The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-10-04

appropriate In any degree (rcr We are nOb
Judges of chat degree Of appropriateness or
we must hold they were prohibited"
On page 645 IL is said:
'The constitution was intended to frame
a government az distinguished from league
or compact, government supreme in some
particulars over states and people. IL was
designed TO provide the same currency hsv-
ing uniform legal value in all the states.
It was for this reason tho power TO coin
money and regulate its value was conferred
upon the federal government, while the
same power 10 emit bills Of credit was with
held from tho states. The states no longer
can declare what shall be money or reg
ulate its value. Whatever power there is
over the currency is vested in congress.
IF the poDer to declare iChGt Is money @ not IN
congress, u 20 GnNtStlated,"
On page SAG the court says:
"And generally when one Of such powers
was expressly denied TO theststes only, 10
was for the purpose Of rendering the fed
eral power more complete and exclusive;
hon sensible, then. nS trainers must hGUe been
that emergencies might artsC SUISeD the precious
metals night prove Inadequate to the ReOesSt-
ties Of the government and the people
when il is remembered that paper money
was almost exclusively in use in the states
as a medium Of exchange, and when the
great evil sought TO be remedied was the
want Of uniformity in the current value Of
money, ID might be argued, we say, thatthe
gift of the power 10 coin money and regu-
late the value thereof, was understood as
conveying general power over the currency,
and which had belonged to the states, and
which they had surrendered"
Mr.. Justice Strong, who there delivers the
opinion Of the court, on page 647, says:
Undoubtedly the power TO regulate che
value of money coined, and Of foreign
coins, Is not exhausted by the first regula-
ton.
"More than once in our history has the
regulation been changed without any denial
Of the power Of congress TO change IL. And
il seems 10 have been left TO congress TO de-
termine alike what metal shall be coined,
its purity, and how. far itg statutory value
as money shall correspond, from time to
time, with the market value Of the same
metal as bullion"
Speaking further, on page $685. he says;
''It is hardly correct TO speak Of q stand
ard Of value. The constitution does not
speak Of il. II Contemplates standard for
that which has gravity or extension.
''But value is an ideal thing. The coinage
AUts Ak its units as a dollar; but the gold or
silver thing we call dollar 10 in no sense
standard of q dollar. It is q representative
Of IL. There might never have been q piece
Of money Of the denomination of dollar.
There never was q pound sterling coined
until 1915, If we except q few coins struck in
the reign Of Henry VIII, almost immedi-
ately debsSed, yet IL has been the unit Of
British currency for many generations"
He further says, ON page 647:
1.-THE constitution does not oEdain what
metals may be coined, or prescribe that the
legal value Of the metals when coined shall
correspond at all with their intrinsic value
In the market"
And on page 64s he says:
mo one ever doubted that debt Of
81, 900, contracted before 1884, could be paid
by 100 eagles coined after that year, though
they contained no more gold than "a eagles
such az were coined when the contract was
made, and this, not because Of the intrinsic
value Of the coin, but because Of its legal
value. The eagles coined after 1884 were
not money until they were authorized BY
law, and had they been coined before with