Newspaper Page Text
Three Dolls.per ann.J
Volume VIILJ
From the Georgia Express.
An enquiry into the constitutionality,
the necessity, the justice, and pol
icy of the embargo lately laid
upon law in this state.
NO. 11l
Fellow-Citizens,
Thirdly. Is the act as passed,
calculated to promote the public
good, or was it not rather passed in
the form and couched in the terms
in which it is for the express bene
fit and relief of fome particular in
dividuals ?
I will now take a view of the
provisions of the fourth feftion of
the aft, which declares “ that nei
ther of the aforefaid courts ihall is
sue out any civil process, or try any
civil case, which has heretofore
been issued out, except in cases for
the trial of the right of property,
real or personal, and in cases of at
tachment, and then and in that case
where it {hall fotisfaftorily be made
appear on oath, to any judge of the
superior court, justice of the infe
rior court, or justice of the peace,
that his, her, or their debtor is a
bout to remove out of the limits of
the state, that in that case an at
tachment may issue, &c.”
This is the feftion that claps the
climax of injustice and partiality
upon the aft—-this is the clause of
the aft that plainly evinces to eve
ry honest and impartial observer,
the corruption of one part of the
majority and the ignorance and
stupidity of the other; for, Ido
believe that there were a number
of honest men who voted for the
law, who, if their capacities would
have enabled them to discover the
fineffe and intrigue of their lead
ers, and the partiality and evil ten
dency of the law, that they would
never have given their assents to it.
On a eomparifon of this feftion
with the other three, we discover
that the creditor who has already
obtained a judgment is attempted
to be put on the very belt footing
possible, by compelling security to
be given equal to the judgment and
coils, or else the property of the
defendant in execution must be
fold without reserve.
I would now fain enquire of the
majority of the legislature, why this
diftinftion is made between the cre
ditor who has got judgment and
the one who has not ? Why were
not the bond and simple contract
creditors permitted to commence
their suits and go on to judgment
if they thought proper ; and then
let the defendant stay the execution
in the manner pointed out in cases
where they have already obtained
judgment ? And by this proceed
ing place all creditors upon an e
qual footing. Or why was any se
curity at all required where judg
ment is already obtained ? Why
was it not flopped in the fame man
ner that civil process is, and the
judgment creditor, left to his rem
edy by attachment, as is pointed
out in this four?h feftion, in case
of absconding debtors j or have
MONITOR.
Washington, (Georgia) Printed weekly for Sarah Hillhouse.
been enabled to have levied His ex
ecution upon the abfeonder, and
have retained him in custody, as by.
the said feftion is direfted, until
the debt is paid ?
If the execution had been (laid
in the clerk’s office without securi
ty, the judgment creditor in that
case would certainly have been in a
better situation than any bond or
simple contrast creditor can possibly
be, at the moment when the embar
go upon law is raised ; for the old
est judgment binds the property
from the date, and besides, the
judgment creditor would then have
his claim judicially established. and
would at the firit moment the law
would permit, be ready to levy it
upon the property of the debtor:
but the bond or simple contrast
creditor would then have to go
through the forms and delays of a
suit, before he would iecure his debt
by a levy upon the property ; io
that the judgment creditor’s chance
even without security would have
been much better than any other
creditor ; and to the advantage of
his already having obtained a judg
ment the majority have added ie
curity. But the creditor who has
been more indulgent to his debtor,
and has favored him from time to
time, and who perhaps has notes
anU Rnnde on th* farm* on<l
against whom there are judgments
of an older date, he is not only pro
hibited obtaining judgment in cases
already commenced but denied ev
en the privilege of suing out pro
cess against this fame debtor, who
is obliged to give security to the
man who has got judgment a
gainst him for the full amount of
the judgment & costs; Leges non
dormientibus, fed vigilantibus fub
veniunt—laws aid not the sleeping
but the vigilent. The vigilent cre
ditor has therefore got two securi
ties, the security of the judgment
& an additional security upon that
judgment. If 1 had therefore with
a haughty imperious tone told my
debtor, two or three years ago,
when he came to ask indulgence,
no fir ! pay me or I will sue you,
I might perhaps have reapt the ad
vantage meant to be given by this
double security ; but asldid not, my
debtor shall now be at full liberty
to go where he chooses, and I left
without the poflibility of “ relief.”
Is this justice ? Is this equality ? Is
this impartiality ? Is this law calcu
lated for the good of the communi
ty r On the other hand, was ever
injustice and partiality so apparent
on the face of an aft of any legisla
ture ? Were the interests of one
part of a people ever more evident
ly facrificed to that of the other ?
Were the marks of private and in
dividual views and interests ever
more indeliably stamped upon any
deliberative proceeding ? But up
on what reason was it that I am de
nied the privilege of holding my
debtor to bail, when I fee him wan
dering to and fro through the state,
and perhaps with an intention of
flipping off? I would feriouflyafk
the majority, what inconvenience
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1808.
they could expeft would have re
&lcd -from purfbing rhe praftice
of the old law, where the debtor
was avowedly about to leave the
county ? But you have ftid that
the creditor shall be remedilefs and
without security in all cafs, except
where he will “ satisfaßorily make
it appear on oath , to any judge or
justice that his debtor is about to
remove out of the limits of the
state And how will it be pos
sible for an attachment ever to be
obtained under these reftriftions,
without great danger of perjury ?
For if a debtor is disposed to leave
the state in order to avoid the pay
ment of his debts, it is hardly to be
presumed that he would proclaim
,Im* to rihe world t for a
merchant or other person in exten
sive bufmefs, who has perhaps, in a
neighborhood, five hundred debt
ors, to attempt to watch them, or
to have an eye to them after they
had left the county, would be absurd
in the highest degree ; but the
creditor must make it “ fatisfafto
*
ray appear to a judge or justice that
his. debtor is going out of the limits
of the state” and that too “on
oath,” or else an attachment cannot
be granted. What other inference
i can possibly be drawn from the
language oi the aft it-**- olle ;
; bave iuggdUd, that the coOd
cf the community was not in view ?
But that the aft was drawn in the j
form, and couched in the terms in
which it is, for the express benefit
and relief of fome particular indi
viduals ; and these too, I am appre
hensive, too many of them mem
bers of the very body that passed
the aft. But here an enquiry may
be raised by the public.—Who
could those perfor.s be that would
be so base, as members of the le
gislative council of the state, to pro
cure by fineffe and intrigue a law to
be enafted for the government of
the whole state, which would be
applicable only to theft own and a
few other particular cases ? Who
was there in that body that would
be so base, as to impose upon the
credulity of honest ignorant men,
by introducing into their bills,
terms which these men did not un
derstand, and then in their explana
tion of them, to put a different con
ftruftion on the words, than what
their fignification would admit of,
and by the moft daring and bare
faced falfehoods endeavor to sup
port their ccnflruftion ?
In order to fatisfy the public on
those points, and to shew them who
could be possessed of duplicity e
nougb to do things of this kind. I
will put a few questions to them,
the answers to which, if they are
not already within the knowledge of
every citizen, may be on a little en
quiry.
Who was it that hrought the aft
from home in his pocket, in the
fame form in which it passed ? (ex
cept one or two verbal and imma
terial alterations) Who was it that
made such loud and vociferous
speeches on the bill before it passed ?
Who was it that said, that it tpqft
[Payable half yearly*
pass in the fora that it did, in order
to. fare from ruin the agricultural
interest ? Who was it that declared
(in debate on the bill) the agricul
tural interest to be 4 the ‘life/ ‘the
* blood,’ ‘ the blood* veil'd,’ * the
* Anew,* c the nerve,’ ‘ the muscle/
* the bone,’ ‘ and the marrow* of
‘ our country,* 4 but, that the mer
‘ cantiie and commercial interests
J c are a mushroom, a mere fungus,
I ‘ the excrescence which must be oc
’ ‘ cafionally dipt, to aid the bright
* nefs of the agricultural blaze ?’
Who was it that had the barefaced
nefs and impudence to aflert on the.
legiilative floor, “that any statute
that the legislature of this state
might think proper to enaft would
♦; tWkamJs of the federal
courts, bmd the marmais nana amr
foot, and cast them as it were into
prison ?” Who is it that was in the
habit, two or. three years ago, of
. riding about the state eleftioneer
ing, with his wife to attend him f
Who was it that, while on these
tours, was pretending to be about:
to purchase a country feat in the
neighborhood of every gentleman
he called on, in the up country of
any refpeftability and influence ?
Who was it that in the course of’
the last winter bought fix hundred*
African negroes, which at a mod
citizens, the case, the situation and
the funding-of a man of the above
description, and then fay, whether
you would not believe this new
fangled “ embargo upon law” very
well calculated to meet that man’s,
particular case ?
But I will tell you, by way of en
; abling you more readily to discover
who this modern Pioteus is, that he
is the very fame man whom you*,
have once sent to your national le
! giflature, and who there condufted.
liimfelf in iuch a manner that he for
feited the confidence you had repof-.
ed in him, & who after finding that
his low-cunning and ekftioneering
fchcines were at an end, and that he
would be unable to bear up against
the torrent of the just indignation,
of his constituents in another elec
tion, roeanlyand ingloriously shrunk
from a second trial at the bar of’
! public opinion, and retired in a
! petulant and difgraceful manner
| from the post which he had pro-*
I cured himfelf to be raised to, by
, art and intrigue, without poffeffmg
talents fuificient to entitle him to if.,
or to enable him to retain what had
been gained by finefle.
I will pass over the inconvcniei\-
efts which must result to the com
munity from the stay of civil pro
cess and trials in cases of executors,
and administrators, the trial of ca
veats, bills to compel a distribution
of intestates estate, bills to stay
waste, aftions to prevent trespasses,
See. ice. &c. but will take a flight
view of the situation of the mer
chants, who, it is acknowledged
have all the crop of eighteen hun-.
dred and seven in their hands, and
, a considerable part of the crop of
! 1 800, for all cf whiftx they
[Number. SBB.