Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-09-13

PRODUCTION of the requisite machinery will, Of
course, be work of time; but, if proper
economy is practiced in building and stock
ling it, the expense will hardly be felt; and,
in the meantime, the conyicts can be SUBJ
sisted as cheaply as in the District jaila,
whilst the labor of such as are not required
on the buildings, can be devoted to the va
rious manufactures of leather, wood and iron,
yielding fund to the State to meet the ex.
pense of their subsistence.
If you should determine to establish a
penitentiary, it will be necessary that the
punishments now imposed by law be so
changed as to conform to the new prison sys-
tenn. Before passing from the subject of the
criminal law, desire to invite your atten-
ton to the necessity for more stringent leg
islation for the suppression of vagrancy
The law should not only provide for the
punishment of idle and dissolute persons,
who are permanently domiciled, but should
extend to transient persons, wandering over
the State, and who have no visible means
of support; and the duty of enforcing the
law should be devolved, under stringent
penalties, upon the Clerks, Sherifs, Magis-
trates and Constables of the several Dis
tricts.
Since your adjournment in December
last, the Court of Errors in this State have,
with single dissenting opinion, declared
the Stay Law and all amendments thereto
unconstitutional This decision has pro-
duced restiyeness and dissatisfaction in many
parts of the State. Public meetings have
been held in several Districts, and the Leg
islature has been appealed to, to furnish
some protection to the debtor class, who
anticipate general sueing in the fall term of
the Courts.
After careful examination of the opin-
ion of the able and learned Chief Justice,
as we'll as other authorities, l feel it my duty
to say that concur fully in the opinion of
the Court, and believe that their exposition
of the constitutional question is unanswer-
able.
The people of South Carolina have been
proverbialy law abiding and when anarchy
reigned supreme, after the fall of the Con-
federacy, lawlessness was universally dis
couraged by the better classes in every com.
munity Now, when civil law is restored
and we are remitted to our OVID laws and
Courts to protect rights and redress wrongs,
surely no citizen of good repute will advise
tumult and violence against the solemn
judgment of the highest judicial tribunal in
the State.
In view of the circumstances surrounding
us-when it is remembered that the State
has just emerged from long aud disas
trous war, in which not only her sons but
her resources were prodigally bestowed
that our banks have all been destroyed;
that more than three hundred millions of
property have been annihilated that all
fountains of credit and property have been
thoroughly dSorganized; that the refresh
ing and revivifying showers have been with
held from parched and exhausted soil,
and that want, if not famine, will keep
CHASTITY vigils in mansion and in hovel,
when it is remembered that nearly all of
the merchants of the State have been able
to compromise their Indebtedness to North
ern merchants on most liberal terms-sure-
ly, the creditor class will practice forbear-
ance and give the debtors still further in
diligence If compelled to enforce collec.
lections, they should, in the same fair and
liberal spirit, make compromises with
debtors, so as not to drive them and their
families from home, kindred and friends.
The existing embarrassments growing out
of the Indebtedness of the country will,
like other evils, produce beneficial results.
Debtors will find it TO their interest to make
fua adjustment of their debts, even though
they are compelled to surrender their prop
erty. As long as their debts remain, iu
terest will be accumulating to culmiuate in
more disastrous bankruptcy. If they sur
render their property, now, to creditors,
they can resume their occupations and labor
with notwithstanding that its pro,
ceeds will, sooner or later, rebuild their
broken fortunes.
The debtor who desires to compromise
with his creditors has the means of COM
pelling the veriest Shylock to accept fair
terms, or exclude him in all share of his
estate by assignment, giving liberal credi.
tors the preference, or by voluntary confes'
sion of judgment.
Believing that no Stay Law can be passed,
embracing aneceden! debts, that will not
conflict with that clause of the Constitution
of the United States which declares that
s'no State shall pass any law impairing the
obligations of contracts" | respectfully
recommend for your consideration for the
relief of debtors:
1st That Imprisonment for debt, on
maesne and final process be abolished, except
in case of fraud and then, as punish
meut for the crime rather than as means
of enforcing payment of the debt.
3D. That DO costs be taxed against de-
fendant, either for the officers of the Court
or for the Attorney.
Sd. That the Insolvent Debtors Laws be
so extended as that any debtor may, by
petition, after due notice, summon in all his
creditors, and, upon assigning his estate and
effects for their benefit, be discharged from