The amount which the plaintiff seeks to recover, and which, if the tender pleaded is insufficient in law, he is entitled to recover, is $5,100. There can, therefore, be no doubt of the jurisdiction of this court to revise the judgment of the circuit court. Act Feb. 16, 1875, c. 77, § 3, (18 St. 315.) The notes of the United States, tendered in payment of the defendant's debt to the plaintiff, were originally issued under the acts of congress of February 25, 1862, c. 33; July 11, 1862, c. 142; and March 3, 1863, c. 73, passed during the war of the rebellion, and enacting that these notes should 'be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States,' except for duties on imports and interest on the public debt. 12 St. 345, 532, 709. The provisions of the earlier acts of congress, so far as it is necessary for the understanding of the recent statutes to quote them are re-enacted in the following provisions of the Revised Statutes:
'Sec. 3579. When any United States notes are returned to the treasury, they may be reissued, from time to time, as the exigencies of the public interest may require.
'Sec. 3580. When any United States notes returned to the treasury are so mutilated or otherwise injured as to be unfit for use, the secretary of the treasury is authorized to replace the same with others of the same character and amounts.
'Sec. 3581. Mutilated United States notes, when replaced according to law, and all other notes which by law are required to be taken up and not reissued, when taken up shall be destroyed in such manner and under such regulations as the secretary of the treasury may prescribe.
'Sec. 3582. The authority given to the secretary of the treasury to make any reduction of the currency, by retiring and canceling United States notes, is suspended.'
'Sec. 3588. United States notes shall be lawful money, and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except for duties on imports and interest on the public debt.'
The act of January 14, 1875, c. 15, 'to provide for the resumption of specie payments,' enacted that on and after January 1, 1879, 'the secretary of the treasury shall redeem in coin the United States legal tender notes then out-standing, on their presentation for redemption at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States in the city of New York, in sums of not less than fifty dollars;' and authorized him to use for that purpose any surplus revenues in the treasury and the proceeds of the sales of certain bonds of the United States. 18 St. 296. The act of May 31, 1878, c. 146, under which the notes in question were reissued, is entitled 'An act to forbid the further retirement of United States legal tender notes,' and enacts as follows: 'From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful for the secretary of the treasury or other officer under him to cancel or retire any more of the United States legal tender notes. And when any of said notes may be redeemed or be received into the treasury under any law, from any source whatever, and shall belong to the United States, they shall not be retired, canceled or destroyed, but they shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation: provided, that nothing herein shall prohibit the cancellation and destruction of mutilated notes and the issue of other notes of like denomination in their stead, as now provided by law. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.' 20 St. 87.