Constructive Legislation
Another fiscal measure of the Republican party, enacted at the same time with the National Bank act, was the Legal Tender act which put into circulation as legal tender for all save certain specified purposes notes of The United States treasury, familiarly known as "greenbacks." This measure was bitterly opposed by the Democrats and its validity was contested in the courts. After much litigation the Supreme Court of the United States in 1883 fully sustained its constitutionality and validity. In a decision in which all but one member of the court concurred it was held that Congress had full power to provide for the issuance of such notes in time of war or of peace and thus to make paper money legal tender. These "greenbacks" and the notes of thousands of national banks have now for a generation been the familiar and favorite circulating medium of the Nation. The treasury notes and bank notes are used indifferently and indiscriminately and both are recognized as always and everywhere worth their full face value in gold coin. They form, in honor of the Republican party, one of the greatest monuments to constructive statesmanship that the world has seen.
In the very foremost rank of beneficent legislation of the Civil War era must be placed the Homestead act. As soon as Republicans secured an influential footing in Congress they moved for legislation which would make it possible for actual settlers to acquire farms in the public domain at a merely nominal cost, and thus develop the agricultural resources of the then unoccupied western prairies and plains. Such a policy was opposed by the southern pro-slavery Democrats who did not wish the free states and territories thus to be
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