COXSTITUTION AND LAWS. 351 



In many ways the debtor is fenced about, so that the laws seem 

 to have been devised by men who had had experience in swind- 

 ling creditors, and wished to secure themselves against trouble 

 in the future. Every precaution is taken against the creditor, 

 a^ though he were a public enemy ; while the men who do 

 not pay their debts are treated as though they Avere the soul 

 of the state, and as though their mode of doing business should 

 be encouraged at all costs. When a man gets in debt, he can 

 get out again without difficulty. Our insolvent law provides 

 that he has only to petition a court for release, set forth his 

 debts and assets, swear that he cannot pay his debts and give 

 up his assets. Unless the creditors can then prove that he 

 has committed fraud, either in contracting the debts or in con- 

 cealing his property from his creditors, he is entitled to be 

 released. He may go through this process repeatedly ; and 

 many cases have occurred of two discharges in insolvency 

 granted to one person wdthin two years. The favor shown by 

 our laws to debtors, is, I think, a grave error, and contributes 

 much to establish a dishonest tone in general society, and to 

 encourage dishonest actions. On every side can be seen men 

 who have swindled creditors out of large amounts of money, 

 and are themselves now living in extravagant, or at least 

 luxurious style. Such laws encourage habits of rash specula- 

 tion, with the expectation that riches will come with success, 

 and no discredit or loss to any one save creditors, with failure. 

 Honest and prudent men suffer, business is thrown into disor- 

 der, and reckless adventurers and knaves get positions and in- 

 fluence which they never should have. 



The property owned by either the husband or wife before 

 marriage, and by gift, bequest, or inheritance after marriage, 

 belongs to each separately ; and the property acquired after 

 marriage, by other means than gift, bequest, or inheritance, is 

 common property belonging in equal shares to both. The 

 husband, however, has sole control of it. The wife has no 

 right of dower, and the husband has sole control of the com- 

 mon property, and may sell, without the consent of the wife, 



