e 
CONSTITUTION 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, 
as though he were a public enemy; while the men who do, 
not pay “their debts are treated as though they were 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 within 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 richés 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, 
