Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/660

 Oregon, the court, Judge Boise presiding, held that the act of congress authorizing the issue of treasury notes did not make them a legal tender for state taxes, and did not affect the law of the state requiring state taxes to be paid in coin. In another action between private parties, the question being on the power of congress to make paper a legal tender, the court ruled in favor of congress. On the other hand, it was decided by Judge Stratton that the law of congress of February 25, 1862, was unconstitutional. This law made treasury notes a legal tender for all debts, dues, and demands, which included the salaries of judges, which were paid from the state treasury. Hence, it was said, came the decision of a supreme judge of Oregon against the power of congress.

Turn and twist the subject as they would, the currency question never could be made to adjust itself to the convenience and profit of all; because it was a war measure, and to many meant present self-sacrifice and loss. For instance, when greenbacks were worth no more than thirty or forty cents on the dollar in the dark days of the spring of 1863, federal officers in California and Oregon were compelled to accept them at par from the government, and to pay for everything bought on the Pacific coast at gold prices, greatly advanced by the eastern inflation. The merchants, however, profited largely by the exchange and the advanced prices; selling for gold and buying with greenbacks, having to some extent and for a time the benefit of the difference between gold and legal tenders. To prevent those who contended for the constitutionality of the act of congress from contesting cases in court, California passed a specific contract law providing for the payment of debts in the kind of money or property specified in the contract, thus practically repudiating paper currency. But it quieted the consciences of really loyal people, who were unwilling to seein to be arrayed against the govern-