Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-05

lawyer in the world who can find ii there,
or who viii risk his reputation in even the
lowest courfs Of justice, by saying he can
More than this such a question was not
In the remotest degree embraced in the
case decided by the court read the
statement of the case as made, in the open
ing sentence Of his official opinion, by
Chief Justice Chase. 1t is as follows:
''The question presented for our deter
mination by the record in this case, is
whether or not the payee or assignee Of a
note, made before the 25th of February,
1862, is obliged by law to accept in pay
ment United States notes, equal in nominal
amount to the sums due according to its
terms, when rendered by the maker or other
party bound to pay it p
This Is the case as presented by the
record Is it the case presented by the
Senator? Does it bear the slightest resem-
blance to it :? 1t states but one plain and
easily understood proposition Is a man
bound to take paper money for note made
to him before paper money was by law a
| Legal tender? Can he call forgold orsilver,
which were the only legal tender when his
| contract was made? That was all there
was before the Court, and nothing else was
decided. And if anything beyond the
decision itself can be implied, the
implication is precisely opposed to the
statement of Senator Morton. The Court
held that the law of legal tender existing
at the time the contract was made governed
its payment It held, therefore, that
| note given when coin was the only legal
tender before the act of Feb. IS,
1862, was to be paid in coin because such
was the law at the time of its creation.
Hence, if an inference is at all TO be drawn
beyond what is expressly decided in the
text, one would arise from this reasoning
with the force of an irresistible conclusion
that the bonds issued under the law making
paper money legal tender, are payable in
paper money, unless it was otherwise spe-
cially provided in their face But am now
combining myself to the exact case as made
by the record and decided by the Court.
and here state
First-That the question whether the
governments bonds or any portion of them
could be paid in legal tender notes. either
OF the old ISSUES, or Of a reissue, or of n
new issue was not before the Court by the
record.
Second-Fhat the printed brief which I
hold in my hand of the eminent counsel,
Hon. GARRISON n. Potter, who made the
argument for the construction of law sus-
tanned by the Court, does not in the remot-
est manner discuss or allude to the kind of
money in which debts contracted since
Feb. 25, 1862, are payable.
Third have the word of the learned
and justly distinguished Chief Justice, to
me personally given, that the question: Of
the payment OF the bonds or of any other
debts created subsequent to the 25th of
February, 1862, or the character and quail
ty of the money in which they are payable
was not considered, much less decided in
the opinion rendered by the Court
Gentlemen, can you reason with man
whose premises are always false Can you
argue with man who meets you at the
Threshold Of discussion with statements
intended TO mislead and deceive? You can
only expose him and FIX him in reproach
before the public opinion Of the world 4
visible punishment, inflicted in the pres
ence Of the multitude, carrying total deg
radiation to the victim, has been adopted in
the different ages by different nations 1t
was most commonly reserved for cheats
and imposters. Titus Oates, after long de-
ceiving the people Of England, was
scourged through The streets of London at
the tail Of a cart. The whipping post, the
stocks and the pillory have all had their
cruel and Infamous uses, but the horrid
humiliation of them all combined can not
equal that suffocating cloud of shame
which falls like a loathsOme leprosy upon a
man in high station who is exposed and
impaled in the very act of swindling the
toiling masses out of their daily earnings
by the fragrant perversion OF the truth.
The Senator stands transfxed before the
gaze of those whom he has SO long de-
luded by mere naked assertions, destitute
of the shadow of proof.
CONCLUDED TO MORROW