An Argument Against the Constitutional Validity of the Legal Tender Clause, Contained in the Act of Congress of Feb, 25, 1862, Authorizing the Issue of Treasury Notes Classic Reprint

Excerpt from An Argument Against the Constitutional Validity of the Legal Tender Clause, Contained in the Act of Congress of Feb, 25, 1862, Authorizing the Issue of Treasury Notes

It further appears that the plaintiff, having become the owner of the mortgaged premises, on the eleventh day of June, 1869, tendered to the defendant as payment of the debt and interest, in Treasury Notes of the United States, issued under the Act of Congress passed February 95, 1869, and claimed there for a discharge of the mortgage. The defendant refused to receive these notes as payment of the debt, but subsequently received them under an agreement that his right to exact pay. Ment in gold should be submitted to this Court, upon a case stated under a provision of the Code.

That this was a contract payable in gold, or its equivalent, there can be no question. When the debt was contracted there was no lawful money of the United States but gold and sil ver. When the debt became due, August 28d, 1857 It was due in gold or silver money of the United States. The defend ant's right under the mortgage then became perfect 5 it was a right to foreclose and sell for the payment of the mortgage debt measured by the current coin Of the United States. It is now claimed, however, that an Act of Congress, passed more than four years after the debt was thus due and payable in coin, and after the defendant's right of foreclosure and sale for coin had become perfect, enables the plaintiff to discharge the lien of this mortgage by tendering Treasury Notes, which were at 4 per cent. Discount below the value of coin at the time of thetender, and are now vastly lower. The case, therefore, presents the naked question of the power of Congress thus to affect the value of a debt which was due and payable in Specie more than four years before the Act was passed; which debt was due from one citizen of this State to another citizen of this State, and was secured by a mortgage upon real property situated within the same State.

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