William Johnson

“ Such inconsistencies are not to be lightly incurred; it is enough, to submit to them, when they become unavoidable: but it is easy to assign other and adequate motives for selling a note and then indorsing it, without imputing to the transaction the negotiation of a loan; and it is enough, if the imputation be not unavoidable. The acts against usury were intended to protect the needy; but the holder of a note may be wealthy, may be the lender, not the borrower of the money, and yet find an adequate motive both for selling a note and guarantying it. ”

“ The courts of New York have got over these difficulties, by adjudicating, that whenever the note or bill, in its inception, was a real transaction, so that the payee or promisee might, at maturity, maintain a suit upon it, a transfer by indorsement, on a discount, though beyond the legal rate of interest, shall be regarded as a sale of the note or bill, and a valid and legal transaction. ”

“ The reason that such a sale of a note is said to be usurious is, that the indorser who disposes of it is liable; and yet the sale of a bill of exchange, the payment of which is guarantied by the seller, is valid. ”

“ Suppose, the debtor absconds, or removes to the Arkansas, or the Oregon; the very wealth of the holder may make it no object to follow him, or prosecute a suit against him; his freedom from necessity may be the holder's motive for parting with the note to another at a moderate sacrifice; his indorsing it will diminish that sacrifice; and, although removing, the debtor may be wealthy, and the inducement for the indorsement may be the conviction that the debt is safe-that he will never have to repay what he has received. ”

“ Gadsby, except that the suit was instituted by the indorsee against the maker; the cause was decided upon the invalidity of the indorsement to transfer the right of action to that indorsee, not to any other holder, the plaintiff being the party to the usury. A usurious loan had been negotiated, and Gaither's note to Corcoran, the borrower on usury, indorsed in blank by Corcoran, and left with the plaintiff to collect, in payment of the money borrowed. It was, therefore, a clear case of an assurance given for money borrowed on usury ”