The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-06
GOLD CONTRACTS.
TIE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES DECLARES THEM VALID.


TIE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES DECLARES THEM VALID.
There have been several decisions,
as reported in the daily press, that
one or more of the state courts had
held that contracts for the payment
of debts, exclusively in gold, were
null: and that they could be paid in
any of the legal tender money of the
country. We published some of these
reports, but we took no stock in
them. We felt like the wife of the
Rev. John Mafiit the great preacher
OF half century ago, when the
women went wild with enthusiasm
over the sermons of the eloquent
divine, and were indignant that the
pastors wife did not enthuse with
them. Ladies'" said she austerely,
II kno,o John Maffit!' She did know
him. He was subsequently shot and
killed by an enraged husband, down
South, while climbing out of the win
dow of his wife's bedroom. And so
we kno,o the Supreme Court of the
United States. and we EnO,o it will
never fail to stab public rights If it
has chance to.
It is undoubtedly true that the con-
stitution of the United States de-
clares that mo state shall
make anything but gold and silver
coin tender in payment OF debts"
Cart l, Sec. 10). which implies the
counter proposition, that gold and
silver shall be always legal tender in
all transactions between the citizens
of the several states. And yet the U.
S. Supreme Court declares that gold
alone, and not gold and silver, shall be
legal tender between the citizens
of the state. and that one citizen,
dealing with another, can legislate
the constitution of the United States
out Of existence.
We quote the following from the
Chicago Tim es Herald Gold bug):
In view OF the popular controversy
now going on over the question Of
| money, and the wellknown fact that
money lOaners are making special
provision in their bonds and mort
cages that loans must be repaid III
''gold or its equivalent every judi
cial opinion touching on this point
becomes Of the highest interest.
The supreme court of the United
States has recently made a decision
which apparently determines the
question.
The case was this: The Legislature
| of Mississippi by certain law
'created a corporate board OF commits
! sionerS with power to construct, re-
pair and maintain levee on the east
bank of the Mississippi River, and
empowered the board to borrow
money for the purpose, and to issue
bonds therefor, a tax being provided
for their payment. Nothing was said
in the statute as to the kind Of
money that might be borrowed or
should be repaid. The terms were
general.
The board in pursuance Of this
statute was duly organized and issued
and negotiated bonds to the amount
Of million Of dollars, and made them
payable in the gold coin of the United
States"
Suit having been brought by the
holders of these bonds to enforce
their lien upon the levee district, it
was set up in defense that the Legis-
lature had not authorized gold
coin" contract, and that the levee
board in issuing such bonds had ex-
ceeded its powers and consequently
the bonds were illegal and void
But Chief Justice Fuller in deliver
ing the opinion Of majority Of the
court said in substance that, as gold
coin was one Of tue kinds OF money in
circulation in the United States, the
fact that d particular kind of money
was contracted to be paid by the
| lpvan hna ri did vifiat.a THAR
tract.
There was dissenting opinion de-
livered by Justic, Peckham, not upon
the money ques tion, but as to wheth-
er the United States supreme court
had jurisdiction Of the case, it being
an appeal from the supreme court OF
Mississippi. This was merely tech.
nical, but all the judges concurred in
the opinion that parties could con.
tract at pleasure for the kind OF
money to be paid or received by them,
and that the courts would enforce the
contract. ~
We will now await with consider
able curiosity the decisions of certain
Of the Populist judges of the West. II
is one OF the Joe Millerisms" Of tho
bar that justices of the pc .ce some>
times reverse the decisions Of the Su>
preme court. 1t would not be sur
priSing to see some of the western
judges do the same thing.
1t may be that next November the
people Of the United States will re.
verse the decision Of that abominable
court, just as, in 1860, they reversed
the bred Scott decision of the same
court. There is a power, thank God,
in this country higher than law books
and hireling judges:-that Is the pow
er of the mightiest republic in the
world, expressed through the votes Of
the people.
That court has stripped the people
of the right to levy taxes on the in-
comes of the wealthy, and now 1t de-.
cides that the bankers can r, duce the
business of this whole land to gold
basis and exclude silver from COM
mercial transactions, despite the laws
Of Congress.
We shall see what we shall see
D.
TAKE NOTICE.