The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-01-22

r. r. DEWEES,
Chairman of the National Committee.
This report was adopted without de-
bate by unanimous rising vote.
The ConstituliOnaiity OF tho Legal
Tender Quality Of Greenbacks!
Hair splitting will do for amuse-
ment and mental exercise of the dia.
lectician, but is altogether out Of place
in practical statesmanship. The Chi
cago Tribune is opposed to depriying
the present greenbscks of their legal
tender quality, for one reason, among
others, viz: That the American Gov
ernment is 'cOnstit0tionally pgohibit-
ed from making Treasury notes legal
tender, except as a war power In time
of deadly perii,' and could not, there
fore, issue new legal tender currency
until such peril should again occur.
So we should not now deprive the
present greenbacks of their legal ten.
der quality, since there is no telling
when they could be replaced. All
that il an acknowledgment of the
great value of the present greenback
legal tender notes as currency.
Ii Congress can order the issue of
Treasury notes as q National currency
it certainly can give to them such form
and quality as would make them most
available for that purpose. We think
that is indisputable. Both-the 1851
ing of Treasury notes as q National
currency and the making of them q
legal tender-rest on the same consti.
tutionai authority. Once admit, as
the Tribune does, that tho Govern
ment has the constitutional power to
issue u paper currency, it logically
follows that Congress can cOnstitu-
tionaIly impart to such National cur
rency such qualities as, in Its judg-
ment, may mako such currency most
efficient for the purpose for which il
was issued. The constitutional power
does not, therefore, depend for its ex-
ercise upon q time Of deadly peril as
the Tribune says it does. Justice
Brady, in his opinion in the legal
tender cases, II Wallace, page 567,
says on this very point: IL do not
say that it is war power, or that it is
"only to be called into exercise in
"time of war, for other public exigen-
" cies may arise in the history OF Ma
I" ton which may make it expedient
sand imperative to exercise it. But
"of the occasion when and of the time
show long it shall be exercised and
" in force, it is for the Legislative De-
.partment of the Government to
=" judge" Justice Bradley was then
speaking of the constitutional power
of Congress to issue National cur
rency. Of the power of Congress to
confer on such currency legal tender
Oualitv he said page $50:
"No one doubts at the present day,
the power of the Government to emit
the Government without question for
q large portion of it's history. This
being conceded, the incidental power
of giving such bills the quality Of legal
tender follows almost as a matter of
cOuraa Whath
er those issues shall, or shall not, be
receivable in payment of private debts
is an incidental matter in the discre-
strained by constitutional prohibition
That is very plain and very logical.
If Congress-whose discretion in the
matter can not be revised by any
Court, because it is supreme consid.
ers that by making the notes it issues
as currency for the country
legal tender, the object for which they
are issued will be better subserved by
making them legal tender, it has the
same constitutional power to impart
to them that quality as 1t has to issue
the notes themselves. The main ques-
ton is, has Congress the power TO is
sue National currency at all? If it
has, irnpsrting the legal tender quality
to such cui rency is incidental 10 the
main power, aud rests in the discre-
ton OF Congress, as does that of issu.
ing the currency itself. First settle
the question whether Congress has the
constitutional power TO issue Ma
tIonal currency. If that shall be de-
eided in the negative, the legal tender
question will, of course, be decided
in the negative also. If it shall be de-
cided in the affirmative 0. the question
of legal tender ceases to be debatable
as constitutional question, and be-
comes question OF expediency and
of that eXpediency Congress is the
sole judge. That Is substantially the
decision of the Supreme Court in the
legal tender cases reported in the II
WalIacp II Eunnirar