Debts

“ If a state is poor, and people owe more money than can be procured, a legislature may perhaps go so far as to suspend the collection of debts; or to ordain that a certain part only of the debts shall be recoverable immediately, and the payment of the remainder suspended. This may ease the debtors; but can be justified in extreme cases only, when the people are generally and greatly involved.
[pg 042] A people should not generally be in debt: The consumers of goods should not get credit. Heavy and numerous debts are great evils to a state. ”

“ Let it not be boasted that nine millions are paid, when a new debt of seven millions appears to be contracted; nothing is more easy than to clear debts by borrowing, or to borrow when a nation is mortgaged for the payment. ”

“ I have heard sometimes of men who, when they have found themselves in financial difficulties, have called their creditors together, and have said to them, “If you will but give me time, I will pay you all in full”; and from time to time we read in our newspapers of honourable men discharging with interest debts they had incurred years before. ”

“ It consists partly in a debt which bears, or is supposed to bear, no interest, and which resembles the debts that a private man contracts upon account, and partly in a debt which bears interest, and which resembles what a private man contracts upon his bill or promissory note. ”

“ Who lendeth nothing is an ugly and wicked creature, and an accursed imp of the infernal Old Nick. And there is made—what? Debts. A thing most precious and dainty, of great use and antiquity. Debts, I say, surmounting the number of syllables which may result from the combinations of all the consonants, with each of the vowels heretofore projected, reckoned, and calculated by the noble Xenocrates. To judge of the perfection of debtors by the numerosity of their creditors is the readiest way for entering into the mysteries of practical arithmetic. ”

“ When you shall return to your Country with a good Character, you cannot fail of getting into some Business, that will in time enable you to pay all your Debts. In that Case, when you meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. ”

“ Those, Richard, are called debts of honour, and must be paid in full to your creditor, however wealthy he may be, even though your servants and tradesmen should be cheated out of their hard-earned and perhaps much-needed money altogether. ”

“ The value of debts to be repaid to the King or to any man shall be reasonably determined by the debtor's neighbors and not by strangers. A debtors' plough cattle or sheep cannot be taken to satisfy a debt. ”

“ But probably nine-tenths of all our debts are those between firm and firm or between man and man in the form of notes, bills of exchange, wage bills and open accounts, the amount of which is incalculable. ”

“ Debts place the whole burden on producers of the future. They [191] relieve those who hold the wealth now, but are a draft upon those who make the wealth that is to be.
An individual incurring debt places a mortgage upon his productions; by a pledge of future production he relieves himself of the strain of the present.
A family incurs debt; a part of the members of the house are strong and capable of productive labor, and a part are not; the whole burden of the payment comes upon the productive members of the home. ”

“ In all cases of mutual debts or mutual credits between the estate of a bankrupt and a creditor, the account shall be stated and one debt shall be set-off against the other and the balance only shall be allowed or paid. ”

“ And in the next place for payment of the public Debts and Damages of the Kingdom; and that to be performed, First, to such Persons whose Debts or Damages (upon the public Account) are great, and their Estates small, so as they are thereby reduced to difficulty of Subsistence: In order to all which, and to the fourth Particular last preceding, we shall speedily offer some further Particulars (in the nature of Rules) which we hope will be of good use towards public Satisfaction. ”

“ As it is the Misfortune of some of us to be in Debt, and we, for the publick Peace, are willing to deprive ourselves of several advantages we formerly enjoy’d, we pray that care may be taken that our Creditors may not be two pressing, and we promise as soon as we can, we will honestly pay our just Debts. ”

“ This method of reducing the burden. of a debt is evidently no injustice to the creditors of a government, when used in a legitimate way. A state is at liberty at any time to pay off its debts, and, if it can borrow at 3% to pay off a 6% debt, it may with perfect justice offer its creditors the option of payment of the principal or of holding it at a reduced interest. ”

“ A man is said to be in debt, whether he owes gold pieces or leather marked with a state stamp, such as the Lacedaemonians used, which passes for coined money. Pay your debts in that kind in which you incurred them. ”

“ Richard.
Call your creditors together, and offer them so much per cent.
John.
Never.
Lionnette (who enters during these last words) .
Never! If we have a sum larger than or equal to our debts, we must pay them fully; if we have only a smaller amount, we must give it to them on account, and look for means to procure the remainder; if we are not able to do it, then we have robbed all these confiding tradesmen, and there is but one thing left for my husband and me to do, that is, to shut ourselves up in a room hermetically sealed, set light to a pan of charcoal, and die together. ”

“ It is deemed unconscionable that the heirs or devisees should reap the fruits of the purchaser's payment of money, appropriated to the discharge of debts, which were a charge on the lands, and at the same time to recover the lands. ”

“ But for these last I am confident my debts might be paid, leaving me Monticello and the Bedford estate; but where there are no bidders, property, however great, is no resource for the payment of debts; all may go for little or nothing. ”

“ Now and then it has been dealt with piecemeal, when some particular class of creditors has become too pressing, but it is more than probable that the piece got rid of has been more or less rapidly replaced by fresh liabilities occasioned by budgetary deficits, or by the mere accumulation of interest on debts allowed to run on. ”

“ If you would be discharged from all the debts you owe to God and man, the debts you have incurred by wilfully transgressing law,
13. You must pass by the debts of every man; for as you deal with other men your God will deal with you. ”

“ It disappears from our sight, and those who have handled the most money, appear to be in the greatest distress for the means of paying their just debts! Perhaps there are exceptions to my general rule, but the exception proves the general rule to be a correct one. ”

“ Although some portion of those debts has been liquidated and the national bonds have been refunded at lower rates of interest, yet we all know that in this age all municipal and corporate debts, if not national debts, are practically perpetual. ”

“ Sec. 2, If a man dies, leaving no will to show the disposal of his property, and leaves a widow and children, one-fourth of his property shall be set aside for the payment of his debts. Should the property so set aside be insufficient to pay all his debts in full, it shall be divided among his creditors pro rata, which pro rata payment shall be received by his creditors in full satisfaction of all claims and demands whatever. ”

“ The unfortunate use by some countries of a paper money, which is indeed a form of debt, gives some plausibility to the notion that Money is a representative of Debt; and perhaps the fact that Money is often used to pay debts previously contracted, and that debts are almost always contracted in the terms of Money, may give some additional plausibility to this view ”

“ We should remember that this country is now almost crushed into the very earth with its accumulated burden of public debt, of State debts, of county debts, of city debts, of township debts, of individual debts. ”

“ Their memories are exceedingly good respecting the debts owing to them, but with regard to the debts they owe they have, or pretend to have, very bad memories—it is for the creditor to keep in mind the debts owing to him, and to bring the proofs at the proper time. ”

“ To authorize a writ of extent, however, the debt must be matter of record in the king's exchequer. The 33 Hen. VIII. c. 39, § 50, made all specialty debts due to the king of the same force and effect as debts by statute staple, thus giving to such debts the effect of debts of record. ”

“ Debts contracted by loans or otherwise became liens upon the works, and, in some instances, the faith of the city as surety or guarantor was pledged for the payment of the interest and ultimate payment of the principal. ”

“ Those who established it an hundred years ago anticipated the resources of those who were to live an hundred years after; for the people of the present day have to pay the interest of the debts contracted at that time, and all debts contracted since. ”

“ Debts Which Have Priority.-a The court shall order the trustee to pay all taxes legally due and owing by the bankrupt to the United States, State, county, district, or municipality in advance of the payment of dividends to creditors * * *. b The debts to have priority * * * and to be paid in full out of bankrupt estates, and the order of payment shall be ( (1) costs of preserving the estate (2) certain filing fees (3) administration expenses including attorneys' fees (4) wages as specified (5) debts entitled to priority under state or federal laws. ”

“ We would not be understood as contravening the general principle, so distinctly announced by the supreme court of Illinois, that a debtor, even when financially embarrassed, may in good faith compromise his liabilities, sell or transfer property in payment of debts, or mortgage or pledge it as security for debts, or create a lien upon it by means even of a judgment confessed in favor of his creditor. ”

“ Michael's day, or on the day after the close of Easter, and that thou hast there with thee whatever thou owest of the farm of former years or of this year, and these debts mentioned here by name: from that man 10 marks, for that reason, and so on." Moreover, when all the debts which are contained in the greater yearly roll, with their causes, have thus been marked down there in order, the lesser rolls, those of the itinerant justices, are brought forth; from these are taken what things are, by their labour and industry, owing to the lord king in the different counties ”

“ One man thinks justice consists in paying debts, and has no measure in his abhorrence of another who is very remiss in this duty and makes the creditor wait tediously. But that second man has his own way of looking at things; asks himself which debt must I pay first, the debt to the rich, or the debt to the poor? the debt of money, or the debt of thought to mankind, of genius to nature? For you, O broker, there is no other principle but arithmetic. For me, commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred; ”

“ It was evident from the general tone of the whole party, that they had come to regard insolvency as the normal state of mankind, and the payment of debts as a disease that occasionally broke out. ”

“ And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; ”

“ Executors and administrators of estates of deceased persons must pay the debts of the deceased person rather than waste or convert the goods and chattels to their own use. Creditors may recover their debts from heirs or devisees of the will of a debtor. ”

“ Notwithstanding all the care a person may take, debts now-a-days are like children, begot with pleasure, but brought forth with pain. ”

“ for "at the working man's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter." Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for "industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them." ”

“ And here a most heinous charge is made, that the nation has been burdened with unnecessary expenses, for the sole purpose of preventing the discharge of our debts and the abolition of taxes. ”

“ Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think they get their money's worth, except for these. ”

“ We think also that if no such order is made when the receiver is appointed, and it appears in the progress of the cause that bonded interest has been paid, additional equipment provided, or lasting and valuable improvements made out of earnings which ought in equity to have been employed to keep down debts for labor, supplies, and the like, it is within the power of the court to use the income from the receivership to discharge obligations which, but for the diversion of funds, would have been paid in the ordinary course of business. ”

“ The better way, in my opinion, is to keep clear of debt; whether times are prosperous or tight, keep clear of debt if possible.
Some will run into debt to gratify pride, and they will really rob themselves and their creditors just to keep up with this fanciful thing called fashion. ”