FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON THE 18TH
OF MAY, 1840, ON THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE BILL ESTABLISHING A
UNIFORM SYSTEM OF BANKRUPTCY.
Let me remind you, then, in the first place, Sir, that, commercial as
the country is, and having experienced as it has done, and experiencing
as it now does, great vicissitudes of trade and business, it is almost
forty years since any law has been in force by which any honest man,
failing in business, could be effectually discharged from debt by
surrendering his property. The former bankrupt law was repealed on the
19th of December, 1803. From that day to this, the condition of an
insolvent, however honest and worthy, has been utterly hopeless, so far
as he depended on any legal mode of relief. This state of things has
arisen from the peculiar provisions of the Constitution of the United
States, and from the omission by Congress to exercise this branch of its
constitutional power. By the Constitution, the States are prohibited
from passing laws impairing the obligation of contracts. Bankrupt laws
impair the obligation of contracts, if they discharge the bankrupt from
his debts without payment. The States, therefore, cannot pass such laws.
The power, then, is taken from the States, and placed in our hands. It
is true that it has been decided, that, in regard to contracts entered
into after the passage of any State bankrupt law, between the citizens
of the State having such law, and sued in the State courts, a State
discharge may prevail. So far, effect has been given to State laws. I
have great respect, habitually, for judicial decisions; but it has
nevertheless, I must say, always appeared to me that the distinctions on
which these decisions are founded are slender, and that they evade,
without answering, the objections founded on the great political and
commercial objects intended to be secured by this part of the
Constitution. But these decisions, whether right or wrong, afford no
effectual relief. The qualifications and limitations which I have stated
render them useless, as to the purpose of a general discharge. So much
of the concerns of every man of business is with citizens of other
States than his own, and with foreigners, that the partial extent to
which the validity of State discharges reaches is of little benefit.
The States, then, cannot pass effectual bankrupt laws; that is,
effectual for the discharge of the debtor. There is no doubt that most,
if not all, the States would now pass such laws, if they had the power;
although their legislation would be various, interfering, and full of
all the evils which the Constitution of the United States intended to
provide against. But they have not the power; Congress, which has the
power, does not exercise it. This is the peculiarity of our condition.
The States would pass bankrupt laws, but they cannot; we can, but we
will not. And between this want of power in the States and want of will
in Congress, unfortunate insolvents are left to hopeless bondage. There
are probably one or two hundred thousand debtors, honest, sober, and
industrious, who drag out lives useless to themselves, useless to their
families, and useless to their country, for no reason but that they
cannot be legally discharged from debts in which misfortunes have
involved them, and which there is no possibility of their ever paying. I
repeat, again, that these cases have now been accumulating for a whole
generation.
It is true they are not imprisoned; but there may be, and there are,
restraint and bondage outside the walls of the jail, as well as in.
Their power of earning is, in truth, taken away, their faculty of useful
employment is paralyzed, and hope itself become extinguished. Creditors,
generally, are not 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,
which 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 much, and talk warmly, of political liberty; and well we
may, for it is among the chief of public blessings. But who can enjoy
political liberty if he is deprived, permanently, of personal liberty,
and the exercise of his own industry and his own faculties? To those
unfortunate individuals, doomed to the everlasting bondage of debt, what
is it that we have free institutions of government? What is it that we
have public and popular assemblies? What is even this Constitution
itself to them, in its actual operation, and as we now administer it?
What is its aspect to them, but an aspect of stern, implacable severity?
an aspect of refusal, denial, and frowning rebuke? nay, more than that,
an aspect not only of austerity and rebuke, but, as they must think it,
of plain injustice also, since it will not relieve them, nor suffer
others to give them relief? What love can they feel towards the
Constitution of their country, which has taken the power of striking off
their bonds from their own paternal State governments, and yet,
inexorable to all the cries of justice and of mercy, holds it
unexercised in its own fast and unrelenting grasp? They find themselves
bondsmen, because we will not execute the commands of the Constitution;
bondsmen to debts they cannot pay, and which all know they cannot pay,
and which take away the power of supporting themselves. Other slaves
have masters, charged with the duty of support and protection; but their
masters neither clothe, nor feed, nor shelter; they only bind.
But, Sir, the fault is not in the Constitution. The Constitution is
beneficent as well as wise in all its provisions on this subject. The
fault, I must be allowed to say, is in us, who have suffered ourselves
quite too long to neglect the duty incumbent upon us. The time will
come, Sir, when we shall look back and wonder at the long delay of this
just and salutary measure. We shall then feel as we now feel when we
reflect on that progress of opinion which has already done so much on
another connected subject; I mean the abolition of imprisonment for
debt. What should we say at this day, if it were proposed to
re-establish arrest and imprisonment for debt, as it existed in most of
the States even so late as twenty years ago? I mean for debt alone, for
mere, pure debt, without charge or suspicion of fraud or falsehood.
Sir, it is about that length of time, I think, since you,[1] who now
preside over our deliberations, began here your efforts for the
abolition of imprisonment for debt; and a better work was never begun in
the Capitol. Ever remembered and ever honored be that noble effort! You
drew the attention of the public to the question, whether, in a
civilized and Christian country, debt incurred without fraud, and
remaining unpaid without fault, is a crime, and a crime fit to be
punished by denying to the offender the enjoyment of the light of
heaven, and shutting him up within four walls. Your own good sense, and
that instinct of right feeling which often outruns sagacity, carried you
at once to a result to which others were more slowly brought, but to
which nearly all have at length been brought, by reason, reflection, and
argument. Your movement led the way; it became an example, and has had a
powerful effect on both sides of the Atlantic. Imprisonment for debt, or
even arrest and holding to bail for mere debt, no longer exists in
England; and former laws on the subject have been greatly modified and
mitigated, as we all know, in our States. "Abolition of imprisonment for
debt," your own words in the title of your own bill, has become the
title of an act of Parliament.
Sir, I am glad of an occasion to pay you the tribute of my sincere
respect for these your labors in the cause of humanity and enlightened
policy. For these labors thousands of grateful hearts have thanked you;
and other thousands of hearts, not yet full of joy for the
accomplishment of their hopes, full, rather, at the present moment, of
deep and distressing anxiety, have yet the pleasure to know that your
advice, your counsel, and your influence will all be given in favor of
what is intended for their relief in the bill before us.
Mr. President, let us atone for the omissions of the past by a prompt
and efficient discharge of present duty. The demand for this measure is
not partial or local. It comes to us, earnest and loud, from all classes
and all quarters. The time is come when we must answer it to our own
consciences, if we suffer longer delay or postponement. High hopes, high
duties, and high responsibilities concentrate themselves on this measure
and this moment. With a power to pass a bankrupt law, which no other
legislature in the country possesses, with a power of giving relief to
many, doing injustice to none, I again ask every man who hears me, if he
can content himself without an honest attempt to exercise that power. We
may think it would be better to leave the power with the States; but it
was not left with the States; they have it not, and we cannot give it to
them. It is in our hands, to be exercised by us, or to be for ever
useless and lifeless. Under these circumstances, does not every man's
heart tell him that he has a duty to discharge? If the final vote shall
be given this day, and if that vote shall leave thousands of our
fellow-citizens and their families, in hopeless and helpless distress,
to everlasting subjection to irredeemable debt, can we go to our beds
with satisfied consciences? Can we lay our heads upon our pillows, and,
without self-reproach, supplicate the Almighty Mercy to forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors? Sir, let us meet the unanimous wishes
of the country, and proclaim relief to the unfortunate throughout the
land. What should hinder? What should stay our hands from this good
work? Creditors do not oppose it,--they apply for it; debtors solicit
it, with an importunity, earnestness, and anxiety not to be described;
the Constitution enjoins it; and all the considerations of justice,
policy, and propriety, which are wrapped up in the phrase Public Duty,
demand it, as I think, and demand it loudly and imperatively, at our
hands. Sir, let us gratify the whole country, for once, with the joyous
clang of chains, joyous because heard falling from the limbs of men. The
wisest among those whom I address can desire nothing more beneficial
than this measure, or more universally desired; and he who is youngest
may not expect to live long enough to see a better opportunity of
causing new pleasures and a happiness long untasted to spring up in the
hearts of the poor and the humble. How many husbands and fathers are
looking with hopes which they cannot suppress, and yet hardly dare to
cherish, for the result of this debate! How many wives and mothers will
pass sleepless and feverish nights, until they know whether they and
their families shall be raised from poverty, despondency, and despair,
and restored again to the circles of industrious, independent, and happy
life!
Sir, let it be to the honor of Congress that, in these days of political
strife and controversy, we have laid aside for once the sin that most
easily besets us, and, with unanimity of counsel, and with singleness of
heart and of purpose, have accomplished for our country one measure of
unquestionable good.
[Footnote 1: Hon. Richard M. Johnson, Vice-President of the United
States.]
"THE LOG CABIN CANDIDATE."
FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE GREAT MASS MEETING AT SARATOGA, NEW YORK,
ON THE 12TH OF AUGUST, 1840.
But it is the cry and effort of the times to stimulate those who are
called poor against those who are called rich; and yet, among those who
urge this cry, and seek to profit by it, there is betrayed sometimes an
occasional sneer at whatever savors of humble life. Witness the reproach
against a candidate now before the people for their highest honors, that
a log cabin, with plenty of hard cider, is good enough for him!
It appears to some persons, that a great deal too much use is made of
the symbol of the log cabin. No man of sense supposes, certainly, that
the having lived in a log cabin is any further proof of qualification
for the Presidency, than as it creates a presumption that any one who,
rising from humble condition, or under unfavorable circumstances, has
been able to attract a considerable degree of public attention, is
possessed of reputable qualities, moral and intellectual.
But it is to be remembered, that this matter of the log cabin
originated, not with the friends of the Whig candidate, but with his
enemies. Soon after his nomination at Harrisburg, a writer for one of
the leading administration papers spoke of his "log cabin," and his use
of "hard cider," by way of sneer and reproach. As might have been
expected, (for pretenders are apt to be thrown off their guard,) this
taunt at humble life proceeded from the party which claims a monopoly of
the purest democracy. The whole party appeared to enjoy it, or, at
least, they countenanced it by silent acquiescence; for I do not know
that, to this day, any eminent individual or any leading newspaper
attached to the administration has rebuked this scornful jeering at the
supposed humble condition or circumstances in life, past or present, of
a worthy man and a war-worn soldier. But it touched a tender point in
the public feeling. It naturally roused indignation. What was intended
as reproach was immediately seized on as merit. "Be it so! Be it so!"
was the instant burst of the public voice. "Let him be the log cabin
candidate. What you say in scorn, we will shout with all our lungs. From
this day forward, we have our cry of rally; and we shall see whether he
who has dwelt in one of the rude abodes of the West may not become the
best house in the country!"
All this is natural, and springs from sources of just feeling. Other
things, Gentlemen, have had a similar origin. We all know that the term
"Whig" was bestowed in derision, two hundred years ago, on those who
were thought too fond of liberty; and our national air of "Yankee
Doodle" was composed by British officers, in ridicule of the American
troops. Yet, erelong, the last of the British armies laid down its arms
at Yorktown, while this same air was playing in the ears of officers
and men. Gentlemen, it is only shallow-minded pretenders who either make
distinguished origin matter of personal merit, or obscure origin matter
of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble condition of
early life affect nobody, in this country, but those who are foolish
enough to indulge in them, and they are generally sufficiently punished
by public rebuke. A man who is not ashamed of himself need not be
ashamed of his early condition.
Gentlemen, it did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin; but my
elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the
snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke
first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills,
there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and
the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make
to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the
hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love
to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early
affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle with
all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of
those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I am
ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for him who
reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction,
cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the
fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no
danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his
children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name of
my posterity be blotted for ever from the memory of mankind!