Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-12-19

nlteu states taOO,WOUVui on conpou
Dr. registered bonds redeemable after dive
years aud before forty years, provided
that this loan should bear an annual
rate OF interest payable semi.annually 10
coin. The second section authorized the
Secretary OF the Treasury to Issue s2oo,'
100000 OF Treasury notes In lieu OF an
equal amount OF the notes or bonds pro-
vided for in the preceding section, pay
able on or after three years with seven
and three 'tenths per cent, interest, and
payable iu lawful money st maturity"
and provided that those made payable,
principal and interest,at maturity should
be legal tender, and authorized their
disposition for lawful money. The same
section further provided as follows: \
"Nor shall the total amount OF United
States notes, Issued or to be issued, ever
exceed 100000, 900, and such additional
sum, not exceeding $50 900, 900, as may
be temporarily required for the redemp.
tion OF temporary loan" t...t
Ia that act Congress undertook to d.
two things 1t undertook to provide fo
a further Issue OF long bonds In the ordt
nary way, and it undertook TO provie
for the issue Of Treasury notes IS ten
porary expedient to raise money. II
order 10 show that 1t was not the inter-
tion OF Congress to pay those Treasury
notes in coin, but To renew them IN Tie
form of its legal tender indebtedness,a
provision was expressly inserted In o.
der TO carry that construction, and t
made use OF this exceptional ard staa-
tory term OF 'lawful money" as applid
to the Treasury notes, in order TO quad
against the presumption which woud
otherwise have arisen that whatever tie
United States promised to pay in mong
must be paid in money, and not n
further promises to paw again. So th.t
l contend, and think justly, upon well
known rules of construction, that eyn
the act of June So 1864, passed afer
these legal tenders had been creatd,
upon the face of Is, aud aside from any
extrinsic considerations whatever, faiily
bears the construction that that part OF
the loan, the public debt, the tvetwe1ty
bonds which it authorized, and which
it pledged the faith OF the United STATES
TO pay in dollars, In the language OF he
statute, means dollars, and that whPn
it comes to the next section and plo'
vides for the issuing OF temporary notes
it found it necessary, in order TO disth-
guish that liability from the other, 10
declare in express terms that Instead Of
that loan being paid in coin, in the
money of the Constitution ana OF TIE
country, it should be paid 10 what was
ell Ia frl ~ *
say, the legal tender notes Of the United
States.
Is not that fair construction, sir 2
Can any other fair and legitimate CON-
structiou be drawn from the language
Of that act' Most certainly not; tnd
you will find, and Senators will lnd, as
you run through the whole series of
these war acts OF tiusuce, that the dis.
tinCtion between lawful money" and
the real money OF the country is kept up
in almost every act. Wherever Congress
has intended by the law to pay In lawful
money, as you will call 1t, or rather Ia
renew in lawful money, to change one
security for another, it has said SO. In
order to authorize the Secretary OF, the
Treasury to receive this species OF money
phs nsResatg q the her T Ges mas Vge
ceive bids on these loans and take FOL
them lawful money, certificates OF de
posit,, and, Whatever else would not bS
the general sense of the term, be mones
without the authority OF Congress to ths
Secretary Of the Treasury TO. receive it
The meaning OF these terms and tbs
al
that the legal tenders are 10 be received
for all debts public aud private, il
strongly fortified when you turn to the
twentieth section OF the national bank
act. Nobody has yet contended that the
national bank notes are 8 legal tender
and receivable for the dues Of the United
States to the holders OF our bonds; and
yet Senators will find when they turn to
the twentieth section OF the bank act
that 1t uses in respect TO any debts due
from the United States precisely the same
language that is used Ia the statutes au.
thorizing the legal tenders, and that is,
that they shall be receivable for aE debts
due from the Gnited States to any cred.
itor OF the United States. This only
fortities the conclusion which Is drawn
from all these statutes that wherever
Congress intended to hold out to the pub
lie creditor the fact that he was not to
receive his pay in money, in the real
money OF the country, it found it fit and
necessary to say that he should receive
1t In what was, for the time being, called
the lawful money of the United States.
The act OF March g. 1864 supplement.
airy to the act of March 3, 1853, author
lied the Secretary Of the Treasury to
borrow 5000 900, 900 on coupon or regis,
tered bonds, to he dated March l, 1854,
redeemable after i've years and payable
not more than forty years after date in
coin.
The act OF January Is, 1866, author
lied the issue OF Treasury notes 10 lieu
of bonds unsold under the act of June
so, 1864, and provided that the whole
amount togethersh9uld not exceed $780,
600 600, and with the further proviso
that that act should not authorize the
issue of legal tender notes 10 any form
beyond the ba!snce unissued under the
second sectio~ , the prior act.
The next :, the act Of March 4, 1866
That autho-iz d the Secretary OF the
Treasury to borro w. on tie credit Of the
Il