FARMERS' REGISTER— ESSAY ON USURY LAWS. 



117 



asked why envy, malice, ingratitude, want of 

 brotherly, filial, or parental affection, are con- 

 sidered wrong, I would return you a satistlictoiy 

 answer, by sayino; Ihat mankind in all nations and 

 ages have felt and pronoiniccd them \\Tong. Ifl 

 am asked however, why similar polygons are to 

 each other in the du])!lcate ratio of their homo- 

 logous sides, or why 1 know the sun to be the cen- 

 tre of our solar system, and the i)lancts with their 

 satellites to revolve in harmonious movement 

 about this common centre, I can no longer answer 

 you by sa} ing mankijid in all nations and ages 

 have 'believed so." This is a'qwstion of reason 

 and obscrvatioiT, and consequently not to be de- 

 termined by popular oi)inion. The great problems 

 of this character are solved but slowly in the 

 lapse of ages, by the wise, the re-electing, and -the 

 investigating portion of mankind, v/ho, ih com- 

 parison with the great mass, the vulgum genus, 

 forms but a small — a veiy small minority of the 

 human tamily. On quei?tions of reason and ob- 

 servation, the opinions of such men as Bacon, 

 Locke, Newton, Smith, Turgot, and Franklin, are 

 worth more than the opinions ol' the thousands, or 

 even millions arrayed against them.* When we 

 cast a retrospective glance at the ages that have 

 gone by, and contemplate the progress of man, 

 through the many gradations and stages which he 

 has passed, and examine the systems of philoso- 

 phy and of science which have had their day of 

 admiration and devotion, and employed the busy 

 spirits for a season, and then have sunk into neglect 

 and contempt, we are ahnost disposed to believe 

 that the cause ot" truth can never triumjih, until 

 njan has been previously cursed with ages of error. 

 How slowly has even the b.cautiful religion of our 

 Saviour been spread abroad? How many millions 

 are yet in darkness? How many ages must yet 

 elapse before the gospel shall spread over the 

 earth "as the waters co^-er the great deep?" And 

 yet what exertions have been made — how many 

 have been sent forth under tlie auspices of the 

 christian religion into the heathen land? If then, 

 religion itseh", under the sanctions of Jehov9.h, 

 armed with the most mighty arguments in its de- 

 fence, pushed forward with untiring zeal and per- 

 severance by the ministers of the gospel, and so 

 essential to the happiness and salvation of the 

 world, has nevertheless advanced so slowly, that 

 even at this day the va^t majority of the inhabi- 

 tants of the world ;u-e still pagan — plunged into 

 The grossest superstition and idolatry — can we 

 wonder then, that legislators and governors should 

 Btill be in error in regard to some polilico-economi- 

 cal principles? especially when we recollect the 

 sagacious remarks of David Hume, "tliat there is 

 no subject on which the first impressions of men 

 are so liable to be erroneous as the subject of po- 

 litics."' Are we not the last people in the world 

 to acknowledge a binding influence imposed by 

 ancient usage and general belief? Are not all our 

 institutions innovations on the past? If the ar- 

 gument drawn from anti([uity be cont-lusive, would 

 not the monarchial institutions of Europe stand 

 on a firmer basis than ours?' Would not the mo- 

 nopolies and restrictions of the middle ages be re- 



* AIthou2;h the majority be decidedly against us on 

 the usuiy laws, we have in our favor almost every 

 vmter of eminence, who has ever profoundly investi' 

 gated the subject. 



vived? Would not the law against witchcraft be 

 re-enacted, with its laughable yet tragical train of 

 proofs and punishments? In fact, the laws against 

 witchcraft are as ancient, and until- about two cen- 

 turies past, as universal as the law against usur}^ 

 Away then with with this argument, so contrary 

 to the genuine spirit of civihzation and the on- 

 ^v.ard march of the human race, 



Sou7xes of prejudice against Usury. 



But as my lord Coke has justly observed, that 

 "to trace an error lo its source is to refute it,"- I 

 will conclude by a rapid enumeration of the causes 

 which have produced so universal a prejudice 

 against usury. 



The first cause which I shall mention is a bigot- 

 ted interpretation of a mvnicipal provision of the 

 Jewish code. "Thou shalt not lend" says the law 

 of Moses ''upon usury to thy brother: usury of 

 money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing'that 

 is lent." The punishment is of the severest 

 character, "hath he given forth upon usury" "and 

 hath taken increase, shall he five? He shall not 

 live— he hath done all these enormities, he shall 

 surely die: liis bloodshall be upon him." To thiswe 

 answer rn the first place, that the langitage of 

 such distant ages may not be accurately under- 

 stood by us— secondl)^, that this prohibition (if we 

 understand it aright) extended only to the Jews. 

 IMoses wishing to make- all the Israelites a band 

 of brothers, the Jews were permitted to take what 

 interest they pleased of the heathens round about, 

 and this could not have been considered immoral, 

 or hurtllil, tor the lawgiver, says "thou shalt not 

 vex a stranger, or oppress him, for ye were stran- 

 gers in the land of Egypt." Now lending at interest 

 could not have been considered as ehher vexa- 

 tious or oppressive to the stranger. Again the 

 parable of the talents most conclusively shows 

 that usury so far from being reprob'ated by our 

 Saviour, was actually enjoined. The unprofitable 

 servant is rebuked for "not putting his money to 

 the exchangers, tliat he might have received his 

 own with usury." Although howevef, the law of 

 Moses was a merely municipal regulation, apper- 

 taining to the Jews alone, not restraining them in 

 regard to other nations, and not sanctioned in the 

 New Testament, yet has it had a most Avonderfid 

 influence on the minds of men, and even to this day 

 hasnot ceased to operate. For many ages in Eu- 

 rope it was considered against the law of God to 

 take any interest at all on moiley. There is no crime 

 against which the fathers ia their homilies, de- 

 claim with more liitterness. As late as the middle 

 of the seventeenth century, the divines of England 

 preached against all interest; even that which the 

 law allowed, as a gross immorality: and early in 

 the eighteenth century^, the same doctrines were 

 supported in the British' House of Commons-. The 

 editors of the Dictionaire Raisonnee in France 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century em- 

 ployed as many as fourteen columns to prove that 

 interest might lawfully be taken; and Turo-ot 

 wrote a volume as late as 1779 to prove the same 

 thing. "A learned gentleman (says Steuart) 

 of the Middle Temple, IMr. Plowden (a lawyer I 

 believe of the Roman Catholic persuasion) who 

 published about thirty years ago a treatise upon 

 the law of usury and annuities, has employed no 

 less than fifty-nine pages of his work in consider- 

 ing the law of usury in a spiritual vieio, ih order 



