Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1893-10-18
ABOUT SILVER COINAGE.

treated the question from a consti
 tutional or legal standpoint. Il
 view of this fact, information on thi
 feature of the question should cer
 tainly prove interesting and it seem
 that silver has the best side of tn,
 argument either from a constitu
 tional or legal standpoint. Hon
 Edwards Pierrepont, once attorney
 general of the United States, anC
 later minister to England, in a let
 ter published in the New Yorl
 Times of April Is, 1884, which wal
 long after the silver demonetizatior
 act, used this emphatic language;
 There is not an outstandins
 bond, coupon or greenback issued
 by the United States which can't h,
 lawfully paid in silver. Not one ot
 them on its face or back, or in the
 statute authorizing the issue, or in
 declaration, or in resolution of con.
 greSs, has any proviso that they
 shall be paid in gold. And the act
 of February 2S, 1878, directing the
 coinage of silver dollars, provides
 that they shall be a legal tender at
 their nominal value for all debts
 and dues, public and private, except
 where otherwise expressly stipula-
 ted in the contract
 So far as the constitution is con-
 eerned it is also on the side of silver.
 Discussing this feature of the ques-
 tion, in the American Journal of
 Politics, James S. Fisher says:
 "The constitution had changed the powers of congress from in ose held under the articles of confedera- tion but little on the money oues- tion. The power was expressed like all other powers in that instrument, in short, clear, concise, and unmis- takaSle language. It was simply The congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin" It was a bare power, coupled with no interest, and without discretiou. Mining for gold and silver is as le- gitlmate business as raising wheat and corn. In both occupations there may at times be surplus, or there may be deficiency. If a surDlus. m either it takes less labor; it deficiency, more, to ootain a necessary supply. But congress has not prop5sed to limit the supply of bread to the people, and why should it attempt to limit the supply of the money which buys bread so long as it has a substantial basisi The right to do one under the constitution is just as apparent as the right to do the other.
 But for the information of the general reader, reference may be had here to rule of interpretations of the United States constitution piysn by the instrument itself. The rule IS that congress has no power except that which is expressly delegated to the United States by the constitu- ton, and that the respective states possess all the powers not delegated 10 the United States by the consti- | tuition, nor prohibited by it to the 1 states.
 But the constitution made great and vital changes as to the powers | Df the state OF the coinage of money. That power Is an important one and | DO state will voluntarily surrender [ without good and adequate con ilderation. For a state 10 abandon ts right to furnishits citizens with , currency with which to carry on ts business, without any security hat its people should be supplied with a circulating medium in ade luate volume, would be as great of the people to a for Ign power as 1t would be ta compel he United States to secure the con ent Of foreign nations that we again "a permitted to use silver coin as a ender in payment of debts. The declares that, no state hall coin money, emit bills of credit r make anything but gold and sil- CT coin a tender in the payment O. Iebts." It strips the state of all lower over the currency of the coun- ", except to declare gold and sil- CT coin without distinction a legal snder, but congress must coin the loney and regulate its value. In S lat respect the law of congress is lpreme and may establish any ratio etween gold and silver, but cannot [ emonetize either gold or silver I either can congress declare either q ne tender in payment of debts; i can regulate the value of all met f Is coined by its authority and in le receipts and expenditures of the q venue that value obtains. "For the sake of uniformity in f le appearance and value of the C 'ins the thirteen states surrendered s ie power to coin money to Con t -ess, and Congress became obli- t Ited to execute that power and a d 90. 1t coined gold and silver \ in and regulated its value because a state can make any thing but c id and silver coin a tender in 1; Iyment of debts. The states n yer would have deprived them e Ives of the power to coin money IT d then conine themselves to gold O d silver coin as money unless ID was bound by the consti si tian to do the coining. They .s rendered that power on condition ol at Congress should execute it." d The above clearly demonstrates u at the constitution of the United te ltes hss placed the country on a Il Id and silver basis without dis ., ction of metals, and to change d, equires a change in the constitu- n. From a constitutional stand mt then it may be pertinently ed where Congress obtained the ~ hority to say that five dollars in co 'er coin is good money but that M
 dollars Is noti Where does it the authority from, to place any De n, it on the amount of silver that ? be used as legal tenderi It m' id seem that if Congress would M' , the discussion of who will or 'ls will not be benefited by coin "S < of silver and hunt up the con- out ution of the United States and wr it as guide it should not take tio ,, -.aal. Al.