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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.