Arguments of Counsel in the Court of Appeals of the State of New York: Upon the Power of Congress to Make United States Treasury Notes a Legal Tender

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Wm. C. Bryant & Company, printer, 1863 - 239 pages

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Page 142 - We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the government 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 respect to the means by which the powers it confers 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.
Page 142 - This provision is made in a constitution intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.
Page 77 - KNOW YE, That we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name, and in behalf, of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained.
Page 142 - To have prescribed the means by which government should, in all future time, execute its powers, would have been to change, entirely, the character of the instrument, and give it the properties of a legal code. It would have been an unwise attempt to provide, by immutable rules, for exigencies which, if foreseen at all, must have been seen dimly, and which can be best provided for as they occur.
Page 41 - Mr. Madison — Will it not be sufficient to prohibit the making them a tender? This will remove the temptation to emit them with unjust views; and promissory notes in that shape may, in some emergencies, be best.
Page 210 - Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is attempting to withdraw or has actually withdrawn from the Confederacy? If answered in the affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and to make war against a State.
Page 42 - Mr BUTLER, remarked that paper was a legal tender in no Country in Europe. He was urgent for disarming the Government of such a power. Mr MASON was still averse to tying the hands of the Legislature altogether. If there was no example in Europe as just remarked, it might be observed on the other side, that there was none in which the Government was restrained on this head. Mr READ, thought the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelations. Mr LANGDON had rather...
Page 172 - Constitution has intrusted Congress, exclusively, with the power of creating and regulating a currency of that description ; and the measures which were taken during the last session, in execution of the power, give every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has been organized under auspices the most favorable, and cannot fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.
Page 77 - And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union.
Page 41 - Mr. Ellsworth thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By withholding the power from the new government, more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost anything else. Paper money can in no case be necessary. Give the government credit and other resources will offer. The power may do harm,...

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