not tie capital to New York, and it will not
keep capital out of Maryland; because any
shrewd New Yorker knows well the fact
that $100 laid out in Maryland lands to-day,
will be in a few years $200; and he is
not going to wait for seven per cent. And
that is the whole of the argument, I under-
stand, that has been urged upon this floor,
with the least semblance of fairness, that if
Maryland kept her interest at six per cent.,
New York seven per cent. capital would be
kept out of the State. Yet this is a fact no-
torious to every gentleman upon this floor.
Can any gentleman tell me how old the New
York interest is?
Mr. CUSHING. It is older than the gentle-
man.
Mr. HOPPER. I know that it is over thirty
years old.
Mr. SANDS. In the face of the fact then
that the rate of seven per cent. in New York
is older than I am, New York capital is com-
ing in a constant stream into Maryland to-
day. Is it because they believe you will raise
the rate of interest to seven or seven and three-
tenths percent.? Not a whit of it; but it is
because they see the wealth that is in your
fields, in your mines, along your streams.—
Look down here just at the edge of the bay—
a thing untold of in Annapolis—and you will
see a large factory springing up there. Is it
because they expected the rate of interest to
be seven and three-tenths per cent.? No,
sir; it is because they know that your State
was growing and going to grow. The argu-
ment is not worth a straw that the difference
of one per cent. in the rate of interest between
New York and Maryland is keeping capital
out of the State. In my humble judgment—
I have never had the benefit of an education
in August Belmont's office—
Mr. CUSHING (in his seat.) That is very evi-
dent.
Mr. SANDS. And what is just as certain, I
do not desire to be impregnated with the prin-
ciples upon which lie operates. I want to
keep out of his office, and I want to keep out
of the society and influences of all mere mo-
ney-gamblers and usurers. I don't want to
go there and learn; still less do I want to
practice his teachings. But I know this, as a
plain common sense business man, that capi-
tal is coming to your State; and you know
it too, in streams such as never flowed hither
heretofore. And now you propose to help it
onward by raising the rate of interest three-
tenths per cent. higher than it is in New York
I do not think you will do more, in taking
this view, than to bring upon us as a body the
just condemnation of the great body of the
people, who are the borrowers and not the
lenders. The lenders are few compared with
the borrowers of money; and I think we
ought not to advance the rate. Six per cent
in my opinion is as much as money is worth
Mr. CHAMBERS. I have as much anxiety |
perhaps upon this subject as any gentleman
upon this floor. I feel deeply for the interest.
of the agricultural portion of the State par-
ticularly. I feel deeply for the interest of the
young in every department of human life. 1
feel that this is to be a departure from the long
established custom, and from the long estab-
lished system of law which has worked well
and has never failed to do good, has never
done mischief, and which ought to be perse-
vered in. I regret that the condition of my
health does not permit me to remain here. 1
can scarcely hope in the present temper of the
house that they will defer the further consid-
eration of this question; but if not I shall be
obliged to leave, and to omit to vote upon a
question in which, as I said before, I take the
deepest interest. I feel bound before I go to
move that the house do now adjourn.
Mr. CUSHING. I ask the decision of the
chair whether I am privileged to ask a ques-
tion?
Mr. CHAMBERS. I will withdraw my mo-
tion to enable the gentleman to ask a ques-
tion.
Mr. CUSHINGS. For fear the house should
come to the conclusion from the remarks of
the gentleman from Howard (Mr. Sands) that
it was contemplated to institute an insurrec-
tion against every man owning over one hun-
dred dollars, I ask what is the subject before
the house ?
The question was stated, upon the amend-
ment submitted by Mr. NEGLEY, to the amendment
submitted by Mr. ABBOTT.
Mr. CHAMBERS renewed his motion to ad-
journ.
The motion was not agreed to.
Mr. RIDGELY. I propose to say a very few
words. The remarks which the gentleman
from Howard (Mr. Sands) has made seem to
require at least some reply. I may be in error,
but I think I have taken the common sense
view. If I had any doubts upon the subject
before—and I confess I had doubts before—1
am very free to confess that those doubts have
been entirely removed by the speech of the
gentleman from Howard, if I have correctly
understood that speech, and the train of argu-
ment in which he has indulged.
This is a question of finance. It concerns
the money capital of the country. The great
object is to protect and advance the great
commercial interests of the country. It is a
question which almost exclusively addresses
itself to that interest, and all other interests
are here collateral and incidental to that great
interest.
Mr. SANDS. Will the gentleman allow me
to ask one question? How do the commer-
cial and producing—1 mean the agricultural
interests of the State—compare?
3 Mr. RIDGELY. I am going on to show that
there are certain paramount interests, and oth-
ers incidental and auxiliary to them, and
that the protection or encouragement of the |
