ted States, the highest and final judicial authority
in our government.

"The legal tender attribute given to the note has been the subject
of conflicting decisions in that court, but the nature and purport
of it is not only plain on its face, but is concurred in by every
judge of that court and by every judicial tribunal before which
that question has been presented.

"In the case of Bank vs. Supervisors, 7 Wallace, 31, Chief Justice
Chase says:

'But, on the other hand, it is equally clear that these notes are
obligations of the United States. Their name imports obligation.
Every one of them expresses upon its face an engagement of the
nation to pay to the bearer a certain sum. The dollar note is an
engagement to pay a dollar, and the dollar intended is the _coined_
dollar of the United States, a certain quantity in weight and
fineness of gold or silver, authenticated as such by the stamp of
the government. No other dollars had before been recognized by
the legislation of the national government as lawful money.'

"Again, in the case of Bronson vs. Rhodes, 7 Wallace, 251, Chief
Justice Chase says:

'The note dollar was the promise to pay a coined dollar.'

"In the Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wallace, 560, Justice Bradley says:

'It is not an attempt to _coin_ money out of a valueless material,
like the coinage of leather, or ivory, or cowrie shells. _It is
a pledge of the national credit_. It is a _promise_ by the government
to _pay dollars;_ it is not an attempt to _make_ dollars. The
standard of value is not changed. The government simply demands
that its credit shall be accepted and received by public and private
creditors during the pending exigency. . . .

'No one supposes that these government certificates are never to
be paid, that the day of specie payments is never to return. And
it matters not in what form they are issued. . . . Through whatever
changes they pass, their ultimate destiny is _to be_ paid.'

"In all these legal tender cases there is not a word in conflict
with these opinions.

"Thus, then, it is settled that this note is not a dollar, but a
debt due; a promise to pay a dollar in gold coin. Congress may
define the weight and fineness of a dollar, and it has been done
so by providing a gold coin weighing twenty-five and eight-tenths
grains of standard gold nine-tenths fine. The promise is specific
and exact, and its nature is fixed by the law and announced by the
court. Here I