REVISION OF ALL THE PERMANENT LAWS OF THE

UNITED STATES IN 1873.

BY

Y an act of Congress, June 27, 1866, the President was authorized to appoint three commissioners, "three persons learned in the law," "to revise, simplify, arrange and consolidate all statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their nature." This act was "revived" by the act of May 4, 1870, under authority of which the President appointed the three commissioners.

This commission prosecuted its important work by striking out all that was obsolete and all that had been repealed down to December 1, 1873, and then brought the parts of the various laws relating to the same subjects together under their respective new titles. This work was presented to the forty-second Congress, and adopted by act of June 20, 1874, which repealed all general laws in existence prior to December 1, 1873, as follows, viz.:

(SEC. 5596) All acts of Congress passed prior to said 1st day of December, 1873, any portion of which is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby repealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision having been repealed or suspended by subsequent acts, or not being general or permanent in their nature; provided, that the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent provision, taken from an act making appropriations, or from an act containing other provisions of a private, local, or

temporary character, shall not repeal or in any way affect any appropriation, or any provision of a private, local, or temporary character, contained in any of said acts, but the same shall remain in force; and all acts of Congress passed prior to said last named day, no part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment.

The repeal above referred to, it will be seen, related back to December 1, 1873. But in the interim to the date of adoption many important amendments had been made to the laws that were revised. Thus the "National Currency Act," or "National Bank Act," was amended by act of June 20, 1874, abolishing the reserve to be held against circulation. This amendment was itself partly repealed by the specie resumption act of January 14, 1875. None of this legislation appears in the Revised Statutes, and these changes only appear in the Statutes at Large in the form of amendments to a law that does not exist in its original form and arrangement of sections.

Unlike the laws in regard to the coinage and in regard to the issue and redemption of United States notes and bonds, there are no questions of general importance in connection with the history of the legis lation in regard to the national banks and to national bank currency.

THE PLAN OF COMPILATION

pursued in the following pages has, therefore, been to divide the monetary laws under three heads, viz.: Coinage, United States Notes and Bonds, and National Banks and Bank Currency, each of these three divisions being compiled with a different view. Under the

head of Coinage are given only such clauses of the laws as relate to the weight, fineness and legal tender value of United States and foreign coins. Under the head of United States Notes and Bonds are given only such clauses as relate to the character of the obligation on the part of the government as a borrower, and the kind of payment provided for in the redemption of such obligations; all minor points not having any important bearing on these are omitted. But under the head of National Banks and Bank Currency are given all the laws now in force regarding the organization and management of National Banks and the issue and redemption of National Bank Currency. The object, therefore, in the compilation of laws under the last mentioned head has been to embody in their proper places in the Revised Statutes all the amendments passed in the interim between December 1, 1873, and June 20, 1874, and to strike out all that was repealed in the same time, thus making the compilation of laws under the head of National Banks and Bank Currency the same as if the revision of laws had been continued to June 20, 1874, instead of terminating at December 1, 1873.

8

COINAGE.

THE following includes all the clauses of all the laws

of the United States (and the previous Confederation of States) from 1781 to 1876, as they relate to the Weight, Fineness and Legal-Tender Value of United States and Foreign Coins. This summary is intended as historic of the policy of the government in regard to gold and silver coins and the relative values of the two metals:

Articles of Confederation between the States, adopted March 1, 1781.

§ 1. The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority or by that of the respective States, fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States.

[By act of the Congress of the Confederation passed August 8, 1786, and by the ordinance of October 16, 1786, a silver dollar, containing 375.64 grains of pure silver, was established as the “unit of account," though the Confederation had not established any mint and no such coins as were specified by the act were coined anywhere. The dollar thus established was intended to be the equivalent of 4s. 6d. sterling, but fell short of it by about two per cent.]

The Constitution, adopted September 17, 1787.

The Congress shall have power

§ 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States.

§ 3. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign

coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.

No State shall coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts,

ACTS OF CONGRESS.

Act April 2, 1792.

That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dimes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths, a dime being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mill the thousandth part of a dollar, and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation.

§ 4. That a mint for the purpose of a national coinage be and the same is established; to be situate and carried on at the seat of government of the United States for the time being.

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§ 5. There shall be, from time to time, struck and coined at the said mint, coins of gold, silver and copper, of the following denominations, values and descriptions, viz.: Eagles—each to be of the value of ten dollars or units, and to contain 247 grains of pure or 270 grains of standard gold. Half eagles—each to be of the value of five dollars or units, and to contain 123§ grains of pure or 135 grains of standard gold. Quarter eagles—each to be of the value of two dollars and a half dollar, and to contain 613 grains of pure or 673 grains of standard gold. Dollars or units· each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar, as the same is now current, and to contain 371 grains of pure or 416 grains of standard silver. Half dollars- each to be of half the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain 1858 grains of pure or 208 grains of standard silver. Quarter dollars - each to be of one fourth the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain 921 grains of pure or 104 grains of standard silver. Dismes - each to be of one tenth the value of a dollar or unit, and to contain 37 grains of pure or 41% grains of standard silver. Half dismes each to be of the value of one twentieth of a dollar, and to contain 18 grains of pure or 20 grains of standard silver. Cents each to be of the value of one hundredth part of a dollar, and to contain 11 pennyweights of copper. Half cents—each to be of the value of half a cent, and to contain 5 pennyweights of

copper.

§ 6. The proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall, by law, be current as money within the United States shall be as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight of pure gold or pure silver: that is to say, every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value in all payments with one pound weight of pure