Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1866-01-12

StoHo, 10 TecetCe ana recap fOr ADVERTISE
nsents and Subscriptions.
The New York Chamber of Commerce has
been celebrating on the subject of enforcing
the payment of claims Of Northern Creditors
against Southern Debtors, and have submit
ted the following memorial to Congress.
To the Honorable Senate and House of
Representatives. Of the United States Of
dsaerica in Congress assembled.
8 The memorial Of the Chamber of Com
merce of the State of New York respectfully
showcth:
That at the outbreak Of the late civil war,
the merchants of this city held claims to
large amount against citizens of the South
ern States for money loaned, and for goods
sold and delivered. q It is believed that the
aggregate amount of these claims did not at
The date specified fall short of $3.50, 900, 900;
and it is hardly necessary to inform your
honorable bodies that only small portion of
the amount has since been liquidated !; while
on the other hand large proportion of the
residue has been, or soon will be, barred by
the operation of the statutes of limitation.
In the opinion of the memorialists, statutes
Of limitation to suits or contracts, are recon-
cilcable with justice only ON the supposition
that the parties have had opportunity to en-
force their claims through the usual courts of
law; and inasmuch as during the late civil
war, it has been impossible for loyal creditors
to take measures to collect their debts in the
Southern States by any civil proceedings
whatever, justice requires that all the period
of the rebellion should be excepted from the
time fixed for the limitations of action in those
States.
The memorialsts further submit that the
Jurisdiction Of the courts of the United States
over cases between the citizens of different
States was contrived by the Constitution and
arranged by Congress to secure justice, where
the courts Of the States might for any cause
be considered as possibly partial, prejudicial
or inaccessible, and that the present time ex-
hlbits striking illustration of the wisdom of
such provision, and at the same time shows
Its intellectual character, if by any statute of
limitation the States can render the jurisdic-
ton practically nugatory
The memorialists, therefore. pray that
your honorable bodies will pass a law ex-
emptlng suitors in the national courts Of the
Southern States from the operation of State
statutes OF limitation for period long enough
to give loyal creditors an opportunity to en-
force their demand.
1t seems from the tenor Of this memorial
that it is desired that Loyal Suitors, in Ma
tional Courts in the Southern States, be ex-
empted from the action Of State statutes Qim-
ting the collecting of debts, } for a sufficient
time to enforce their demands.
Southern Debtors do not desire to be freed,
by any statute, from paying their liabilities,
= but, with the loss of the bulk Of their proper
ty BY sudden emancipation, and crippled ip
their powers of production by the existing de-
moralization Of labor, it is an utter impossi-
bility for them to pay their debts at once,
ever at the sacrifice of the remainder of their
property. The laws which may be enacted
will not inyalidate the claims of any creditor,
but are intended to give little time for
Southern Debtors to irecuperate from the
ravages Of war, when they will be enabled,
without detrinent to Creditor or Debtor, and
with ease, to pay the immense amount her
aided in this memorial.
y We cannot help contrasting in our minds
the difference between these men who want
like Shylock, their pound of flesh, and the
citizens of another city, who holding claims
against us, still voluntarily made further
advance to aid us in recuperating our fallen
fortunes and enable us the more easily to paw
our debts to them and others While we be-
Iieve such an illiberal demand, made by a
people whose tills are running over with the
immense gains Of the last four years, against
people already greatly impoverished, to
the great detriment of the latter, will never
be granted, yet we say, in caution, to our
clamorous New York claimants, that the
feelings Of many may be Influenced by such
contrast Of wantcn illiberality on one side
and generous liberality on the other, and
that feelings begct action, and actions speak
- louder than words.
Philadelphia is becoming anxious about