Such a course was not calculated to promote harmony, and to secure a continuance of the union. If, in questions of this kind, or if in any cases, the character of a sovereign state shall be made the subject of such imputation; this peaceful tribunal would not be enabled to procure the submission of the states to its jurisdiction; and contests about civil rights would be settled amid the din of arms, rather than in these halls of national justice.
The act of the legislature of Missouri, 'establishing loan offices,' had no purposes to accomplish by which injury could be sustained by any one. The deficiency of currency in the state, and the expenses which attended its new organization, made the arrangements proposed and authorised by the act convenient and beneficial to the citizens of the state. The state, when it directed that the certificates should be issued, made sufficient and certain provision for their redemption and payment. The permanent continuance of the circulation of the certificates was prohibited by an effective regulation in the bill: the twenty-fourth section of the law provided for the gradual extinction of the certificates as they should come in; and power was given to the governor, by the twenty-ninth section of the law, to negotiate a loan of gold and silver for their redemption. Thus, the certificates were issued upon ample means for their discharge; and their discharge to their full value must soon take place.
These certificates were not made a legal tender. They are not directed to pass as 'money:' and while there is no obligation imposed by the law, that they shall be taken by the citizens of the state; it declares that the state shall take them in payment for taxes, for salt, and for fees of office.
When examined, these certificates will be found to be nothing more than evidences of loans made to the state; and for the payment of which she has given specific and available pledges.
It will not be contended that the states have not power to borrow money: and what other form of certificate of a loan, than that which was adopted by the state of Missouri, can be devised, when this power is exercised. In every state of the union loans have been negotiable; and certificates of the amount due by the state to the individual lenders are issued.
The certificates which were the consideration of the note, were therefore not 'bills of credit,' in the constitutional acceptation of such instruments.
An examination of the legislation of the states in which such bills were issued, and the proceedings under those laws, will clearly show that the condition of things in the view and recollection of the convention which formed the constitution, was different, in every essential feature, from that which was created by the law of Missouri. Massachusetts, in 1690, issued bills of credit to pay taxes and other debts due to the state treasury; but the soldiers, to whom they were offered, would not receive them. 1 Hutchinson's Hist. 402, 404. In 1714 and 1716, other issues were made, and they were directed to pass as money, and made a tender. In 1749 the issuing of such bills was discontinued.
During the revolution, the 'bills of credit' which were issued by the authority of the states, and by that of congress, were in most cases made a tender; and this was the objectionable feature in them. So long as no objection to receive them is imposed by the law which directs or authorises their emission, they can injure no one. Free to refuse them, the citizen may protect himself from loss by their depreciation, by rejecting them.
The bills issued under the Missouri law have not this vice. That part of the law which obliges the officers of the state to receive them for salaries and fees, is not before the court. The notes in this suit were given voluntarily; and thus, in reference to the case of the plaintiffs in error, it cannot be said that the certificate given for the note had the character of 'a legal tender.'
In reference to the duty imposed on the lessees of the salt springs owned by the state, it should be known to the court, that when the 'act for the establishment of loan offices' was passed, no leases had been given for those salt springs. If it was to be made a condition of the lease, to which the lessee would consent, that these certificates should be received for salt: it cannot therefore be said that any obligation was imposed on him, of which he could complain.