Debt is of the very highest antiquity. The first debt in the history of
man is the debt of nature, and the first instinct is to put off the
payment of it to the last moment. Many persons, it will be observed,
following the natural procedure, would die before they would pay their
debts.
Society is composed of two classes, debtors and creditors. The creditor
class has been erroneously supposed the more enviable. Never was there a
greater misconception; and the hold it yet maintains upon opinion is a
remarkable example of the obstinacy of error, notwithstanding the plainest
lessons of experience. The debtor has the sympathies of mankind. He is
seldom spoken of but with expressions of tenderness and compassion--"the
poor debtor!"--and "the unfortunate debtor!" On the other hand, "harsh"
and "hard-hearted" are the epithets allotted to the creditor. Who ever
heard the "poor creditor," the "unfortunate creditor" spoken of? No, the
creditor never becomes the object of pity, unless he passes into the
debtor class. A creditor may be ruined by the poor debtor, but it is not
until he becomes unable to pay his own debts, that he begins to be
compassionated.
A debtor is a man of mark. Many eyes are fixed upon him; many have
interest in his well-being; his movements are of concern; he can not
disappear unheeded; his name is in many mouths; his name is upon many
books; he is a man of note--of promissory note; he fills the speculation
of many minds; men conjecture about him, wonder about him,--wonder and
conjecture whether he will pay. He is a man of consequence, for many are
running after him. His door is thronged with duns. He is inquired after
every hour of the day. Judges hear of him and know him. Every meal he
swallows, every coat he puts upon his back, every dollar he borrows,
appears before the country in some formal document. Compare his notoriety
with the obscure lot of the creditor,--of the man who has nothing but
claims on the world; a landlord, or fundholder, or some such disagreeable,
hard character.
The man who pays his way is unknown in his neighborhood. You ask the
milkman at his door, and he can not tell his name. You ask the butcher
where Mr. Payall lives, and he tells you he knows no such name, for it is
not in his books. You shall ask the baker, and he will tell you there is
no such person in the neighborhood. People that have his money fast in
their pockets, have no thought of his person or appellation. His house
only is known. No. 31 is good pay. No. 31 is ready money. Not a scrap of
paper is ever made out for No. 31. It is an anonymous house; its owner
pays his way to obscurity. No one knows anything about him, or heeds his
movements. If a carriage be seen at his door, the neighborhood is not full
of concern lest he be going to run away. If a package be removed from his
house, a score of boys are not employed to watch whether it be carried to
the pawnbroker. Mr. Payall fills no place in the public mind; no one has
any hopes or fears about him.
The creditor always figures in the fancy as a sour, single man, with
grizzled hair, a scowling countenance, and a peremptory air, who lives in
a dark apartment, with musty deeds about him, and an iron safe, as
impenetrable as his heart, grabbing together what he does not enjoy, and
what there is no one about him to enjoy. The debtor, on the other hand, is
always pictured with a wife and six fair-haired daughters, bound together
in affection and misery, full of sensibility, and suffering without a
fault. The creditor, it is never doubted, thrives without a merit. He has
no wife and children to pity. No one ever thinks it desirable that he
should have the means of living. He is a brute for insisting that he must
receive, in order to pay. It is not in the imagination of man to conceive
that his creditor has demands upon him which must be satisfied, and that
he must do to others as others must do to him. A creditor is a
personification of exaction. He is supposed to be always taking in, and
never giving out.
People idly fancy that the possession of riches is desirable. What
blindness! Spend and regale. Save a shilling and you lay it by for a
thief. The prudent men are the men that live beyond their means. Happen
what may, they are safe. They have taken time by the forelock. They have
anticipated fortune. "The wealthy fool, with gold in store," has only
denied himself so much enjoyment, which another will seize at his expense.
Look at these people in a panic. See who are the fools then. You know them
by their long faces. You may say, as one of them goes by in an agony of
apprehension, "There is a stupid fellow who fancied himself rich, because
he had fifty thousand dollars in bank." The history of the last ten years
has taught the moral, "spend and regale." Whatever is laid up beyond the
present hour, is put in jeopardy. There is no certainty but in instant
enjoyment. Look at schoolboys sharing a plum cake. The knowing ones eat,
as for a race; but a stupid fellow saves his portion; just nibbles a bit,
and "keeps the rest for another time." Most provident blockhead! The
others, when they have gobbled up their shares, set upon him, plunder him,
and thrash him for crying out.
Before the terms "depreciation," "suspension," and "going into
liquidation," were heard, there might have been some reason in the
practice of "laying up;" but now it denotes the darkest blindness. The
prudent men of the present time, are the men in debt. The tendency being
to sacrifice creditors to debtors, and the debtor party acquiring daily
new strength, everyone is in haste to get into the favored class. In any
case, the debtor is safe. He has put his enjoyments behind him; they are
safe; no turns of fortune can disturb them. The substance he has eaten up,
is irrecoverable. The future can not trouble his past. He has nothing to
apprehend. He has anticipated more than fortune would ever have granted
him. He has tricked fortune; and his creditors--bah! who feels for
creditors? What are creditors? Landlords; a pitiless and unpitiable tribe;
all griping extortioners! What would become of the world of debtors, if it
did not steal a march upon this rapacious class?