The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-10-27

were nominally payable, in present.,
or in future. They knew that when
ever paper currency is not directly and
Immediately, at the mere will of the
holder, redeemable in gold and silver,
it 10, and forever must be, liable to
constant depreciation. We know the
facts nj well Is they. We know that
the treasury notes of the United
States during the late war deprecated
fifty per cent"
IL Peters, $50.
Judge Story: Issuing bills OF credit
resulted in prostrating all private
credit and all private morals, entailing
the most enormous evils on the coun-
try, introducing q system of fraud,
chicanery and profigacy, which de-
stroyed all private confidence and all
industry and enterprise"
Story's commentaries ontle consti-
tuition, sec. 1871.
Jhief Justice Chase said: "There lie
o well known law of currency, that
notes or promises to pay, unless made
conveniently aud promptly converti-
BILE into coin at the will ofsthe holder,
can never, except under unusual and
abnormal conditions, be paid at par
in circulation with coin. No act max
ing them a legal tender a materially
change the operation of this law. It's
force has been strikingly exemplifed
in the history OF the United States
notes. Beginning with q very light de-
probation when first issued, in March,
1862, they sank in July, 1864, to the
rate of $2.S5 for a dollar in gold, and
then rose until recently $1.2O in pa
per became equal to q gold dollar"
Wallace, COS.
The supreme court of the United
States held that the act making United
States treasury notes a legal tender
was constitutional. But in doing SO
the court did not pretend to say that
such notes raj the money contem-
. plated by demonstration. They say:
1.-THE legal tender acts do not attempt
to make paper a standard of value.
Wedo not rest their validity upon the
assertion that their emission is coin.
age, or any regulation of the value of
money" 4
IL Wallace, 457.
Mr.. Justice Bradley said: '"This
power is entirely distinct from that of
coming money and regulating the
value thereof. 1t is incidental to the
power OF borrowing money. 1t is not
an attempt to coin money out of
valueless material. 1t 10 q pledge of
the national credit. 1t is a promise
by the government to pay dollars; it
il not IN attempt to make dollars.
Their payment may not be made di-
rectly In coin, but they may be first
convertible into government bonds,
Dr. other government securities.
Through whatever changes they pass
their ultimate destiny is TO be paid"
II Wallace, 457.
Mr.. Justice Clifford said: paper
emissions have at one time or an
other, been authorized or employed
60 currency by most commercial ma
tions, and by no government, past or
present, more extensively than by the
United States, and yet it is safe to
affirm that all experience in it's use as
q circulating medium has demonstrat-
ed the proposition that it cannot by
any legislation, however stringent, be
made q standard OF value or tie Just
equivalent OF gold and silver. At
tempts OF the kind have always failed,
and no body of men, whether in pub
lie or private stations, ever had more
instructive teachings of the truth of
that remark than the patriotic men
who framed the Federal Constitution,
90 they had seen the power to emit
bills OF credit freely exercised during
the war OF the revolution, not only
by the Confederation, but also by the
States. and knew by bitter experience
It's calamitous effects, and the utter
Worthlessneas OF such q circulating
medium as O standard OF value.
such men, SO instructed, could not
have done otherwise than they did do,
which was to provide an i~rrepealable
standard OF value, to be coined from
gold and silver, leaving as little upon
the subject to the discretion OF con-
gress as was consistent with a wise
forecast and an invincib,e determina-
tion that the essential principles OF
the constitution should be perpetual.
Alexander Hamilton expresses himself
'as utterly opposed TO paper emis-
sions by the United States, character
izing them as so liable to abuse, and
government ought never TO trust it
EUAA WAbu tu6 0b0 IA 30 BGuuCIU2 HuQ
dangerous an element. Even Wash
ington, the father OF our country, re.
fused TO accept paper money in pay
ment OF debts contracted before the
var Of Independence, and the proof is
full on the point, that Hamilton as
well 40 Jefferson and Madison, was
opposed to paper emissions by ma
tional authority
II Wallace, 457.
History u. 8. bank, 21-32.
9 sparks Washington Letters, 32f.
Q Philips Paper Currency.
Daniel Webster, 'the expounder of
the constitution" said: The citculat-
ing medium oil acommercial communi-
ty must be that which is also the CRU
lating medium OF other commercial
communities. or must be capable OF
being converted into that medium
without loss. IL must also be able
not only to pass in payment an d re-
ccipts among individuals OF the same
society and nation, but TO adjust