SOLON ROBINSON, 1847 101 



Free Homesteads. 



[Indianapolis Indiana State Sentinel (triweekly), December 14, 



1847'] 



[December 14?, 1847] 



To the Editors of the Sentinel : 



The inquiry has often been made — "Will not the Legis- 

 lature, at the present session, enact a law exempting the 

 homestead of every family of two or more persons, from 

 execution and sale for any debt or obligation thereafter 

 contracted?" 



This question is certainly one of vast importance to the 

 people of this State, and it is hoped that the Legislature 

 will take it under consideration at an early day of the 

 session. 



Several of the older States have laws on this subject, 

 and the great wonder is, that all of the States have not 

 had laws in existence on this subject long ago. But it 

 seems that we "hasten slowly" in any great improvement 

 in legislative policy. It requires centuries to make a 

 single important improvement — a single advance; and 

 when it is made, men think strange why it were not 

 attained at once. 



In ages gone by, it was thought by some nations, that 

 the misfortunes of a debtor should subject him to severe 

 punishment, to imprisonment, to slavery, to even death 

 itself. Not only this, but the laws of some governments, 

 in the days of their barbarity and savage inhumanity, 

 even went so far as to subject the wife and children of 

 the debtor to perpetual servitude and slavery. But such 



after arriving at their destination. 6. If it is absurd to sell 196 

 lbs. of flour in a package, it may be altered to packages of 50, 100, 

 or 200 lbs. barrel-shaped, equally as if squared. 7. Boxes of the 

 same capacity and weight as barrels are vastly weaker. 8. Thie 

 breakage and waste in consequence, and the extra expense of the 

 interminable I'oUing necessai-y from the mill to the bakery, would 

 much increase expense of transpoi'tation. We can roll two barrels 

 with more facility than one square box." 



^ Reprinted in Valparaiso Western Ranger, December 22, 1847. 



