Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-10-27
For the Standard.
TENDER.


"TRis Cpaper money! Congress alone haze me
pooer to authorize and being authorized 6y them 10
must be EdaotuI money and tender OF course Nv '"e
payment of all debts"
The above is an extract from the pamphlet entl-
tied ''0ur Currency" issued in 1851.
Are Treasury notes money! we are hot S"a.o
that they are so called any one OF the several ac
of Congress authorizing the issue Of them 1t may
be that they in one or in more instances Out
So the fact has escaped notice. That they nave
been spoken of treated and'used as money or cur
rency, and have been so regarded by the treasury
department, by the government by Congress anu
by the people generally there can be no question.
Indeed, that it was the purpose and ob)ecI OIL Ion
gress, in authorizing the issue OF them, 20 make
them money or currency, there can be no DOUBT
That they are lawful, having been authorized by Con-
gress with the concurrence of the EXecutlee one
wil'auestion. They are then lawful money and
"tender of c0urse;n no more palpable neousisten.
cy can be uttered, than that the t0pfut money OF
the Confederacy cannot be used as tender.
Let US briefly examine it. The general impress
sion seems to Be that nothing but gold and silver
coin can be made a tender. This in regard to the
power of the States individually is perfectly true
No State shall make any thing but gold and sill
yer coin a tender in the payment OF debts, and
hence has arisen the impression spoken OF. But
not so with the Confederacy. Congress have full
power over this subject The States have yielded
it, reserying to themselves only the power to make
gold and silver coin tender. Congress cannot
prohibit the exercise by the States of thai, power,
but by a necessary and unavoidable implication are
bound to permit and make lawful the use of gold
and silver coin as a tender, (and therefore, we may
remark in passing that the act of Congress of the
United States passed in 1858, limiting silver coin
as tender to five dollars, is we have no doubt,
clearly against the right of the States.) But Con-
greSS NAV make any other money they choose
tender as well as gold and silver coin:
Another general impression, equally erroneous,
seems to be, that money to be made tender, must
be expressly declared so to be by Congress. But
not so at all-on the rtrary, all lawful money of
the Confederacy becomes a tender unless Congress
expressly provides to the contrary All lawful
money of the Confederacy is lawful for all purposes
and uses not expressly excepted by Congress
The general expression therefore, OF money, or
ldtofuL money, or any thing tantamount to it, ap
Piled by Congress to Treasury notes, would make
them lawful for all purposes and, of course, ten
der. Not so with the States, however; what they
have seen proper to make or rather to call lawful
money, they are prohibited from making tender.
The COnfederacy could if Congress saw proper so
to do, which Heaven in mercy forbid, make State
bunk notes a tender, but no State can dot.
We shall be met here however, by the argu-
ment that the Confederacy can not make any thing
but gold and silver coin tender, because the power
to make or issue any other kind of money has not
been granted to it; in other words, that the Treas
Jury notes of the Confederacy cannot be used as a
tender, because the power 10 issue Treasury notes
has not been granted to it by the States. To this
argument there is very plain and conclusive al
swer, which need not be urged here, however for
the reason that the Confcderacy is in the unre.
strained and so faSas appears, undsputed exercise
Of that power.
We conclude, therefore, with the re assertion that
all lawful money of the Confederacy is lawful for
all purposes and uses that are not expressly desig
mated and excepted by Congress. If they have
made Treasury notes lawful money or currency.
:hen they tender in the payment of debts, and
must remain so until Congress enact otherwise.
THE AUTHOR OF "OUR CURRENCY"