Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1865-11-07
A STAY L A w.

III OruluaEy LlInesy WuoA 06IiCua
ture and commerce-those handmade
to general diffusion Of prosperity
ARE found cooperating on fixed anc
enduring bases, and serving to keeE
up an equilibrium Of interests among
the people; when society is in set
tlen condition and men can see theil
way more clearly and calculate with
more precision as to their future
prospects; when the worthy and
industrious can avail themselves Of
all necessary pecuniary aid from
friendly capitalists, and when capital
is abundant in hands ready and will
ling to loan it on sufficient security
in fine, when the condition of a
country and its people is that of a
steady and well organized system Of
advancement and reciprocal interests
and welfare, such an idea as that OF
a law to suspend the legal enforce
ment of debts, liabilities and obliga-
| tons would not be conceived or toler-
ated. But, the manifold troubles,
difficulties and misfortunes which
have grown out of the late war, and
the consequent inability on the part
Of 50 many Of the people of our State
to meet their past Indebtedness dur
ing the present transitional state Of
things, without the sacrifice of the
little all they may have left to them,
point to the necessity of some legis-
lative interposition to save these
people from the jeopardy of utter
ruin; and to the further necessity,
in the interim, Of forbearance on the
part of creditors towards their debtors.
Doubtless some mode of relief for
debtors, as well as of protection to
creditors, says the New Orleans Bee,
will be agitated in the next Legisla-
ture. A stay law has usually been
unpopular in this State, and it might
justly be SO where it tends, as it
commonly did, to operate with par
TALLY. But stay law that should
aim to prevent general bankruptcy
and commercial confusion, and to ap-
ply equally to all classes where all
bear more or less the relation of
debtor and creditor, and that should
impair no ones legal rights and Sc
curities, but simply postpone and
mitigate executory proceedings
such a law might fifty engage the
consideration Of our Legislators, and
commend itself to the general &C.
ceptance of the community.
But what is to be the remedy be-
fore the Legislature can meetl All
the Courts will soon be in session
grinding out judgments; those who
are sued must try to save themselves
by turning all their resources to &C
count, and will sue in their turn !;
defendants will become plaintiffs,
plaintiffs will be made defendants,
and in the corrosion and friction of
the law there will be general de-
composition in all branches of bust
ness and in every species of proprie-
tary interest. Sales precipitated by
such process,-especially sales of
lands which have so sadly depre-
eiated, owing to numerous causes
which may be, under a policy of
mutual and wise forbearance, in the
course of no long period wholly re-
moved,-would be hardly less ruin
GUS to creditors than debtors by rea-
son of the insignificant amount Of the
proceeds compared with the former
valuation on which debts were usu-
ally predicated.
We can conceive Of no remedy in
the meantime but what may be
afforded by a good understanding
among all parties to the effect that
litigation should not be pushed to
extremity. Let creditors make known