Kentucky Gazette

For the Public Auctioneer.

Mr. Editor: In passing through your state, I have discovered that a large portion of your citizens are in debt, and have been led to enquire why freemen should be so much alarmed at this circumstance, as some of them appear to be, in a land so notorious for wholesome laws, free government, generous and enlightened statesmen and in a state too, whose legislature have adopted the mild and humane method of punishing capital crimes by imprisonment instead of death; but can you conceive of my surprise, when enquiring of an officer who I saw dragging a man to prison, what his offence had been; and received for answer, that he owed money, and could not pay it and he must go to prison, and there remain until he pays the debt, and cost, and tax, and fees, &c. &c. Not having been very conversant with these things; I almost imagined myself back in the barbarous ages of heathenism, until I reflected that there were some things in which we had been profited by science, and improved by civilization. But still I am shocked at the idea, and of the great preference that is given to the felon over the honest man—I am told that some have been imprisoned for years together, merely for being in debt If debt is a crime, why not punish all the parties in its transaction? One man cannot commit this act by himself—the creditor is a party concerned, and, in many instances, the most active of the two. There could be no debtors if there were no creditors; and if it is a capital crime, the way to cure it is, to begin at the root. Remove the cause, and the effect will cease. Punish and imprison the creditor as well as the debtor; and you will the sooner get rid of this evil. But I find that in this case, the creditor is made the sovereign, and the debtor the slave. Suppose a case: a man buys a horse from his neighbour on a credit the horse dies the next day. The creditor who sold him, and was consequently a party in the transaction, is permitted to augment the debt, by costs &c. and then, at his own discretion, incarcerate the debtor in gaol for years when his only crime is in contracting a debt, in which his tyrannical punisher was an equal party and his misfortune owing to an act (as our law books say) of God For had his horse lived, he might have paid the creditor. Another man steals a horse, and, if he is caught; he goes six months to the state prison, and is fed and clothed, and set at liberty, in may steal another before the honest man has paid his debt—For it is easier to satisfy the stern demands of justice, than the avaricious maw of the Shylock, thus made a sovereign because he has money, and this too, by the laws of the land I would here ask. if the present mode of imprisonment for debt is not calculated to demoralize society, to degrade your citizens; enfeeble your nation; and ultimately to destroy our republic? And what advantage can possibly redound to the creditor? By such a course he deprives his debtor of the very means to pay him: while at the same time, he deprives the commonwealth of a valuable citizen, the state of a brave soldier, and disfranchises a freeman of the citizenship, to which he is entitled. in common with every American. I will ask my fellow-citizens—I will ask our legislature—I will ask the freeborn sons of America in general, if this is not too much power to place in the hands of one man? And I will ask the civilized world, in this nineteenth century, if we have not progressed very slow in our systems of jurisprudence since the days of Julius Caesar, when "a creditor could, at the expiration of 30 days, seize on an insolvent debtor, who could not find bail, and keep him 60 days in irons; during which time, he was allowed to expose him three market days to public sale, for his amount of his debt, and at the expiration of the third to put him to death? And if there were several creditors, they were permitted to divide his body among them." And where is the American who would not prefer death to slavery? Yet in this part of America, every debtor, is, by law, made a slave; and every creditor is, by law, made a sovereign, and permitted to treat his debtor, as the state would treat a Felon! And yet we boast of Liberty, Freedom, Equality, Science, Religion, &c. And in this free country, the creditor may say to his debtor, "unless you can give bail, you shall not go to market, to church, or to your family, until I am paid;" and, at the same time deprive him of every means of payment. An Indian has told us "this is a poor way to get deerskins" And where is the freeman, who would not prefer death to those chains? we all know it is unconstitutional, unwise, and barbarous—And that legislature, which refuses to abolish imprisonment for debt, is unworthy to represent free people.

A TRAVELLER