Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-10-18
Reputation.

necessary for the press OF the state TO dis
cuss or refer to the subject of Reputation
during this canvass. We have entirely re-
Trained from discussing the subject in
our columns, believing that its agitation,
while doing no good at home, was calcula-
ted to do us much injury abroad. If North
Carolina has reputation for anything 1t is
for strict integrity and honesty. Her bonds,
previous to the war, always led the market
among the State securities, and since the
end of hostilities, the old confidence has
been renewed, and though she has already
failed to provide for the interest of her
debt, the reason was appreciated and her
bonds. under the circumstances, have COM
handed prices that are fattering to our
State credit. While the insidious mutter
ings, here and there, that Reputation is
the only remedy commensurate with the
evil under which the people of the State
now labor, and candidates on that issue are
announced in few counties, we believe
the vote they will receive on Thursday, will
be SO insignificant as not to affect the cred
1t of our State.
That Reputation should find advocates
in the South, no one acquainted with the
financial condition of the people can be
surprised. The manner in which the bank
ruptcy and ruin of the Southern people was
brought about, as much as the universal in
solyency itself, has suggested this resort
The causes which followed the surrender of
the Confederate armies destroyed IN an IN
slant seven or eight hundred millions of
currency and as much properly, after the
most destructive and exhausting war known
to history; the system of labor, upon which
all our prosperity and all immediate
hope of recuperation were based was ami
hilated; our people, impoverished and dis
heartened, found themselves called upon to
meet the onerous demands of the Federal
tax-gatherer for four or five years of arrears
of taxation, to provide for the payment of
q fund created for their own overthrow and
the destruction of their property.
These ills have been followed by an al
most universal failure Of the crops, and a
political uncertainty and uneasiness, with
threats of confscation that has paralyzed
the energies of the people and retarded the
efforts of the agriculturalists upon whose sue
cessful labors our material prosperity de-
ponds. These are a few of the desperate
causes which have made remedy of such
acknowledged illegality and doubtful homes
ty readily welcomed by some.
The direct conflict of reputation with
the clause of the Constitution of the United
States which declares that emo State shall
pass any law impairing the obligation of
contracts" is so palpable, and as every man
who is elected to the Legislature OF to any
other office in this State, is compelled, as a
required qualification before entering upon
the discharge of his official duties, to take
an oath to support the said Constitution,
we are at loss to understand how the can
didates for the General Assembly who adj
vocate the doctrine of reputation are tol
comply with the promises made their con-
stituents and keep inviolate the plain and
express obligations of their oaths.
The protection of debtors under the Pc
culiar condition of affairs which has caused
them to be unable to meet their obligations
has been, in our Legislature and Conven-
ton, the subject of much careful legislation,
and doubtless will, as it should be, the most
important matter that will receive the at
tention of the ensuing General Assembly
but that reputation will be seriously con-
templated is as improbable as it is impossi-
BILE to be accomplished. For, independent
6 of n
which we have already referred, the Su-
preme Court have decided this doctrine to be
in violation of the Constitution Of the State.
In Barnes u.s. Barnes Jones, 500, Pear
son, @. j., in giving the opinion of the Court,
after discussing the inability of the State
to impair the obligation of q contract, III
referring to the principles of free govern
ment as affirmed in section II of the De
claration of Rights that mo free man ought
to be deprived of his life, liberty OF prop
erty, but by the law of the land > says,
"Manifestly, if creditor is deprived Of his
right to have Judgment and executionfor his
debt, he is thereby deprived of the right OF
his debt, which consists in his right to en-
force payment. The Legisla-
ture cannot deprive citizen of his vested
rights of property
And, speaking of the power of the Legis-
lature even to restrain the Courts from the
collection of debts, not absolutely, but
merely "until otherwise provided by law, ,
he says: If the Legislature has the power
to impose this restraint on the Courts I'M
til otherwise provided by law, it has the
power to do so without the permission to
remove the restraint when We have better
times, and it shall be easier for men to pay
their debts. x A power to suspend
or to abolish the administration of justice
cannot exist in free government. With
out law and tribunals to administer it, there
can be no government; it is anarchy, which
is worse than despotism. Upon
the whole, we are satisfied that without re-
ference to the Constitution of the United
States, our State Constitution gives ample |
protection to its citizens against all en-