The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-04-06
OF Interest and Usury.


ing certain movements in the Legislature
of New York upon the subject of Usury-
one JOHN WHIPPLG, pretty smart lawyer,
of Providence, in the State of Rhode
Island, was employed by parties interested
to write pamphlet in favor of laws to
prescribe the rates of interest upon con
tracts for the payment Of money. He
was probably well paid for the job; and,
being designed for that purpose, the work
received large circulation. 1t has been
several times reprinted, and from that day
to this has been the leading textbook and
authority Of the advocates of Usury Laws.
AS it was a lawyers job, it was performed
in lawyer-like manner: the author hav-
ing in view the effect of the argument,
not the amount of truth to be contained
either in its premises or its conclusions.
1t is bold in its assumptions and smooth
and plausible in its deductions; and, it is
not to be wondered at, that in the great
detlrth of earnest thinking upon matters
of public economy, it was received at the
thu le as almost the end of controversy.
An this day, one can scarcely take up
book, or pamphlet, or magazine article, or
Legislative report, of which interest upon
money is the subject, that he does not
find the notions of Mr. WHIPPLE, either
cited as unanswerable, or condemned as
untcn able. The real force of the work
however, is in its audacity; the author
was no statesman nor political economist,
butt literary man, and an advocate. He
ch ose Mr. Bcntham (hisbook upon Usury)
as his antagonist, sat him up, discharged
| ag,li ust him all the real or Fictitious am
| manftion he could command, and pro-
nonn,sed him destroyed-which was prob
ably mistake. But with Mr.. WHIPPLE,
or his theories, at this time, we do not
col ltend-choosing to present the subject
of Interest, or Usury, in different aspect
Under the Mosaic polity, interest or
us, Try the original meaning Of both
wo rds being the same-was only collect
| ible of stranger-that is to say, n
h,sathen. The Jew compensated himself
70 Z lending money gratis to his country
ma u, by taking cent per cent. from the
Gen tile. We have no means to know
whic h style of investment ho was wont tu
pre- fei. tits said to have been the maxim
of the early Christian (Roman) Church
the t loans Of money should be gratuitous.
Pc rsons, however, lending money for com.
me rcial purposes mi ght take share OF
the profits in consideration of assuming a
shs ire of the risk-the transaction being,
to that extent, a partnership. Such is the
do, ,trinc laid down by ST. THOMAS AoUI-
MAS six centuries ago. The moneyed
ma whose wealth was dormant in his
Golfers, was forbidden to demand pre-
m ium for its use, under a penalty of pri-
vfItion of the sacraments of the Church
aid of Christian burial Out of these
sources have sprung the usury laws and
/ notions of modern times.
The bad effect of laws to fix the rate of
inh ,rest, is, that while they do not become
prac teal rules for the transaction of bust
ness, they give legal establishment and
counte nance to the doctrine that Interest
is due as part of every obligation to pay
To say that no man shall pay more thar
80 much interest is equivalent to thC
declaration that there is foundation ir
ril,ht to demand and receive from hin
lust so much = which remains to bC
proved Because A owes B to-day one
hundred dollars, it does not follow tina
one year from today A should, as mat
ter Of simple justice, pay B one hundred
anil twenty, or one hundred and ten, O
even one hundred and one dollars. If
haij promised to do so, that is anothe
thing: he is bound by the terms of hi
contract; but if he has not promised, VIII
has the right to say that it is one Of tn
ru es Of eternal justice that he shoul,
pc rform? .-. ...
There is more in this view Of the cas-
than may at first sight appear. There ar
thousands of hardships growing out o
the, idea that interest--whether stipulatet
or not--is II part of every obligation t
pay. 1t has entered into the busines
ethics of the world, and thrifty ma
| would look upon it as much out of rule I
: remit his interest as to remit his primo
pal: and in this way--their conscience
entirely set at rest by custom create
: and sanctioned by the law-huudreds {
! wtlLmeaning men become opprcssors
doing that which, hud they been left fre
to their own views of right, they woul
NIT have done, Like the most Of legs
!. intermeddling in economical affairs, Usur
: Laws have, as their principal and onl
: inVariable effect, done the very thingthc
4 4; were proiessedly designed to prohibit an
!: prevent @