Here is a combination of laws for the protection of knaves, who have swindled the people.[117] Those who have either bought property on credit, or borrowed money, while _rags_ passed at a high price, have got debts of a great amount to pay, while property can no longer be sold at former prices. Debtors of this description have united with bankers, in getting the infamous laws passed just noticed. While the property law was pending in the Assembly of Indiana, debtors were in full activity sending forward petitions in favour of the impolicy, and persuading the ignorant of the propriety of the measure. In the small town of Jeffersonville, two petitions were made. These unnatural expedients, however, cannot long serve the purpose intended. Land continues to fall. The debtor may, for a short time, be kept out of jail, and the peculator from being stripped of his ill-gotten gains; but the public is {195} receiving dearly bought instructions, and must set a watch over future elections. Although the relations of debtor and creditor are equal in the amount of property involved in their transactions; and although the obligations imposed by contracts naturally render creditors the more powerful class in civilized society, the recent proceedings of legislatures in this western country, would lead us to believe, that a majority in numbers or artifice, or perhaps in both, stands on the debtor side of the ledger. Republicans are not to be whipped like slaves, nor openly and directly taxed to such extent as Europeans are, but they may be deluded. Men of their own electing have practised upon them with success, and the emoluments to be gained in this way, are apparently the great stimulus that prompts men to intrude themselves into State governments. No rational mind can discover profit enough in two dollars per day; or patriotism enough in cheating their constituents; or popularity enough in eloquence that few can hear, and none can ever see in print, to collect talent and integrity in council.