Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1884 — Contesting Wills. [ARTICLE]

Contesting Wills.

Unless it is quite manifest that the heirs have been treated in a manner defiant of equity and justice they seldom contest a will. When the hand of the dead has been laid too heavily on the living public sentiment is in favor of releasing the merciless grip. The will is broken and the property equally distributed among the heirs. This fact is full of significance. It indicates that the wishes of deceased persons do not command the respect that they once did; that the will, when not based upon an equal distribution of property, has, in fact, become a decadent institution. Democracy, with its concomitant of equality, cannot tolerate anything savoring of entailment and primogeniture. It permits people to accumulate large fortunes, but not to hand them down intact to the eldest born or nearest heir, or a favorite relative or friend. The will which often attempts to a greater on. less degree this sort of thing is antagonistic to the spirit of the age. Equal distribution, not concentration of wealth, is the demand of democracy. Another fact has tended to loosen the foundations of the will. Not infrequently the testator, failing during his life to revenge himself upon some hated relative, seeks to accomplish his detestable object after death. He either deprives that relative of a rightful share in the estate, or makes conditions repugnant to justice, often to decency and self-respect. In such a case the will is almost certain to be broken. The hand of the dead must not be permitted to strike the living. The conclusions to which these considerations lead us is plain. A will not based . upon equity and justice is almost certain to be broken and the estate distributed equally among the heirs. But if a will in the first place makes the equal distribution, it is simply aoperfunotory document. Had it not been drawn up at all the laws would have made the same disposition of the property.— Rochester Democrat.