The Winchester home journal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-11-14

W n ScnSlDlc artlcle Is the lOl
lowing, and one that contains SOM
important truths:
For the Homo Journal.
Mn. EDITOR
am not in the habit OF writing 70
newspapers, but would be pleased to di
rect the attention Of the public to mat
ter Of general interest through the medi
UNI Of your paper. ! mean the practice
just lately adopted by some persons o
demanding gold and silver upon ex
ecutions.
I am gratifed to be able to say tina
only few men in this community have
adopted the practice. Some have-and ir
some cases it has been done, by the note
buyer, without single peculiar circum
stance justifying it, even when the exc
cutlon debtor was a poor man with 8
large family. What induced this course!
What motive prompted the act? an.
swer emphaticaly, the hope of making
from five to ten per cent more than was
contracted for. The gold will sell for
five or len per cent, and whether the
creditor is entitled to this money depends
upon no abstruse difficult question:
Will paper money pay his debts? Yes,
unless he owes Shylock, which is not
probable, because such men do not trade
with each other.
Will the paper money buy as much
property as it would when the debt was
madel Yes, twenty-five per cent more?
Then upon what princi pie can he demand
the gold? Simply because the law does
not restrain him from taking though
he paid nothing for it. The only excuse
is, the law gives it, or does not restrain
him from taking it. That is no excuse at
all. The law in many things gives men
a large discretion.
The law does not restrain the master
from Aogging his slave for doing his bid.
dings. The law allows the creditor to be
as exacting from the poor widow as from
tho millionaire, and yet man with a soul
will do neither.
But remember the debt was contracted
in view Of paper currency, and but for
a fact not contemplated by either party,
the paper money would have been re.
ceived, 10 wit: the suspension of the
banks.
By suspension of the banks, thing
over which the poor debtor had no con.
troll, and in which he perhaps had no
agency; at least, no more than his cred.
lor, gold becomes scarce and worth from
five to ten per cent more than the ordi.
nary currency Of the country, and simply
to make this per cent by selling the gold,
he makes the debtor pay it..
Suppose any creditor in the country
were to demand the gold during the sus.
pension, everybody knows that it would
ruin the country-that every poor man
who owes few dollars would be com
PEELED to stand by and see his property
sold under the hammer with certain as.
surance that his merclcss creditor would
buy it at his own price, because there
could be no competition.
The community would do we'll now to-
put mark on the men who are demand.
ing gold and silver.
They are men who would willingly sec
the whole country reduced to a state Of
vassalage and dependence, if they could
fill their own Golfers by it.
Some Of these men arc doubtless re.
garded as good citizens, and they may
not violate the law, but if not, it is the
fear Of the law and not the cause Of it
that makes them obey it.
When you see one of these men de.
handing the gold, if you do not know
him we'll, just for the sake Of infoma
ton, 90 and esk his neighbor about two
questions
LIST. How much did you ever know that
man [who demands the gold] 10 give for
the relief Of the distressed--the widows
and orphans?
End. Does he contribute anything 10
society further than the law forces him7
An answer TO these questions will
place all the gold and silver gentlemen
in gang 10 themselves.
Just think, for a moment, OF the man
who is in a0luence, with no pecuniary de.