New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-01-19
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Opinion on the LegaI.Tender Acts.

~ 0l0Do OF nvo OF more.
Opinion on the Lesal.Tender Acts.
WASHINGTON, January 13.-Justice Strong
delivered his opinion in tie Supreme Court
to-day in the legal-tender case, substantially
as follows:
The debts which have been contracted
since February Is. 1872, are by far the
greatest portion of the Indebtedness of the
country. They were contracted IN view OF
acts OF Congress declaring treasury notes
legal tender, and in reliance upon that
declaration legal-tender notes have become
the universal measure of valuables. If the
court should decide that these obligations
can be discharged only by gold, the govern
ment has an instrument of the grOssest in
Justice. There is no well founded distinction
to be made between the constitutional va
lidity of an act of Congress declaring treas
ury notes legal tender for the payment OF
debts contracted after its passage and that
of an act making them legal tender for the
discharge of all debts, as well those in
Cured before as those incurred after its
enactment, but in both cases the funda-
mental question, that which tests the validity
of legislation, is can Congress constitution
ally give to the treasury notes the character
and qualities of money! Can such notes
be constituted legal circulating medium,
having defined legal value A lengthy
examination of rules of constitutional con-
struction is made, and the conclusion is that
Congress has authority in all cases to enact
laws necessary and proper for the execution
of all power created by the constitution,
and that the necessity spoken Of is not alb
solute, but within the judgment and discre-
ton of Congress. 1t is determined that
one of the duties of the government is to
preserve itself, and hold that this govern
.ment is possessed of all necessary powers
to that end AID that after a statement OF
the condition of the country at the date OF
the issue of legal tender. the circumstances
of war and means required to maintain t
army and navy, it is said that If 1t weA
certain that nothing else would have
supplied the absolute necessities OF the
treasury that nothing else would have
enabled the government to MAINTAIN
its armies and navy; that nothing
else would have saved the government and
constitution from destruction, while the
legal tender acts would. 1t can not be said
that Congress transferred its power in the
enactment of those laws, or if those enact
ments did work the result, it can not be
maintained now that they were not for
legitimate end and appropriate and adapted
to that end. In the language OF Mr.. Mar
shall, in McCulloch VS.. Maryland, that they
did work such results can not be doubted,
and if it be conceded that some other
means might have been chosen for the &C
the argument is not weakened by the con-
cession. Congress had choice of the means,
and it chose a sufficient and proper one: and
that it had right to do, and that Is all 1t
could have done. If the court were to hold
that the means selected were beyond the
constitutional power of Congress, because,
in their opinion. some other means would
have been equally appropriate and efficient,
that would be to assume legislative power
and to disregard accepted rules for con-
STRUNG the constitution. The grant to
Congress of power to coin money can not be
regarded as containing an implied prohibit
ton against the issue of legal tender notes,
and if it raises any implications they
are of complete power over the currency
rather than restraining. The objection that
the legal tender impairs obligations Of con-
tracts can not be accepted, for it is not an
obligation of debt or to pay gold or silver,
as to contracts, but to pay money generally,
not contracts; to pay specifically
defined money or kind of money recognized
by law at the time when the contract was
made; nor is it his duty to pay money of
equal intrinsic value in market. The expect
alton of the creditor and anticipation OF the
debtor may have been that the contract
would be discharged by the payment of
coined metal. but neither the expectation
of one party to the contract concern
ing its fruits nor anticipations OF the
other constitute its obligations. The
obligation of contract to pay money IS to
paw that which the law shall recognize as
money when payment is to be made. If
there is ANYTHING settled by the decision, it
ia this. and it cannot be understood to be
controyerted. As to the objection that the
legal tender acts were prohibited by consti-
tutional provision prohibiting the taking OF
private property for public use without just
COMPENSATION, it is said that the provision
has always been understood to refer only 10
direct appropriation and not to consequent
tial injuries resulting from the exercise OF
lawful power. The objection that unit OF
money value must possess intrinsic value
is regarded as foreign to the subject. The
legal tender acts do not attempt TO make a
standard of value; their validity Is not
rested upon the assertion that their omls-
sion is coinage or any regulation of value OF
money: nor Is it asserted that Congress has
power to enact that the government prom
ises to paw money that shall be for the time
being equivalent in value to a representa-
tive of the value determined by coinage
acts. or to multiples thereof. This decision
overrules so much of what was decided in
Hepburn VS.. Griswald Is Wall, 6O3), as
ruled the legal tender acts unwarranted by
the constitution SO far as they apply to con
tracts made before their enactment.
Mr.. Justice Bradley read lengthy
opinion c0ncufIIuS Ill thc SohNi"3'oi-' VI
Justice Strong.
DISSENTING OPINIONS.
The CbiefJustice and Justices Clifford ana
Field all dissenting justices, except Justice
Nelson, who was not present, read dissent
ing opinions, setting forth at great length
the minority views with which the country
is familiar, as having been the oplnion OF
the court in former decision OF the legal
tender question.
In concluding, the Chief Justice says: III
then the plain sense Of words, if the con-
temporaneous exposition Of parties of com
mon consent in an understanding; II the
Opinions of courts avail anything in deter
mining the meaning of the constitution, it
seems impossible to doubt that the power
to coin money is power to establish a uni