|
DEDICATION to RICHARD L. SOLYOM | v |
| AUTHOR'S PREFACE | vii |
| FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION | xv |
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | xvi |
| A NOTE ON STYLE | xvii |
| INTRODUCTION | 1 |
| BOOK ONE -The True Meaning of the Monetary Powers
and Disabilities From Colonial Times to the Civil War |
| 25 |
| | PART I: Some Fundamental Methodological Considerations |
| 27 |
| | CONSIDERATION 1-The Doctrine of "Original Intent" in Constitutional Exegesis |
| 27 |
| | CONSIDERATION 2-Limitation of Constitutional Exegesis to the Period From Colonial Days to the Civil War |
| 39 |
| | CONSIDERATION 3-The Misconstrued Rôle of the Supreme Court as Ultimate Interpreter of the Constitution |
| 41 |
| | PART II: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities Under Anglo-American Common Law and the Constitution |
| 67 |
| | CHAPTER 1-The Monetary Powers and Disabilities Under English Common Law |
| 67 |
| | CHAPTER 2-The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the States and the Continental Congress Prior to Ratification of the Constitution |
| 81 |
| | CHAPTER 3-The Monetary Powers and Disabilities in the Constitution |
| 91 |
| | A. The Purpose and Policy of the Monetary Powers and Disabilities |
| 92 |
| | B. Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 |
| 94 |
| | 1. The Several Monetary Disabilities of Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 |
| 94 |
| | 2. The States' Reserved Power to "Make * * * Gold and Silver Coin a Tender" |
| 96 |
| | 3. What Constitutes "Mak[ing] * * * a Tender in Payment of Debts" Under Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 |
| 97 |
| | 4. The Absolute Nature of Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 |
| 104 |
| | C. Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 |
| 112 |
| | 1. The Power "To Coin Money" |
| 112 |
| | 2. The Power "To * * * Regulate * * * Value" |
| 119 |
| | 3. The Disability To Debase "Money" Below the Constitutional Standard |
| 126 |
| | 4. The Power To Declare "Money" a Legal Tender |
| 129 |
| | D. Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 and the Seventh Amendment |
| 134 |
| | 1. The "Dollar[ ]" in the Constitution |
| 134 |
| | 2. Adoption of the "Dollar[ ]" as the "Money-Unit" Prior to Ratification of the Constitution |
| 137 |
| | E. Article I, Section 8, Clause 2 |
| 141 |
| | 1. The Disability To "Emit Bills" |
| 141 |
| | 2. The Disability To Levy Forced Loans |
| 155 |
| | 3. The "Money" To Be "Borrow[ed]" |
| 164 |
| | 4. "On the Credit of the United States" |
| 167 |
| | 5. The Duty to Repay "Borrow[ed] Money" |
| 167 |
| | 6. The Privilege To Issue "Securities" as Evidence of "Borrow[ed] Money" |
| 169 |
| | F. Article I, Section 8, Clause 6 |
| 170 |
| | G. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 |
| 173 |
| | H. Summary of the Monetary Powers and Disabilities |
| 175 |
| | CHAPTER 4-Congressional and Executive Application of the Monetary Powers and Disabilities |
| 179 |
| | A. The Coinage Acts of the 1790s and mid-1800s |
| 183 |
| | 1. Alexander Hamilton's Report on the Subject of a Mint |
| 183 |
| | 2. Establishment of the Basic System of Domestic and Foreign Coinage |
| 190 |
| | a. The Coinage Act of 1792 |
| 191 |
| | b. Statutes "Regulat[ing] the Value * * * of Foreign Coin" |
| 199 |
| | 3. The Coinage Acts of the mid-1800s |
| 205 |
| | a. The Coinage Act of 1834 |
| 206 |
| | 206 |
| | 2) The Purpose of the Act |
| 206 |
| | 3) The Historical Background of the Act |
| 207 |
| | 4) The Congressional Debates:
Reiterating the Constitutional Policy |
| 208 |
| | 5) The Supreme Court's Misreading of the Act in Knox v. Lee and Juilliard v. Greenman |
| 225 |
| | 6) The Ulterior Congressional Purpose:
Destroying Paper Currency With Gold |
| 231 |
| | b. The Coinage Act of 1837 |
| 234 |
| | c. The Coinage Act of 1849 |
| 235 |
| | d. The Coinage Act of 1853 |
| 236 |
| | e. The Coinage Act of 1857 |
| 240 |
| | 4. Some Lessons Gleaned From This Coinage Legislation |
| 241 |
| | B. The Issuance of Treasury Notes Prior to the Civil War |
| 241 |
| | 1. Treasury Notes From 1812 Through 1814 |
| 243 |
| | 2. Treasury Notes of 1815 |
| 245 |
| | 3. The Joint Resolution of 1816 |
| 247 |
| | 4. Treasury Notes From 1837 Through 1847 |
| 248 |
| | 5. Treasury Notes From 1857 Through 1860 |
| 255 |
| | 6. Pre-Civil War Treasury Notes Not Equivalent to "Bills of Credit" |
| 256 |
| | C. Incorporations of the First and Second Banks of the United States |
| 260 |
| | 1. The Law Prior to Ratification of the Constitution |
| 261 |
| | 2. The Statutes Incorporating the First and Second Banks of the United States |
| 265 |
| | a. The General Political and Economic Context |
| 265 |
| | b. Selected Legislative History |
| 270 |
| | 1) Alexander Hamilton's Report on a National Bank |
| 270 |
| | 2) Alexander Hamilton's Opinion on the Constitutionality of an Act to Establish a Bank |
| 284 |
| | 3) Thomas Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank |
| 290 |
| | 4) The Congressional Debates on the First and Second Banks of the United States |
| 292 |
| | a) Congressional Debates on the First Bank of the United States |
| 292 |
| | b) Congressional Debates on the Second Bank of the United States |
| 306 |
| | 335 |
| | 3. The Supreme Court's Decisions in McCulloch v. Maryland and Osborn v. Bank of the United States |
| 339 |
| | 4. The Absence of Governmental Involvement With the Banks of the United States Sufficient To Taint Their Notes as Unconstitutional "Bills of Credit" |
| 351 |
| | a. Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky |
| 352 |
| | b. Darrington v. Bank of Alabama |
| 363 |
| | 368 |
| | d. Application of the State Bank Cases to the Two Banks of the United States |
| 371 |
| | 5. The Questions of Monetary Powers and Disabilities Left Unanswered in McCulloch v. Maryland and Osborn v. Bank of the United States |
| 375 |
| | CHAPTER 5-Some Decisions of the Supreme Court on the Monetary Powers and Disabilities |
| 391 |
| | 391 |
| | B. Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky |
| 410 |
| | C. Darrington v. Bank of Alabama |
| 423 |
| | 427 |
| | 431 |
| | F. Poindexter v. Greenhow |
| 437 |
| | G. Houston & Texas Central Railroad v. Texas |
| 440 |
| | H. Some Lessons Gleaned From These Decisions |
| 449 |
| BOOK TWO-The Declension of America's Systems of Money
and Banking From the Civil War to Contemporary Times |
| 455 |
| | CHAPTER 1-Evolution of the Bimetallic Standard From 1873 Through 1900 |
| 457 |
| | A. The Coinage Act of 1873 |
| 458 |
| | 458 |
| | 2. The Congressional Debates |
| 461 |
| | B. The Resumption of Specie Payments Act of 1875 |
| 471 |
| | C. The Joint Resolution of 1876 |
| 472 |
| | D. The Coinage Act of 1878 |
| 472 |
| | 472 |
| | 2. The Congressional Debates |
| 476 |
| | 3. The Supreme Court's Misreading of the Act in Juilliard v. Greenman |
| 504 |
| | E. The Subsidiary Coinage Act of 1879 |
| 506 |
| | F. Termination of the "Trade-Dollar" in 1887 |
| 507 |
| | G. The Silver Purchase Act of 1890 |
| 507 |
| | 507 |
| | 2. The Congressional Debates |
| 510 |
| | H. The Demonetization of the Statutory "Gold Dollar" in 1890 |
| 525 |
| | I. The Policy Declaration of 1893 |
| 526 |
| | J. The Continued Coinage of the "Standard Silver Dollar" in 1898 |
| 527 |
| | K. The Coinage Act of 1900 |
| 527 |
| | 527 |
| | 2. The Congressional Debates |
| 529 |
| | L. The Practical Equivalence of the Constitutional Silver Standard and the Post-Civil War Statutory "Gold Standard" |
| 554 |
| | CHAPTER 2-The Emergence of National Paper Currency from 1862 to 1884 |
| 561 |
| | A. The Historical Setting |
| 562 |
| | B. The Congressional Debates on the Constitutionality of Legal-tender Paper Currency |
| 564 |
| | C. Prelude to the Supreme Court's Decisions on the Constitutionality of the Greenbacks |
| 591 |
| | D. The Supreme Court's Decision in Knox v. Lee, Sustaining the Constitutionality of Legal-tender United States Notes |
| 599 |
| | E. The Supreme Court's Decision in Juilliard v. Greenman, Reaffirming the Constitutionality of Legal-tender Paper Currency |
| 651 |
| | F. The Supreme Court's Decision in Thompson v. Butler, Upholding the Monetary Character of Silver and Gold Coin in a Régime of Governmental Legal-tender Paper Currency |
| 666 |
| | CHAPTER 3-Silver Certificates and Gold Certificates |
| 671 |
| | 671 |
| | 674 |
| | C. Silver Certificates and Gold Certificates as Warehouse Receipts for Specie |
| 679 |
| | CHAPTER 4-The National Banking System and the Federal Reserve System |
| 689 |
| | A. The National Banking System |
| 689 |
| | 1. The Congressional Debates |
| 689 |
| | a. Congressional Debates on the 1863 Act |
| 690 |
| | b. Congressional Debates on the 1864 Act |
| 710 |
| | 726 |
| | 3. The Supreme Court's Decision in Veazie Bank v. Fenno |
| 733 |
| | 4. The Assumed Constitutionality of the National Banks |
| 738 |
| | B. The Federal Reserve System |
| 746 |
| | 1. The Congressional Debates |
| 750 |
| | 2. Key Elements of the Statutory Scheme |
| 799 |
| | a. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System |
| 799 |
| | b. The Federal Reserve Regional Banks |
| 812 |
| | c. The Federal Open Market Committee |
| 818 |
| | d. The Federal Advisory Council |
| 819 |
| | 819 |
| | 3. The Corporative-state Structure of the Federal Reserve System |
| 838 |
| | a. The Abdication of the Courts |
| 840 |
| | b. The Abdication of Congress |
| 862 |
| | c. The Abdication of the Executive Branch |
| 864 |