The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-01-20
Memorial from the State Grange to
the Legislature of Mississippi.

The undersigned Committee appointed BY
the State Grange Of Mississippi al its last ses-
sion 10 memOrialiZe the Legislature Of said
State, beg 70 represent that owing 10
the confusion of our labor system BY the
result Of the recent war; the great expansion
OF the currency Immediately on its close.
thereby causing an infared value for every
article offered in the market; the people Of
our State, especially the farming class, com
prising the bulk of its population and wealth,
we're forced to become borrowers on a vast
scale TO supply capital necessary to start afresh
their business operations.
We would further represent that the
stagnation Of trade since September 1873,
! followed by the contraction of the currency
to specie basis, caused an unprecedented
decline in every article of produce inasmuch
/ that the debt Of our people predicated on IS or
20 cents for cotton has had to be met BY prices
not over half those figures.
The consequence has been, but few have
been success sful in paying off their obliga-
| tons. Many have been closed out and thou
sands more must be in the end unless some
measure of relief can be devised by the Legis-
| lature now in session to STAY execution in such
cases until the full revival of trade, and con-
/ sequent advance in prices will enable them TO
settle their debts with the cash
| As measure to meet the present condition
of our poodle, we would therefore respectfully
refer your Honorable Body to an old starute
TO be found in Hutchinson's Code (page 9l5)
adopted by your predecessors thirty years ago
under circumstances exactly resembling the
present. which statute was known as the
"Vauation Law" and which if re-enac ed and
amended, by making the stay of sale two
years instead o. one, will, in our opinion, do
much towards helping our people out Of their
business endorsements, and that'too without
impairing the obligation of contracts.
| We would further represent that in re-en-
acting this much needed statute at the pres
ent session, we viii but follow the example of
nearly all the States of the Union, whose poll
cy It generally is to protect the debtor, not on
| ly by Homestead exemptions which is all he
has in our State, but also by some snch prO-
visions as the above named VALUATION Law"
as for instance, Louisiana, Iowa, Kentucky.
&c, &c. While our neighbour Tennessee, has
one known thee as the Redemption Lawn
by which the debtor has two years to redeem
any piece of property sold under the hammer.
at the amount bid. with six per cent. interest,"
| before the Sheriff title can pass which law
would also suit the present condition of our
people, provided the debtor was allowed to re-
tain possession so as to be able to redeem be.
fore the expiration of two years,
We would finally represent that by enact;no
some such law as we have herein iesippnted
Your honorable body could do nothing hrlter
to revive hope and confidence in the minds of
your much suffering and respondent consljtu-
ents, which along with the improved condition
of business and the future check it might have
upon the credit system, the cause of all their
| troubles would soon clear off the individual
| Indebtedness of the State and the sooner hiring
them to that condition of prosperity driysE'
from amongst us at tho beginning of our cj vi
war in 1861, and never TO return so lcno as
such large proportion of our producing alas,
SEES have to carry load of debt beyond their
ability either to arrange or liquidatc.
Hoping this important subject will engage
your earnest attention we will ever pray.
H. 0. DIXON,
|. F. Afford,
M. LYLE,
Committee