Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-31
A GOOD MOVEMENT.

GOOD MOVEMENT.
We understand that the citizens of Wash
ington contemplate a memorial to Congress
asking the repeal Of the usury laws. We trust
that we have not been misimformed in this
particular, and we hope that the usury laws
will soon be repealed, not only in the District
of Columbia, but in every State and Territory
in the confederacy.
We battle for the great principle of Free
Trade, and we wish to see that principle ex-
tended to the traffic in money as well as to the
traffic in cloth and cotton. Usury and bank
ing laws 60 together. They belong to the
same vicious and immoral system, and they
have exerted an active and controlling agency
an producing every commercial embarrass-
ment that ever plagued the world and filed
prosperous neighborhoods with distress.
Money should be permitted to circulate
freely; and every law which impedes that free
circulation is not only unjust but oppressive
and injurious. The owner of money has a
night to sell, and the man who needs money
has right to purchase it at its market value
wherever he can find it for sale. Government
has no right to interfere in the matter-no
more right than to interfere in the purchase of
horses and horned cattle. Money, like every,
thing else must obey the laws of trade. 1t has
no special privileges and immunities, and it
should be burthened by no special weights
ana incumbrances--nom more than beef, or pork,
or any other article of commerce
1t is said, however, that, unless the price Of
money is fixed by law, the holders of money
Will demand too much for it. With all due
Difference to such reasoners we must say to
them that their language is absurd. The hold
ers of money will demand just as much as they
can get, and those who need money will pay
just as little as possible for the use of it. Is
there anything wrong in that? Is there any
thing unfair in that? Is there anything i'm
moral in that? The -four merchant asks as
much for his -four as he can get The con-
sumner OF -four will not pay cent more for it
than necessity forces him to pay. Where then,
IS the difference between money and any
other article of traffic? What peculiarly is
stamped on money which requires that the law
should interfere to fix its price?
Money is regulated by the same commercial
laws which regulate other things. The price
Of money, like the price Of corn, or wheat, or
tobacco, is regulated naturally by the proper
ton between the supply and the demand. But
government comes in wrongfnlly, and unnatur-
"a md nd rtola fro 81 u.
be regulated by the relation which the supply of
the article bears to the demand for the article.
but that it shall be bought and sold only at a
fxed and specified price,
They who advocate this unjust and fooliah
system, say that it is necessary to protect the
community. In our humble judgment that
plea Is utterly untenable, because the lsury
laws Cypress the community. They Cypress
the borrower, and, at the same time, they fet.
ter the conscientious money holder by driving
him from the market. Whilst there are laws
on the statute book which forbid any one to
receive more than given compensation for
the loan of a given amount Of money, many
capitalists will refuse to lend except when the
legal rate is greater than the market rate. Tn
that event the usury laws are imperative.
But when the market rate Of money becomes
higher than the legal rate, the usury laws
come into operation, and the conscientious
capitalists withdraw their means and leave
limited supply, and leave the furnishing of
that limited supply to men who have no
regard for the law This raises the price
of money at once, and forces the Dor
rover to pay more than the real value of
the money he borrows. But that is not all.
The probability that the lender at usurious
rates may have bis loan repudiated, and his
inability to sue for it forces him to demand an
indemnity in the shape of higher interest.
This is clear; and every one who has any bust
ness experience knows it to be true. We,
therefore, oppose the usury laws. We are
glad that a movement is on foot to procure
their repeal in this District. We trust that
the movement may be successful, and that it
will lead TO similar movements in the States.
We perceive that the British government has
repealed its usury laws. The struggle was
severe one, but sound sense and Free Trade
notions prevailed. Surely, America will not
befar behind England in the adoption of libe-
raj principles.
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