Monopolies -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
Perfect consistency characterizes the measures of that entire period in
respect to the matter in question, and it would be strange if it had
been otherwise, as the whole series of measures were to a very large
extent the doings of the same class of men, whether the remark is
applied to the old congress, or the convention which framed the
constitution, or to the first and second sessions of the new congress,
which passed the laws referred to and put the new system of government
under the constitution into full operation. Wise and complete as those
laws were, still some difficulties arose, as the several states had not
adopted the money unit of the United States, nor the money of account
prescribed by the twentieth section of the act establishing the mint.
Such embarrassments, however, were chiefly felt in the federal courts,
and they were not of long continuance, as the several states, one after
another, in pretty rapid succession, adopted the new system established
by congress both as to the money unit and the money of account.
Virginia, December 19th, 1792, re-enacted that section in the act of
congress without any material alteration, and New Hampshire, on the 20th
of February, 1794, passed a similar law. Massachusetts adopted the same
provision the next year, and so did Rhode Island and South Carolina.
Georgia concurred on the 22d of February, 1796, and New York on the 27th
of January, 1797, and all the other states adopted the same regulation
in the course of a few years. State concurrence was essential in those
particulars to the proper working of the new system, and it was
cheerfully accorded by the state legislatures without unnecessary delay.
Congress established as the money unit the coin mentioned in the
constitution, and the one which had been adopted as such seven years
before in the resolve passed by the congress of the confederation.
Dollars, and decimals of dollars, were adopted as the money of account
by universal consent, as may be inferred from the unanimity exhibited by
the states in following the example of congress. Nothing remained for
congress to do to perfect the new system but to execute the power to
coin money and regulate the value thereof, as it is clear that the
constitution makes no provision for a standard of value unless the power
to establish it is conferred by that grant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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