The Appraisement Law

MR. EDITOR, SIR:  Previous to the State elections the blighting influence of, and urgent necessity for an immediate and unconditional repeal of an act known as the Appraisement law, was canvassed throughout the State.  Several journals clearly and fully pointed out this law’s baneful influence on the prosperity of the State, and no one ever attempted to defend it.  Yet up to this day no action has been taken by the Legislature, even to amend this extraordinary act – extraordinary because its limits extend beyond any similar law ever passed by any State in the Union; a law every provision of which exhibits a palpable design on the part of its authors to encourage fraud and to prevent honest creditors from collecting their just dues.

This base and uncalled for act has driven capital from the State; it has placed the honest debtor at the mercy of his creditor, but cutting him off from that of all others; as capitalists neither great nor small will invest money under the provisions of a law so base, and evidently framed for the benefit of the dishonest; as honest men require no such laws.

Many attribute the present embarrassed condition of the State to the rebellion.  I am satisfied, and challenge proof to the contrary, that the rebellion has not caused capital to be withdrawn from the State, nor has it been instrumental in depressing local trade.  Illinois, although a late sufferer by “stumptail” currency, as well as all northern States, claim that they were never more prosperous, and that the rebellion has not injured but benefited them.

Then we must look in some other direction to find the cause of the blight, want and ruin that is hovering over us, and forcing even our own citizens to send their capital out of the State for investment, and which is fast placing a majority of our farms and city lots on the delinquent tax list, to be sold under the hammer.  If you doubt the wide-spread devastation, now extensive and fast extending, I refer you to your county newspapers, which their ten to thirty closely printed columns descriptive of many thousands of farms, large and small, offered for sale for the taxes levied on them; and every honest spoken man will say the farmers of Iowa are not delinquent from neglect, or choice, but from necessity.

To add to the great and growing evil created by this act, it is well known that many persons who desire and could have had the privilege of redeeming on time their farms, heretofore sold under deeds of trust and mortgages, have by this law been deprived of the privilege of attempting the same; as those who now hold possession, especially where the consideration is small, are not willing to place the property back in the possession of its original owner and run the risk, under this law, of having to pay him from one to ten dollars per acre above the original debt and price of purchase, to get it back, should he be so unfortunate as not to be able to fulfill his part of the contract.  Frequently the purchaser may not possess or be able to command the surplus that this law may require under the original owner, although he may have never paid or invested one dollar in the original purchase.

Still further to increase the hardships and injustice growing out of this infamous and uncalled for act, may property holders refused to sell at all except for cash, as they fear that at the present low rates of real estate they may, under the provisions of this law, have to pay thirty of fifty percent. above selling price before they can become re-possessed of their property, in the event of misfortune or mismanagement upon the part of the purchaser.  I can produce many instances where some of the best men in Iowa have been unable to purchase property on time, even where the vendors declared that they did not require the cash, as they would immediately transfer it and reinvest it in States governed by laws more just and equitable.

If you inquire the cause of an act so blighting and injurious being passed at a time when the people had seen the evil effects of borrowing and trading beyond their ability to pay, and when the price and use of money had settled down permanently to ten per cent., I will answer your enquiry in a few words.  A few men who had, by extravagant living, used and squandered or had in their pockets the borrowed money, thrice the value of their farms, and who made more by borrowing than they ever will or could have done – by selling, urged their request upon the pliant tools at Des Moines, who fondly hoped and truly believed that this infamous law would cover and embrace all passed promises and contracts and that they, the law makers and petitioners, could hold possession of both money and property until old Time removed them from off the sod to a position beneath it.  It was therefore made for the past and not for the future; the future did not ask for it nor require it.

You may further ask, who were the architects that framed and urged through this scourge?  Look back and you will find that they consisted of brainless adventurers, representing many counties, mere birds of passage, carpet-sack residents, whose occupations and professions, backed up by their  limited intellect, could not procure them twenty shillings per week to pay their board, and whose sojourn in the state depended on their success in obtaining office.

My object, Mr. Editor, in laying these facts before you is to urge upon you and the citizens of Iowa, who feel interested in the welfare of the State, the necessity of prompt and energetic action toward ameliorating the present deplorable condition of our State, by petitioning without delay the General Assembly, requesting the repeal of this blighting law, and all other laws effecting a free and open trade in money or credit.

Yours, A. C. F.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, March 7, 1862, p. 2