The Homestead Exemption

We notico that the discussion of this subject haslately been revived in severa] papers; nnd the Marshall Expounder and Statesmnn have commenced battle npon it in earnest. The VVhig paper takes strong ground against it, and s dupoaod to malte it n party issue. Indeed, the opposiüon of the Whigs in the la-t Legislature wns one principal cause of the dcfeat of iIig bill then pending; and Mr. Chubb, Whig member from this county, evidenlly sought for notoriety by manifesting hostility to t. This opposition of the Whig-i to a measure soevidently humane andlibernl somewhat surprised us at first ; but a liltle reflection led us to belio.ve that the tendency of Whig moasures has ever been to favor the supposed inlerests of Capital, in proference to bcstowing zeal anc1 induMry to advnnce and elévate the Labore r. Wedo notbelieve however, tliis can be male striclly a party quejtion. For many of oll parties are in favor of the principie, while a portion of al! parties are opposed to it. For our part, wc have heon favornbly inclined to the proposnl since ils first introduction in!o the Lpgislatur? of 1842 ; nnd we are free to confess that the more wc have reflected upon it, the more disposed have we boen to regard it au one of ihe most important movementi of the ngo. But to be fully effective for good, we are sntisfied that a simple exemption to everv person of a certoin nmount of real estáte from all lcgnl procpss for ordinary dpbts, would be Inr preferable to any I labored tissue of legislation. We would not put it out of the power of the owner to sell liis homestead, orto mortgnge it, if lie be disposed to. Let him, with the consent of his wife, if he have one, do I with it as he pleases. If he have not discretion enough to preserve nnd keep it, after it is in his hands, that sad defect can liever be supplied by any acts of lcg-islation, liowever ingenious. Tbe remedy mustbe found in the moral nnd intellectual improvement of the individual. All restraints limiting the perfect conlrol of the owner over his property, will, in the end, be found unsatisfactory and injurious, and should be discnrdccl as a rcmnant of nncient legislativo folly. Let the owner keep, exchangp, barter or transfer il as he will : but let it not be taken from liim by the legal ohicanery of knaves, or the greedinessof nvaiicious speculators. Mm do not usunlly part with tlieir homes in pay ment of tlieir debts until compelled to by a pressure oL circumslances : and tliis pressure is often designedly brought about by the contrivances of those who wish to prey upon their property. One inslance will Ilústrale athousand cases perpettially oecurring. An honest, industrious man has 100 acres of land well improved. - He has prospcred in his business generally ; but himself and family have been sick, his team have died, he owcs his h i red man $100, and his erop falling a little short, he finds a balance at the store ngainst lifm of $100 more. But the merchant is urgent totrade with him slill, gets off all the goods he can upon the deblor's family, and buys up obüg.uions against him, for all of which he agrees to wait a year, provided he receive ten per cent interest. U'hen the year expires, the debtor cannot pay, ond tho merchant will wait a year longer, trust him a!l the goods he wants, and loan him $100 in monoy, provided the dubtor will pay 12 per cent. and give him amortgage on his farm. The debtor looks all a round, and sees no better way. The mortgago is given ; and when the creditor cannot make enough to satisfy him by wailing any longer, he will buy the farm at half its va'ue, or have it sold on execution, and furniih anotherperson with money to bid it off for him, thus clearing five hunclred dollars by the operation, over and above fair profit on all the goods sold he debtor. Now this is not a faney sketch. The vvhole community know that this process is constantly going on in all the villages and citirs ; and they sec thcir neighbors iluis led on, by the capitalista, step by step, to thcir ruin, with niuch the same curiosity that they see an ox led to the slaughtcr, or as the Spaniards boliold a buil baited in their amphithealres. Thoy are sorry fur the man, and among lliemselves they predict his ruin. bul then it is a feir business transaction, and the capitalis', who thus follows his victim for five or six years wilh a stcady purpose, a smooth tongue, and an eagle eye, is applamicd as "one of our shrewdest business men." - We have now in our mind an individual who has accumulated a fortune of many thousands by operations precisely of this character : and this class of men can be found of all grades and dimensions, from the loafers that hang around bar-rooms to tlie owners of splendid palaces wilh lofty pórticos, and Corinthian columns. The object of the law, then, should be not to curtail the absolute righls of property verted in the owner, but save his home, as far as possible, from the external dangers resulting from thissystem of business robbery. The amount of real estáte to be thus e.xempted should be sufficient in value to constitute a comfortnhle home for a fami]y. The sum of Five Hundred Dollars has been proposed by some, wliile others have thought One Thousand prefcrable. But a measure so general, and so new and importan!, should be procecdcd upon wilh caution, and not hazarded by too sweeping provisions. A sum erjuidistnnt belwen these lwo would probably nnswer the intentions of those who fnvor llie measui'e, as il would be lai'ge enougli to purcliase a dweiling house and land enougli for the subsislence ol its inmates All llie eflècls of such a law cannot be foreseen in ndvance ; yel, as it will affect every family more or less, lts aggregate resulls wonld be momenlous. We will enumérate a few of these consequences whioh have occurred lo us. 1. An exemplion law of this kind would secure to every family,who might become possessed of real eslate by descent, or by tlieir owninduslrv, a home Foa lifb. unIcss they choosn voluntarily lo }iart with il. WhatcouM be more desirable for the multitudes of poor propio, who rovo, during tlieir whole livcs, from place to place, ronsuming, ín thoir vanJering=, all tliat they can save from their wngps ? 2. It would add fxceedingiy Lo ihe ;oMi'ORTS of home. Tliis is so plaiii' we scarrely need ia refer to it. Thore are a vnst numbcr of families in the vil- ages and cities, who rent, for short j riods, mail linuses and garden spots. - They would repair, improve, and embcllish these, did they own fhem, nnd kncw they could malie them ihcir ! manent residence Hfe. Shubbery, fruit trees, shade tree, and ílowers would be procured, the d w e 1 1 i n g Iiousp, out j es, and felices kont in good ordfir, and all tilinga would be made as cnmfurtabie and con ven ent M the ability and i ces of the owner would permit. VVhereas, under the present systein of renting, the tenant usunlly lives in a state of "don'tcareo-tiveness," which is exceedingl_v destructive to properfy. What is it to him that the ga'e is off the hinges, and the cattle and hogs have entered, and j aro destroying aM they can? He hasj paid bis rent, and wil] remove to-morrow or next weck, and the landlurd may i look after bis own property. And if the] tenant sbould bealiltle short of firewoodi to last lili lie removes, liow handy it ! comes to pul) a board or two from the fence, or cut up a spare post or stick of t:mbrr ! The same waleful process may be seen on most rentfid farms, ai woll ai in the villnges. Every owner of rented propertr understnnds, to hs los=, the pro vnlence of praofices of tliis kinu. 3. A law of tl. is kind would add preeminently to the hapfiness and virtue of social and domo.-tic life. Men of families, on an average, spend full lico-lhirds of thoir who!e livos nt home ; and their wives and cbildren a ttill greatcr tion. A very Inrge shaie of the best pur. j poses andfeelings of human nature take their rise amidst its pursuits and enjoyments. The pleasures of friendship, of hospitality, of the pnrental and filial relations, an;l of connubial !ove, tlicre fin 1 their ol.jects and location : and whniever, therefure, tends to their perrmnency and inercase by makiag home deligtttful, nasi proportionately tend to niake bette r wives, husbands, and ehildren, and better neighbors and citizens. On the other hand, wlien you find a person who has no home, and who cares not forone, but roves witii his family front place to ;lace, deper.ding on preoarious employment for a scanty subsistence, you will find one who is of little value to society, aiid one who may, ; no'. improbably, in his recklessness ofj living, becoine ils curse inslead of its blessing. 4. Ií would prove the highest possible stimulus to the accumulaüon of wealih in a communily, by operaling as an incentive ti) induslry and frugality upon every tainily, fexcept those in opulent circumst anees,) and upon every member of the family. The attaimnent ot a comfortable and permanent homeof thkir owx s now one oí' the most poweríul motives to e.ertion in the laboring classes. For this multitudes of tliem toi] early and late. - The assurance that, wben onc attained, it would be their's for life, would be an ad ditional spur to induslry and economy. Resides, every person has many odd hour.s nnd half hours of leisure while he is nround home ; and when he resides on his own premises, he vil] be inclined to spend them in making repairs and impiovements for the convenience and benefit of himself and family. The aggregate inoney valué of these improvements (to say nothing of the happiness they conIcr) in a y car is considerable ; in a lifetime. large ; and in a whole community, in the course of a generation, they would add much lo its wealth. Whereas under the routing system, as we have before remarked, the tendenr.y of it is to decay and destniction : and so uniform is this tendency, that, in passing through the streels of a village,you can teil from their appearance, almost with certainty, which houses are occupied by the owners, and which are rented. 5. An exemption law of this kind would secure to every family the means of a comfortable subsistence, independentlyof all other sourcesof support. A very small piece of land, made very rich, and highly cultivated, will support a fami ly in all the comforts of life. The immense productive power of a perfectly cukivated acre is not even conceived by those who get a scanty subsistonce by running over and running out 160 acres of land. 'Even two acres, properly cultivated, would furnisli a family wilh all tho provisions they could consume. A dozen fruit trees, in full bearing, Would provide abundance of fruit ; while the two acres would produce a hundred bushels of wheat, or 250 of corn, or 1,500 of potatoes, and oihcr crops in proportion. But an exemption of $750 would usually give much more land to a family ; ar.d when it was theirá for !iTe, nothing would prevent their oblaining abundance Trom it, except idleness, mismanagemer.t, or viee. Tho vvhole country, as it becnme more and more densely popüiated, would be filled wilh these homesteads, in the bighest state of productivo cultivntiorf 6. It would strike a bíow at the system of excessíve ci'êdits, now so much in use in the community, and which furnishes ilie greatest shnre of nliment to the vast army of lawyers, juilges, constables, sheriffs, chancery officers, &c, who live nnd move and have their being through the pcal rollection ofdebts. Their heaviest and mosl lucrative fees are dérived f rom processes e'onnëcfed with land. - Henee the opposilion nf almost llie whole of Ihe'sfi rlasses to lhe movement. They forésee, in its success, a diminulion, to a considerable e.xlent, of thse perquisites and emolumpnts of office, by which they now gaiher the materials of a living, often kvxuriou?, from the liard earned industiy of the producfive classes.7. But while it would greatiy curtail business speculaiions by partially destroying the principa! basis on which they ard made. (the seizure of real eslate,) the fa cilities of the poor man for obtaining eredits for a small amount, would be rather increaed than diminished. The owner of a homestead, i f a man of good cliarac-' ter, would be Irusled by the nierchant for fifty or fi hundred dolhrs, among other reasons, becatfse he was its owner, and had, fhereiore, in his hands, the nc'ual value with which the debt could at any time be paid, and which no otlier crëditor could lake from him. Henee, of the two requisitos necessiry to the pnymenl of debt-!, abt'lity and inclination, a homestead" would tend to secure tbr first by culling oiF all compulsory proecss on the part of" other creditors ; wherens now, one creditor, who would otoerwise be disposed to wait, oftpn seizes a!l he canf lest il shouli be sized by the others.8. It would mensurably put an end to thal system of business robbery by wliich? capítalists oftni lay plans for gelting the real estáte of others i:'to their own hands at less ban its va'nff, by urging them to j contract debis, bi-ying obligntions against tlicm, &c, in the mnnnerwe have before1 dpscribed. When Lhe farm1 could nö' longer be tnkpn, the merclnnt wouíd be much mare disposod lo cut short than by pxtend his credítS. 9. A nother and important consequence' nf this law, would be the prevention of thal vast accumulation of landori propbrty in the banu's of a few capitalisls, which prevails so extensively in Europe, and to1 whicli tliere is an evident tendency amnng us, alihough developrd as yet in a lessdegree. It bas been fuiind by experiencelbsl land grows valuable ín proportion ris the population augmen'.s ƒ nñj where tliere are several hundred persons toench square mile, as in England, and capital is abundant, it can be invested in lands more profitably than in any other' way. Henee lhe process now going on in that country, by whkh the small farm are disappea-'ing.being extensively bought up for sneculation by the large real estáte owners. Were lhe populatioft twice as numerous, the profits on real ettaie would be still larger, because a g reate r nuuiber of persons would be more completely 6ependent on the mercy of a few landlordsi The disastrousresultof this state of things is seen in lreland, which is said fo be owned by only 10,000 persons, althongh lhe island contains a population ot eight millions. Irelar.d is starving, and probably w il 1 long remain so, cbiefly from this cause ; for thore are ocres enough in the island, and industry enough in the people to provide themelves nll the necessaries of life. This they would readily do, if the laborers possessed the fee of the soil. The e.emption of a homestead, of sufRcient area for the support of a family, would forever prevent such a state of things among us, while it would present to every man of family the highest possible inducements to acquirean interest in the soil.