ation, a
system of paper money and tender laws, had completely paralyzed
industry, threatened to beggar every man of property, and ultimately to
ruin the country. The relation between debtor and creditor, always
delicate, and always dangerous whenever it divides society, and draws
out the respective parties into different ranks and classes, was in such
a condition in the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, as to threaten the
overthrow of all government; and a revolution was menaced, much more
critical and alarming than that through which the country had recently
passed. The object of the new Constitution was to arrest these evils; to
awaken industry by giving security to property; to establish confidence,
credit, and commerce, by salutary laws, to be enforced by the power of
the whole community. The Revolutionary War was over, the country had
peace, but little domestic tranquillity; it had liberty, but few of its
enjoyments, and none of its security. The States had struggled together,
but their union was imperfect. They had freedom, but not an established
course of justice. The Constitution was therefore framed, as it
professes, "to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to
secure the blessings of liberty, and to insure domestic tranquillity."

It is not pertinent to this occasion to advert to all the means by which
these desirable ends were to be obtained. Some of them, closely
connected with the subject now under consideration, are obvious and
prominent. The objects were commerce, credit, and mutual confidence in
matters of property; and these required, among other things, a uniform
standard of value or medium of payments. One of the first powers given
to Congress, therefore, is that of coining money and fixing the value of
foreign coins; and one of the first restraints imposed on the States is
the total prohibition to coin money. These two provisions are
industriously followed up and completed by denying to the States all
power to emit bills of credit, or to make any thing but gold and silver
a tender in the payment of debts. The whole control, therefore, over the
standard of value and medium of payments is vested in the general
government. And here the question instantly suggests itself. Why should
such pains be taken to confide to Congress alone this exclusive power of
fixing on a standard of value, and of prescribing the medium in which
debts shall be paid, if it is, after all, to be left to every State to
decla