Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/661

 ment, and yet were opposed to the introduction of paper currency of a fluctuating value.

The Oregon legislature of 1864 followed the example of California, and passed a specific-contract law. No money should be received in satisfaction of a judgment other than the kind specified in such judgment; and gold and silver coins of the United States, to the respective amounts for which they were legal tenders, should be received at their nominal values in payment of every judgment, decree, or execution. A law was enacted at a special session of the legislature in 1865, called to consider the thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, making all state, county, school, and military taxes payable in the current gold and silver coin of the government, except where county orders were offered for county taxes. This law removed every impediment to the exclusive use of coin which could be removed under the laws of congress, and was in accordance with the popular will, which adhered to a metallic currency.

By the constitution of Oregon, requiring that at the first regular session of the legislature after its adoption a law should be enacted submitting the question of the location of the seat of government to the vote of the people, the assembly of 1860 had passed an act calling for this vote at the election of 1862. The constitution declared that there must be a majority of all the votes cast, and owing to the fact that almost every town in the state received some votes, there was no majority at this election; but at the election of 1864 Salem received seventy-nine over all the votes cast upon the location of the capital, and was officially declared the seat of government. As the constitution declared that no tax should be levied, or money of the state expended, or