The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-08-19
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

In this State, as well as in many 9th
crs, laws forcing a man to comply with
his financial and pecuniary obligations
are entirely too lax and Ineffective. In
fact our courts, which are supposed to
subserve und protect the rights OF the
creditor as against the dishonest debtor,
are not unfreqnently made the doorway
to fraud and robbery, which falls short OF
absolute stealing in name only. How of
ten do we hear of unprincipled and dis
honest men acquiring fortunes through
corrupt means p of men entaring oonl-
mercial pursuits with the sole object to
beat their creditors
Some INSCRIPTIONS merchants. knowing
themselves to be hopelessly lnsolyent,
will enter the markets of the world buy
all the goods they can on credit, and as
soon as they are received put them be-
| yond the legal reach of the creditor, and
! then tell him to whistle for his money
| With pocket full of i'll gotten gains,
they will go about their creditors as n!l-
concerned as if they justly owned the en-
| tire world and the fuilness thereof
| Wrongs of this character have been up
held and legalized by the courts so often
that many persons, not having q very
lofty sense of honor, have begun to look
upon them as perfectly legitimate. Even
| lawyers, otherwise honorable and high
toned, while they may not have advised,
certainly have aided and abetted rascally
clients in planning and devising schemes
by which they could beat Eve might say
steal from) their trusting creditors, thus
making themselves the aiders and abet-
tiers of downright robbery and absolute
swindling.
/ This evil practice, under the apparent
sanction of law, has been Carried on to
such an unlimited extent in commercial
circles as to almost totally wreck conf
dence and trust in the stability and hon
est of the followers of commercial pur-
suits. A nonresident wholesale dealer
may to-day deliver large bill of goods
TO a dealer in this State, and tomorrow
these same goods may be seized to salts
fly the fictitious claim of pretended
creditor. In order to save himself, it de-
wolves upon the real creditor to show to a
courts satisfaction the Righteousness of
|
latter usually stands in with the debtor,
this is a very difficult thing to establish
by conclusive proof.
i The too frequent attempt on the part of
the debtor to swindle his creditor leads to
manifold evils, 1t encourages profligacy
and extravaganza. 1t places premium
on idleness and vice. 1t destroys conf
dence and integrity IN contracts and
Il ,l,,,. l,,,%,
city legalizes robbery and swndling,
closely akin to theft. 1t begets misrepre-
sentation and perjury.
We have enumerated a few of the evils
growing out of the increasing disposition
of the debtor class to acquire the owner
ship of goods and wealth without giving
III return a fair and legitimate compensu-
tion therefor; but the question that now
c0ntrOnts us is how to remedy, OF rather
prevent, these evils.
If a debtorIhas no property that writ
of tieri facias can touch, certainly he can
not be made to pay his debts. But there
is a way to deter him from contracting
obligations which he knows he cannot
meet and never intends to pay; and that
is by prescribing Imprisonment for debt.
OF course if an honest man is unfortunate
and loses his all, which is often the case
TINS preventing him from meeting just
obligations, he should not then be made
to suffer the penalty of Imprisonment for
his misfortunes. But the law of impris-
onment should be applied only to swind-
ling debtors, who could settle their obi
cations if they were only so disposed; and
the right to enforce it should be left to
the discretion of the creditor. In case Of
failure to pay his obligations, it should
devolve upon the debtor to show that he
has no money or property to pay with,
and when this fact is established to the
satisfaction of judicial tribunals, the
del tor should then receive immunity fInm
/ imprisonment. This provision would pre-
vent a hard hearted and vInthctiye credi-
tor from intlicting nndeserved punisL-
ment upon his unfortunate debtor; and at
the same time the iutents and purposes
Of the law would be subserved-that of
preventing DISHONEST AMI rascally men
from simply putting their property be
yend the reach eff the law solely for the
purpose Of preventing honest creditors
from collecting their clams.-[ Farmer
vile Gazette.
Consumption Cured.