The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-07-16
STABLE CURRENCY.
IN IMPORTANT BILL REPORTED IN
REGARD TO GOLD CON TRACTS.
Making Any Money Legal Tender Discredit-
inga Nations Currency Has Been Punish-
able by Death in Some Countries.

| Washington, July 14.-(Special)- 1.-The judi
| ciary committee of the house has just made
| favorable report upon bill of much I'M
portance
1t is a measure of but four lines, intro
| duced by Mr.. Lane, of Illinois, and reads
THAT all contracts for the payment or
| any sum of money whether in gold, silver
| or coin, may be discharged by any money
| which is by law a legal tender for the
| payment of debts when the contract ma
| lures"
| In it's report, the committee recommends
| the passage of the bill, saying it finds that
| the purpose of this bill is to regulate the
| practice in the federal courts in regard to
! entering judgments, in requiring such judg-
! ments to be expressed in dollars and parts
| of dollars, and to preserve the stability ana
| uniformity of our currency"
The report further says:
"The law now is that gold, and silver
| coin and treasury notes are legal tender
| for the payments of all debts, public and
| private There are some exceptions in re-
gard to the payments of customs, ETC., In
treasury notes, but this has no application
to judgments between private parties The
law makes coined money and treasury notes
a legal tender in the payment of private
debts, that is, makes both kinds of money
equal for this purpose and neither the
courts nor private individuals have the
right to annul the law.
''The law is greater than the court or
the individual, and neither have the right
to set it aside. The courts have no power
to legislate or to annul the laws of con-
grtss, to permit private parties to set
aside q public statute. This the federal
courts have done in holding that judg-
ment can be entered in coined dollars,
which is done for the very purpose of an
nuling the act of congress making treasury
notes a legal tender for the payment OF
fell n
credit the money of the realm. The courts
of France have held that parties cannot,
by special contracts, discriminate between
the bank notes of the Bank of France,
which are made legal tender, and coin
money, which is also a legal tender.
MANY other nations of the earth even
went further and made it a crime punish
able by death to discredit the money OF
the country.
\ Crime in Some Countries.
'"rhe state courts of many of the states
of the union have passed on this question,
and they hold the law substantially as 1t
was held by the court in France.
These decisions We're rendered in the
state courts after the passage of the legal
tender act by congress and before the de-
cision of the United States supreme court
was fully known. A few of the cases will
be examined and the date of trial given
Then a large number of decisions are
cited from state courts, which hold lnde-
pendenty of this bill, and on general prin-
ciples that any money which is legal tender
may be used in the discharge of any dept
whether made payable in gold or not
These decisions We're made prior 10 the
ruling of the supreme court in 1858 in the
case of Bronson VS.. Rodes G Wall, 229),
when bond or note was given Tor Sl,4o0,
payable in gold and silver coin, with Z per
cent interest, payable also III coin. A ten
der of $l,507 in United States notes, the
nominal amount of the note, was made and
refused.
"At this time 81 in coin was worth Sz2o IN
United States notes. So the question is
here fairly presented whether the United
States notes have an equal debt-paymg
power as coin and whether the pracllce
should be that judgments may be entered
for coined dollars and parts Of dollars on
coin contracts, and in dollars generally in
other cases. In this case, the supreme court
of New York held that the plea OF tender
was not a good plea, but on appeal to the
supreme court in general term the plea was
held good. and this Judgment was affirmed
by the court of appeals of New ork ana
the case was brought to the United States
supreme court, when the judgment was re-
yersed, Justice Miller dissenting.
THE United States supreme court held IN
this case that a bond or note, payable IN
gold and silver coin, must be paid in coined
dollars, and that such judgments may be
entered for coined dollars and parts of
dollars.
There is no disposition to criticise this
decision, but it might be said in passing
that it was a judicial curiosity. When con
gress made treasury notes legal tender
it was clearly the intention to give those
notes the same purchasing and debt-paylng
power as coin, and public policy demanded
that the statutes should be so construed.
ic a
innovation in our judicial practice"
the Object of the Bill.
The object of this bill is to require all
courts Notwithstanding the ruling of the
supreme court of the United States, to hold
that all debts, whether payable IN gold ana
silver CT not by their terms, may be salts
fled by the payment of any money made
legal tender by the statutes OF the United
States.
Among many decisions from state courts
cited supporting it is this one:
ON 1873 in Glover VS.. Robbins (43 Ca,
21W the note was of date october TO- 1864,
and in five years after date promised to
pay $500 in specie with per cent interest.
The trial court in this case rendered the
following Judgment
ct is therefore considered and ordered
bv the court that the plaintiff have and
recover of the defendant the said sum of
81 54015 in gold silver coin, or its equlva-
lent in United States currency, for which
execution may issue to be levied and col
lected in gold or silver coin, or its equlVa-
lent in United States currency, and also
that the said plaintiff have and recover of
said defendant the costs of this suit, for
which execution may issue to be levied in
United States currency
ION appeal the supreme court of Georgia
reversed this Judgment and in the opinion,
among other things, said:
"'Yet, as the debt was contracted long
after the passage of the legal tender acts
of congress regulating the payment of such
contracts, the judgment should have been
for so many dollars only, leaving it to be
discharged in any legal tender currency or
money of the United States
Contracts and Public Policy.
In concluding it's report after citing many
other decisions, the committee says:
''Parties cannot make contracts in viola
| ton of public policy. The statute of usury
| cannot be annulled by contract; gambling
| contracts and contracts for the sale of
| margins and for speculation in the rise
| and fall of commodities and contracts for
the sale of puts and calls and contracts
! in restraint of trade are all void
! "a contract to defeat a public statute Is
! void No lawyer will deny this proposition
| for it can only be sustained by unlimited
| authority from the courts of this and other