A Letter to the Hon Micah Sterling

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: These objections may be divided into two classesy general and specific: general, as applying to any sJstem of bankruptcy that may be established in the United States, similar to those of other commercial countries; and specific, as relating to the law now before congress. One of the strongest general...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: These objections may be divided into two classesy general and specific: general, as applying to any sJstem of bankruptcy that may be established in the United States, similar to those of other commercial countries; and specific, as relating to the law now before congress. One of the strongest general reasons urged against this law, is the provision that excludes certain classes of the community from participating in its benefits, as debtors. It says, that farmers, graziers, drovers, dyers, bleachers, shoemakers, carpenters, ship-carpenters, butchers, tailors, bakers, schoolmasters, tanners, inn-keepers, or any artificers, whose living is substantially gotten with mechanical labour, though with some mixture of buying and selling, shall not, as such only, be capable of committing acts of bankruptcy, nor be entitled to the benefits of law as bankrupts. Now, sir, it appears to me that this is one of the most excellent provisions in the whole statute. A bankrupt law is calculated for the meridian of commerce. It is calculated for men engaged in business, where the most rigid promptitude is preserved, in the support of individual credit, where great and sudden losses are liable to occur, where great hazards are constantly incurred, where men's circumstances may suddenly change, and temptations be created to perpetrate fraud, to the injury of creditors. It is intended to give creditors protection against the loss of their debts, in case of the failure of certain classes of men constant- chapter{{Section 4ly liable to fail, and this power of the creditor is, therefore, summary and extensive. The description of persons, above enumerated, are embarked in pursuits wholly different from those which I have described. The farmer, the mechanic, and others embraced in the exemption, have cer...