256 



itself to own, and to operate tlieno : and the same principle would apply 

 to all monopolies. It must also be regarded as a function of the govern- 

 ment to encourage the construction of highways and streets so far as 

 essentia] to the comfortable life and healthful development of society ; 

 as, for instance, in the case of cities, which it is obvious could not exist 

 without the exercise of this function. But it must also be confessed that 

 the exercise of this function has not hitherto been unexceptionable. 



Nor can it be doubted, to add one more illustration, that the functions 

 of the government extend, under proper conditions, to the coinage of 

 money and to fixing the value of the coins and making the same legal 

 tender, and also to the issue of paper money, and the general supervision 

 of the currency. Indeed, the necessity for the exercise of these functions 

 is so apparent that it is never denied, except by those who have profiled 

 by some previous action of the government in that regard (generally 

 illegitimate), and who, therefore, naturally desire to be left alone. But 

 there is perhaps no function of the government of which history pre- 

 sents more numerous instances of its illegitimate exercise than this. It 

 will be sufBcient, however, to illustrate the subject by a brief reference to 

 our monetary history during and since the civil war. 



The issue of greenbacks during the war and making the same legal 

 tender for past debts, was, in fact, a violation of the terms of such con- 

 tracts. For, in all cases of contracts to pay money where no particular 

 kind of money is specified, it is always a condition, expressed or implied, 

 that the payment shall be made in the money current at the time of the 

 contract. Hence, this legislation was in eflfect jyro tanto a confiscation of 

 the property of the creditor. 



On the same principle, in all contracts to pay money made subse- 

 quent to the passage of the act, where no particular kind of money was 

 specified, the debt was payable in greenbacks, or any other legal cur- 

 rency at the option of the debtor. But it is obvious that wherever 

 the value of money changes, either the creditor or the debtor is injured, 

 or, if the change be by the voluntary act of the government, defrauded ; 

 and hence that to appreciate, is as unjust and immoral as to depreciate the 

 currency ; and nothing, therefore, can be more obvious than that it is the 

 duty of the government, so far as in its power lays, to prevent all fluctua- 

 tions in the value of money. Thus at the end of the war when legal ten- 

 ders were at a low ebb, their value was, of course, increased by the large 

 demand made by the entrance of the South again into the financial system 

 of the country — greatly to the damage of the debtor class whose debts were 

 thus in fact increased ; but the damage was the result of circumstances 

 which the government could not control, and hence was damnum absque 

 ivjuria. But the subsequent legislation of the government, avowedly 

 designed gradually to appreciate the value of its paper money and finally to 

 redeem it in coin, was in violation of all principles of justice, and in effect 

 constituted the levy of a subsidy of about fifty per cent, on the average 

 of the total private indebtedness of the country during the period of the 

 appreciation of the greenbacks — amounting to billions of dollars. 



