The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-10-10
nature whose every hope, thought and feeling is

SELF Who is it, | would ask, that has advised
debtors, having the means to pay their debts, not
to pay them? I doubt whether he can be found
The debtor who is now able to pay and does not,
is not only dishonest, but fool. But it is quite
another thing to say that, under the present cir
cumstances of the country, the property of the
people should not be sacrificed to crafty the greed
of unfeeling creditors; that such policy would be
unwise and ruinous. This is the ground upon
which interference with the process of the Courts
has always been placed 1t is not merely ques-
ton between debtor and creditor Such legisla-
ton is not only intended to protect the poor and
weak against the rapacity of the rich and the
strong, but its object is beyond and higher than
this; it is to secure the greatest good to the COM
munity, to save the State from general bankruptcy
and ruin. 1t is in vain to say, that it is best to
| leave this matter to be regulated by the people
themselves. Before the Stay Law was set aside,
We were told that creditors would act with human-
ty and forbearance toward their debtors. What
are the facts? AS soon as the Courts were OPEN
| ed, there was general rush to get Judgments,
and at the ensuing term il is estimated that thirty
thousand cases we're issued in the small State OF
South Carolina. What q commentary on the hu-
manity and torbearance of creditors The single
item OF costs on this number OF cases, before final
ly settled, will amount to four or five millions dol
lars, a sum nearly sufficient to pay the whole debt
] of the State.
| 1t is not objected, rs every one knows, that
debts should be paid but that since the war the
country has been in such condition that pay
ments should not be enforced by law. The people,
as have shown, have not been permitted to make
anything to pay debts with. To pay requires
nloney-ready cash. The burdens and ravages Of
the war prevented them from making money
during its continuance, and consequently left
| them without any at its close. During the years
following 1865 and 1866, it is we'll known that
nothing was realized from planting, not enough to
defray expenses. At the beginning Of the present
year it was hard struggle for subsistence. But
for the help of few liberal-minded factors in
Charleston Il hope it will not prove that they
have been too credulousl know many, very many
planters who would have been compelled to
abandon their plantations. These are facts, and
facts are stubborn things. Take this condition of
things in connection with the unsettled political
state of the country, and it requires little refec-
| ton to come to the conclusion that if property
should even now be forced to sale it would be
sacrificed and that still deeper and wider ruin
would follow than that which is now to be seen on
| every hand. This is not matter of mere argu-
ment or speculation; it's truth has been tested by
actual experience. The property that was sold
under execution since the war; during the interval
| in which such sales were allowed by the law, was
| sacrificed sold literally for nothing.
| No one denies that there are individual cases of
great hardship resulting from the suspension of
the process Of the Courts. There are dishonest
debtors as we'll as dishonest and unfeeling credit
ors, and i'll some instances, no doubt, the former
have tsken advantage Of the Law to evade the pay
ment of their Just debts. But this is the case
with all laws Wicked and had men, everywhere,
and at all times, have perverted the laws to pur
poses of fraud and injustice. This is no test of
the goodness or wisdom OF a law. The legisla-
tor deals With communities, not individuals; he
lays down general rules; he does not pretend to
frame his laws so as to reach absolute good in
every case The question here is, whether, in
view of all the leading interests OF the country,it
was not best to postpone general settlement OF
the indebtedness OF the people until the great po-
ltical question now at issue had been settled; I'M
til business had lapsed into its oiu cuaeiS' unti
trade and commerce had been restored to a healthy
state, and property had reached to something ap-
preaching its former value? The Legislature was
of this opinion, the Convention OF the State
thought so, and the military authorities have come
to the same conclusion. How long We are to re-
main in this transition state is beyond the reach
of INV mental vision. Take the most hopeful view
of the future We can, and dark and disma' is the
prospect While faction rules the hour i'll the po-
htical world, the very agencies of nature seem to
have conspired to made our Jesoaton more COM
plete. But We should not despair altogether.
There is a just COB who presides over the des-
tinics of nations. He will not hide his face al
ways from those who walk in the ways of right
eousness. Let lis do cur duty TO Him, to our
selves, and our country; practice the golden rule:
Whatsoever yc would that men should do unto
you, do We even 80 TO them and this time OF chas-
tening will pass away, and the night Of our
sorrow be succeeded by brighter sun than our
eyes have behed for many days.
BACKWO0DSMAN.