Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-12-04

those who think they are not fairly pad
blythe lawfulrate, who cannot orwiil not in
vest it except on loan, and who wilfnot
violate laval capital so owned-is trans
feTTed to States where ten per cent. is al
lowed. 1t is known fact that
large sums probably several millions
have been removed from Tennessceto other
States; ON this ground the loaned fund Is
thus reduced in a moment and the eompe-
tition amongst lenders narrowed down, The
borrower is at the mercy OF fewer men
with less capital. The loaned fund which
remains, is loaned in violation of law.
When lenders get outside of the boundar-
les of law, there is no rule to guide their
consciences. No limit TO their minds to
the proper extent of their eXactions, they
feel lawless because they think that the
law itself is contrary to the natural rights
of themselves and those subjected to the
overriding necessities of traffic. Those
of them therefore, that are not well
grounded in the principles of NOR
ality and justice, by long defiance
of public opinion or by concealed course
of action, are in danger of becoming
pirates and smugglers in feeling and char
acter. This is one of the worst effects
of these peTnicious laws. When money
is loaned in violation of law by the pur-
chase of a note or otherwise, the lender
takes into consideration the danger of
losing the excess, the danger of prose
cutions, costs, fines, lawyer fees, loss of
time, ETC. The sum necessary to cover
these risk will be the premium of insurance
paid by the borrower; the lender will
also be Unidentified in a majority OF in
stances for the danger of exposure. If
the Legislature now in session were to de-
termine that the usuTy laws should be en-
forced as other laws are enforced, so as to
make the cases of disObedience to
this law exceptional only, and should
declare that the lender of money at a
greater interest than six per cent should
forfeit the principal. a still greater por
ton of the loanable capital would be
removed from the State. Some would be
boarded, some wasted in extrayagant liv
ing, some invested in property or improve
ments unsuited to the interest or capacity
of the owner, and, consequently, lost TO
the aggregate wealth Of the community.
The rate of interest would rise, and
debtors and business men be oppressed.
1t is confidently asserted that the usuTy
laws diminish circulating capital, paral-
we trade and Cypress debtors This is
the settled result Of experience, not alone
at this time here in Tennessee, but Of all
ages dof all countries where commerce
has existed and the constituted authori-
ties have attempted 10 impose 4 legal re-
striction on the value of money.
Mr.. Say, writing in France in the last
century says: 'The severer the penalties
inflicted on a violation of usuTy laws, and
the more rigid, their eXaction, the higher
the rate of interest Is sure to rise; for the
greater the risk, the greater the prem
ium of insurance does ii require to tempt
thelcnder McCulloch writing in England,
in 1896, says: ''The usury laws generate
the very mischief they are intended TO
suppress: far from diminishing usuri0us
transactions, they multiply them two fold
and aggravate all the evils they were
designed 10 mitigate The rate
of interest is invariably increased as the
laws intended to reduce it become more
severe, and diminished as they are re
Taxed. If it were necessary, extracts from
other standard authorities might hc mul-
tiplied.
These authors speak the voice of his
tory. AT Athens interest for money
loaned ON landed security, varied from
twelve to eighteen per cent, whilst that
loaned on ships al sca was thirty per cent
and upwards; this was because both
principal and interest were endangered by
pirates, who then infested the MediteTTa-
mean Sea.
At Rome during the times OF The
Republic, the rate of interest was enorm-
ously high. This was because the patri-
clan creditors were constantly in danger
of losing the whole amount loaned, by
the number and power Of their plebian
debtors.
For ! 300 years, from the Christian
era, interest hadno defenders. (See Kelly }
Daring the whole Of the middle ages il
was regarded as Infamous, and abandoned
to the Jews. iScc say, 299.) In France
the punishment was banishmcnt for the
first uifcu~r, and death for the second
though such pmishments did not pm
stop to loans. The Jews indcmnificd
themselves for the dangers theyencounteed
by the cVaction of sixty and eighty per
cent interest The early English writer's
bear testimony to the adherence with
which /, was regarded in England from
the times of Alfred, and the severity with
which it was punished. No terms OF OPP
prUhrlm were too great for the guilty
Urctchce who had dared 10 di,obry The
express command Of God, and 10 subveTt
the laws Of nature by making thai fruit
full which was intended not 90 be fruitful.
The Oifensy Of UsuIy was regarded a.
second only to murder and punished with
forfeiture of goods and Chattcls and dis
mhcrison of the heir. The money
lending jew, losing perhaps an eye in
England his cars in France, anda hand sew
cred from his arm in some other kingdom,
UNIDENTIFIED himself for robbery, imprisun-
mcnt and mutilation, by eytorting forty.
sixty and one hundred per cent from
neccssitOus borrowers. The Law Of
Moses. forhidding the cNaction Of inter
est, had been superseded by the law of
the Talmud.
In 1906 BOnapartc assembled the Jews
in grand Sanhedrin At Paris. In reply
to his intCrogatory on the subject OF
u,urv, they said 'Thc Mosaic institute
foIhids unlawful interest The Tamud
allows interest to he taken from brethren
and strangers 1t 1orbids usurv.
But the Christian, rcpudiating the law as
laid down in Luke and Matthew. tspc
Bacon A b. } and prot essing TO Judge the
Jews by Jewish law, inflicted the most
thurman punishments on them in almost
every country in Europe. ''When, SAYS
Millman's History, 'the hard earnings Of
the past life of n Jew were swept from him
by violence, he reimbursed himself
by slow but perpetual reprisals, and took
refuge in fraud from violence and inius-
tice He argued not unfairly that the
more precarious, the greater ought to be
his gains. 1t was a war of fprocious and
mchristian passions against industry, pa
thence and avarice." The dcnunciations in
the church in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries against all interest, and the pun
iShmCnt of the oifCnse by forfeiture of
the estates of men, Tqvc a deeper shade
of barbaIism to those ages; yet it did not
and could not arrest all loans. The
cIamor and persecution raised against the
moneyIcndcrs obliged them to charge
much more than the natural price, in
order to compensate them for the oppro-
brium and plunderth suffered; and hence
the usual rate of interest during the whole
OF the Middle Ages Was what We would
call cNorbitant and scmdal"us usury.
CScc Macpherson on Commerce
The FIRST statute in England legal
ling the taking any interest was
passed in 81 Henry VII, 1916. 1t
authorized ten per cent to be taken, The
statute declared that the total prohibition
of interest had $50 little force that little or
no punishment had cnsued to the offend
ers. Six years afterwards all interest
was again prohibited. 1t was declared to
he dctestable vice, and contrary 10 the
word of God. The rate of interest i'm
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