Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-01-29

expressed opinion of the House that the
State of the Manufactures of the country.
as well as the wants of the Treasury, are
to be taken into consideration in the gene
raj revision Of the duties upon imports;
and secondly, the instruction given by the
vote of Saturday last to the Judiciary
Committee to report a bill to repeal the
Bankrupt Law, which our readers will re-
collect, though passed at the last Session Of
Congress, has not yet gone into effect.
The vote looking to the repeal of the
Bankrupt Law has, we confess, overcome
us with surprise at its suddenness, and with
apprehension for its consequences. To this
measure, in connexion with the Land Dis
tribution and Presumption Law, we had
pointed with triumph as the two great pill
lars of Wing policy, of which the third
was to be, and we have yet faint hope is
to be, the restoration (as far as practically
of a sound currency. We could not bring
ourselves to believe, though threatened in
the Senate, that there was any serious de-
sign in Congress to repeal that beneficent
act, which has called down upon the heads
of its authors more of that incense the sa-
vor Of which ascends to heaven, than any
measure ever passed by Congress. We
sympathze most deeply in the anguish with
which this indication in the House Of Rep
resentatives will wiring the breasts of ma
ny thousands of helpless women and chill
dren, who have fondly looked to the olsen
thralment of their natural protectors by a
process which, upon all the consideration
that we have been able to bestow upon it,
is to our mind no less just and wise than it
is humane and providcnt. We shuddcr at
the thought of the utter desolation which
the consummation of the proposed repeal
would bring upon hearths long wretched
and forlorn, but upon which the benignant
promise held out by the Bankrupt act had
at last shed reviving and consohng beams
of hope and Joy. We most earnestly hope
that we may be spared the spectacle of
such an affection the depth and extent of
which may be pictured in the Imagination,
but which no pen nor tongue could ever
describe.
We do not, Of course, pretend TO arraign
the votes of individual members on this
question Of the proposed repeal of the Bank
rupt Law. They are acting under high
responsibility, and in a conscientious spirit;
some, doubtless, under supposed instruc-
tons from their immediate constituents
If we could presume to address any argu-
mout to them, we should urge that it might
have been expected, as more conformabIo
TO usage as well as to reason, that a law,
sanctioned in terms by the Constitution
passed with the consent of all branches OF
the Government, (under circumstances
which have since undergone no change)
ought to undergo fair trial before 1t is
doomed. This privilege, which is allowed
to the most abandoned malefactor, ought
not, surely, to be denied by Congress to its
own offspring. Let lis have the verdict OF
public opinion upon it before it is condemn.
ed. That opinion has not been ascertain
ed by any process to be relied upon, and
according to all the information that has
reached us, is altogether more favorable
than adverse to the law. Obdurate credi-
tors there may be, who, not content with
obtaining all that men can pay, would yet
hold their miserable debtors in bondage for
life. lmprccations upon the Bankrupt law
may be hurled by such men; but how fee
bic ought not to be their dcnunciations
against the force of reason and the mark Of
intellect which cOnfound all the laws and
sophisms and dispel the darkness of the bar
barism of past ages, under which not only
the debtor, but the debtors family, his wife
and children, were condemned to servitude
and perjury for life, to atone for the mis-
fortune Of debt which it was impossible that
he should ever be able to pay May ouI
legislators, when seriously medtating fur.
ther legislation of this subject, ever bear it
mind that
Earthly power doth then show nearest COPS,
When Mercy seasons Justice!
CINCINN ATl NOR