Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-08
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

BANKRUPT ACT.-There are tradesmen in
New York who advocate the repeal Of the
bankrupt act The very rich are of this num-
ber-that class whose boundless wealth renders
their own bankruptcy almost impossible. and
whose passion for gain is only stimulated by
its food and drink. A. T. Stewart and Van
derbilt and Clafin inveigh bitterly against the
bankrupt act In fact. there is danger that
the country may contain a little property
which does not belong to either Of the dozen
golden calves Of New York, whom we are all
| required to fall down and worship. Stewart
publishes spasmodically the names of all per-
sons who paid him off in bankrupt notices. If
he would print the names Of all whom he has
crushed and beggared, because they OBJ
structed his PROCESS to wealth, the two lists
might, each, counteract the effect of the other,
and Stewart would learn that while there are
those who have caused him losses, he has be-
gotten, by monopolizing gold the hopeless
ruin and utter restitution of multitudes. The
bankrupt act has now and then wrought in
justice; but, like the statute of limitations,
another form of the same thing, its benefcience
outweighs the evil it has begotten. 1t has in
fused new life and energy into the South, and
absolutely wrought thorough transformations
in the energies and habits Of communities and
individuals, once paralyzed by debt. There
are notifications which the bankrupt act
should undergo, and. America, like England,
should perfect system of laws conceived in
wisdom, and when honestly administered,
the most benefcient scheme of legislation de-
vised since the cessation of hostilities. 1t is
al 81
the consciousness Of that power and mastery
which creditor exerts over debtor. The
debtor class are the slave class of community,
and Stewart clings to his white negroes with
marvellous tenacity. He thinks he should own
them forever, and spasmodically publishes his
"bill of sale" and evidences of title. We be-
lieye the operation of the bankrupt act in
some shape should be continued indefinitely.
NEED FOR TAXATION. Not long ago the vir-
tuous Treasury Department forced every
liquor dealer in America to buy q peculiar
book for three or four prices, and thus stuffed
the pockets of some Eastern ring or sharper
with millions of dollars. If private citizen
in one of these States had perpetrated such an
outrage, Brownlow and Brute Butler would
have howled week, and the whole South
would be forced through another infamous,
lawless process Of malignant, perjury-begotten
reconstruction. The book is now pronounced
worthless and the Government has gone into
a paper speculation. refusing to use any unless
it have peculiar water marks. This operation
in the paper market will run its course, some
brother-in-law will be enriched, and then
there will be Matched new humbus by which |
taxpayers must be plundered. Thus we move
onward, each dollar accounted for by the !
Treasury costing taxpayers two dollars, until |
beggery is the inevitable lat of the many, and
fortunes like that Of Lucullus, the plundering
Asian. are accumulated BY the brother's-iu- |
law. Corhin's and Dents. of the polluted Gov
eminent.