t inhuman or unkind; but there will be found some who
hold on, and the more a debtor struggles to free himself, the more they
feel encouraged to hold on. The mode of reasoning is, that, the more
honest the debtor may be, the more industrious, the more disposed to
struggle and bear up against his misfortunes, the greater the chance is,
that, in the end, especially if the humanity of others shall have led
them to release him, their own debts may be finally recovered.

Now, in this state of our constitutional powers and duties, in this
state of our laws, and with this actually existing condition of so many
insolvents before us, it is not too serious to ask every member of the
Senate to put it to his own conscience to say, whether we are not bound
to exercise our constitutional duty. Can we abstain from exercising it?
The States give to their own laws all the effect they can. This shows
that they desire the power to be exercised. Several States have, in the
most solemn manner, made known their earnest wishes to Congress. If we
still refuse, what is to be done? Many of these insolvent persons are
young men with young families. Like other men, they have capacities both
for action and enjoyment. Are we to stifle all these for ever? Are we to
suffer all these persons, many of them meritorious and respectable, to
be pressed to the earth for ever, by a load of hopeless debt? The
existing diversities and contradictions of State laws on the subject
admirably illustrate the objects of this part of the Constitution, as
stated by Mr. Madison; and they form that precise case for which the
clause was inserted. The very evil intended to be provided against is
before us, and around us, and pressing us on all sides. How can we, how
dare we, make a perfect dead letter of this part of the Constitution,
which we have sworn to support? The insolvent persons have not the power
of locomotion. They cannot travel from State to State. They are
prisoners. To my certain knowledge, there are many who cannot even come
here to the seat of government, to present their petitions to Congress,
so great is their fear that some creditor will dog their heels, and
arrest them in some intervening State, or in this District, in the hope
that friends will appear to save them, by payment of the debt, from
imprisonment.

These are truths; not creditable to the country, but they are truths. I
am sorry for their existence. Sir, there is one crime, quite too common,
w