LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL. 



473 



New York, against Thomas S. Greenman, a citi- 

 zen of Connecticut. The complaint alleged that 

 the plaintiff had sold the defendant 100 bales 

 cotton for the agreed price of $5,122.90; 

 ,t the defendant had offered in payment 

 .90 in gold and silver coin, and $5,100 in 

 nited States legal- tender notes which had 

 issued during the war and re-issued under 

 act of Congress of May 31, 1878; and that 

 e plaintiff had refused to accept these notes 

 valid legal tender. The case was carried to 

 e United States Supreme Court, which gave 

 its decision March 3, 1884, sustaining the con- 

 stitutionality of the act of 1878, as well as of 

 the legal-tender acts previously passed, and 

 holding that Congress has the constitutional 

 wer to make the treasury notes of the United 

 ,tes a legal tender in payment of private 

 bts in time of peace as well as in time of 

 ar. The opinion was prepared by Justice 

 ray, and concurred in by seven of his associ- 

 Justice Field alone dissented, and gave 

 elaborate opinion in support of his views. 

 The opinion of the Court is substantially given 

 in what follows: A constitution, establishing a 

 rame of government, declaring fundamental 

 rinciples, and creating a national sovereignty, 

 d intended to endure for ages and to be 

 ted to the various crises of human affairs, 

 not to be interpreted with the strictness of 

 private contract. The Constitution of the 

 nited States, by apt words of designation or 

 neral description, marks the outlines of the 

 wers granted to the national legislature, bi^t 

 does not undertake, with the precision and 

 tail of a code of laws, to enumerate the sub- 

 ivisions of those powers, or to specify all the 

 eans by which they may be carried into exe- 

 tion. The breadth and comprehensiveness 

 the words of the Constitution are nowhere 

 re strikingly exhibited than with regard to 

 powers over revenue, finance, and curren- 

 That instrument declares that Congress 

 all have power 



To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, 

 ay the debts and provide for the common defense 

 general welfare of the United States ; but all du- 

 :>, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout 

 s United States ; 

 To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 

 To regulate commerce \v^th foreign nations and 

 tnong the several States and with Indian tribes ; 

 To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of 

 "3ign coin, and fix the standard of weights and 

 asures. 



The section which contains the grant of these 

 id other principal legislative powers con- 

 ludes by declaring that Congress shall have 

 )wer " to make all laws which shall be neces- 

 sary and proper for carrying into execution 

 'ie foregoing powers, and all other powers 

 3sted by this Constitution in the Government 

 " the United States, or in any department or 

 officer thereof." 



By the settled construction and the only rea- 

 sonable interpretation of this clause the words 

 u necessary and proper " are not limited to such 



measures as are absolutely and indispensably 

 necessary, without which the powers granted 

 must fail of execution; but they include all 

 appropriate means which are conducive or 

 adapted to the end to be accomplished, and 

 which in the judgment of Congress will most 

 advantageously effect it. In the case of Mc- 

 Culloch vs. Maryland (vol. iv, Wheaton's Re- 

 ports), in which the power of Congress to in- 

 corporate a bank was affirmed by the Supreme 

 Court, notwithstanding the Constitution does 

 not enumerate, among the powers granted, that 

 of establishing a bank, or creating a corpora- 

 tion, Chief -Justice Marshall said : " We admit, 

 as all must admit, that the powers of the Gov- 

 ernment are limited, and that its limits are not 

 to be transcended. But we think the sound 

 construction of the Constitution must allow to 

 the national legislature that discretion, with re- 

 spect to the means by which the powers it con- 

 fers are to be carried into execution, which will 

 enable that body to perform the high duties 

 assigned to it, in the manner most beneficial 

 to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let 

 it be within the scope of the Constitution, and 

 all means which are appropriate, which are 

 plainly adapted to that end, which are not pro- 

 hibited, but consist with the letter and spirit 

 of the Constitution, are constitutional." The 

 rule of interpretation, says Justice Gray, thus 

 laid down, has been constantly adhered to and 

 acted on by this court. 



The power of Congress to emit bills of credit, 

 to incorporate national banks, to provide a 

 currency for the whole, country, is firmly es- 

 tablished by decisions of the court. The court 

 has also decided that the power " to borrow 

 money on the credit of the United States " is 

 the power to raise money for the public use on 

 a pledge of the public credit, and may be exer- 

 cised to meet either present or anticipated ex- 

 penses and liabilities of the Government. It 

 includes the power to issue, in return for the 

 money borrowed, the obligations of the United 

 States in any appropriate form of stocks, bonds, 

 bills, or notes. Congress has authority to issue 

 these obligations in a form adapted to circula- 

 tion, from hand to hand, in the ordinary trans- 

 actions of commerce and business. It may 

 provide for their redemption in coin or bonds, 

 and may make them receivable in payment of 

 debts to the Government. The several States 

 are prohibited from coining money, emitting 

 bills of credit, or making anything but gold 

 and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. 

 But no intention can be inferred from this to 

 deny to Congress either of these powers. Con- 

 gress is neither expressly authorized nor express- 

 ly forbidden to emit bills of credit, but the 

 Supreme Court has conceded to it the power 

 to emit bills of credit, and of making every 

 provision for their circulation as currency, short 

 of giving them the quality of legal tender for 

 private debts. 



It appears to us to follow, as a logical and necessary 

 consequence, that Congress has the power to issue, the 



