Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-09-02
(From the N. Y. Tribmne.)
PAPER MONEY.

Nearly forty years ago Daniel Web
ster, the greatest constitutional LAWYER
and one of the greatest, ifnot the great
est, statesman our country has produced,
uttered the following memorable Ian
guage in the United States Senate:
Most unquestiably there is no legal
tender in this country. under the au-
thority of this Government or any 9th.
er, but gold and silver, either the COIN
age of our own mints, or foreign coins
at rates regulated by Congress. This
is a constitutional principle. perfectly
plain and Of the very highest import
ance. The States are expressly pro-
hibited from making anything but gold
and silver a legal tender in payment of
debts. and although no such express
prohibition is applied to Congress, vet
as Congress has no power granted to it
in this respect, but to coin money, and
regulate the value of foreign coins, il
clearly has no power to substitute pa
per or anything else for coin as a ten
der in payment of debts and in dis
charge of contracts. Congress has ex-
ercised this power fully in both its
branches It has coined money and
still coins it; it has regulated the value
Of foreign coins, and still regulates their
value. The legal tender, therefore, the
constitutional standard Of value, is es-
tablished and cannot be overthrOwn.-
To overthrow it would be to shake the
Ihole system. Of all the contrivances
for cheating the laboring classes Of man
kind, none has been more effectual than
that which deludes them with paper
money. Ordinary tyranny, oppression,
excessive taxation-these bear lightly
on the happiness of the community,
compared with fraudulent currency,
and the robberies committed hy depre-
ciated paper. Our own history has re-
corded for our instruction enough and
more than enough of the demoralizing
tendency, the injustice and the intoler-
bic oppression on the virtuous and well
disposed. of degraded paper currency
authorized, or in any way countenanced,
by the Government.
These remarks of the great orator and
statesman were unchallenged in the
Senate and out of it; nobody then
doubted their correctness. 1t must be
borne in mind that Mr.. Webster was
not strict constructionist Of the Con.
stitution, and yet in this passage he de-
nies the right Of Congress to make any
thing but gold and silver legal tender
in payment Of debts. 1t will also be
remembered that he favored well regu.
lated and convertible paper money,
while he denounced in indignant Ian.
guage an inconvertible and deprecated
| currency.
In opposition to this opinion of Mr.
Webster. and Notwithstanding his warn.
ing-a warning justified by the history
of other nations as well as Of our own
Congress. under the pressure of a
great emergency (but as temporary
and war measure only. in February,
1862. passed an act authorizing the is.
sue of notes which should be a legal
tender in payment of debts-the full
mischief of which first step in the wrong
direction has not Vet, fear, been real
lied. Under this and subsequent acts
S4oo, 100000 were issued-nearlv the
full amount of which is still in circula-
tion-more than thirteen years after
the first issue, and more than nine
years after the emergency, which, and
which only. in the opinion of those who
advocated the measure, justified it, had
ceased.
In speech at Fort Wayne, in Octo-
Der, 1866, the Secretary of the Treasu-
~ foreshadowed his own policy, and
what he thought should be and would
be the National policy, in the following
language:
am not one Of those who seem to be
disposed to repudiate COIN as q meas
ure Of value, and to make q secured pa
Per currency the standard. On the
contrary, 1 belong to that class Of per.
sons who. regarding an exclusively me-
tailc currency as an impracticable thing
among an enterprising and commercial
people. nevertheless look upon an un-
redeemable currency as an evil which
circumstances may for time (seem to)
render necessity, but which is never
to be sustained as o policy. By CON-
mon consent of the nation gold and sill.
yer are the only true measure Of value.
1 have myself no more doubt that
these metals were prepared bv tke Al.