The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-01-21

lators and executive officers can you
hope for? Is vice and ignorance to
elect your judges? Are the represen-
tatives Of vice and ignorance to elect
your legislators? If so, what securi-
tyshave you for the rights OF life,
liberty and property? I, therefore,
in, view OF the responsibility before
us, and in all probability in >antago.
nism to the sentiments of avery large
majority of this body, recommend
earnestly, that in framing that feature
of the Constitution comforting the
elective franchise, you establish an
educational qualification for the
voter, but-not being able to read OF
write--that you establish property
qualification.
Second. If you desire that this
Convention should commend itself to
the favorable consideration of the
people of the State, white and color
ed, recommend that you adopt in
the Constitution provision for a
Liberal homestead law-that you make
it applicable tot all those who now
own a homestead, and nrnteot them
against antecedent debts. The dis
asters resulting from the war, the
abolition of slavery, and, thereby,
the wiping out of the fortunes of
very many of those who were wealthy
prior to the war, rs matter of hu-
manity, demands that you should
protect them as to the past by q
liberal homestead law, and securing
that home to its owner in the future.
The homestead law which guarantees
to q family fifty dollars, or 100 acres
in the country, and a town lot or
house in the city, is not only hui
name, but patriotic. In the country,
where the. head of family knows
that his homestead is protected, he
goes to work to beautify and adorn
the same. He plants his orchard and
his vineyard. He erects his build
ings, decorates his dwelling, and
makes all of his surroundings COM
Portable, and invites happiness and
content to his hearth.
Perhaps one of the greatest trou-
bles in american legislation has been
in not protecting the homestead. 1t
has made the American people almost
AS great wanderers as the Arabs.
When u father planted an orchard or
o vineyard, he had no assurance that,
five years thereafter, the result of his
care and labor would not pass into
the hands of strangers. Grant, there
fore, @ liberal homestead law, pro-
viding against past and future debts,
30 that the white man who has his
home now, and the black man who
may secure q home by industry and
economy, hereafter, can feel that it
is secured to him, and you will find,
not only an increase in the pros
perity and happiness of the State,
but you will stimulate a patriotism
which has not heretofore existed.
Wherever you identify man and his
household with the soil upon which
he lives, you make that man,
if from no higher considerations of
love of country. defender of the
country when it is assailed, because
the assault is upon his individual
household.
Third. l urge you to provide for
the abolishment of imprisonment for
debt. [ have always considered the
incarceration of a. human being for
debt as senseless and cruel, except in
cases of positive fraud. 1t is advo-
Gated that imprisonment for debt is
right. for the purpose of assuring
creditors in their demands, and that
it curtails the capacity of an indi-
vidual to secure credit, where this
right is denied. In these views I do
not concur. To be perfectly frank
with you, L think that the universal
credit extended to or claimed by a
community is q great misfortune to
that: community, and if the home
stead and exemption law, and the
abolition of imprisonment for debt
will reduce the temptation to men to
ask credit, and curtail the disposition
of those who hold funds or goods to
extend credit, it will be blessing to
our people. To the farming interest
especially, the credit system is q
curse, and the sooner that and all
other interests, except perhaps the
mercantile interest, dispense with it,
the better will it be for the general
prosperity of the State.
Fourth. It is very important that
this body should adopt some ordi-
nance to provide relief TO debtors
prior to the war. The temporary
orders of the Military Commandani
extend to debts contracted during the
war. All debts now existing, where
the consideration is for the purchase
OF slaves, should be absolutely wiped
out by the Convention. if thnae