and overturn their tables. Let the people
contract for themselves: let them go into the
public markets, and bid for money on their
own personal responsibility. Do not let us
force them to go into the highways and by-
ways, and secret places of these money lenders,
and in the dark places where there is no eye
but that of the money lender and the money
borrower. You may strike this from your
constitution or not; you are not going to
change the eternal laws that govern com-
merce, the laws of supply and demand.
These same outrages upon the oppressed will
go on.
Strike this out of your constitution, and
yon will confer upon the poor and oppressed
a benefit. They are now at the mercy of the
money lender, A man cannot now go to A,
B or C, and pet money upon his own note,
with his neighbor as security. If the man
chooses to take the note at six per cent. he
can do it; but if not, then the needy man
must hunt up the office of the licensed broker,
The poor borrower, the distressed and mo-
ney-needing man must pay the licensed
broker his license, interest and brokerage.
But if you allow him to go into the market
in open broad daylight, be would save the
percentage and brokerage, and the license of
the broker. But instead of favoring the op-
pressed, you do them an injury by your con-
stitution. Strike out this provision, or at
least do partial justice. Fix the rate of in-
terest; I have no objection to that, because
it is absolutely necessary to fix some rate of
interest, otherwise how are yon to ascertain
what money is worth, in the absence of any
agreement? If the State fixed no rate of
interest, and there was none named in the
contract, then yon would have to go into a
particular investigation as to how much the
loan of that particular sum of money was
worth to that particular individual, and that
would lead to interminable litigation. Hence
the necessity of fixing some rate of interest
Let the rate be six per cent. where the par-
ties do not agree upon any particular rate,
And then give them some choice. And to
guard against extortion, let the rate be lim-
ited in the. other direction to ten percent.
Let us make some progress in matters relating
to the commercial world,
It has been gravely argued here that if you
prohibit excessive interest, yon absolutely
prevent financial crises. Was there ever any-
thing so wildly absurd? Was not there a
financial crisis in 1857? Did not money
command exorbitant and enormous prices a
that time in New York? And upon the same
day that the banks were closed in New York
were they not closed in Pennsylvania, Mary-
land and Virginia? What was the result of
that crisis? It not only affected every little
town and hamlet in this entire country, but
England and France felt it. It was sup-
posed by financiers that Amsterdam, having |
a purely metallic currency, would not be
affected at all. Yet, strange to say, that
crisis affected the commerce of Amsterdam
just as much as the commerce of London and
Paris. These things are independent of the
prices you pay for money, and are governed
by different laws: the law of supply and de-
mand. Yon might as well try to iron and
hedge in the waves of the ocean as to iron
these waves of commercial crises. They will
come in times of great commercial agitation ;
they will roll up and break upon the wharves
of every country. You cannot control them;
they are a part of human society. You can-
not make any provision against these things.
1 am for the largest liberty compatible
with the public good. It is the true doc-
trine not to tie down and hem in by law on
every side.
As to the proposition of the gentleman from
Kent (Mr. Chambers,) I am utterly opposed
lo it, and will vote against it, because it is
giving a privilege to the man who owns mo-
ney which yon deny to the man who owns
lands and houses. The owner of lands and
houses is taxed by the federal government
and the State government, as well as the
owner of bonds and securities. If you make
an exemption in favor of the one, do it in
favor of the other.
With these views I shall vote against the
proposition of the gentleman from Baltimore
city (Mr. Daniel,) to make the legal rate of
interest seven per cent. instead of six per cent.
And I shall advocate the adoption of a pro-
vision allowing private contracts to be made
as high as ten per cent,, and require them to be
made in writing.
Mr. JONES, of Somerset. I do not propose
to trouble the convention except for a short
time. All this discussion has not removed
the result to which the wisdom of ages has
come, that this matter of interest in all well
regulated communities ought to be regulated
by law. The theory of perfect free trade
without any sort of restriction, including
free trade in the lending and borrowing of
money, is a very beautiful one, and very
plausible and taking. But it has nut very
generally been found to be very acceptable to
the great body of the people, or one applica-
ble in practice.
A great many years ago, as a part of my
education, I studied very thoroughly Say's
political economy. He advocated this theory
of free trade, and especially makes an assault
upon usury laws, and all rules regulating in-
terest upon money. Although that work has
been published a great many years, I do not
find that even with all the power of the
money lenders of France, they have been able
' to break down the laws of France regulating
the loan of money. During all the revolu-
tions they have had in France, those laws
have stood unimpaired. So whatever may
be said of the theory that demand and supply |
