The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-03-30
Legal-Tender Quality Of Money

NO. Picsyune.]
Elsewhere the Picayuue prints q
communication from Mr.. j. T.
Howell, of Baton Rouge, asking
questions which involve the mean
ing and effect of the legal-tender
quality of money.
Legal tender is that quality of
money which the government con-
fers on it by declaring that it shall
be q good and sufficient tender for
the payment Of all debts, public
and private.
There was q time when it was
held that the legal-tender quality
could not be given to any money
in the United States, except gold
and silver. and the constitution de-
clares that no State shall make any
thing but money of those metals q
legal tender; but the Congress has
declared that paper money can be
given legal-tendsr qualities, and
the Supreme Court has confirmed
this declaration by q decision.
It appears, then, that the sover-
eign power of the government of
any sovereign government, can con-
fer legal-tender qualities on any,
thing that it may choose TO denom-
mate money. So far, nobody Dues
tions the right of the government
to issue any sort of money and
make it legal-tender for the pay
ment of all debts, public and pri-
vate, and at this moment the gov
eminent at Washington has put
into circulation several sorts Of
money, gold, silver and paper,
which are all legal-tender.
But here it should be noticed
that even all the legal-tender money
was not invested with equal power.
For instance, the paper treasury
notes were for a long time legal
tender for private debts and inter-
nal revenue taxes; but they were
not available for payment of inter-
est on the public debt, or for tariff
dues in the custom house. Here,
then, was a limited legal tender
paper note placed by the sid Of an
unlimited legal-tender gold coin
good for all payments, and the con-
sequence was that the legal-tender
paper dollar was not as good al the
legal-tender gold dollar, and 90
wide was the difference of value
that it reached at one time nearly
to the ratio of 3 to /.
There is no question of the pow
er of q sovereign government to
declare any sort of money a legal
tender, but it cannot force the peo-
pie to accept it In their business.
If a man should decide that he
would not sell his property for pa
per or silver, there is no power to
force him to take such money.
The fact is, that during the civil
war, and, after it mp to the time
that specie payments were resumed
by the government, the people in
California and most of the Pacific
States would not accept legal-ten-
der notes, but required gold as the
only lawful money.
i The entire force of the legal-ten-
der quality of money is not that
the people are obliged to use it in
their business, but that when the
courts are resorted to for the collec-
ton of q debt, and judgment is OBJ
tanned, the creditor must accept
payment in legsl-tender funds or
get nothing. During the entire
period which interviewed between
the issues of the first legal-tender
paper notes in 1861, and the re-
sumption of specie payments in
1879, the paper notes were never
considered equal in value to gold,
Notwithstanding the fact that Con-
gress has decreed them to be q
good a. gold, and, % q consequence
in all that period gold was out Of
circulation. 90 that if any Of the
yellow metal was needed for any
purpose, it had TO be purchased d
q premium.
/ These facts fully demonstrate
that while government has powe1
to decree that paper or other mate
rial shall be stamped as money and
accepted as such at its value, th'
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