnt for debt ought to be abol-
ishcd''-which passed with only ten dis
senting voices but bill could not be
agreed upon-At the last session, the
great difficulty lay in fixing the attention
of members to the provisions of the bill
Those who closely and critically exam
ined the principles of the bill, (among
them the best legal talents in the house }
uniformly became its advocates and
the act at last became law with only
twelve dissenting voices
| That it is important topreren' fraud all