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History of the Currency, 1848 - 1873 by Walter G. Watt, 1898

History of the Currency, 1848 - 1873 by Walter G. Watt, 1898, Page 33

31.
legal tender cases, that the court was influenced by politics, it can be safely said that the question of the constitutionality of the legal tender acts has been finally settled. 
Conceding then the constitutionality of the act of Feb 25, 1862 the question still remains whether it was expedient or not. So far as any of the substitutes offered in Congress for the bill are concerned, the bill which was passed was, all thing considered, the best one. We must concede, however, that at best it was a forced loan, and there is no doubt but that our national debt at the close of the war was very much larger than it would have been could we have kept our currency on a metallic basis. That there was an absolute necessity for passing such an act as that of Feb. 25, at that time, may seriously doubted. Some writers on political economy think it would have been possible to have conducted the war successfully to its close without resorting to

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31. legal tender cases, that the court was influenced by politics, it can be safely said that the question of the constitutionality of the legal tender acts has been finally settled. Conceding then the constitutionality of the act of Feb 25, 1862 the question still remains whether it was expedient or not. So far as any of the substitutes offered in Congress for the bill are concerned, the bill which was passed was, all thing considered, the best one. We must concede, however, that at best it was a forced loan, and there is no doubt but that our national debt at the close of the war was very much larger than it would have been could we have kept our currency on a metallic basis. That there was an absolute necessity for passing such an act as that of Feb. 25, at that time, may seriously doubted. Some writers on political economy think it would have been possible to have conducted the war successfully to its close without resorting to