In my opinion, there is nothing in
the bill before me repugnant to those laws. The bill does not _expressly
_ declare and enact that any particular species of currency _shall be
receivable _in payment of the public revenue. On the contrary, as the
provisions of the first and second sections are chiefly of a _negative_
character, I think they do not take away the power of the Secretary,
previously possessed under the acts of Congress, and as the agent of
the President, to _forbid_ the receipt of any bank notes which are not
by some act of Congress expressly made absolutely receivable in payment
of the public dues.
The above view will, I think, be confirmed by a closer examination
of the bill. It sets out with the assumption that there is a currency
established by law (i. e., gold and silver); and it further assumes that
the public revenue of all descriptions ought to be collected exclusively
in such legal currency, or in bank notes of a certain character; and
therefore it provides that the Secretary of the Treasury _shall_ take
measures to effect a collection of the revenue "in the legal currency
of the United States, _or_ in notes of banks which are payable and paid
on demand in the said legal currency," under certain restrictions,
afterwards mentioned in the act.
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