Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-06-23

| DaflStI1S nave De6Q. -r--s
MANY PHlLANTHRoP1sTs.
From the Buffalo Republican a-
Homestead Exemption. . III NJ
The simple question is, shall every mem.
ber Of community have right to be some.
where? or shall his existence be forfeited
/ for want of Alright to occupy some locality
on the earth? A homestead exemption law
generally adopted throughout the Union,
with such reasonable restriction as would
prevent dishonest men from defrauding 9TH
ers, by investing large property so as to
put it out of the reach Of honest creditors.
would, we think, be great step towards
the perfection ofour social system No man
under our present system, who has had the
misfortune, or the imprudence, to involve
himself in debt, has right to be anywhere.
except in the public highway; and even
there he must. keep travelling under pre-
tence ofbusness, or he is liable to be ar.
rested and punished for vagrancv. If he
owns house in which he can shelter his
| family, and few acres of ground, from
which the labor Of that family can procure
a substance, his creditor can take it from
him and turn his family out; and the first
step they take, out of the public highway,
makes them respassers, and they are again
liable to forcible expulsion; and so on, till
they get happily beyond the bounds of civ
iliZation. --.., -.-.
Every man,, in every comtnunity-es.
pecially in trafficing and speculating
community like ours, in this country-is H.
able to become involved beyond his ability
to pay. When this is the case, our laws
tell his creditors to go and turn him and his
innocent and helpless family out the house
they live in, and off of the piece Of land
which they cultivate, and take it for them
selves, although they have houses and
lands and everything else necessary to their
comfort When man and his family are
thus dspossessed and turned out naked, it
is impossible that they should respect the
institutions of their country, or that they
should feel patriotic emotion. Home is no
longer to them; they are stripped and ban
ished by their country's law, and the love
of country which once glowed in their bo-
SONS is turned to hatred. And it is perfectly
natural that it should be so; for men are not
so divine in their nature that they will re-
turn good for evil, love for hatred, patriot
ism for alienation, when they feel that their
conduct as citizens has not been such as to
deserve that evil, that hatred, that virtual
alienation, which the laws of their country
have inflicted upon them.
The homestead exemption law proposes
to make the house and ground where fam
! lily live sacred to him forever, by placing
it beyond the creditors grasp and the sher-
! iff's power. Who can calculate the amount
of misery which the want of such hu-
name provision has inflicted upon innocent
people since we became an Independent
nation2 Who can compute the additional
happiness that would have been enjoyed by
the people Of this country if such IN amend
ment had been introduced into the social
system: which we borrowed and adopted in
the infancy of our existence as nation?
1t is our honest opinion that the simple cir
cumstance of homesteads and necessary
furniture and implements of husbandry, be-
ing liable to coniscation for debt has been
more than fifty per cent. drawback upon
all the advantages of civilization. And it
is, therefore, our honest opinion, that the a.
abolishment Of that abominable law, which
| pampers the ayarice ofthe fortunate, by al.
lowing him to strip the unfortunate of his
whole means Of living, will double the hap.
piness of this people as a whole. -.
Let the little farm, with its buildings and
stock, together with all necessary furniture
be exempt from seizure, and who would be
the worse for it? Those who are in the bu.
siness of money loaning, would be none
the worse, nor would those who sell neces-
saries Of life, for, knowing that they could
have no recourse to that species of legal
robbery, they would not give credit with
| that reliance in view. And we confidently
believe that exemption, by making debtors
honor the creditors sole surety, would do
more to- establish a healthy credit system
than any other measure that could be de-
vised. Ii a man who has any pretentions
to- honor, happen to get involved beyond his
depth, and his creditors do not fall upon him
and sacrifice what he has, by way of court
charges, lawyers and sheriff's fees, and
forced sales, he will have both the means
and disposition to pay them, and will make
haste to do so as soon as possible. But if the
law allows them to take the destructive
course, one creditor will strive to get ahead
of another, and the family will be stripped,
the property sacrificed, the debt not paid,
the debtor dispirited and soured, and there
will be neither means nor disposition left to
pay the balance. ~ Z; ai;srs.
DESERVING THE FEDERAL1sTs.-Col
A. J. SMITH, of Harrison county Va, for
several years prominent whig member of
the House Of Delegates, and Clay Elector
in 1914, has renounced federalism, and
joined the democratic party. He declares
he is an American, cannot go with the
Tories in opposition to the war. This is
the second Clay Elector who has, within
the last few months, left the Tories and
joined the Democratic party.
FATAL CALAMITY to relate,
on Nj onday last, the 18th inst, son Of Mr..
John Mckee, of Lordstown, in his 4th
year, having prevailed upon his mother to
let him take fire into field, some distance |