The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-01-24

F"V0u IulS ueiuSlOn, ana warned us Il
provide all the safeguards indicated By
experience as necessary to maintain the
Union. Among the most important, il
the resumption by the Government of the
great sovereign function of regulating
the currency, and giving to it uniformity
and nationality. Such was clearly the
intention of the Constitution. The Gov
ernment has, by the constitution, the er
ctuStUe power ito regulate commerce witt
foreign nations, and among the severa
States. But commerce is regulated
mainly by money, and by it all interstate
and internationl exchanges of products
are made.
If the currency is redundant, prices
rise, exports are diminished, and the re.
verse follows with contracted circula.
ton. But banks initiate or restrict the
currency at their pleasure, and thus con.
troll prices, commerce, exports and rev.
enue. But they also destroy or depre-
ciate the money of the Government, and
deprive it of vital power 21h1az- -4hs
nation issues Treasury Notes and makes
them legal tender; the banks immedi-
ately make such notes the basis of bank
issues, in the ratio of three to one, and
the whole currency necessarily becomes
redundant and deprecated; and thus
this essential power of the Government
Is controlled by the States, and, for all
practical purposes annihilated
Chief Justice Marshall, in delivering
the unanimous opinion of the Supreme
Court of the United States a Wheaton
1889 said wherever the terms in
which a power is granted to Congress, or
the nature of the power required that it
should be exercised exclusively by Con-
gress, the. subject is as completely taken
from the State Legislature as if they had
been forbidden to act on it. Now, it has
been decided by the Supreme Court of
the United States % Wheaton y that,
this power to regulate commerce extends
to land as well as to the UGter, that in
cludes intercourse and nGuiqation and
vessels as vehicles of commerce, that it
includes an embargo which is prohibito-
ry, that this power is EXCLUSIVELY vest
ed in Congress- and $40 part of 1T can
be exercised by q State" Now, the
question, whether the notes of State
bank, issed on the authority of State,
and designed to circulate as money, con-
ficts with this clause of the Constitution,
has neUer been decided by the Supreme
Court Of the United States This is
new and momentous question, never yet
adiudicated by the Supreme Court; but
how they would now decide that point,
with the light thrown upon it by this re-
bellion, | can not doubt
The Government has also the sole
power to lay and collect duties; which
"shall be uniform throughout the Uni
ted States" and the States are prohib-
tied from exercising this authority. But
this power also is in fact controlled by
ports increased or diminished, accordiIfhiig Ing
to their action. Indeed, they can modify
or repeal tariffs at their pleasure, for they
have only to initiate the circulation, and
prices rise here to the extent of the du-
ties, and the tariff becomes imperative
Of all the branches of our industry, the
manufacturing is injured most by re-
dundant currency, limiting our fabrics
to a partial supply at home, and driving
them from the foreign market. Give US
a sound, stable, uniform currency, suffi-
cient but not redundant, and our skilled,
educated, and intelligent labor will, in
time, defy all competition But the
banks, as now conducted, are the great
enemies of American industry.
The Government has also the sole
power Ito coin money, regulate the value
thereof" &C. But the banks now regu-
late its value by controlling prices, by
substituting their money for coin, and
by expelling it from the country at their
pleasure. Recollect, these powers over
commerce and money are ercluSiue, not
concurrent, so adjudicuted, and the Con-
stitution, in delegating them exclusively
to the Government, withheld them alto
gether from the States. The conceded
fact that these powers are erclusice,
proves that the States cannot, by any
instrumentality, directly or indirectly,
control their exercise An exclusive
authority necessarily forbids any control
or interference But there are express
prohibitions in the Constitution as well
as grants. That instrument declares
that mo State shall emit bills of credit
The State itself cannot emit circulating
paper; how, then, can it authorize this
to be done by State corporation, which
is the mere creature Of State law? The
State cannot authorize its Governor tC
issue such paper; how, then, can it direct
a cashier, deriving all his power only
from State law, to do the same thing
0ui facit per ,aliup; fact lsfe slsff ee doSss; 3 q;
son is violated when state uoes
through any instrumentality created b.
= ,vbot the State cannot do itself.
It is true that a majority of the Su
preme Court of the United States, IN
Peters PSI, did decide that the Bank Q
the Commonwealth of Kentucky did nc
violate that clause of the Constltutio
forbidding States to ''emit bills OF credit
hut Justice Story, in his dissenting opll
ion. said: ''When this cause was TO
merly argued before this court, mi
iority of the judges who then heard
were decidedly of the opinion that tt
act of Kentucky, establishing this ban
was unconstitutional and void ;;
amounting to an authority to emit bll
of credit for and on behalf of the Stat
{ within the prohibition of the Constlt
ton of the United States. In prInclpl
it was thought to be decided by the ca
! of Craig Us. the State of Missouri "A
: tiers 4l0). Among the majority was t
E late Chief Justice Marshall. Ihs
e cision, then, in the case of the Bank
o Kentucky, is overthrown, as an authoT'
- r.. +bo+ ~ xvas AGAINST the