The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-08-12

passage, and concluded with impressive description
of The embarrassment and distress prevailing through
out the country amongst that unfortunate class whom
this bill could alone relieve.
MIR. NlSBEf spoke in favor Of the bill
Mr.. GORDON spoke an hour against the BILL
He maintained that Congress had no power pass
retroactive Bankrupt Law.
Mr.. ROOSEVELT made an able speech in favor
of the bill He called attention 10 the very high charac-
OF some of the petitioners for law, many of whom
such w m. b. Astor, and Others osimar standlng)
would be suspected of direct personal interest IN
il from any probability Of their having occasion
avail themselves of its provisions in their
The reason why such persons put their names to
memorial for Bankrupt law might be presumed to be,
that large body Of their personal friends
ions had from the mistortunes Of the times and
der tie universal delusion which spread like sort of
mental cholera in 1888 and 1886, been Frustrated in
the general crash of the succeeding year. In the
wide spread ruin of 1887 good and bad, firm and in
firm prudent and impiudent, had alike been swept
away as by whirlwnd and had the preceding de
fusion continued SIX months longer there would have
been commercially speaking scarce sane man let IN
the whole trading community. In behalf of the vic
Tins of this general business madness many men,
whose fortune and credit remained beyond the reach
OF doubt or danger, had now kindly interested them
selves IN manner which did honor at once TO their
heads and hearts. And although among those who
would share in the results Of their inerposilion there
might be some not worthy of IT, still their mercy would
fall like that of heaven which often spared the Hide
serving that the innocent might he shielded from the
effects of their punishment. Another cause Of the
part such persons took in memorials for Bankrupt
law might be an enlarged and enlightened regard to
their own true interest. Much apprehension was felt
by some OF these very that they might lose many
debts otherwise not desperate but their calculation
still was that they might probably gain more by trade
with the restored debtors than they would lose by dis
charging them from their previous obligations II was
a sound opinion for experience showed, with regard
TO the scraps and crumbs of merchant who had made
bad failure that the contingent rcmanders OF these
lost est aes were in the long run swallowed up (not
improperly, but from unavoidable expenses) by the le-
gal profession
There another view of the subject. What
the result, leas, the frequent effect of keep
ing the rod of the law Suspended over The heads OF
men who had failed in business What did we see as
walked the streets} Men Of arjof, and industry,
and enterprise, who were willing to work, but whose
labor was liable TO be swallowed up by their previous
Liabilities could not consent TO remain idle and hence
we saw in large letters signs the names John Doe
and Richard Roc" and after them the word gents in
very small letters, scarcely legble the street
What did this mean2 Ii was evidence TO show the
general fact that all sorts of suberfuges and conri-
would be resored to by men who were desirous
of gaining the profits of future labor without the
payment of past debts. This payment they had
given up hopeless but they must live, and they
thus covered themselves from the reach of law.
What the moral influence of such state of
thingsl 1t spread through the community body of
fraudulent men, whose example set fraud before the
eyes of their children. Was not this great public
ev was it not moral calamity which called for the
remedial interposition OF Congress} Mr. X. wished
To this state of things obhterated from the land
Talk Of slavery and abolition What slavery was to
compare with The bondage of the mind and the hearth
Men talked of physical chains and shackles, but these
Were nothing to the chains of the soul. man might
be ia all the gloom OF dungeon and yet have all the
Joy of freedom if his spirit was but free: and he might
be very slave in the open field If his mind was slave
to passion OF 10 debt 1t might be asked, in reply,
whether this House had any power to regulate the
morals of the community! To this he would answer
YES, il has" The founders Of our admirable form
Of government were seeing and wise men and
understanding well the character OF their county
men, and anticipating the commercial and trading
propensity which belonged to them, calculated, as
matter OF course, that muttudes of them would be-
involved in pecunary difficulties, which must be
inevitable in the ordinary of events THIS la
bly was not the result of any popularity in our cha
racter as People it rather the result OF our po-
ston. They looked the shades well as the lights
which marked the landscape presented in anticipation
before them, and seeing impossible for the States
grant eectua relief they vested in Congress he pow
or to pass uniform bankrupt law. The privilege
was granted in the broadcast and unqualified Ian
guage the single limitation that the law should be
uniform in It's operation. Could be said that power
like this To be suffered to lie dormant and never
be exercised Some gentlemen held that it ought
to be used unless there the most urgent and
pressing necessity but Mr.. r. could not agree in this
opinion. The power was not so much granted as
privilege, il confded TO Congress trust it
was trust which Government was bound to fulfil
Had not their predecessors viewed it in this Light and
had they not in the close of the Administration of
the elder Adams fulfilled the trust by passing such
law in lS00l True, it was at the following session
repealed but Mr.. r. understood that party politics
had had something to do with the repeal. The law
had been passed under John Adams; it was repealed
under Thomas Jefferson.
Mr. r.. admitted that there inherent difficulties
in the While every of humanity must feel
ANXIOUS that ho.honest but unfortunate debtor should
be released from liabilities he never could discharge,
every just mans mind strongly repels the idea OF
dishonest
lent. Mr. r. here put the OF man who had pur-
chased real estate, paid part and given mortgage for
the remainder hut who, being unable to pay, had sut
ftred foreclosures the property had reverted to the
original owner and 30 and cases, 10 per cent.
OF the whole purchase money still hanging
his head at the merry v the CREDITOR it was liqui
dated debt, which execution could issue at any
time. What debtor won d be content TO toll for years,
ay, Cor lifetime, to discharge such debt Mr.. X
wanted to this class of debtors emancipated and
he believed the country could prosper till was
effected. On the other hand, it was hard, where
man holding a lucrative office had borrowed money
and spent it, and took the benefit of the act retaining
the office and lis emOluments, to which IN reality his
creditor had looked for repayment. Such cases and
he mentioned severaD ought if practicable to be ex,
cept,d from the relief
Mr. r. next went into the question OF the constltu-
tnray OF the bill 1t related to two classes OF cases
~ mntary bank upts who applied for the benefit Of
the law on their own account, and Involuntary, in re-
latlon 10 whom application was made by their cred
tors and 1t referred 10 contracts not future but alrea
dy existing. To the objection that IN this respect 1t
violated the provision OF the Constitution which for
babe the States pass any law impair,ng the ohiga
on of contracts Mr. r. replied that the words of the
Constitution made marked difference in the prohibit
imposed upon States and that imposed upon the Gee
neral Government The latter was prohibited from
passing any bill Of attainder post facto law"
There istopped. Now, post facto law had been
decided to only criminal statute, and not a law
Of ci, nature and therefore the restriction did not
mas cIX law at ptrp-