Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1848-09-15

Very many who not the owners OF homesteads
obtain large credits and do great amount OF Gre
dit business always have done so, and always
will either with the exemption law or without
| it. On the other hand many business men have
real estate to twice, five times, ten times the
amount of their homestead and that is as much
a basis for credit as it ever was A gain, nearly
all who transact business permanently in a mer
camille way find that it is of vital interest TO their
success and prosperity to establish and maintain
character for reliability and trust worthiness-
Every creditor regards this as a kind of security
vastly better than legal. And every one who
finds occasion to obtain credit knows that char
acter for fidelity in business transactions is about
equivalent TO hands ONE amount of capital, as
basis for credit. All classes of men, and all grades
Of character careful ifpossibe, TO be in repu-
tation trustworthy. We have conversed with
not few of those who have spent years in the fur
trade, trusting out goods TO the savages Of the will
derness, and 10 the amount of many thousands of
dollars in a year. Those in the employ of the
Hudsons Bay, Northwest, and American Fur Com
panies, have done business with savages to the
amount ofmany millions of dollars in the way of
giving goods to them on credit And STILL prince
y estates, (thatof Jacob Astor among the mum.
bcr) have continued TO grow out Of the profits of
the fur trade
Our collection laws prercnt the payment of
debts to a much greater extent than they secure
it. The system of enforcing payment with the
litigation which 1t involves, robs the community
of an amount much greater than the entire abro-
CATION OF all the collection laws would be likely TO
DO. Property taken on execution. and sold at auc-
ton, usually goes at less than half its value aside
from the cost Of prosecution and sale. This pre-
vents those who honest from paying their debts
10 as great an extent as they might do, and would
ii ease they were let alone. Those who are not,
have s,sI themselves Of the glorious uncertain
les and shifts, and delays, and tricks, and eva
sons, which litigation affords or, what is not
less common, make such disposal Of their prop
erty as places, and keeps it etectuaIly out OF the
reach Of their creditors, ten,od in all probability,
than the present exemption law will ever occasion.
1t is and ever has BEEN and will be. very
COiIItiOu llIttiUu VI CFotA'G wy iN''O'' ~
laws Sometimes this is measure Of selfde.ence,
Icsor,cl 10 by an honest debtor against the eXtor-
tons OF an urishteous and un'ecling creditor In
Other cases, it is desperate resort TO keep DC
pendent family from starvation. IN either OF these
cases, our moral sense approves OF such proceed
dare. In o.heI cases, the motive is ir4udaent-
Such cases we severely condemn, but collection
laws operate 10 multiply, not to prevent them
On the same principle by which we decide that
free labor is every way preferable to slave labor
or that free trade is better than forced orresrlcted
trade. we maintain that a system for tie payment
Of debts based upon the most unrestricted freedom
Of TIE de.%or, is the right system. Honesty es-
tablished by law; industry enforced by law :
trade dictated by law; religion enjoyed by law
Who does not see that these all have similar
character! Who does not view them, one and ALL
as belonging to a low STATE OF civilization, and one
and alllcstued 10 take then proper place as cast OIL
and obsolete ooleries, society be comes more re-
conclcd to the policy Of living and walking IN the
sun light Of truth In tue matt er OF moral homes
" as in the matter Of Iels ion, we hold that tie
gospel system is better than the legal system.