Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-06-15
Homestead Exemption.


member of community have right to be
somewhere? or shall his existence be for
feted for want of right to occupy some
locality on the earth? A homestead ex-
emption law, generally adopted through.
out the Union, with such reasonable
restrictions as would prevent dishonest
men from defrauding others, by investing
a large property SO as to put il out of the
reach of hone st creditors, would we think,
be great step towards the perfection of
our social system. No man under our
present system, who has had the misfor
tune, or the imprudence, to involve HIM
| self in debr, has right to be anywhere,
except in the public highway; and even
there; he must keep travelling under
] pretence of business, or he is liable to be
arrested and punished for vagrancy. If
he owns house in which he can shelter
his family, and few acres of ground,
from which the labor of that family Gun
procure sustenance, his creditor can
take il away from him, and turn his family
out; and the first step they take. out Of
the public highway, makes them tres
passers, and they are again liable to
forcible expulsion; and so on, till they get
happily beyond the bounds of civilization.
Every man, in every communicates
pecially in trafficking and specializing
community like ours, in this country
is liable 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 of the house tn ey live in, and off of
the piece of land which they cultivate,
and take it for themselves, although they
have houses and lands and everything
else necessary for their comfort. When
q man and his family are thus dispossess-
ed 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
home TO them; they are stripped and han
ished by their country's law. and the love
of country which once glowed in their
bosoms, 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 return good for evil, love for
hatred, patriotism 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 pro.
poses to make the house and ground
where family live, sacred to their use
forever, by placing it beyond the creditors
grasp, and the Sheriff's power. Who can
calculate the amount of misery which the
want ofsuch humane provision has in
ficted upon innocent people since we
became an independent nation? Who can
compute the additional happiness that
would have been enjoyed by the people Of
this country if such an amendment had
been introduced into the social system
which we borrowed and adopted in the
| infancy of our xistence as a nation! 1t
is our honest opinion, that the single cir
cumstance OF honest and necessary
| furniture and implements Of husbandry,
being liable to confscation for debt. has
been more thanfifiy per cent drawbackup-
on all the advantages of civilization. Audit
is, therefore, our honest opinion that the a:
| bolishment ofthat abominable law, which
pampers the avarice of the fortunate, by
allowing him to strip the unfortunate of
his whole means Of living, will double
the happiness of this people as whole.
Let the little farm with its buildings
and stock, together with all necessary
household furniture, be exempt from
seizure for debt, and who would be the
worse for it. Those who are in the buis.
ness of money loanrpg, would be none the
worse, nor would those who sell the me-
ceSsaries of life; for, knowing that they
could have no resource to that species of
| legal robbery, they would not give credit
with that reliance in view. And we
confidently believe that such exemption.
| bymaking the debtors honor the cre1itor's
sole surety, would do more to establish
healthy credit system, than any other
measure that could be devised. If a man
who has any pretentions 10 honor, happen
to get involved beyond his depth, and his
creditors do net fall,upon him and sacri-
fee what he has, by way of court charges,
lawyers and sheriff's fees and forced
sales, he will have both the means and
the disposition to pay them; aud will make
haste to do SO as soon as possible. But
| if the law allows them 10 take the des
tructiye course, one creditor viii strive to
get ahead of another, and the family will
be stripped, the property sacrificed, the
debts not paid, the deb.of disPirited. and
| soured. and there will be neither means
nor disposition leitto pay the balance.
We are aware that we have taken up
this subject hastily. without regard to
order or plot; and that, therefore, what
we have said will very imperiectly convey
our ideas on the subject. But when we
| hava time for deliberate thought. we