The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-02-11

dho EApPNh
Elective Franchise, and the Committee on
Education, be retained, and that the others
be paid up and discharged on next Mon
day. The clerks retained to give such as
~sistance as may be necessary to the COM
mittees whose clerks are discharged"
Mr.. LrGGATT said that he had been I'M
der the impression that the clerk OF the
Committee on Franchise was to have been
discharged as soon as the MAJ ority report
had been made.
MIR. HUNN1CUTT was under the same I'M
preston, as was also the CHAIR.
Mr.. E. GIBSON spoke briefly against the
retention of the clerks, on the ground that
il would involve an unnecessary DISPOSE.
ton of the funds of the State to continue
them.
Mr.. ALLAN said that the clerks recon-
mended to be retained were indispensa-
BILE.
Pending his remarks the morning hour
expired. A motion to suspend the rules
so as to allow the matter to be disposed OF
was lost.
EDUCATION.
The report of the Committee on Educa-
ton was taken up. Mr.. PLATTE offered a
substitute which was laid IN the table
for printing. The subject was then post
poned.
THE JUDICIARY ON REPUTATION.
The following report of the judiciary
Committee on the resolutions OF Messrs.
JAMES and MELBOURNE was then taken up
"On the motion of Mr.. JAMES, the Con-
vention adopted and referred to the Judi
ciary Committee the consideration OF the
following resolution:
"tReSolued, That all debts, including
State taxes, contracted before April 8,
1865, shall be sealed down to twenty-five
per cent. on the dollar; that all actions
now pending be stayed, and costs be as
sessed to the same scale, and that hence
forth no more be claimable by law than
twenty-five cents On the dollar of all such
debts.'
"The ~rc1Inittee has had this subject
before it, Ia has considered it as fully as
the time and opportunity afforded it would
permit. It has arrived at the following
conclusions, which l am instructed to sub
NIT to the Convention:
"The resolution includes all debts con-
tracted prior to the Sd of April, 1865, and
raises no question as to their validity, or
the consideration for which they were ex-
ecuted; neither does 1t draw any distinc-
ton between debts contracted before and
during the late war, but includes all alike,
without any regard as to whether they are
valid or invalid-whether there has been
a failure of consideration or motor
whether they were to be paid in C0nfede-
rate money or in currency equivalent to
gold and silver. And this committee is
called upon to say whether these debts
shall be reduced to twenty-five cents in
the dollar, and the creditors be compelled
to accept that sum in discharge thereof.
This proposition raises the question of the
power of the Convention to act in the
premises, and to afford the relief sought to
be obtained.
"The Convention that framed the Con-
%stitution Of the United States had this
subject before it, and, after mature delibe-
ration, determined to deny to the several
States all right to interfere in whole or in
part with the obligation Of contracts. This
determination, made under circumstances
that give to it peculiar weight and sane
tity, will be found in the tenth section of
the first article of that instrument, which
says that no State shall pass any bills of
%attainder, &c post facto laws, or lacS I'M
pairing the Obligation Of contracts. The
condition of the States at the time that
Convention assembled appealed stronglyt to
it for relief. The States, impoverished by
a long war, were struggling for existence.
Their currency had become worthless
their citizens burdened with debts held
mainly by foreigners, who, being opposed
to the revolution, fed the country at the
opening of hostilities, and returned to it at
the close Of the war only to enforce the
collection of their debts, and thereby to
add to the distress Of the country. Yet, in
view Of all these facts, so thoroughly was
that body impressed with the inviolability
of contracts that it withstood the popular
clamor for relief, and denied to the States
all power to impair the obligation Of con-
tracts in whole or in part.
"Recognizing the Constitution of the
United States as the supreme law of the
land, to which obedience is due from every
good citizen, the committee does not hest
tate to declare that this Convention has
no power to scale the debts,,a as proposed,
or to decide that they shall be discharged
by any sum less than that agreed upon by
the parties thereto. To do so would ia
that extent impair the obligation Of these
debts, and be in direct conflict with the
clause of the Constitution above referred
to. The committee can see no distinction
in principle or law between the destruc.
ton of a part and the whole debt for il
the Convention-as has been shown-has
no power, under the Constitution, to i'm.
pair a contract, or to repudiate the arholt
of a debt, it certainly cannot release the
debtor from a part of it.
SIN this connection the committee has
considered the resolution offered by Mr..
MELBOURNE as to the expediency of passing
an ordinance forever %forbidding all &C.
tions for the recovery of debts or the inte-
rest thereon contracted prior to the 9th OF
April, 1867 The remedies provided by
law for enforcing q contract are taken into
consideration by the parties thereto, and,
in legal contemplation, become an essen.
tial part Of the contract. The creditor
may be willing to lend his money or sell
his property upon time when he knows
that the law enables him to make collec-
ton should his debtor be in default, who
would do neither the one nor the other il
he believed he would be deprived of his
remedy ard left at the mercy of his
debtor. Being Of opinion that the rene
dies furnished by law for the collection of
debts enter into and form a part of all
such obligations, the committee is of
opinion that to deny the parties the benefit
of these remedies would not only impair,
but utterly destroy the obligation of such
contracts. It would leave the creditor
with q right without a remedy, with a
debt recognized as valid without the means
of collecting it.. In other words. It Hnnld