power to borrow money; as an agency of the power to collect and
disburse taxes; and as an exercise of the power to regulate
commerce, and of the power to regulate the value of coin. Of the
two first sources of power nothing need be said. The argument
relating to them was long since exhausted, and is well known. Of
the other two there is not room, nor does it seem needful to say
much. If Congress can prescribe the structure, equipment, and
management of vessels to navigate rivers flowing between or through
different States as a regulation of commerce, Congress may
assuredly determine what currency shall be employed in the
interchange of their commodities, which is the very essence of
commerce. Statesmen who have agreed in little else have concurred
in the opinion that the power to regulate coin is, in substance and
effect, a power to regulate currency, and that the framers of the
Constitution so intended. It may well enough be admitted that while
Congress confines its regulation to weight, fineness, shape, and
device, banks and individuals may issue notes for currency in
competition with coin. But it is difficult to conceive by what
process of logic the unquestioned power to regulate coin can be
separated from the power to maintain or restore its circulation, by
excluding from currency all private or corporate substitutes which
affect its value, whenever Congress shall see fit to exercise that
power for that purpose.

'The recommendations, now submitted, of the limited issue of United
States notes as a wise expedient for the present time, and as an
occasional expedient for future times, and of the organization of
banking associations to supply circulation secured by national
bonds and convertible always into United States notes, and after
resumption of specie payments, into coin, are prompted by no favor
to excessive issues of any description of credit money.

'On the contrary, it is the Secretary's firm belief that by no
other path can the resumption of specie payments be so surely
reached and so certainly maintained. United States notes receivable
for bonds bearing a secure specie interest are next best to notes
convertible into coin. The circulation of banking associations
organized under a general act of Congress, secured by such bonds,
ca