Chap. VI ]

THE MERCANTILE PROFESSION.

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is the source of much of the calamity and misconduct which at-tend an insolvency. It is confessed and regretted too late.

But when the struggle is at an end, when the failure is admittedand announced, — in this state of his affairs, what will a just andconscientious man believe to be his duty ? The true answer tothis question will present itself, without hesitation, to an ingenuousmind, uncorrupted by sophistical opinions, and untrammelled bycorrupt customs. The answer must be, “ I will surrender to mycreditors my property, of every description, (for in truth it istheirs,) to be distributed among them in proportion to their re-spective debts, untrammelled by any conditions for my ownadvantage, unimpaired by any disposition or incumbrance madewith a view to my insolvency ; and I will depend upon their lib-erality and my own industry, guarded by more caution and econ-omy, for my future fortune and support.” Such a man wouldcome again into business entitled to public confidence, and hewould not fail to receive it ; he would come chastened and in-structed in the school of misfortune, and, by the upright prudenceof his second course, would redeem the errors of the first. Howwidely different the course generally taken is from this, hasalready been more than intimated.

The practice, in disposing of the effects of a bankrupt merchant,by which almost always the greater part, and sometimes his en-tire property, is given to preferred creditors , so called, amongwhom endorsers usually take precedence, has been reprobated bymany good men, and, it is believed, cannot be justified on anyprinciple of right or good conscience. What is the superiorclaim of an endorser to indemnity and payment ? He was fullyaware of the hazard when he made the engagement; it was asmuch an ordinary risk of trade as the sale of merchandise. Hetook the risk upon himself, without asking any other security thanthe solvency and good faith of the drawer. The vendor of goodsdoes the same. On this security, the one gives his name, andthe other his property ; the latter expects nothing but the paymentof his debt, while, in nine cases out of ten, the former receivesthe like favor in exchange for his own. And yet this endorser isto be preferred to the man who has delivered his goods, his labor,or his money, on the faith, probably, of the false credit, of the