Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-02-15

SASNiV VI tue gONSFuucuJ Is aOlc 10
impart a generous and growing val
ue to its paper, independent of its
character as money. But every man
and woman in the nation whose
memory reaches so far back as 1862,
when tho legal tender act was pass
ed, knows very well, that such was
not the credit of the government at
that time, and during the war when
all the despotic and aristocratic
croakers on both sides Of the Allan
tic, from Louis Napoleon to Geo. B.
Smith and Brick Pomeroy, predict
ed that Uncle Sam could not, and
ought not, to succeed in crushing out
the rebellion, and the democratic
party IN convention assembled at
Chicago, declared the wer to be a
failure Has the Chief Justice for
gotten these perilous times Is his
brain sottening while his heart is
petrifying? Does he not know that
almost the entire value Of the nation
al currency was due to the varied
and manifold uses to which it could
he applied =? 1t would pay national
and State taxes, and what is moro
important, it would pay the millions
OF private indebtedness. If it could
not have done this, what would it
have been worth? Gold in these
periloUs times. for gold is coward,
Immediately disappeared, and if
creditors who had demands earlier
than 1862, had retained the power Of
coercing payments III gold, half the
country, counties, towns, cities and
people would have been plunged in
bankruptcy and ruin, almost as de-
plorahlo as war Itself. 1t is clear to
us that il was necessary to the use
tulness and capacity Of the national
paper to make it q legal tender,
reaching back into the past Us well
as the future and it is equally clear
to Us, that this is not Il judicial ques-
ton, and f our reasoning is rs sound,
| tho Hera'd's opinion on it is worth
Just as much as Chief Justice Chase's
And Wo could inform The Judge,
that IN our opinion, even gold and
silver derive almost all their value
from the fact that the government
makes these metals legal tender
for debts.
The majority Of the Court rest
their opinion upon another clause OF
tho Constitution that which prohib-
its the general government from Ia
king private property without just
compensation. To compel credit
or whose debt was contracted prior
to the passage Of the legal tender
act, to accept such paper In payment,
when he should have been paid in
gold, the Court regards as condem-
nation OF the creditors money to the
uses of tho government, without any
just compensation This is about
the widest shot any court ever made,
unless Justice is literally as well as
iguratiyely blind. Did the govern
ment get q cont of the creditors
money But this sophmorical argu-
ment is at war with what the Court
assumes that Congress, asincidental
to its war-power, could issue paper
promises TO pay money, and make
them legal tender in payment OF
subsequent debts. AS incidental and
part OF th@t power, il could seize on
all the property the creditor bad, il
necessary could seize upon his per-
son, and use his very life in defense
OF his country. 1t is true, it must
make him Just compensation. If q
creditor prior to 1862, should COM
plain that by the legal tender act, bis
property had been appropriated by
the government, he should apply to
the government for redress as other
persons have to do, whose property
was taken or destroyed by the ne
cessities of the war 1t was by
means OF this act that the govern
ment saved itself, and saved the
creditors and but for this, the chanc-
es are that he would have lost al in
the general ruin. But if tho govern
ment owes him compensation, it has
nothing TO do with the validity Of
tho law.
The position assumed by the Court,
If correct, puts it out Of the nation to
save itself If ever threatened by an
other war as perilous as the slave
holders rebellion. People will never
take legal tenders for previous debts
again. And If the stability of the
! government were distrusted rs it was
in tho dark period Of the rebellion,
it's paper would not be worth con-
tinental
This decision, ii it has any force,
sill press hard on States, cities,
counties and corporations which con-
tractei debts previous to 1862. 1t
will add tor instance, between one
and two hundred thousand to the
debt OF Iowa County. 1t will give
on impetus to the doctrine Of repudi-
alton which we look forward to with
dread. It's effect may DO Modified
should grecnbacks become equal To
gold if nos, it will be as heavy q
mill stone around the neck Of, the Su-
preme Court rs the bred Scott de-
cisiOn, and may lead to reorganiza-
ton OF that body. This decision
shields the creditor class from the
common calamity of war and while
mountain loads Of debt press heavily
on all other Interests, :and threaten
to curtail the profits Of labor for gen.
erations to come, the man that had
his means invested in bonds and
mortgages previous to 1862, comes
out unscatbed, and monopolizes the
benefits of the Constitution as though
il were formed for himself alone.
FIFTH AssEMBLY.-A convention
of the republican voters of this As
sembly District is called to meet at
Bloomington on Saturday, Feb. goth,
to elect two delegates to attend the