Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-12-24
POWERS OF CONGRESS.

Some Interesting Reading For Self-Styled
ExpOunders of the COnstitution-Views of
Great Men Who Once shaped Legisla-
ton.
1t may be interesting to many, says
the National Economist in view of the
prolific opinion of numerous self-styled
expounders of the Constitution, to read
extracts from some of the writings and
speeches of those old statesmen the
echoes of whose words have long since
died out 1t is refreshing to note how
squarely they state their propositions,
without bubble or technical reserve. 1t
is presumable that these men under
stood the power of Congress quite as
we'll as their more modern imitators
Benjamin Franklin one of the great
est philosophers and purest statesmen
of his day and the advocate and de-
fender of the Pennsylvania system of
colonial paper money, when called be-
fore committee of Parliament in 1894,
after showing the great advantage the
use of the paper money had been to the
colony, summed up in these words:
On the whole, no method has hitherto
been formed to establish medium of trade,
in lieu of coin, equal in all its advantages to
taxes
for dscharging it at the end of the time and
in the meantime made a general legal ten
der.
Thomas Jefferson, who has the repu-
tation of having drafted the Constitu-
ton. and should certainly understand
with what power it clothes Congress,
when writing to Mr. Epps on the danger
of bank associations, saws:
circulating medium must be restored to the
Nation, to whom it rightly belongs. =
1t is the only resource which can
never fail them, and it is an abundant one
for every necessary purpose Treasury bills,
bOttOmed on taxes, bearing or not bearing
interest as may be found necessary thrown
into circulation, will take the place of so
much gold and silver.
Albert Gallatin, who was twelve wears
Secretary of the Treasury, said:
The right of issuing paper money as cur.
rency, like that of gold and silver, belongs
exclusively to the Nation.
Daniel Webster, who stands acknoWl-
edged as one of the most profound con-
stitutional lawyers and statesmen the
world has ever produced, in a speech
delivered in the United States Senate
on the S1st day of January, 1888, said:
Inc CONSTITUTIONAL power vested IN Con-
gress over the legal currency of the country
is one of the very highest powers and the
exercise of this high power is one of the
strongest bonds of the union of States. 1t ia
not to be doubted that the Constitution in
tended that Congress should exercise a regu-
latng power, power both necessary and
salutary, over that which should CONSTITUTES
the actual money of the country, whether
that money were coin or the representative
of coin,
President Madison. IN his message to
Congress in 1919, said:
1t is essential that the Nation should pos
sess currency of equal value, credit and
use wherever it may circulate. The Consti-
tuition has intrusted Congress, exclusively
with the power of creating and regulating
currency of that description.
In speech delivered in the Senate on
September %. 1884, Mr. Calhoun used
this languages:
The Constitution does not stop with this
grant of the coinage power to Congress 1t
expressly prohibits the States from issuing
bills of credit. The States are therefore pro.
hibited from issuing paper for circulation on
! their own credit, and this provision fur
nishes additional and strong proof that all
circulation, whether coin or paper, was in
tended to be subject to the regulation
and control of Congress. The Constit ,tion
declares that Congress shall haYa poseY 10
nations, but among the States. This is a full
and complete grant and must include author.
ity over everything which is part of com
lneFce. And is not lnoney essential to com.
mercer no man in his senses will deny that,
II Congress, then, has power to regulate
commerce, il must have q control over that
money, whatever IL may be- with which com.
merce is actually carried on, whether that
money be coin or paper. The regulation Of
money is not SO much an inference from the
commercial power of Congress as it Is part
OF Is; Money Is ane Of those things without
WHICH, IN modern time, we can form no
idea OF commerce. ! insist that the
duty OF Congress Is commensurate with
its power. A general and universally
accredited currency, therefore, is an
instrument of commerce, which is necessary
to its just advantages, or, in other words,
! which is essential to its beneficial
regulation. Congress has power to establish
| 1t, and no other power can establish IL, and
| therefore Congress is bound TO exercise 1t
own power. 1t is an absurdity on the very
| face of the proposition to allege that Con-
! gress shall regulate commerce, but shall neF-
ertheless abandon to others the daty of sGs-
tanning and regulating its essential means
! and instruments.
Mr. Dallas who was Secretary of the
Treasury in 1916, said in his report Of
that year:
Whenever the emergency occurs that de-
mands a change of system, it seems neces-
| sarily to follow that the authority which wa
alone competent to establish National cOfp
| T. alone competent 20 create q NATIONAL sub.
Ititnte. T's
In the annual message of President
Madison. OF December 5. 1915 he said:
/ II may become necessary to ascertain thl
terms upon which the notes of the Govern,
naant mo Longer required Is an instrpmeni