Mr. DOOLITTLE. I hope those words will not be stricken out. It is well known that these exemption laws exist in the several States and contracts have always been made in reference to them; in fact the laws of the States affording these exemptions are part and parcel of the very contract when the credit is extended. The understanding is when the credit is given that the creditor has a right to reach into the property that is exempt. It is part and parcel of the contract when it is made, and therefore I hope that this clause will not be stricken out. On this subject of the bankrupt law, without going into a formal speech on i. question, I have to say that I am very decidedly in favor of the passage of a general bankrupt law. The circumstances in which the country is now placed, owing to the terrible convulsion through which we have passed, are such, and the change of the currency from year to year has been so great, so violent, that the word “dollar, ” in which all contracts are made and in which they must be enforced, has been continually changing in its meaning; it has been an unknown quantity which in mathematics would be represented by x or.y. It has not been anything certain, and therefore it is utterly unjust to endeavor to enforce literally contracts which have been made in these times of convulsion. This is true of all the northern States. It is true also of the States of the South. 100s and 1000s of contracts even have been made at the South by which men were required to pay a given number of dollars; those contracts were made perhaps when confederate currency was the only money of the South. This bankrupt law coming after all these convulsions will, in my judgment, do very much toward bringing peace to country. the We know that in that system of government which was established, we may say, under Divine inspiration, it was a settled maxim that every 7 years was to.be a year of jubilee, when debts were to be settled and canceled, men were to be released from their bondage, and every 7th jubilee the whole real estate of the Jewish State came under the operation of this general jubilee, by which the descend ants were once more permitted to reenter into the possessions and enjoy the lands of theirancestorS. Mr. President, I have no desire to occupy the time of the Senate. What I desire is that we come to a vote. I think it would be unwise for us to undertake, under our general bankrupt law, to wipe out of existence all the exemption laws which have been established by the various States, laws which were in existence, well known to parties, in view of which the contracts were made which are to be settled and disposed of by the operation of the law itself.