1789.
before the 29th of January, 1777, it is certainly conclusive against the present demand. Conscientious men may, induced, reflect upon the enormous advantage of making a payment at the rate of sixty for one; but we are bound by the explicit language of the law (except where it violates the Constitution of the State) and must leave those to answer for its policy be whom it was enacted.
But, on the other hand, how will the cafe stand, if the tender was not made in bills of credit of a date antecedent to the 29th of January, 1777? The arguments of the counsel have differed widely on this ground; and the question is, whether the words of the act apply only to the bills of credit which Congress had emitted; or, extend, also, to those bills which Congress might emit?
The doubt, in this respect, is not entirely novel. A British Serjeant, having a licence in the year 1778, to carry clothing from Philadelphia to Lancaster for British prisoners of war, brought with him some forged paper money, and passed it at the latter place. He was tried for this offence, and the distinction as then taken that the forgery was of an emission subsequent to the 29th of January, 1777. The point, however, did not prove to be material; for, the Court, considered the Defendant as an alien enemy, who might, indeed, be punishable for any action malum in se, but was not liable to the penalties of a municipal regulation, and, on that ground, directed the Jury to acquit him.
By the act which was passed on the 20th of March, 1777, (2 State Laws 48) we find that the State paper money then omitted, was only made a tender at common law; for, the words of the act merely declare that a tender in that money shall have the same effect as a tender in specie, which is clearly no more than a suspension of the interest. The succeeding act, passed on the 25th of May, 1778, (2 State Laws 131.) after providing for the exchange of bills of credit issued under the authority of the King of Great Britain, gives to the bills of credit issued by Congress only the same currency and effect in payment of debts which the above mentioned act, of the 20th of March, 1777, had given to the bills of credit omitted by the State; and that, as I have already remarked, did not amount to an absolute discharge of the obligation. By the act of the 3d of April, 1781, tenders are declared to have no other force than that which was given to them by the laws in existence at the time they were made. 1State Laws 447.
The intention of the Legislature must be collected from the words which they have used, unless a different meaning can be manifestly shewn. The construction, then, that we have put upon the words of the act of the 20th of March, 1777, (which, by express referrence, is made to govern the operation of the act of the 25th of May, 1778,) is, that the Legislature only intended to make a tender of the £200,000 bills of credits equivalent to a tender at common law. There is no satisfactory reason opposed to this construction; and, but for this, the act of the 29th of January, 1777, might be as well extended to the bills of credit which were after-wards,
