Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/28

 20 bankers, having no legal authority over the coin, issue notes for circulation. But this they do always with the consent of government, express or implied; and government restrains and regulates all their operations at its pleasure. It would be a startling proposition in any other part of the world, that the prerogative of coining money, held by government, was liable to be defeated, counteracted, or impeded by another prerogative, held in other hands, of authorizing a paper circulation. It is further to be observed, that the states cannot issue bills of credit; not that they cannot make them a legal tender; but that they cannot issue them at all. This is a clear indication of the intent of the constitution to restrain the states, as well from establishing a paper circulation, as from interfering with the metallic circulation. Banks have been created by states with no capital whatever, their notes being put in circulation simply on the credit of the state. What are the issues of such banks, but bills of credit issued by the state?

§ 1116. Whatever may be the force of this reasoning, it is probably too late to correct the error, if error there be, in the assumption of this power by the states, since it has an inveterate practice in its favour through a very long period, and indeed ever since the adoption of the constitution.

§ 1117. The other power, "to fix the standard of weights and measures," was, doubtless, given from like motives of public policy, for the sake of uniformity, and the convenience of commerce. Hitherto, however, it has remained a dormant power, from the many