1. In the original draft of the constitution, some of these prohibitory clauses wore not inserted; and, particularly, the last clause, prohibiting a state to pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts. The former part was inserted by a vote of seven states against three. The latter was inserted in the revised draft of the constitution, and adopted at the close of the convention, whether with, or without opposition, does not appear.a It was probably suggested by the clause in the ordinance of 1787, (Art. 2,) which declared, "that no law ought to be made, etc., that shall interfere with, or affect private contracts, or engagements, bonâ fide, and without fraud, previously formed."
a. Journal of Convention, p. 227, 302, 377, 379.
2. Art. 6.
3. The Federalist, No. 44.
4. 1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 310, 311.
5. Article 6.
6. The Federalist, No. 44; Rawle on Constitution, ch. 10, p. 136.
7. Article 9.
8. The Federalist, No. 44.
9. 1 Tuck. Black. Comm. App. 311, 312; Id. 261. Ante, Vol. 3, p. 16 to 20.
10. The Federalist, No. 44; 2 Elliot's Debates, 83. — See in Mr. Webster's Speeches on the Bank of United States, in Senate, 25th and 28th of May, 1832, some cogent remarks on the same subject. See also Mr. Madison's Letter to Mr. C.J. Ingersoll, 2d of February, 1811.
11. See Sturgis v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. R. 204, 205.
12. 1 Journal of Congress, 1775, p. 186, 280, 304.
13. 2 Journal of Congress, 11th January, 1776, p. 21; 14th January, 1777; 3 Journal of Congress, p. 19, 20; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 16, p. 155, 156.
14. See 4 Journal of Congress, 9th Dec. 1778, p. 742, and 5 Journal or Congress, 13th Sept. 1779, p. 341 to 353; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 16, p. 156, 157.
15. In the American Almanac for 1830, p. 183, the aggregate amount is given at 357,000,000 of the old emission, and 2,000,000 of the new emission; upon which the writer adds, "there was an average depreciation of two thirds of its original value." Mr. Jefferson has given an interesting account of the history of paper money during the revolution, in an article written for the Encyclopédia Méthodique. 1 Jefferson's Corresp. 398, 401, 411, 412.
16. 6 Journal of Convention, 18th March, 1780, p. 45 to 48.
17. 2 Pitkin's Hist. ch. 16, p. 156, 157; 1 Jefferson's Corresp. 401, 402, 411, 412.
18. The twelfth article of the confederation declare, "that all bills of credit emitted, etc. by or under the authority of congress, etc. shall be deemed and considered, as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged." When was this pledge redeemed? The act of congress of 1790, ch. 61, for the liquidation of the public debt, directs bills of credit to be estimated at the rate of one hundred dollars for one dollar in specie. In Mr. Secretary Hamilton's Report on the public debt and credit in January, 1790, the unliquidated part of the public debt, consisting chiefly of continental bills of credit, was estimated at two millions of dollars. What was the nominal amount of the bills of credit, which this sum of two millions was designed to cover at its specie value, does not appear in the Report. But in the debates in congress, upon the bill founded on it, it was asserted, that it was calculated, that there were about 78 or 80 millions of paper money then outstanding, valued at a depreciation of 40 for 1. 3 Lloyd's Deb. 282, 283, 288.
19. 1 Hutch. Hist. ch. 3, p. 402.
20. Ibid.
21. 1 Hutch. Hist. ch. 3, p. 403, note; 2 Hutch. Hist. 208, 245, and note; Id. 380, 381, 403, 404.
22. 1 Hutch. Hist. ch. 3, p. 402, 403, and note ibid.
23. Ibid. — Hutchinson says, that, in 1747, the currency had sunk to sixty shillings for an ounce of silver. 2 Hutch. Hist. 438.
24. 1 Hutch. Hist. ch. 3, p. 402 403, and note ibid.
25. 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 435.
26.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 410, 432.
27.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 432, 441, 442.
28.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 432, 441, 442.
29. Id. 432, 433, 441, 442, 443. An act of parliament was passed, (24 Geo. 2, ch. 53,) regulating and restraining the issues of paper money and bills of credit in the New-England colonies, in which the language used demonstrates, that bills of credit was a phrase constantly used and understood, as equivalent to paper money. The prohibitory clauses forbid the issue of "any paper bills, or bills of credit of any kind, or denomination whatsoever," etc., and constantly speak of "paper bills or bills of credit," as equivalents. See Deering v. Parker, 4 Dell. (July 1760,) p. xiii.
30.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 433, 434.
31.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 433, 434.
32. The bills of credit issued by Massachusetts in 1690 (the first ever issued in any colony) were in the following form: "No. — , 10s. This indented bill of ten shillings, due from the Massachusetts Colony to the possessor, shall be in value equal to money, and shall be accordingly accepted by the treasurer, and receivers subordinate to him, in all public payments, and for any stock at any time in the treasury, Boston, in New-England, Dec. the 10th, 1690. By order of the General Court: Peter Townsend, Adam Winthrop, Tim. Thornton, Committee." So, that it was not, in any sense, a tender, except in discharge of public debts. 3 Mass. Hist. Collections, (2d series,) p. 260, 261. The bills of credit of Connecticut, passed before the revolution, were of the same general character and operation. They were not made a tender in payment of private debts. The emission of them was begun in 1709, and continued, at least, for nearly a half century. The acts, authorizing the emission, generally contained a clause for raising a tax to redeem them.
33.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 434, 435, 436, 442, 443.
34.Craig v. State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 447.
35. See 2 Hutch. Hist. 208, 381.
36.Craig v. The State of Missouri, 4 Peters's Sup. Ct. R. 410, 425 to 438.
37. Some of these grounds apply equally to some of the "bills of credit," issued by the colonies. In fact, these certificates seem to have differed in few, if any essential circumstances, from those issued by the Province of Massachusetts in 1714 and 1716, and had the same general objects in view by the same means, viz. to make temporary loans to the inhabitants to relieve their wants by an issue of paper money.b The bills of credit issued by congress in 1780 were payable with interest. So were the treasury notes issued by congress in the late war with Great Britain. Yet both circulated and were designed to circulate as currency. The bills of credit issued by congress in the revolution were not made a legal tender.c It has also been already seen, that the first bills of credit ever issued in America, in 1690, contained no promise of payment by the state, and were simply receivable in discharge of public dues.d Mr. Jefferson, in the first volume of his Correspondence, (p. 401, 402,) has given a succinct history of paper money in America, especially in the revolution. It is a sad but instructive account.
b. 1 Hutch. History, 402, 403, and note; 2 Hutch. History, 208.
c. Ante, § 1361.
d. 3 Mass. Hist. Collection, (2d series) 260, 261. Ante, § 1353, 1361. See 4 Mass. Hist. Coll. (2d series,) 99.
38. 3 Elliot's Debates, 144.
39. See Sturgis v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. R. 204.
40.Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat R. 265, per Washington J.
41.Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat. R. 265, 269, 288, 289, 305, 306, 328, 335, 336, 339.
42. See The Federalist, No. 44, 84.
43.Cooper v. Telfair, 4 Dall R. 14; S. C. 1 Peters's Cond. R. 211.
