Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-09-01
Governor Sprague,s Defiance.
Providence Journal.

The proceedings at Canonchet are
disgrace to the State. That property was
conveyed, with all their other property,
by insolvent debtors for the benefit of
their creditors. If there was any fraud
or collision in the cOnveyance-and al
though this, with almost everything
else, has been charged, there has been no
proof of 1.-THE fraud was on the part of
the assignors, for their own benefit,
against the rights of their creditors, and
they are estopped from taking advantage
Of their own wrong. The validity of the
conveyance has been affirmed by the
court, and the property has been sold,
under the direction of the court. One of
the former owners, who had no more in-
terest in the estate than he had in the
Narragansett Hotel, or in the
First Baptist Meeting House for
babe the auctioneer, and the
company who came with him, to bid on
the property, from entering the grounds,
impeded the pathway, and, by show of
arms, prevented their approach. The
sale went on, as advertised, the only
mistake being that more complete en-
trance was not made, in spite of the lille
gal resistance. But, in mitigation of
this, it may be said that peaceful pur-
chasers might not have been inclined to
run the risk of being shot by an infu.
rated mailman, in their desire to bid for
the property, and the competition might
have been reduced. And now the sale
having been completed, the trustee of the
estate and the purchaser are prevented,
by the same show OF violence, from
entering the grounds, for the purpose
of completing the formal delivery. A
defiant flag floats from one of the tow
ers, armed sentinels maintain watch,
and armed men hold guard, and the
legal possessor of the property is warned
that he SETS foot on his estate at the
peril of his life And this proceeding,
which seems like the violent resistance
made by debtors to the just claims of
creditors in Ireland in the early part of
the last century, takes place in the or
derby, law abiding State of Rhode
Island. If it be not put down at once
by the strong arm of the law, these
terms are no longer applicable to the
State.
The whole affair is not only disgrace
to the State, not only an insult to the
majesty of the law, but an impairment
of the common rights of property and
an invasion of its security. If this man
may, with force, resist the just rights of
his creditors aud the mandate of the
court, any ether man may follow his ex
ample, and there will remain no mode
for the collection of debts 1t was bad
enough when the executive officers of the
law refused, from fear or from
sympathy. to serve a process in
the same place, for the recov-
cry of a woman's clothes and her
children's, illegally withheld from her.
The connivance at that outrage natu-
rally led to this, and the connivance at
this will lead to other, if not greater
ones. 1t should not be permitted to go
a step farther, or to continue day Ion
ger. Every citizen is interested in the
maintenance of the law, and in the
enforcement of the rights of property.
If the civil authority is insufficient to
secure these, then its military power
should be evoked, and it should be made
known that the law is supreme, and that
private war against them shall not be
permitted