[22] In a case often overlooked (Bank vs. Supervisors, 7 Wallace), the United States Supreme Court decided that "United States notes are engagements to pay dollars; and the dollars intended are coined dollars of the United States." Refusal to pay such notes in coin is clearly, therefore, repudiation. [23] Irving's "Conquest of Granada." [24] In every cabinet of rare coins in Europe there will be found specimens of what are known as "obsidional" coins, or coins struck in besieged places to supply the place of coined money. These coins appear, in all instances, to have been regarded as obligations sacred in their nature, and their repudiation a high crime against morality and patriotism. [25] Speech of General B. F. Butler, United States House of Representatives. [26] Letter of Wendell Phillips to the New York Legal-tender Club, 1875. [27] Charles Moran, New York Commercial Bulletin, October 5th; 1875. [28] Opinion of the United States Supreme Court, by Justice Strong.--Wallace, 12, p. 553. [29] The Indians on the Atrato River (Central America), when first visited by one of the recent inter-ocean-canal exploring parties, were found to be unaccustomed to the use of much, if any, clothing; but after a little intercourse with civilized man, some of the more intelligent of the natives presented themselves with their bodies painted in close imitation of clothes, which they claimed to be superior in every respect to the genuine articles worn by their visitors. [30] This was what actually happened in Connecticut in 1704 and thereabouts. See "Madame Knight's Journal," quoted in Felt and Bronson's "Histories of New England Currencies." [31] Whatever may have been the immediate effect of the gold-discoveries in California and Australia, no economist of repute now holds to the opinion that the average purchasing power of gold all the world over is any less than it was in 1849-'50; or, in other words, that any increase in the quantity of gold since 1849-'50 has resulted in any present depreciation. [32] This is the American interpretation. The English interpretation of "legal tender" was brought out in a debate in the House of Lords, in June, 1811, when it was shown to mean, in its application to Great Britain, no more than this: that in a suit between creditor and debtor, if a judgment went against the debtor, he was allowed to plead a tender of bank-notes in arrest of execution, but he could not claim that the notes should be forced upon the creditor in discharge of the debt. During the long suspension of specie payments in Great Britain, therefore, bank-notes were never made legal tender in the American sense.