The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1895-01-26

UHssassitatisaal Lava.
EDrroR rREss,
In a former communication made
some quotations from the U. S. None.
tary report that very wildly showed
state OF financial depression exactly
similar to what prevails today, and
some Of the chief causes for such con-
dition; but in our case the trouble is
intensified. We are suffering far more
from those causes than they were in
1877, and We can but remember that
those who were 30 eager to pass the law
striking down silver used falsehood and
deceit--as Is usual in such cases--to
blind the people while they We're pre-
pairing that act of Wholesale robbery.
Who does not remember Growers dec
laration, inspired, no doubt, by Wall
Street gold, that the destruction Of the
purchasing clause Of the Sherman Act
was necessary to insure national pros
perity. and that the passage Of that act
would bring good times and make
money plenty. All this, and more, they
asserted, contrary to all precedent-a
trayesty on common sense-yet they
expected the common people to believe
it. Now we know the result to- our
cost, result that always follows a
shrinkage in the volume of currency of
any kind
Now l wish to make few quotations
from the same volume (Monetary Re
pOrD proving that any act destroying
the money power of either gold or silver,
or to circumscribe the powers Of either
metal in that way is unconstitutional,
and that congress transcends its powers
in passing such law.
The provisions Of the constitution of
tie United States are:
First. The grant to congress Of the
two powers to coin money, and regulate
its value, and to regulate the value of
foreign coins. The coinage power is
made exclusive in congress by a prohi.
bition of it to the states. The regula-
ton of the value of foreign coins is not
prohibited to the states, and it is there
fore a power which they may exercise
if congress does not exercise it.
! Second. The provision that no state
shall make anything but gold and silver
coins tender in payment Of debts.
! Daniel Webster in speech in the L.
5. Senate Dec. 81, 1885, said: The
states are expressly prophibited from
making anything but gold and silver a
tender in payment of debts; and al
though no such prohibition is applied
to congress In express terms, yet con-
gress has no power granted to it in this
respect but to coin money and regulate
the value of foreign coins. The legal
| tender, therefore, the constitutional
standard of value is established and
cannot be overthrown. l am certainly
of the opinion that gold and silver al
rates fixed by congress, constitute tie
legal standard of values in this country
and that neither congress nor any state
has authority to establish any Other
standard or to displace this
/ The same general views We're taker
by the L. S. Supreme Court in the lega
tender cases, sustaining congress il
creating an additions! tender, by giving
the function of tender to certain treas
ury notes. Not upon the ground thai
congress had any general authority t.
create paper money, but that in tn.
special circumstances existing it nigh
give the legal tender function to par
ticular kind of paper as a necessary ant
proper means of executing certain pow
ers, its possession of which was con
coded. There is nothing in thi.
decision which affirms right in con
gress to take away the legal tende
function from gold and silver coins
pages $50 and 1917
Now rs to regulating the value o
foreign coins, Col. Benton in his ..Thirt.
years in the Senate" Vol. PIP, Al, AS
1T was the intention of the constitution
that foreign coins should pass CURRENT,
IS money; this was the design of tn,
states in comforting upon congress tn
power OF regulating the value of thes
coins; and all the laws Of congress 70
preventing the circulation of foreign
coins are so many breaches of the con
stitution. The only power the consti
tuition has given to congress over for
eign coins is the power to regulate thei
value and to protect them from debase
ment by counterfeiters. 1t is certainI.
= most strange construction OF tina
authority to prohibit their circulation.
Section 1852 of the Revised Statutes
declaring that foreign coins shall not b,
a legal tender, is clearly without supper
in any constitutional power of congress
and is therefore invalid.
Here we have our trusted law max
ers iu the guise Of law breakers
+. CROCKETT.
The relation which price bears t,
quality in literature is made obscure b,