Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-02-11

: fpr shs saasdArd.
CONSTITUTIONAL POWER 70 MAKE TREAS
4URT NOTES a TENDER.
The power to make gold and silver coin . tender
IN paynent of debts involves necessarily the power
to regulate its value, or to adopt value fixed By
smother If therefore, the prohibition against :
Ststs making my thing else tender, had remained
Affected BY any other provision Of the Constitu-
or declare for itself the value of such coin. This
might have resulted in the States aeixing divers
values to tho same amount Of coin and, therefore,
it 10 provided that the Congress shall regulate the
values both of domestic and foreign coin and the
value BY this regulation is the standard by which
alone the States can regulate the tender Wneh,
therefore, Congress shall have declared that piece
Of silver Of certain weight and neness shall be OF
the value of one hundred cents, the State IL
6en TO make it Of the value Of two hundred IN the
payment Of debts This secures fxedness IN the
value and fidelity IN the performance OF contracts
If Congress is invested with the power to make pa
per currency tender, then it must have the power
to regulate its value also, and declare now many
cents promise to pay dollar at future day snail
be worth. So we may lay it down Of certainty
that the power which may regulate the value OF
currency may declare it legal tender and eoncerso
that the power which may make particular cur
rency legal tender must regulate its value. mas
Congress- them the power to regulate the value OF
paper currency! II it have the power is either
express or incidental. l. The power u no where
to be found in express terms. q II incidental, that
is necessary and proper" to carry into effect some
other expressly granted power, what is that other
power? Is it the power to issue treasury notes!
This it cannot be- for these notes are but promises
to paw in CON- the value whereof is already regula-
eed-snd such notes necessarily must be, either OF
the same value with coin, or Of some other ana
vf-esl L. Av,Afh rot
no need of legislation. If of different value, they
must be of greater or less value and Congress must
have the same power to declare their value greater
as it has to declare their value less than equal TO
coin.
It would be highly unbecoming in q man, and
assuredly none the less SO in a nation, to nix the
cash value of his own mere promise TO pay IN
future, and compel his creditor SO to receive It II
Congress should declare its promise to pay one dol
lar in coin at some distant day, equal in value to
too dollars Of coin in hand, it would appear very
absurd It not very wicked; and it is quite as absurd
to declare such promise equal in value TO ono dol
lar in hand the difference in the cases lies only IN
the degrees of the falsehoods. But the power to
issue Treasury note. for want of coin, does not
embrace the right to fix its value in coin Tor com
merce and traffic any more than such power IN
Bank authorizes the Bank to fix the value OF its
notes. The issue of the notes is independent OF
any fration Of their value. The power to coin
money is wholly independent Of any power to FIX
and declare to regulate, arbitrarily, its value
The issue Of treasury notes rs medium Of cir
culxton, or as credit upon which to borrow money.
Is never rcsorted to except when coin is actually of
greater value and among q free and honest people
they are uniformly left to abide their comparison
and competition with coin in every kind of traffic
where they are jointly used. And all experience
shows that any attempt to hoist its credit by de-
claring its value, no other end than to pull
it down the more speedily. But the power to reg
uate its value in respect to the performance Of past
contracts, q power which is neither " necessary
nor proper" TO its issue, involves the power to
con6scate species Of property for the benefit Of
another-to violate every kind Of contract-to re-
lieve land and slaves Of the debt with which they
we're acquired without adequate compensation to
the creditor-to change the owners OF property BY
a dash of the pen, without crime in the old, or
merit in the new possessOr-to enforce the courts
to decree the execution Of executOry contracts for
the sale of property made on the basis of Specie by
The payment Of third fourth or fifth Of the actual
stipulated price. In word, it involves the power
to permit citizen to rob another under the forms
of law designed for the very purpose what
honest man can distinguish between the grades OF
the two frauds-one which compels the vendor to
surrender onehal Of the agreed specie price Of his
land and the other which compels the vendce. after
full payment Of the price, to convey back one halt
Of the land? Everybody would shrink from so gross
a violation Of the Constitution as the second stated
fraud For "privatc property" cannot even he
taken for public use, without just compensation
Tart l, s. ., Ii, Confed. Cons) Yet debt is just
as much property in the purview Of the Consttu-
ton as land or slaves
Such . power is in conflict with that provision OF
the Constitution TART l, sec !, ~ which denies
to Congress the power to pass any bankrupt law
which shall discharge any debt contracted before
the passage of the 1t violates that provision
(art l, Sea- O. Z l5) which declares that every c'i.
zen shall be secure in his houses anu effects
1t violates art 5, sec. 6. Z 5, declaring that tho
enumeration in the Constitution Of certain rights,
shall not be construed to deny or di>par'ge others
retained by the people Of the several States" 1t
violates it in this WISE An express power gwen to
Congress to issue Treasury notes could not fairly be
construed to deny o. dispAraSe in any degree the
18th section Of our Declaration OF Rights, which
airms that no freeman ought 10 be dfssezed 81 ms
freehold or liberties, or IN any manaser Destroyed
or dsprired Of his property but by the lao Of the
land" None will be so bold as to maintain that the
possession of such power would authorize the
possessor to dvest one man of his property and
transfer it to another Yet it is evident that such
would bs the effect of enforcing creditor to sur
render for deprecated currency Of certain amount
an obligation to pay the like sum of money in coin,
or something of equal value. That such law
would both deny and disparage that section Of the
Declaration of Rights has been the current unques-
toned Judgment Of our courts during period of
sixty years, from the case of the Unirerssty F1y
to that of Brnes .. Barnes And truly, with quite
as much honesty might man who bad already
received his price to deliver silver adle insist to
discharge his obligation BY rendering one Of iron.
g. The power to regulate the value Of treasury
notes, is negatively denied by the Confederate Co-
stitu.ion, a. BY art !, 81 5, which grants to Con
gress the power ITO coin money regulate the value
thereof and of foreign coin" and (sd) by same ar
tclc sto provide for the punishment Of counterfeit