Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/639

-1865] Southern finance. 607 of public money for internal improvements except for aids to navigation, such as the maintenance of lighthouses and the removal of obstructions; and even in these cases corresponding taxes upon the navigation facilitated were called for. Similarly, the expenditure of public money for the benefit of a part of the people was forbidden by the constitutional requirement that after March 1, 1863, the Post-Office should be self- supporting. A surplus revenue in that department was actually secured by adopting high postal rates, while the volume of business it transacted was relatively small. The provisions regarding the issue of paper-money as legal tender were the same in the Constitutions of the North and the South, except that in the permanent Confederate Constitution the States were not prohibited from issuing bills of credit, though the prohibition against making anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts was left unchanged. Both belligerents had therefore to deal with a similar question touching the constitutionality of legal tender paper-money. In the North the Act of February, 1862, authorising an issue of legal tender paper-money, was sustained by the Supreme Court in later years ; in the South the generally accepted theory of constitutional interpre- tation prevented the passing of any similar measure. Pressure was frequently brought to bear on the Congress to pass a legal tender law; the same arguments were used that proved effective in Federal legisla- tion , it was called a war measure, and a proper check upon the disloyal noteholders who were discrediting the government by circulating its notes at a discount. E. A. Pollard in particular urged the adoption of the measure ; but the majority in the Congress, and among them the leading members, as well as the leading executive officers, opposed it. President Davis would doubtless have vetoed such a bill; and Memminger clearly defined his views on the constitutionality and the expediency of the measure, in marked contrast with the equivocal position taken by the Secretary of the Federal Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, under similar circumstances. The State legislatures did not feel the same scruples about the constitutionality of legal tender laws, and passed many such measures, as well as other Acts intended to compel the unwilling creditors to accept Confederate or State notes. The Confederate Constitutions made some noticeable changes in the direction of increasing the powers of the President, and diminishing those of the Congress, but, strangely, not with a view to the impending war. The increase in the President's powers had solely in view his position in time of peace. To prevent the long-established practice of legislative "log-rolling" he was empowered to veto particular appropria- tions and approve others in the same bill a constitutional change still favoured by many, and frequently adopted in recent State constitutions. The term of office for both President and Vice-President was lengthened from four to seven years ; and they were declared ineligible for a second