Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/228

 220 main purpose, for which the power is given to the general government, viz. uniformity of the currency; and the former might be as well accomplished by local mints established by the national government, if it should ever be found inconvenient to send bullion, or old coin for re-coinage to the central mint. Such an event could scarcely occur, since the common course of commerce throughout the United States is so rapid and so free, that bullion can with a very slight expense be transported from one extremity of the Union to another. A single mint only has been established, which has hitherto been found quite adequate to all our wants. The truth is, that the prohibition had a higher motive, the danger of the circulation of base and spurious coin connived at for local purposes, or easily accomplished by the ingenuity of artificers, where the coins are very various in value and denomination, and issued from so many independent and unaccountable authorities. This subject has, however, been already enlarged on in another place.

§ 1352. The prohibition to "emit bills of credit" cannot, perhaps, be more forcibly vindicated, than by quoting the glowing language of the Federalist, a language justified by that of almost every contemporary writer, and attested in its truth by facts, from which the mind involuntarily turns away at once with disgust and indignation. "This prohibition," says the Federalist, must give pleasure to every citizen in proportion to his love of justice, and his knowledge of the true springs of public prosperity. The loss, which America has sustained since the peace from the pestilent effects of