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[XVII]

The standing laws now in force in the State, require at present, it is believed, little or no alteration.

In their operation they continue in general to produce their designed effects, and are in accordance with the public sentiment, and the wants of the community.

It would be unsafe, therefore, without urgent reasons, and merely from the often delusive hope of improving our condition by an untried experiment, to attempt any sudden and material alteration in the leading principles of those laws and usages, which were transmitted to us by our fathers, under which they prospered and were happy, and which now, being well known and understood, constitute the main pillars in the structure of our civil liberties.

The law on one subject, however, may form an exception to the general code, and from the interest recently manifested in relation to it, as well as from its intrinsic importance, may be deserving of your consideration.

I allude to imprisonment for debts arising on civil contracts.

I am aware that the practice is supported by the sanction of antiquity, and that a radical change in favor of the personal liberty of the debtor may be viewed by some as an innovation upon established usage, which the occasion and the public interest seem not to warrant or require.

But the laws upon this subject have already, by frequent revisions, been greatly moderated from their former rigor, and do now, in most cases, authorize merely a nominal imprisonment, which may occasion considerable expense and vexation to the debtor, without affording any additional security benefit to the creditor.

And the increasing progress of the liberal sentiments of the age seems clearly to indicate, that the period in this country is rapidly approaching, when honest poverty and misfortune shall no longer be subjected to the punishment, which is due