Samuel Freeman Miller

“ If a debt secured by a mortgage raises, as it unquestionably does when a suit is brought to foreclose it, an interest adverse to the mortgagor, or to some purchaser from him of the equity of redemption, it would be a strange construction which requires the assignee to bring his foreclosure suit to enforce a debt, well secured, within the two years, while as to a simple note, unsecured, he can sue at any time, unless barred by the statute of the state. ”

“ Without searching the record for the precise date at which Jenkins became assignee of Walker, and as such had authority to assert his rights, it is conceded that it was more than two years prior to any movement of his to bring the decree of the circuit court of Cook county before the appellate court. The question was raised in the argument of the case, in the supreme court of Illinois whether the writ of error sued out by Jenkins from the court of appeals was the beginning of a suit, or was so far a mere continuance of the former suit that the language of the act of congress did not apply. ”

“ It is asserted by appellants that this limitation can have no application to a case where an assignee is suing to recover on a simple debt or other money obligation, and as the sentence stands in this section there is plausibility in the argument.
It is, however, true, in one sense, that debts are property, and this sense of the word is coming more into use in legislation every day. ”