The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-07-31
AN ANSWER.
Who Is 1t That Labors Under a Hall uein-
alton?


alton?
Senator PETER evidently labors under
the hallucination that money is the crea-
ton of law. If the Senator, who is
slightly infected with free trade notions,
will carefully examine q few ordinary
business transactions of some of his i'm
portant friends, he will get some new
ideas on money.-McPherson Republican.
Many centuries ago Aristotle wrote:
money by itself has value only by
law, and not by nature; so that a
change of convention between those
who use it is sufficient to deprive it of
value and power to satisfy all our
wants
Prof. Francis A. Walker in his work
on Money says: 'sIts power of ac-
but on its quantity"
Appleton's cyclopedia defines money
as follows: The currency of the
realm or country; the standard of pay
ment whether of coins, circulating
notes or any other commodity. Any
thing which freely circulates from
hand to hand, as a common accept
able medium of exchange in any coun-
try, is, in such country money, even
though it cease to be such, or to
possess any value, in passing into an
other country. In a word, an article
is determined to be money by reason
of the performance by it of certain
functions, without regard to form or
substance"
Among the powers of congress
enumerated by the constitution CT the
United States in this one: ITO coin
money and regulate the value there
Of"
And there is not farthing of money
of any material or denomination cur
rent in the United States to-day that is
not coined in accordance with the
terms of a law for that purpose made
and provided.
Henry Cernuschi a most distin-
guished French writer on finance, said
before the monetary commission in
1877: ''Money is a value created by
law. Its basis is legal and not ma
terial. 1t is perhaps, not easy to con-
vince one that the value of metallic
money is created by law. It is, how
ever, the fact.
The supreme court of the United
States in the cases of Knox VS.. Lee
and Parker VS.. Davis, which were con-
solidated, made use of the following
language: 1.-The constitution was in
RI fy,oy lie
tinguished from league or compact,
a government supreme in some par
ticulars over states and people. 1t was
designed to provide the same currency
having a uniform legal value in all
the states. 1t was for this reason the
power to coin money or regulate it's
value was conferred upon the federal
government. while the same power to
emit bills of credit was withheld from
the states. The states no longer can
declare what shall be money, or regu-
late its value. Whatever power there
is over the currency is vested in Con-
gress. If the power to declare what
is money is not in Congress it is
annihilated."
Again in the same case: By the
obligation of a contract to pay money
is to pay that which the law shall
recognize as money when the payment
is made.
If there is anything settled by
decision it is this, and we do not
understand it to be converted. No one
ever doubted that a debt of 81 900,
contracted before 1884, could be paid
by one hundred eagles coined after
that year, though they contained no
more gold than ninety-four eagles
when the contract was made; and this
is not because of the intrinsic value of
the coin, but because of its legal value
Advocate.