The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-02-09
WASHINGTON.
The Decision of the U. o. Supreme Court
ON the Legal Tender Law-The Dis.
seniing Opinion.

Especial Dispatch by Western Union Linel,
WASHINGTON, Feb 5-The opinion of the
majority of the present members OF the Su .
preme Court, delivered yesterday by Chief
Justice Chase, is causing some excitement, not
only on account of the disastrous effect such
decision would have upon the business inter-
est Of the country, but as foreshadowipg others,
tmpairing the validity of other war measures of
the reconstruction acts. Fortunately two new
Judges, known to agree with. Justices Miller,
Davis and Swayne, are soon to take their
places on the bench, when, on a new case, the
present decision will undoubtedly be revised.
The following logical and patriotic language
from the dissenting opinion of Justice Miller
is in refreshing contrast with the special plead
ing and pettifogging OF Chief Justice Chase:-
'Does there exist, then, any power in Con-
gress or in the Government, by express grant,
to the execution of which this legal tender act
was necessary and proper in the sense here
defined and under the circumstances of its
passage? The power to declare war, to sup
press Instruction, to raise and support armies,
to provide and maintain navy, to borrow
money on the credit of the United States, to
ply the debts of the Union, and to provide for
the common defence and general welfare are
each and all distinctly and specifically granted
in seperate clauses of the Constitution. We
were ir the midst of war which called all
these powers into exercise, and taxed them Sc
verely; war, which, if we take into account
the increased capacity for destruction intro
duced by modern science and the correspond
ing increase of its cost, brought into operation
powers of belligerency more potent and more
expensive than any that the world has ever
seen. All the ordinary means of rendering efic-
lent the severa! powers of Congress above men
toned had been employed to their utmost ca.
pacity, and with the spirit of the rebellion un.
broken, with large armies in the field unpaid,
with current expenditure of $4,000 900 per
day, the credit of the Government nearly ex-
hausted and the resources of taxation made
auate to pay even the interest on tle pnhlin
debt, Congress was called on. Tue credit of
the nation for the result of the war was con-
coded by all thoughtful men to depend on the
capacity of the Government to raise money in
amounts previously unknown. The banks had
already loaned their means to the Treasury.
They had been compelled to suspend the pay
ment of specie on their own notes; the coin in
the country, if it could all have been placed
within the control of the Secretary would not
have made circulation sufficient to answer
army purposes and army payments, to say
nothing of the ordinary business of the country.
A general collapse of credit, of payment and
of business seemed inevitable; in which faith
in the inability of the government would have
triumphed, the States would have been left
divided and the people impoverished. The
national government would have persisted
and with it the constitution which we are nov
called upon to construe with such nice and
critical accuracy. That the legal tender act
prevented these disastrous results, and that
the tender clause was necessary to prevent
them, entertain no doubt OBSERVER.