re that debts may be discharged, and to prescribe how they may be
discharged, without any payment at all? Why say that no man shall be
obliged to take, in discharge of a debt, paper money issued by the
authority of a State, and yet say that by the same authority the debt
may be discharged without any payment whatever?

We contend, that the Constitution has not left its work thus unfinished.
We contend, that, taking its provisions together, it is apparent it was
intended to provide for two things, intimately connected with each
other. These are,--

1. A medium for the payment of debts; and,

2. A uniform manner of discharging debts, when they are to be discharged
without payment.

The arrangement of the grants and prohibitions contained in the
Constitution is fit to be regarded on this occasion. The grant to
Congress and the prohibition on the States, though they are certainly to
be construed together, are not contained in the same clauses. The powers
granted to Congress are enumerated one after another in the eighth
section; the principal limitations on those powers, in the ninth
section; and the prohibitions to the States, in the tenth section. Now,
in order to understand whether any particular power be exclusively
vested in Congress, it is necessary to read the terms of the grant,
together with the terms of the prohibition. Take an example from that
power of which we have been speaking, the coinage power. Here the grant
to Congress is, "To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of
foreign coins." Now, the correlative prohibition on the States, though
found in another section, is undoubtedly to be taken in immediate
connection with the foregoing, as much as if it had been found in the
same clause. The only just reading of these provisions, therefore, is
this: "Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value
thereof, and of foreign coin; but no State shall coin money, emit bills
of credit, or make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts."

These provisions respect the medium of payment, or standard of value,
and, thus collated, their joint result is clear and decisive. We think
the result clear, also, of those provisions which respect the discharge
of debts without payment. Collated in like manner, they stand thus:
"Congress shall have power to establish uniform laws on the subject of
bankruptcies throughout the United States, but no State shall pass any
law impairing the o