i need to find a new tangent
Dakota Exemption Laws. Among the questions now agitating the press and people of Dakota, none is of more importance than that of our statutes regarding exemption from execution for debt. As everybody knows, under the present law there is practically no such thing as collection of debt by legal process. In other States we hear Dakota spoken of as the great asylum for defaulting debtors; and so marked are the evils of this system that capital is wary in taking risks in this Territory, and credit correspondingly difficult to obtain. Instances are on record of the removal of heavy capital from Dakota, for the reason that the losses incurred because of exemption were so numerous as to destroy the profits of business.

But the phase of this evil which has brought it into present prominence is the handle which is made of it by the congressional opponents to Dakota's division and admission. The Democratic leader of the opposition urges the exemption laws as sufficient reason for refusing to create a sovereign State whose statute books should bear such laws, as it would then be forever beyond the power of congress to interfere. As far as he and his followers are concerned, the subterfuge is pitifully thin, and the real animus of their opposition lies in the fact that the new state would be Republican; but this does not let us out. By our laws we place in the enemy's hands a powerful weapon, one against which we have no adequate defense. The fact that his armor may be full of holes makes it all the more important that our won should be flawless.

The Republican opposition came from the Yankton county bonds, the settlement of which has been satisfactorily provided for; and the only ostensible ground of opposition now is the exemption law grievance. Let our legislature, now in session, hasten to amend this law, striking from the enemy's hands their only remaining weapon. When that is down we shall see if the opposition dare show its hand and avow its real purpose -- simply to prevent the addition of three to the Republican strength in congress and the electoral college.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:04 PM