8/19 The courts were crowded, and the prisons were filled with poor debtors. Stay Laws .-- Now the cry was for "stay laws." These were laws to prevent those to whom money was due from enforcing their rights. The only way that any business could be carried on was by barter. For example, a man who had a bushel of wheat that he did not want for his family would exchange it for three or four bushels of potatoes, or for four or five days of labor. In some states the legislatures passed very severe laws to compel people to receive paper money. |