Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1871-11-09
The Ten Per Cent. Law.


The Legislature, as we men.
Toned last week, shows q DISPOSE
ton to regale the people of Ten
nessee with the regular biennial
agitation Of the interest question,
but not in the direction that will
commend it to the approval of
thinking men. The bill that has
heeu introduced restricts legal in
teress to six per cent, and, Of
course, makes all transactions
over that figure usurious. Rea-
soning inen have come to knoW
that the rate of interest j. nothing
mJre than the nett profit upon
capital, and that money is as much
q distinctive article Of merchan.
ais,, trade and bargain, and OF
sale and exchange, as dry goods
and groceries. Nevertheless, some
of our legislators continue to act
as if they still believed in the alb
surdities Of Aristotle, who argued
tAat as money did not produce
money, no return could be equit-
ably claimed by the lender.
When the rate fixed by law is
less than the market or customary
rates, you drive the money from
your midst, and force an invest
.nent in government bonds. or len
ders and borrowers are obliged to
resort to circuitous devices to
erade the law, and ss these are al.
ways attended with more or less
trouble and risk, the rate of inter.
est is proportionately enhanced.
But apart from the rights or
the absurdities in the matter-log.
ically and commercially consid-
ered-shere is a weightieT argu.
rnent to the law-giver: one
preached from the bench, at the
bar, and from the jury-box. Ii il
that whenever law is nulliied
by practical and universal consent,
it 10 useless, and should DO re-
pealed. Now, there never was
any regard paid to the usury laws
in Tennessee. It was unlawful
under the old order Of things, tc
take more than six per cent. for @
loan, or for any transaction where
in one man advanced capital un
der the promise of receiving back
bis advance with an addition Of
more than the six per centage
Unlawful Ask the Clerks Of the
Circuit Courts how many persoII
were ever mulcted in damages un'
der the law. Now and then, bu'
very rarely, some man would forfeit
his word and sink his character BY
pleading usury; but he was always
afterward looked upon with dis
trust by the community, his course
was condemned, and public opin
ion scowled upon him. Yet the
Judges charged against it in every
county in the State; and no doubt
many Of them, soon after, were
themselves guilty of the same OF
fence. Tie foremen of the vari'
Gus grand juries heard it and
rubbed their hands complacently,
while they thought Of their last
discount at ten per cent. AL
ranks, all conditions, and all occu.
p.tious in society. committed the
offence from day to day. Why
Is the temptation to profit so great,
or the community so rotten in
principle Not at all. Business
men found, by the light Of their
own common sense, that money
is a mere chattel-a matter of
merchandise-to be bought, sold,
exchanged, and transported &C.
cording to demand, and with
calculating price. What does the
statement weekly made, "The
money market is easy" or sit is
tight mean? Simply that money
is 80 much in demand, or the sup
ply SO limited, that people ask and
pay more than legal interest on
loan, or that they ask or pay just
legal rate, or a trifle over. If the
rate of interest in Tennessee is re-