Riggs

delivered the opinion of the Court. One who puts his name on the back of a promissory note out of the course of regular negotiability, is not an indorser, according to strict commercial meaning. He is termed a guarantor, and this is so, whether his inscription is simply in blank, or prebeded by the words “ I guarantee, &c.”

The first question here is, whether this kind of guaranty is within the statute of frauds, for the want of an expressed consideration in writing. The point is not a new one. It has arisen before in many, and probably in every commercial country, which has adopted the English statute of frauds. While there has been some conflict in the opinion of different Courts, the main current *487 of decisions and the better reasoning maintains the negative of the proposition.

The contract imports a consideration, because it is a promissory note. Each one who writes his name upon it is a party to it, and from its commercial character, each party to it is an original undertaker. The liability of one may be with conditions, that of others without any; or in other words, the liability may be primary and secondary. But each name constitutes a direct original promise founded…