In what I say I shall confine myself exclusively to a single feature of the present bill. Others may regret that the exigencies of the country were not promptly met by taxation,--or that at the beginning a different system was not organized by the Treasury, through which the national securities might have found a readier market,--or that the national credit was not sustained, at the period of bank suspension, by the resolute redemption of the Government securities in coin at any present sacrifice. But it is useless to discuss these questions. The time for such discussion has passed. The Tax Bill is not yet matured. The system adopted by the Treasury cannot be changed at once, if it were desirable. It is too late to organize the redemption of the national securities in coin on the daily application of holders. Meanwhile the exigencies of Government have become imperative. Money must be had. And we are told that the credit of Government can be saved only by an act that seems like a forfeiture of credit. Paper promises are to be made a legal tender, like gold and silver; and this provision is to be ingrafted on the present bill authorizing the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of $150,000,000. All confess that they vote for this proposition with reluctance, while to many it seems positively unconstitutional. Of course, if unconstitutional, there is an end of it, and all discussion of its character is superfluous. I am compelled by candor to declare that the doubts which perplex me do not proceed from the Constitution. If the question of constitutionality were in all respects novel, or, as lawyers phrase it, of first impression, then I might join with friends in their doubts. But it seems to me that the constitutional power of Congress to make Treasury notes a legal tender was settled as long ago as when it was settled that Congress might authorize the issue of Treasury notes; for from time immemorial the two have gone together, one as incident of the other, and, unless expressly severed, they naturally go together.