Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/700

 692 law; but for the more complete satisfaction and security of the public creditors, foreign as well as domestic. The articles of confederation contained a similar stipulation in respect to the bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed, and debts contracted, by or under the authority of congress, before the ratification of the confederation.

§ 1829. Reasonable as this provision seems to be, it did not wholly escape the animadversions of that critical spirit, which was perpetually on the search to detect defects, and to disparage the merits of the constitution. It was said, that the validity of all engagements made to, as well as made by, the United States, ought to have been expressly asserted. It is surprising, that the authors of such an objection should have overlooked the obvious consideration, that, as all engagements are in their nature reciprocal, an assertion of their validity on one side, necessarily involves their validity on the other; and that, as this article is but declaratory, the establishment of it in debts entered into by the government, unavoidably included a recognition of it in engagements with the government. The shorter and plainer answer is that pronounced by the law of nations, that states neither lose any of their rights, nor are discharged from any of their obligations, by a change in the form of their civil government. More was scarcely necessary, than to have declared, that all future contracts by and with the United States should be valid, and binding upon the parties.