Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-02-10
The Treasury Note Bill.

The bill authorizing the Secretary OF the Treas
ury to issue $50, 900 900 of treasury notes, and
making them a legal tender, will undoubtedly,
from the necessities of the Government, become
a law. 1t is a serious question whether Congress
has the power to make any thing but coin legal
tender in the payment of debts. Mr.. WEBSTER,
who was regarded as one of the ablest expounders
of the Constitution and who favored national
bank currency, had no doubt upon the question.
In speech in the Senate in 1882, upon the re-
newal of the charter of the United States Bank,
which he favored, be said:
Congress can alone coin money. Congress
can alone fix the value of foreign coin. No State
can coin money No State fix the value of
foreign coin. No State, not eUen Congress uSetf,
can make anything a legal tender but gold and
silver in payment of debts.
Again, in a speech IN 1886, discussing the
financial condition o. ire country, he expressed
himself thus:
am certainly Of opinion, then, that gold and
silver, at rates fixed by Congress. constitute the
legal standard of value in this country; and that
neither Congress nor any State has authority to
establish any other standard, or to displace this.
There may be an over ling necessity for
making treasury notes a legal tender, but its ef-
fects should be we'll considered before such rad
ical measure is adopted. For time they may
pass at the par value of gold, but if they depre-
ciate, as they probably will, ten per cent. below
the standard of gold. it is compellinga creditor to
take ninety cents for what purports to be one
hundred. Is this any thing less than confscation
of property by the authority of the Government
to the extent that its notes depreciate below the
constitutional standard of value? The issue of a
large quantity of notes of this character will have
another injurious effect. The tendency will be
to initiate prices and give an impetus to specula-
ton and when the bubble bursts, as it must even
tuay, the experience of the past will best tell the
disasters that the financial revulsion will visit
upon the country But it is idle to speculate
or even discuss the financial schemes of the Ad-
ministration. The edict has gone forth, and re-
gardless of its evil consequences, under the plea
of necessity, a paper currency will he fastened
upon the country. And in Republican quarters
it is even pronounced treason to question the pro-
priety or necessity of the measure. Cincinnati
paper says ''it must be adopted" And then il
adds: ut seems to us that it is absurd to appeal
to law to precedent under existing circumstan-
ces, because the Instruction got up liz the
face of law and of right, and must be put down
BY the law of force, instead of by virtue of any
civil code" In other words, we are no longer
constitutional Government, but despotism. gov
erned "by the law of force" We condemn the
rebels for violating the Constitution. and ther
closely follow their example. And the plea o.
necessity, the despot's argument, is used to JUST
fly temporary expedients which can not fail t.
entail great evils and injustice upon the people.