460 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



pressly denied to the State only, it was for the purpose of 

 rendering the federal power more complete and exclusive; 

 how sensible, then, its framers must have been that emer- 

 gencies might arise when the precious metals might prove 

 inadequate to the necessities of the government and the de- 

 mands of the people when it is remembered that paper 

 money was almost exclusively in use in the States as a 

 medium of exchange, and when the great evil sought to 

 be remedied was the want of uniformity in the current 

 value of money, we say, that the gift of power to coin 

 money and regulate the value thereof, was understood as 

 conveying general power over the currency and which had 

 belonged to the States and which they had surrendered. ' ' 

 12 Wallace, 



"The issue of the circulation commonly known as 

 greenbacks was necessary and was constitutional. They 

 were necessary to the payment of the army and navy, and 

 to all the purposes for which the government uses money. 

 The banks had suspended specie payment, and the gov- 

 ernment was reduced to the alternative of using their 

 notes or issuing its own." 12 Wallace, 577. 



"The two houses of Congress, the President who 

 signed the bill, and fifteen State courts, being all but one 

 that has passed upon the question, have expressed their 

 belief in the constitutionality in these (legal tender) laws." 

 Justice Miller. 8 Wallace 338. 



"It is not doubted that the power to establish a 

 standard of value by which all other values may be meas- 

 ured, or, in other words, to determine what shall be lawful 

 money and a legal tender, is in its nature and necessity a 

 government power. It is in all countries exercised by the 

 government." Chief Justice Chase, 8 Wallace 6 15. 



"If it be held by this court that Congress has no 

 constitutional power, under any circumstances, or in any 

 emergency to make treasury notes a legal tender for the 

 payment of all debts, a power confessedly possessed by 

 every independent sovereignty other than the United 

 States, the government is without those means of self 

 preservation which, all must admit, may in certain con- 



