320 



CONGKESS, U. 8.' 



the United States ' a tender in payment of 

 debts ; ' but does it thence result that a State 

 may either regulate or change the established 

 value of foreign or domestic coin ? If any 

 State could do this, the very purpose of the 

 Constitution, to secure a uniform standard of 

 value, would be defeated. 



"The point I make is this: Congress has 

 power, by the terms of the Constitution, to fix the 

 standard value of foreign coin, and of domestic 

 coin, and the power to declare a legal tender, 

 and that these powers are distinct." 



Mr. Vallandigham, of Ohio, rose to ask a 

 question, saying : " Congress, is, by the Con- 

 stitution, expressly empowered to regulate the 

 value of coins. Now, I wish to ask my col- 

 league whether the value thus regulated is not 

 the legal value of the coin ; and if therefore it 

 is not a legal tender, although the word ' ten- 

 der ' is not written in the Constitution ? " 



Mr. Bingharn, of Ohio 1 , replied: "I agree 

 that what Congress declares and enacts shall 

 be the value of coin, is the legal value of such 

 coin ; but, sir, an act declaring the legal value 

 of coin does not make it a legal tender." 



Mr. Eickman, of Pennsylvania, 'now rose to 

 inquire : " I desire to ask the gentleman from 

 Ohio (Mr. Vallandigham) a simple question, 

 with his permission. Taking the standard of 

 gold and silver as it is established by law to- 

 day, a contract is entered into for the payment 

 of a debt in gold and silver at the present 

 standard, that being by law a legal tender ; but 

 suppose the gold and silver should before the 

 debt becomes due, by act of Congress, be de- 

 based thirty-three per cent., can that coin so 

 debased be made a legal tender for the payment 

 of that debt ? " 



Mr. Vallandigham replied : " It may be made 

 a legal tender if Congress has the power to de- 

 base coin ; but I deny that the power conferred 

 by the Constitution on Congress to coin money 

 and regulate the value thereof, confers the 

 power to debase the coin of the country. 

 There is no such power in Congress ; and I 

 think that is a sufficient answer to the gentle- 

 man's question." 



Mr. Hickman, of Pennsylvania, again said : 

 " Congress has, from time to time, changed the 

 alloy of gold and silver coin. Now, if it may 

 make coin so alloyed a legal tender in payment 

 of a debt arising out of a contract, and in the 

 mean time, before the debt becomes due, Con- 

 gress again changes the alloy, debasing the coin 

 to the extent of one third its value, can that 

 coin so debased be made a legal tender in pay- 

 ment of that debt ? Would not that, by the 

 argument of the opponents of this bill, be as 

 much a violation of that clause of the Constitu- 

 tion as to make paper a legal tender ? " 



Mr. Vallandigham now made this reply : 

 " I answer, that if the purpose of the act 

 of Congress be simply to change the alloy in 

 order to harden the metal and make it more 

 serviceable for the purposes of a currency, not 

 to change its value, Congress has certainly 



the right to do it ; but because Congress has 

 the implied right to do that under the power 

 to coin money and regulate the value thereof, 

 it does not follow that it may alloy the coin 

 for the purpose of debasing it. The intent of 

 the act makes the distinction." 



Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, next rose to ask 

 Mr. Hickman a question, saying : " If Con- 

 gress have the power to debase the coin of the 

 country by mixing with the gold and silver, in 

 the shape of alloy, other metals, I desire to ask 

 the gentleman from Pennsylvania if he derives 

 from that fact the power of Congress to debase 

 it in any other way." 



Mr. Hickman thus replied : " The question I 

 asked the gentleman from Ohio was in answer 

 to the argument which has been made here by 

 the opponents of this bill, that Congress can 

 pass no law impairing the obligations of con- 

 tracts ; yet if a contract is made to-day by 

 which I am to be paid a certain amount in the 

 present standard of gold and silver coin, and to- 

 morrow Congress passes a law debasing that 

 coin thirty-three per cent., I am required to 

 take that debased coin in payment of the debt, 

 and my contract is thus impaired to the extent 

 of thirty-three per cent." 



Mr. Morrill further said : " I admit the pow- 

 er of Congress to debase the coin ; but how 

 would the gentleman derive from that power 

 the power of Congress to 'substitute as a legal 

 tender something else than coin ? " 



Mr. Thomas, of Massachusetts, now asked a 

 question of Mr. Hickman, saying : " "When the 

 gentleman from Pennsylvania says the obliga- 

 tion of a contract is impaired, I want to ask 

 him if in law this very essential provision of 

 the Constitution does not enter into the con- 

 tract, and if the contract must not conform to 

 it ? For instance, when a man agrees to take 

 so much coin at a future day, he does it know- 

 ing that Congress has, by the Constitution, 

 power to regulate and change the value of that 

 coin." 



Mr. Hickman, in answer, said : " Yes, sir, 

 and for that reason, inasmuch as the Constitu- 

 tion allows us, as I contend, the power to issue 

 paper money, the man who enters into a con- 

 tract does it with the Constitution before him. 

 Now, allow me in turn to put a question to the 

 gentleman from Massachusetts. Suppose gold 

 and silver should be discovered in such quan- 

 tities in California, or within the limits of the 

 United States, as to make it as plentiful as iron, 

 as to make it useless as a money standard, I 

 wish to know whether it is not in the power 

 of Congress to substitute some other metal 

 which may be more desirable as a circulating 

 medium than gold ? " 



Mr. Thomas : " That question does not now 

 arise." 



Mr. Hickman : " If that power be conceded, 

 then why not substitute paper, if that shall be 

 found more useful for that purpose? " 



Mr. Crisfield, of Maryland, said : " The sum of 

 the whole argument that has been made in favor 



