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![handle is hein.journals/capulr53 and id is 1 raw text is:
PROCESS IS POWER: THE COMPETING INTERESTS OF
DEBTORS AND CREDITORS, THE MODES OF PROCESS
IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS FROM 1789-1828,
AND THE RESULTING CRISIS OF APPLICATION OF
FINAL PROCESS DURING THE PANIC OF 1819
STEVE DONWEBER*
EXECUTIO EST FINIS ET FRUCTUS LEGIS.1
I. INTRODUCTION
The competing interests of debtors and creditors provide a remarkable
lens through which to view American history.2 Anxiety over the payment,
collection, and enforcement of debt contracts has pervaded the American
experience since its inception.3 My focus here is not on all of American
Copyright © 2025, Steve Donweber
* Senior Lecturer, Boston University School of Law. A.B., Cornell University 1989; J.D.
cum laude Villanova University School of Law 1993; M.L.I.S. Rutgers University 2005.
1 Execution is the end andfruit of the law. A maxim attributed to Sir Edward Coke in
his Commentary upon Littleton. See AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE LORD COKE'S COMMENTARY
ON LITTLETON 318 (London: printed for Lee, Pakeman and Bedell 1651); 1 THOMAS
BRANCH & JOHN RICHARDSON, PRINCIPIA LEGIS ET AEQUITATIS: BEING AN ALPHABETICAL
COLLECTION OF MAXIMS, PRINCIPLES OR RULES, DEFINITIONS, AND MEMORABLE SAYING, IN
LAW AND EQUITY 51 (5th ed. 1824); see also Bank of United States v. Halstead, 23 U.S.
(10 Wheat.) 51, 64 (1825) (An execution is the fruit and end of the suit, and is very aptly
called the life of the law.); HENRY M. HERMAN, TREATISE ON THE LAW OF EXECUTIONS 1
(1876) (Execution signifieth in law the obtaining of actual possession of anything acquired
by judgment of law, or by a fine executory levied, whether it be by the sheriff or by the
entry of the party, and is called the lfe of the law, and therefore is in all cases to be
favored.) (emphasis added).
2 This idea is not original to me, of course. For the masterwork on this subject, see
BRUCE H. MANN, REPUBLIC OF DEBTORS: BANKRUPTCY IN THE AGE OF AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE (2002).
s Claire Priest et al., Currency Policies and Legal Development in Colonial New
England, 110 YALE L.J. 1303, 1387 (2001) ([I]n times of currency scarcity, more debt
contracts ended in litigation because debtors became unable to raise funds to pay their
debts.); Jonathan M. Chu, Debt Litigation and Shays' Rebellion, in IN DEBT TO SHAYS, THE](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/capulr53&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)