The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-31
G. H a r l. r S TO N
THURSDAY MORNING. MAY 81, 1865.
THE hoard OF TRADE AND THE BANK
RUPT La W. b."

THE hoard OF TRADEAND THE BANK
RUPT Law.
We published on Monday petition, adopt
cd by the Board of Trade, at meeting hold
on Saturday light addressed to the Senate of
the United States, praying that the Bankrupt
Act which has recently passed the House,
may not become law.
We regard the action of the Board of
Trade as unfortunate, and will give our rea-
sons. The meeting of Saturday night was
an extra meeting; the notice was very short,
having been only inserted in the journals of
the samo day, and consequently the attend
ance was very small. The night itself was
unpropitious; recent arrangements among the
jobbing merchants having devoted Saturdays,
after two O'Clock, to rest and recreation.
The consequence was that the tone hundred
and fifty firms" we're represented by twenty
six members present, of whom only sixteen
voted for the petition-a fraction over ten per
cent. of the business houses represented. In
addition to these serious objections to the
meeting, their action in memorializing Con-
gress at all is very questionable. 1t appears
to us that our merchants should not humiliate
themselves by asking either House of Con-
gress 10 consider views coming from section
unrepresented in the councils of the nation.
The very presentation of the petition must be
done by member from some other State,
and if received by Congress, which we think
quite doubtful, would be On unwilling con-
descension on their part. ... ..
These objections, however sound, are of
small Importance compared with the serious
opposition we feel bound to urge against the
views expressed by the memorial Aad We
disclaim in advance, for the merchants of
Charleston and the community at large, the
hssty and inconsiderate action of this hand
full Of gentlemen.
The memorial fails to point out any OBJ
jectionable features in the Bankrupt Act
In fact the speakers. who urged the adoption
of the petition admitted that they were
ignorant of tte provisions Of the bill. We
must, then, regard the action of the Board as
committing them against all bankrupt laws,
which position was most emphatically taken
by one of those who spoke in defence of the
memorial. Now we cannot believe that this
is the deliberate judgment of the commercial
community of Charleston.
| In almost every country, claiming to be
civilized, bankrupt laws exist. In almos,
every State in this Union insolyens laws have
h""c in operation for vanrs Tho "~";~-.
crude and barbarous notions concerning the
rights Of creditors, have everywhere given
way before tho march of enlightenment and
the better judgment of modern political
economists. Those bloody statutes which
consigned the debtor, among the Romans, to
q species of servitude worse than their own
savage system of slavery, and which, even in
polished Athens, delivered the dead body OF
the debtor to his rapacious creditors, were
gradually modified in time, until at last it be.
gan to break upon the minds of Legislators and
jurists that the debtor had rights as we'll as
the creditor. The Jewish dis pensation, in
this respect as in 80 many others, shines oui
in beautiful contrast to the legislation Of
other nations of antiquity Every seven
years the debts contracted between Israeliter
were cancelled, and at the Jubilee all debts
! without exception, were abrogated
The first Improvement upon the cruel and
stupid laws of antiquity is to be found in the
law of "cession," introduced by the Christian
Emperors. By this law, if the debtor sur
rendered his entire property he was dis
charged. a+ ~
From that time to the present this subject
has received the attention of every consider
ate writer on law and political economy, and
bankrupt laws have been enacted by every
| civilized nation in the world. :
BLACKSTONE says, with equal truth and
feeling: "At present, laws of bankruptcy are
considered as laws calculated for the benefit
OF trade, and founded on principles of hu.
manity as we'll as justice; and to that end
they confer some privileges, not only on the
creditors but also on the bankrupt or debtor
himself" And again: off by accidental
calamites, as by the loss of a ship in q tom.
pest, the failure of brother traders, or by the
non-payment of persons out of trade,'a mer.
chant or trader becomes incapable of dis.
charging his own debts, it is his misfortune
and not his fault"
When commerce began to be properly I'm.
derstood and conducted in England, in the
time of HENRY Will, the first statute was
passed on this subject.
Tho principle thus settled has been carried
out through various acts of Parliament. down
to the present time. The same course has