The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-14
RIVER AT 8 A. NJ.
GOLD CLAUSE CONTRACTS.

The conclusion is questioned that, in
the event congress should authorize the
free coinage of dollars with a metallic
value of so cents, they would be held
a legal tender in discharge of contracts
specifically payable in gold coin.
What the federal supreme court
would do should such ques-
ton come before it can only be
conjectured from what it has done in
cases as nearly pat as the multiform
transactions of men and acts of con-
crosses permit, made still more doubt
full by the fact that that court has re-
versed itself on this matter Of legal ten
ders, and it is not beyond reason that
it might do so again
The conclusion questioned was based
on the judgment of the supreme court
in the case of Juilliard VS.. Greenman
rendered March g. 1884, and reported in
40 U. s., 421. The question there was
whether greenbacks, reissued under the
act Of 1878, after having been redeemed
and paid in gold, were, under the con-
stitution, legal tender for the payment
of debts. The court held that the
power of congress over the legal ten
der quality of money was unlimited;
that all contracts are made with a
possible exercise of this power an i'm
piled provision; that the power is
neither restricted nor defeated by the
fact that its exercise may affect the
value of private contracts" as was
the case with the act of 1884, decreas
ing the weight of gold coins. and that
whether or not this power should be
used, is a political question to be de-
termined by congress when the emer-
gency arises and not a judicial cues
ton to~be afterward passed upon by
the courts
This decision, rendered in 1884. laws
down these general propositions from
which the conclusion was drawn as to
the effect of a gold payment clause.
ana they seem to warrant it, A fur
Their examination of the decisions gives
a significance to the remark of the
court in that case that "a contract to
pay certain sum of money, without
any stipulation as to the kind of
money in which it shall be paid. NAV
always be satisfied by payment of that
sum in any currency which is lawful
money at the place and time at which
payment is to be made" that escaped
casual reading. If the contract con-
tanned such stipulation the court
had ~,
1868, that Judgment may be entered
for coined dollars and parts of dol
lars" The opinion was delivered by
Chief Justice Chase who, a year later.
held the legal tender act unconstitu
tional so far as it affected the green
backs, the contract in that case being
payable in simply dollars" This de-
cision,, after an enlargement of the
court, was reversed. and billiards
case followed and affirmed it, Bronson
VS.. Rodes was affirmed in a later case
where the note was payable Gin spe-
cie;" the court, Justice Field rendering
the decision, held that a tender in
greenbacks did not discharge the debt.
The decisions thus are uniform in
support of the enforeeability of gold
clause contracts, elouded somewhat by
the doctrine and the general principles
of the cases that upheld the constitu-
tionality of the greenbacks. Those
cases were decided more on considera-
tons of expediency than on principles
of sound law, and to them in a large
degree is the country indebted for
what it is experiencing and whatever
may follow. Had the first decision in
Hepburn VS. Griswold stood, the green
back would have been retired long ago
and with it the bad lessons it has
taught
Should congress in the future deem
1t ''wise or expedient' to declare that
silver dollars. with a bullion value
of so cents and subject to frequent