hich the laws of man do not punish, but which cannot escape the justice
of God; and that is, the arrest and confinement of a debtor by his
creditor, with no motive on earth but the hope that some friend, or some
relative, perhaps almost as poor as himself, his mother it may be, or
his sisters, or his daughters, will give up all their own little
pittance, and make beggars of themselves, to save him from the horrors
of a loathsome jail. Human retribution cannot reach this guilt; human
feeling may not penetrate the flinty heart that perpetrates it; but an
hour is surely coming, with more than human retribution on its wings,
when that flint shall be melted, either by the power of penitence and
grace, or in the fires of remorse.

Sir, I verily believe that the power of perpetuating debts against
debtors, for no substantial good to the creditor himself, and the power
of imprisonment for debt, at least as it existed in this country ten
years ago, have imposed more restraint on personal liberty than the law
of debtor and creditor imposes in any other Christian and commercial
country. If any public good were attained, any high political object
answered, by such laws, there might be some reason for counselling
submission and sufferance to individuals. But the result is bad, every
way. It is bad to the public and to the country, which loses the efforts
and the industry of so many useful and capable citizens. It is bad to
creditors, because there is no security against preferences, no
principle of equality, and no encouragement for honest, fair, and
seasonable assignments of effects. As to the debtor, however good his
intentions or earnest his endeavors, it subdues his spirit and degrades
him in his own esteem; and if he attempts any thing for the purpose of
obtaining food and clothing for his family, he is driven to unworthy
shifts and disguises, to the use of other persons' names, to the
adoption of the character of agent, and various other contrivances, to
keep the little earnings of the day from the reach of his creditors.
Fathers act in the name of their sons, sons act in the name of their
fathers; all constantly exposed to the greatest temptation to
misrepresent facts and to evade the law, if creditors should strike. All
this is evil, unmixed evil. And what is it all for? Of what benefit to
anybody? Who likes it? Who wishes it? What class of creditors desire it?
What consideration of public good demands it?

Sir, we talk muc