322 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



the country for the transmission of troops. 

 Nay, I went farther than that, and voted for a 

 clause in that bill which gave to the President 

 the privilege of bringing into the public ser- 

 vice the officers and employes of all the rail- 

 roads of the country. I did that because it 

 was an extreme case. And now we are called 

 upon, according to the terms of this bill, to 

 vote to declare it to be constitutional and legal 

 to make paper itself money. Now, sir, I do 

 not- feel justified in going so far as to cast my 

 vote for any such measure. 



" It is said that this is among the great powers 

 of the Government. "Why, sir, all the powers 

 this Government has under the Constitution 

 are the powers delegated to it by the sev- 

 eral States which thus met in Convention. 

 There is no such thing in construing the Con- 

 stitution as inference. There is nothing to be 

 implied. The States that met together in con- 

 vention clothed Congress with all the powers, 

 in express terms, that Congress can legitimately 

 exercise under the Constitution. "Who doubts 

 that ? Who can gainsay that proposition ? Not 

 one iota of power does this Congress possess 

 save what it derives under the Constitution. 

 In plain terms have the States written their 

 charter. It is in language not to be misunder- 

 stood. The powers of the General Government 

 are expressed in the debates and votes of the 

 men who gave it existence ; in the decisions 

 of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 

 of the supreme courts of the several States ; 

 and in the views and votes of our predecessors 

 in the halls of Congress. It seems to me that 

 it is vain on our part to attempt to override 

 these conclusions and to set them at nought, in 

 the delusive idea that we have a clearer view 

 and a keener perception of the powers with 

 which this Government is clothed than had 

 these worthy men who have gone before us. 



" I lay down the principle that we are to 

 conform our action to the Constitution of the 

 country as it is, and I call upon gentlemen to 

 show me how, when, where, in what par- 

 ticular, we have power, under the Constitution, 

 to make anything, except gold and silver, a 

 legal tender ? I think, Mr. Chairman, it can- 

 not be done. If it can be done, then courts, 

 members of conventions, and the statesmen 

 who have gone before us, have committed an 

 egregious error, and we are coming now to 

 perform the solemn act of condemning their 

 judgment and of setting all their precedents at 

 defiance." 



Mr. Kellogg, of Illinois, said : " What is this 

 legal tender ? Is it found in the Constitution. 

 Gentlemen seem to admit everywhere that gold 

 and silver are a legal tender. I challenge any 

 gentleman to put his finger upon the clause of 

 the Constitution that expressly declares that 

 anything shall be a legal tender, or that Con- 

 gress shall have the power to make anything 

 a legal tender. You cannot find it. Yet, sir, 

 everybody seems to understand that gold and 

 silver are a legal tender. "What is it that the 



Constitution declares? That Congress shall 

 have power to regulate commerce, to coin 

 money, and regulate the value thereof. "What 

 is this power of coining money and the regula- 

 tion of the value thereof? Certainly the power 

 to issue anything in the nature of coin that is 

 to operate as a circulating medium. Gold and 

 silver are not mentioned here, and there is not 

 a gentleman who will not admit that the Gov- 

 ernment can coin and make money out of iron, 

 or brass, or copper." 



Mr. Thomas, of Massachusetts, followed on 

 the other side. He said : " "We look to the Con- 

 stitution to see if the power is given. "We do 

 not say the power is not denied, and therefore 

 exists ; but that it is not granted, and therefore 

 does not exist. The powers granted are ex- 

 press or implied, are given in terms, or are the 

 reasonable inferences from the express grants. 

 Now it is conceded that there is no express 

 power given to Congress to make the notes or 

 bills of the Government legal tender. There 

 is a power given to Congress upon the subject- 

 matter. It has the power to coin money, reg- 

 ulate the value thereof and of foreign coins. 



" These words, 'to coin money,' have a plain 

 and obvious meaning. The only coinage is 

 that of. the metals, ' hard money.' To coin 

 money and regulate the value thereof is to fix 

 its legal value, the value for which it is to be 

 received, as an equivalent in commerce and in 

 discharge of obligations and contracts. This 

 constitutional power of coinage was first exe- 

 cuted by the statute of 1T92 ; and that statute 

 has a provision making the coins legal tender ; 

 but there can be no doubt that whenever 

 money is coined by Government under the 

 Constitution it becomes ipso facto legal tender. 

 But whether legislation be necessary to carry 

 the provision into effect or not, it is too plain 

 for argument that the power to coin money 

 and regulate its value is the power to say for 

 what value it shall be received. 



" There being no express power in the Con- 

 stitution to. make the notes a legal tender, is 

 such a power to be reasonably inferred from 

 any of the express powers ? Before answering 

 this question, two things are to be observed. 



" The first is that there being an express 

 grant of power upon this subject of the coining 

 of money and fixing its legal value, we should 

 not reasonably expect to find an additional 

 power on the same subject given by implica- 

 tion. The expression of the one would ordi- 

 narily be the exclusion of the other. The sec- 

 ond thing to be noted is that it appears by the 

 debates of the convention, and by the note of 

 Mr. Madison, that this subject was before the 

 convention, and that a grant of power to emit 

 bills of credit, with the apparent purpose of 

 making them legal tender, was refused. 



"It is said that the power to make these 

 notes a legal tender is a reasonable implication 

 from the power to regulate commerce with 

 foreign nations, among the States, and with 

 the Indian tribes. The argument is, and it 19 



