LECTURE 
 
 # 
 
 UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 , \ {X \ ' ■ • t > rv 
 
 DUTIES SUBSISTING BETWEEN 
 
 A DEBTOR AND HIS CREDITORS. 
 
 WITH 
 
 SUGGESTIONS OF THE CAUSES OF THE DEFECTS IN THESE RESPECTS IN 
 THE AMERICAN COMMERCIAL CHARACTER. 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY COMPANY, 
 MARCH 2, 1832. 
 
 BY JOSEPH HOPKINSON 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 CAREY AND LEA-CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1832. 
 
The following Lecture is published at the request of a number of 
 the gentlemen who heard it delivered. 
 
 James Kay, Jun. & Co. Printers, 
 No. 4, Minor Street. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The subject of which I shall treat, in this lecture, 
 is one in which you have a deep interest, individually 
 and nationally — that is, the commercial character of the 
 merchants of the United States, for integrity and honour, 
 in the relations of debtor and creditor. The sound prin- 
 ciples which ought to govern this relation, have been so 
 neglected or abused, as to have brought a stain upon the 
 American name, and sunk it below the standard of mer- 
 cantile morality of other countries. My views of this im- 
 portant subject will be exposed to you without palliation or 
 disguise ; my opinions expressed with absolute frankness. 
 The time, however, imposes a brevity upon me, which 
 will preclude the fullness of evidence and illustration, 
 which justice to those opinions would demand. 
 
 There is no class of our citizens on whose conduct 
 the reputation of our country, for probity and honour, 
 so immediately depends, as our merchants. The ope- 
 rations of others are confined within our own limits, 
 and the good or evil they may do, is seldom felt or 
 known beyond them. The merchant, on the contrary, 
 
 072 . 
 
4 
 
 in the prosecution of his business, touches every portion 
 of the earth, and comes in contact with the people of 
 all nations. Whether our statesmen are wise and patri- 
 otic or not ; our legislators enlightened and eloquent ; 
 our divines accomplished and pious; our lawyers and 
 physicians skilful, learned and faithful ; our mechanics 
 ingenious and industrious, are domestic concerns ; ques- 
 tions of opinion or prejudice, about which strangers may 
 differ with us, without any imputation upon us as a 
 moral and just people : but whether our merchants are 
 honest or not ; whether they are upright and conscien- 
 tious ; whether it is safe or dangerous to deal with them, 
 are questions of fact, in which foreigners have a close 
 and daily interest ; are questions not of theoretical specu- 
 lation, but to be decided by the evidence of experience; 
 by the actual transactions of business, not to be misun- 
 derstood by any capacity, nor concealed from the dullest 
 comprehension. 
 
 The American merchant then should never forget, 
 that he holds the character of his country, as well as his 
 own, in a sacred trust ; and that he betrays both, when 
 he enters into the crooked paths of dissimulation and 
 trick, or the broader and fouler ways of dishonesty and 
 fraud. Strangers can know us only by the individuals 
 they deal with, whom, in the spirit and usage of trade, 
 they will take as specimens or samples of the whole. If 
 they find their confidence abused, the reproach is visited, 
 not only on the fraudulent merchant, but on his nation, 
 and we are all condemned for his iniquitous cupidity. 
 
 It is, I fear, a truth we cannot question, that the 
 
5 
 
 character of an American merchant is not highly re- 
 spected abroad ; it is looked upon with distrust; it has 
 been severely reproached. Is this merely European 
 prejudice? Is it an injustice of which we may com- 
 plain ? Have we given no grounds for it ? Is there 
 not — or has there not been' for I believe we are im- 
 proved and improving in this respect, a looseness of 
 principle and practice in contracting and paying debts, 
 very rare, if not unknown among men of the same stand- 
 ing in trade, in Europe, at least on the continent? The 
 ambition to do a great business is universal and devour- 
 ing here ; the disposition to contract debts becomes 
 eager and reckless *, the obligation to pay them is but 
 faintly felt, and the failure to do so hardly produces a 
 sensation of shame in the defaulter, or any resentment or 
 neglect towards him on the part of his friends or the 
 public. Our commercial community seem to make a 
 common cause with every delinquent trader, and to treat 
 the most criminal extravagance, the most thoughtless 
 indiscretion, the most daring and desperate speculations, 
 with the lenity due to accident and misfortune. When 
 the catastrophe which, sooner or later, awaits such pro- 
 ceedings, comes, a hasty arrangement is patched up 
 between the debtor and his creditors, altogether under 
 the dictation of the former, who deals out the remnants 
 of his property, if there be any, to his friends or favour- 
 ites, at his will and pleasure, with the air of a Lord 
 Chancellor, and the creditors have nothing to do but to 
 hear and submit to the decree, in the shape of an assign- 
 ment. Debtor and creditor retire from this dishonest 
 
6 
 
 mockery, mutually dissatisfied ; the one to resume his 
 business, his station in society, his pride and importance, 
 his manner of living, without any visible degradation or 
 retrenchment, and the other to repeat the same system 
 of credit, with the same disastrous credulity. It is not 
 unfrequent for the same individual to run a second time 
 over the same course of extravagance, folly and ruin. 
 If this is the manner of our settling the affairs of an in- 
 solvent, we may imagine what becomes of the foreign 
 creditor and his claims ; and cannot be surprised if he 
 is loud in his complaints. In some instances, there is so 
 little feeling of mortification excited by bankruptcy ; so 
 little remorse for the losses which others will suffer by 
 it, that the whole thing is turned into a jest. Two of 
 these reciprocal drawers and indorsers, these mutual 
 assurance gentlemen, were enjoying themselves at a con- 
 vivial dinner, when one of them suddenly took out his 
 watch, and observing that it was 3 o’clock, (the hour 
 of protest), cried out, il Tom, we are broke.” The joke 
 was thought excellent, and set the table in a roar. Is 
 not this a criminal levity ? Is it not to make sport of 
 plunder ; to create distress and then to mock it. 
 
 I am far from intending to involve every insolvent 
 trader in these reproaches, and I repeat with pride, that 
 such heartless depravity is becoming less frequent among 
 us. Bankruptcy is often the consequence here, as else- 
 where, of inevitable misfortune, and is met with fidelity 
 and honour. The life of a merchant is, necessarily, a 
 life of peril. He can scarcely move without danger. 
 He is beset on all sides with disappointments, with flue- 
 
7 
 
 tuations in the current of business, which sometimes leave 
 him stranded on an unknown bar, and sometimes sweep 
 him helpless into the ocean. These vicissitudes depend 
 on causes which no man can control ; and are often so 
 sudden, that no calculation could anticipate, or skill 
 avoid them. To risk much, to be exposed to hazards, 
 belongs to the vocation of a merchant ; his usefulness and 
 success depend, in many cases, on his enterprise. He 
 must have courage to explore new regions of commerce, 
 and encounter the difficulties of untried experiments. 
 To be unfortunate in such pursuits is no more disgrace- 
 ful to an upright trader, than to fall in the field of battle 
 is dishonourable to the soldier, or defeat to a General 
 who has done all that valour and skill could achieve to 
 obtain the victory. Very different is the case of one 
 who with but little of his own to jeopard, commences 
 business on a system of commercial gambling, and makes 
 his desperate throws at the risk of others ; who embarks 
 in rash and senseless adventures, condemned by common 
 sense as by honesty ; and when they end in a total wreck, 
 looks his abused creditors coolly in the face, and offers 
 them a list of bad debts, and an inventory of worthless 
 goods, provided they will release and discharge him for 
 ever from their claims. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that such a course of proceeding 
 between a bankrupt and those who have trusted him, 
 that the authority he assumes, and sometimes insolently, 
 over his property, in exclusion of those to whom it right- 
 fully belongs, are utterly inconsistent with the principles 
 of honest dealing ; they bespeak an unsound, may I not 
 
8 
 
 say, a corrupt state of the mercantile body, so far as 
 they extend, and are destructive of all security in com- 
 mercial transactions. These evils must be probed and 
 corrected ; every honest man has an interest in remov- 
 ing them, and in elevating the commercial character of 
 his country. Our traders must not consider themselves, 
 or allow others to consider them, as petty traffickers for 
 petty gains by all advantages: but as merchants , in the 
 fullest and most honourable sense of the term ; as the 
 men by whom the great operations of the world are sus- 
 tained, by whom the intercourse of the human family, 
 however scattered and remote, is kept up ; as the instru- 
 ments of civilization and intellectual improvement ; as 
 the agents to distribute the comforts and luxuries of life 
 over the whole surface of the globe. By them the whole 
 race of man, of every variety of complexion and charac- 
 ter, and wheresoever they may inhabit, are brought 
 together, and taught to know each other and to aid 
 each other. They are the peacemakers of the world, 
 for they show it to be the interest and happiness of all to 
 remain at peace ; and they demonstrate that it is easier 
 to obtain the good things we may desire by commerce 
 than by conquest ; by exchange, than by arms. They 
 soften national asperities, and remove unjust prejudices. 
 Such high functions cannot be performed by ordinary 
 men ; and those who do perform them faithfully are the 
 noblest benefactors of mankind. 
 
 If it be true, as I have suggested, that commerce, 
 punctuality and integrity, are less regarded here than 
 in Europe, we should inquire into the reason of the dif- 
 
9 
 
 ference. The cause of many of our failures in trade, 
 and of the irregularities and misconduct which follow 
 them, will be found in the absolute ignorance of the 
 trader of the business in which he embarked. Every 
 man thinks himself qualified to be a merchant, as if by 
 intuition ; and never imagines that any preparation is 
 necessary. He launches upon the unknown sea, with- 
 out experience, without knowledge, without chart or 
 compass; and is soon a stranded wreck. To render 
 himself fit to exercise the profession of a lawyer, a 
 doctor, or the simplest mechanical art, the candidate 
 puts himself regularly under a course of tuition, and 
 labours for years to acquire the learning and mystery 
 of the occupation. Without this preparation, it would 
 be ridiculous for him to expect the patronage or coun- 
 tenance of the community in his undertaking. Not so 
 with trade. A successful mechanic who, by his industry 
 and skill, has accumulated a few thousand dollars, scorns 
 the honest means by which he has acquired his wealth, 
 and must be a merchant ; as if the mysteries of commerce 
 could be unfolded on a shop-board, or book keeping 
 were as simple as threading a needle. Why could he 
 not be content to be useful and respected, in the business 
 he understood, and in which he was truly respectable, 
 and reject the indulgence of a false and foolish pride, 
 which cannot but expose him to ridicule, and will proba- 
 bly strip him of his well earned property? He would 
 think it very preposterous if a merchant were, in the 
 same manner, to take up his craft; and is it less so for 
 him to step into the path of the merchant? Is it more 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 easy to open the springs and manage the currents of 
 commerce ; to plan a voyage of adventure and calculate 
 its contingencies ; to provide and regulate the funds and 
 finances of various extensive mercantile operations, so 
 that they shall meet every want at the proper time and 
 place : than to cut a coat or shape a hat. The mechan- 
 ics of our city are as conspicuous for their liberality and 
 integrity, as for their industry and skill ; and it is only 
 when they leave their proper employment and cease to 
 be mechanics, that they lose their high standing. Does 
 any one believe that commerce is so low in the scale of 
 human affairs, that the qualifications it demands are so 
 common, as to require no education suitable for them ; 
 no experience to acquire them ? Why should it not be 
 necessary for one who aims at the honours and profits of 
 trade, who expects to be distinguished by ability and 
 success as a merchant, to undergo a process of preparation, 
 to obtain a knowledge of his art ? Why should he not 
 begin his career in a counting-house, where he would 
 see the practical operations of business, in its various 
 branches ; where he could acquire habits of system, 
 regularity and exactness ; understand thoroughly the 
 science of accounts ; learn to distinguish with prompt- 
 ness and accuracy, the qualities of merchandize ; the 
 fluctuations of the market, by the causes which usually 
 affect them ; and get a tact of caution and foresight, of 
 calculation and decision, which alone can secure a safe 
 and continued prosperity. It is thus, I understand, that 
 merchants who deserve, or even aspire to the name, are 
 made in other countries. Not so with us. A man but 
 
11 
 
 says, I will be a merchant — and. he is a merchant. The 
 creation of light was scarcely more instantaneous. 
 Whatever may have been his previous education or 
 occupation — or if wanting in both — if he can open a 
 counting-house, and get an indorser, he is a merchant ; 
 and, as such, repairs to the Coffee-house, and is at once 
 admitted into the fraternity. He puts on a bold face 
 and a brave spirit, dashes at any thing that offers in the 
 way of doing business, however desperate ; and finds 
 every body eager to trust him. He relies on chances 
 which are a hundred to one against him ; and his very 
 hardihood obtains for him consideration and credit. His 
 adventure is put to sea ; he hopes to enter a closely 
 blockaded port, or, by some miraculous accident, to 
 make money where all others have lost it. If the issue 
 is against him, he calls his creditors together, rather with 
 a sort of pride, for it proves that he has been doing 
 business, than with any feeling of humiliation, and tells 
 them, what they might have known before — that he is 
 ruined, and has nothing to pay them ; asks, as a matter 
 of course, for a release from them, and is exceedingly 
 offended if they hesitate or require any explanations of 
 his proceedings and expenditures — his property and his 
 losses. Fairly cut loose from his debts, he sets out for 
 new experiments and adventures, of the same character. 
 If, on the other hand, he should, against all reason and 
 experience, succeed in his enterprize, although by a 
 prodigy, and without an atom of knowledge, foresight 
 or skill, he, at once, becomes a great merchant ; he is 
 an important man on ’change ; is regarded with peculiar 
 
12 
 
 deference ; his acquaintance and business are eagerly 
 sought ; his credit has no bounds, in banks and out of 
 banks ; he borrows and buys at his pleasure $ and, after a 
 brilliant run of a few years, perhaps of a few months, he 
 falls into irretrievable ruin, brought on by the encoui’- 
 agement of his first success, the importance and flattery 
 he derived from it, and as the inevitable, although pro- 
 crastinated, result of ignorance and incapacity in the 
 business he was engaged in. 
 
 I consider, then, this to be one of the causes of the 
 want of elevation in the character of an American mer- 
 chant — that men assume it, who are utterly unqualified 
 for its high offices, by their general education, by their 
 particular education, by the knowledge and acquirements, 
 which are indispensable to command respect, and obtain 
 a continued and honourable success. 
 
 There are other causes, still more grave and disrepu- 
 table, of disasters in our trading community. I would 
 particularly refer to the system of indorsing , which 
 prevails ; the facility of obtaining credit on the faith of 
 mere names, and the contrivances and deceptions which 
 are resorted to, to keep up the false and hollow credit 
 thus obtained, and to postpone, as long as possible, the 
 inevitable explosion, even after it is known to be inevita- 
 ble. This is rank dishonesty. Whenever a trader 
 knows that he cannot hold his ground, he should at once 
 give it up, and not strive to prop himself by expedients 
 of buying and borrowing — of indorsements and credits, 
 which but sink him deeper in debt, and draw his con- 
 fiding friends into his difficulties. But what is the value 
 
13 
 
 of an Indorser in our system business? An indorsement 
 purports to be a surety for the payment of the note ; an 
 additional security to the responsibility of the drawer. 
 How seldom is it in fact? Yet such is the competition 
 for business; the eagerness even to seem to be fully en- 
 gaged in it, that such securities are seized upon as if they 
 were as sure as a bond of fate. Experience has taught 
 everyone, that the Drawer and Indorser are so linked in 
 with each other, so equally bound in mutual responsi- 
 bilities, that the failure of one is the failure of the other, 
 and the security of both, no better than that of either. 
 Credit! Credit ! is the fatal bane of commercial pros- 
 perity — of commercial honour and honesty. The transac- 
 tions of business are little better than fictions. Goods 
 are sold which have never been paid for — and a note is 
 taken for them which will never be paid. And this is 
 called doing business. This is followed by forced sales 
 and ruinous sacrifices of property for immediate, but 
 temporary, relief — and the whole winds up with an 
 assignment, when there is nothing of any value to assign. 
 A consequence of this state of things is, that the true 
 merchant, with a substantial and responsible capital, is 
 deprived of his fair business and profits by a swarm of 
 pennyless speculators, who do sell, and must sell, for 
 whatever price they can get, for the moment the bale 
 stops rolling, they cease to exist. This, assuredly, is an 
 unwholesome state of trade, and corrupts and undermines 
 the whole commercial community. Who has not been 
 astonished, when bankruptcy comes upon such a trader, 
 by the enormous extent of his debts, that is, of his 
 
14 
 
 credits, in proportion to any property he possessed ; in 
 proportion, too, to his apparent business. He is a very 
 small trader, indeed, who breaks for less than fifty or an 
 hundred thousand dollars; and he is a very uncommon 
 one who has as many hundred cents to pay them. 
 
 Money so easily got, is as lightly spent; and brings us 
 to another dark and deep stain on our commercial repu- 
 tation. The proud splendour, the heedless extravagance, 
 the unbounded luxury, in which these ephemeral princes 
 indulge themselves, is shockingly immoral, when, at the 
 conclusion of the pageant, it appears that it was got up at 
 the expense, perhaps on the ruin, of creditors. Magni- 
 ficent mansions, in town and country, gorgeous furniture, 
 shining equipages, costly entertainments, in short a style 
 of living, an exuberance of expenditure, which would 
 be unwise, in our country, in any state of fortune, and 
 is absolutely criminal in the actual circumstances of the 
 spendthrift. When the blow falls that prostrates this 
 grandeur, what efforts are made upon the good nature of 
 the creditors to retain as much as possible of these gaudy 
 trappings for the family, instead of casting them away 
 as the testimonies of deception and dishonour. Little 
 consciousness is shown for the injuries and losses of those 
 who have fed, with their substance, the bloated folly of 
 the delinquent; little regard to public opinion, or sense 
 of decorum or shame ; but every thing is hurried to a 
 conclusion, that he may resume, what he calls, his busi- 
 ness, and betray again. 
 
 Should I forbear to give utterance to a reflection 
 which rises here — domestic, it is true, but of infinite 
 
15 
 
 concern to a heart that has not smothered the sensibili- 
 ties and duties of nature, as well as the obligations of 
 justice? If the splendid impostor should not live to 
 make his arrangements with his creditors, but be cut off 
 before he has run his course of dissipation, in the very 
 midst of his enjoyments; what a scene of desolation and 
 distress begins in his house. The wand is broken, and 
 realities take the place of delusive visions of happiness 
 and wealth. Every thing is torn away to satisfy abused 
 and irritated creditors; scarcely a comfort is left, 
 where, but just now, all was abundance and luxury. 
 
 “ Here stood a ruffian, with a horrid face, 
 
 Lording it o’er a pile of massy plate, 
 
 Tumbled into a heap, for public sale; 
 
 There was another, making villainous jests 
 At thy undoing; he had ta’en possession 
 Of all thy ancient, most domestic ornaments, 
 
 Rich hangings intermix’d and wrought with gold.” 
 
 And his afflicted wife and children — what is their 
 condition ? Accustomed to the most delicate and costly 
 indulgences; with every wish anticipated — every sense 
 of pleasure gratified ; so protected that the winds of 
 Heaven might not visit them too roughly; unconscious 
 of danger; they, in a moment, find themselves pennyless, 
 helpless, hopeless. Is there no immorality in this? 
 Is it not a clamorous sin to deceive and destroy those 
 dear and innocent beings, that should reach the offender 
 in his grave? If he could respond to it, he would cry, 
 u 0, I have ta’en too little care of this.” 
 
16 
 
 When a trader is brought to bankruptcy, by what- 
 ever means, important, moral duties are imposed upon 
 him, and he will preserve his character or deepen his 
 condemnation, as he shall faithfully discharge, or obsti- 
 nately disregard them. Opinions have got a footing 
 among mercantile men — a code of ethics has received a 
 sanction from them — which appear to me to be altogether 
 wanting in sound principles of justice and morality. Be- 
 fore I speak of these, I will go a little back into the situa- 
 tion of the Bankrupt, in which very few conduct them- 
 selves conscientiously. I have already alluded to it. It 
 rarely happens that the ruin of a merchant is effected at a 
 single blow, by one unlooked-for mischance. It is more 
 usually the result of a series of unfortunate events, or 
 imprudent expenditures, each bringing him nearer to 
 the catastrophe. He has many significant warnings of 
 his fall, and cannot but see its approach, when he dares 
 to look steadily towards it. But it is this which he 
 sedulously avoids. He shuts his eyes upon it ; he strives 
 to deceive himself, and continues to deceive others. He 
 turns from expedient to expedient, from bank to bank, 
 from friend to friend, still increasing his debts and his diffi- 
 culties, until he can struggle no longer, and sinks under 
 a load doubled or trebled by his desperate efforts to ex- 
 tricate himself. If he had had the wisdom, the manli- 
 ness, the honesty, to yield to the pressure, when it first 
 became too heavy for him, how many sacrifices would 
 have been saved, how many debts avoided, how much 
 injury and discontent prevented. This weakness, this 
 reluctance to surrender when we know, or ought to 
 
17 
 
 know, that we cannot sustain the contest, is the source of 
 much of the calamity and misconduct which attend an 
 insolvency. It is confessed and regretted too late. 
 
 We come now to the period when the struggle is over. 
 The failure is admitted and announced. In this state of 
 his affairs, what should a just and faithful man believe 
 to be his duty? The answer to this question would 
 present itself without hesitation, to an ingenuous mind, 
 uncorrupted by unsound opinions, unfettered by po- 
 litic customs. The answer would be, I will surrender 
 to my creditors my property of every description, for in 
 truth it is theirs, to be distributed among them, in pro- 
 portion to their respective debts — untrammelled by any 
 conditions for my own advantage, unimpaired by any 
 disposition or incumbrance made with a view to my 
 insolvency t ; and I will depend upon their liberality 
 and my own industry, guarded by more caution and 
 economy, for my future fortune and support. Such a 
 man would come again into business entitled to public 
 confidence, and he would receive it ; he would come 
 chastened and instructed by the school of misfortune, 
 and, by the upright prudence of his second course, re- 
 deem the errors of the first. How different is the course 
 generally taken. The debtor constitutes himself the 
 sole judge between him and his creditors ; he sits down 
 to make, at his pleasure, what he calls an assignment; he 
 deals out his estate in such portions and to such persons 
 as he may deem most expedient or find most agreeable ; 
 he dictates the terms, having an especial regard to him- 
 self, on which the five or ten per cent shall be paid to 
 c 
 
18 
 
 the claimants; he selects the persons, of course his kindest 
 friends, who shall execute these trusts ; and when every 
 thing is thus prepared, he summons his creditors to meet 
 him: not for consultation; not to learn their opinions and 
 wishes about their own interests ; not to ask them what 
 he shall do , but to tell them what he has done, to pro- 
 nounce his judgment upon them. In this arrangement, 
 it is almost universal to find the greater part, sometimes 
 the whole, of the property given to what are called pre- 
 ferred creditors , among whom indorsers, generally, hold 
 a conspicuous place. I have never ceased to repro- 
 bate this practice; and to believe that it has no justifica- 
 tion in any principle of right or good conscience. What 
 is the superior claim of an indorser to indemnity and 
 payment? He was fully aware of the hazard when he 
 made the engagement ; it was as much an ordinary risk of 
 trade as the sale of merchandize. He took the risk upon 
 himself without asking any other security than the sol- 
 vency and good faith of the drawer. The vendor of 
 goods does the same. On this security, the one gives 
 his name and the other his property; the latter expects 
 nothing but the payment of his debt, while in nine cases 
 of ten, the former receives the same favour he bestows. 
 And yet this indorser is to be preferred to the man who 
 has delivered his goods, his labour, his money, on the 
 faith, probably, of the false credit, of the unsubstantial 
 display of wealth, made by the aid of the indorser, whose 
 name and promise have thus been the instruments of 
 deception, the lures to entice the unsuspecting into a 
 vortex of ruin, against which the indorser expects to be 
 protected by the virtue of an assignment. And the case 
 
19 
 
 is aggravated ; it becomes a case of unqualified plunder, 
 when this indorser, after putting his preference into his 
 pocket, never pays the engagement for which it was 
 given, but settles with his creditors in the same way. 
 Can we imagine any thing more shocking to every sense 
 of justice and morality, than that an honest dealer, who, 
 but a few days before the failure of his debtor, had de- 
 livered to him goods, at a fair price, should be called to 
 witness his bales of merchandize, his barrels of flour, 
 handed over, just as they were received from him, to some 
 preferred, favourite creditor, under the pretence that 
 he was an indorser, or under some pretence equally ini- 
 quitous. Yet such things have happened ; you all 
 know it : and neither shame or dishonour has overwhelm- 
 ed the perpetrator of them. I regret that time and 
 occasion do not allow me to speak more fully of this 
 usage, this system of preferences ; to expose its injustice, 
 its impolicy, its pernicious effects on fair trading; and to 
 show you that while it is supported, it is vain to expect 
 a healthy state of commercial credit, a conscientious cau- 
 tion in contracting debts, or an honest endeavour to dis- 
 charge them. 
 
 From this condemnation of preferences, I would be un- 
 derstood to except a peculiar case, that is, the case of 
 money, or other property, deposited in trust. This 
 should be sacred. It has nothing to do with the trus- 
 tee’s business or trade; no interest or profit was derived 
 from it by the owner ; it was never intended to be ex- 
 posed to any risk. In fact, it never, in any just acceptation, 
 became a part of the property of the trustee, assignable by 
 
20 
 
 him, as such. It never was, morally, at his disposal for 
 any other uses or purposes than such as were designated 
 by the terms of the trust. He had the legal possession 
 of it, but the property never ceased to be in the party 
 by whom, or for whom, it was deposited. To prefer such 
 a claim in case of insolvency, is but to return the money 
 to its rightful owner, as you would return a borrowed 
 horse, or any other specific article ; and there can be 
 no ground of complaint for any body. 
 
 If the evils of which I have spoken exist in our com- 
 mercial community ; if they are not only producing dis- 
 tress and ruin at home, but are dishonouring the Ameri- 
 can name abroad ; we should anxiously desire to remove 
 them ; we should seek for, and apply the remedy. That 
 remedy ought to be found in the laws of our country, so 
 far as laws can reach the disease ; but it is in vain that 
 we look there for redress ; on the contrary, it is in the 
 defects of our law that we find the source of the mischief. 
 Every thing seems to have been done by our legislators 
 to favour the debtor, be he honest or not ; and to weaken 
 the rights of creditors, to put them at the mercy of the 
 debtor to receive from him just so much justice as he 
 may choose to accord to them ; and to deny to them a 
 reasonable and satisfactory account from the man who 
 first defrauds, and then defies them. We have no bank- 
 rupt law by which a power is given to competent persons 
 to examine closely and particularly, in what manner, for 
 what purposes the debts of the bankrupt were contracted; 
 whether in the fair and regular pursuit of his business, 
 or in the indulgence of flagrant immoralities and vices ; 
 
21 
 
 to search deeply, and with the means of forcing out the 
 truth, into the means by which his property has been lost 
 or disposed of ; to ferret and foil every attempt at con- 
 cealment, to lay all his transactions bare, and to insist upon 
 explicit and satisfactory explanations of all that is doubt- 
 ful ; and, when this purifying process is completed, to dis- 
 tribute all the effects obtained by it, honestly and equally 
 among the creditors, in proportion to their respective 
 debts. We hear of no preferences to indorsers ; no fa- 
 vours to friends; no partial assignments for special objects, 
 which are just so many means by which an insolvent may 
 stipulate for, and cover benefits for himself; and finally, 
 while a bankrupt law inflicts terrible penalties upon a 
 fraudulent, prevaricating, perjured debtor, it holds out 
 cheering inducements and honourable rewards to the 
 open and upright man ; it cherishes and protects the 
 unfortunate but honest debtor, and returns to him a part 
 of his substance, to supply his wants, and resume his 
 business. 
 
 Very different are the character and influence of our 
 insolvent laws ; at least in Pennsylvania. They do not 
 affect to make any distinction between honesty and dis- 
 honesty ; between the man who has been ruined by the 
 casualties of trade, and one who has wasted his estate 
 in the most nefarious course of dissipation and vice. If 
 it be manifest, if it be confessed, that the petitioner has 
 poured out his money, or rather the money of his credi- 
 tors, in the dens of gambling, or the stews of prostitution ; 
 it is nothing. If his debts have been contracted by false 
 promises — by broken faith — by fraudulent pretences — by 
 
22 
 
 the basest contrivances ; it is nothing: he will, neverthe- 
 less, receive the benefit of the laws intended, one would 
 presume, for the relief of unfortunate debtors. He 
 demands and obtains this relief ; although he may stand 
 before the court which awards it to him, a convicted, an 
 avowed swindler. The only matter to be investigated 
 —the only question to be answered is, do you now offer 
 to deliver up, for the use of your creditors, all the pro- 
 perty you possess. When a debtor holds such a power 
 over his estate to the last moment, what will there be 
 left to be delivered up ? It is true, the mockery of an 
 assignment is gone through ; but it is so well understood 
 that there is nothing to be transferred by it, that it 
 rarely happens that the assignees take upon themselves 
 the empty trust, or are put in possession of one dollar 
 by virtue of it. 
 
 As our laws between debtor and creditor rather en- 
 courage than suppress the evils and impositions of which 
 we have spoken, so corruptive of our commercial in- 
 tegrity and so injurious to our national character, there 
 is but one other tribunal to which we can refer for their 
 correction. Public opinion must inculcate sound doc- 
 trines, and visit with indignation those who offend them. 
 While the truly unfortunate and insolvent should be 
 treated with tenderness; should be relieved, by a liberal 
 indulgence; and encouraged, and enabled, by a generous 
 assistance, to re-establish himself, and retrieve his for- 
 tunes by increased industry and economy : the careless 
 spendthrift, the rash and reckless adventurer, the slave 
 of vicious indulgences, who sports with property not his 
 
23 
 
 own, and lavishes uncounted sums to glut his pride and 
 pamper voluptuous appetites, should be made to feel his 
 crimes and his degradation by the withering neglect of 
 the whole community. 
 
 The topics which I have endeavoured to bring to 
 your consideration are far too extensive in their illustra- 
 tions and importance to be compressed, with the justice 
 that is due to them, within the compass of a single lec- 
 ture. I have not hoped for more, on this occasion, than 
 to present them to you in their broad and general aspects, 
 and to invite you to give them a more full and exact 
 examination in your own reflections. Look to your 
 experience, to that which has passed and is passing 
 under your eyes, for the truth of the facts I have stated; 
 and, for the principles I would inculcate, turn to the 
 fair unprejudiced suggestions of your own hearts and 
 understandings. Do not believe that there is one sort of 
 honesty, one code of morality, for your business, and an- 
 other for your ordinary transactions; that you may de- 
 ceive and ruin a man, in the way of trade, while you 
 would shrink from taking a toothpick from his pocket ; 
 that any thing can be just and honourable in a merchant, 
 that is not so in the man and the citizen, in the gentle- 
 man and the Christian. Such distinctions may satisfy 
 the ethics of a vicious cupidity, and quiet the conscience 
 of one who would be honest only for the world’s eye, 
 and to avoid the penalties of crime ; but can never be 
 sanctioned by a pure and uncorrupted mind. 
 
 As a summary of the doctrines I teach and desire to 
 impress upon you, let me add, that debts contracted in 
 
24 
 
 the indulgence of extravagant and unbecoming luxuries, 
 or in the pursuit of rash and desperate adventures, are 
 a violation of the sound principles of mercantile integrity: 
 that the true merchant will thoroughly qualify himself 
 for his business by a patient and systematic preparation, 
 and will depend upon the regular operations of legitimate 
 commerce for his profits, which, though more slow, are, 
 finally, more certain and lasting than th.e fluctuating 
 gains of speculation : that if misfortunes and bank- 
 ruptcy should fall upon him, he will meet them promptly 
 and manfully, and not attempt to gain a few lingering 
 days of credit for himself, by drawing his friends into the 
 vortex of his ruin, and extending it to those who may, 
 unwittingly, continue to trust him : that he will at once 
 surrender, into the hands his creditors shall choose to 
 hold the trusts for them, all the property in his possession 
 or power, unfettered by selfish stipulations for his own 
 benefit, undiminished by any concealment, or by assign- 
 ments or transfers to favourites of any description. 
 While you approve and expect such a course of conduct 
 from others, do not depart from it yourself, and be ex- 
 posed to the reproof so often merited — 
 
 “ What eagles are we still 
 
 In matters that belong to other men; 
 
 What beetles in our own.”