Mr. WILLIAMS. I do not expect to occupy the whole of our remaining time during this session, and I have no doubt the Senator will have an opportunity to make a speech after I conclude, if he is desirous to do so. I do not understand the honorable Senator to say now, and I Presume no Senator will say, that if this law did provide exPressly that $5,000 worth of property should be exempt from execution in one State and that $500 worth of property should be exempt in another the law.be uniform. If that would be uniform legislation, then it would be perfectly uniform to say that in one State all property should be exempt, and in another State a certain portion of the property should be exempt. This law undertakes to adopt the legislation of the different States. Will any man say that the legislation of the different States of this Union as to exemptions from execution is uniform? What does “uniform” mean? Does it not mean that the laws are alike, that they operate alike? It is true, no law can be made to operate exactly in one place as it operates in another in every respect, because the circumstances of one locality are different from the circumstances of another locality; but Congress is to make the law as uniform as it can by its legislation; and Congress is not to assume that, because circumstances require it, the law o be made one. thing in one State and another thing in another State. The very object of this provision of the Constitution was to require uniformity in legislation. This bill, if it passes with this provision in it, will extend privileges to citizens of certain States which it denies to citizens of other States. That is the very reason why the Constitution was so made as to require uniform legislation on this subject. What does it mean if it does not mean that when Congress enacts a bankrupt law it shall operate in one State just as it operates in any other State; that Congress shall not undertake to say that Massachusetts, for instance, whether in its legislation or in its circumstances, under the law shall enjoy excmptions and hon of its which the people of the State of Iowa do not enjoy? Under this bill, 1867. TH 957 as I understand, the operation of the law in one State may be wholly defeated. If the Legislature of a State sees proper by its legislation to extend its exemption laws it may protect the property of the debtor so as to directly defeat the operation of this law.