MONETARY LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. Revision of all Laws in 1873; Coinage Laws; Laws Authorizing AND REFERENCE TABLES: Tables of Prices for 54 years; Tables of Values of Coins and Monetary Units of all Nations; Table of the Average Annual Price of Gold from 1862 to 1876; Table of the Value of United States Notes with Gold at any Price. REVISION OF ALL THE PERMANENT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1873. BY Y an act of Congress, June 27, 1866, the President was authorized to appoint three commissioners, "three persons learned in the law," "to revise, simplify, arrange and consolidate all statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their nature." This act was "revived" by the act of May 4, 1870, under authority of which the President appointed the three commissioners. This commission prosecuted its important work by striking out all that was obsolete and all that had been repealed down to December 1, 1873, and then brought the parts of the various laws relating to the same subjects together under their respective new titles. This work was presented to the forty-second Congress, and adopted by act of June 20, 1874, which repealed all general laws in existence prior to December 1, 1873, as follows, viz.: (SEC. 5596) All acts of Congress passed prior to said 1st day of December, 1873, any portion of which is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby repealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision having been repealed or suspended by subsequent acts, or not being general or permanent in their nature; provided, that the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent provision, taken from an act making appropriations, or from an act containing other provisions of a private, local, or temporary character, shall not repeal or in any way affect any appropriation, or any provision of a private, local, or temporary character, contained in any of said acts, but the same shall remain in force; and all acts of Congress passed prior to said last named day, no part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactment. The repeal above referred to, it will be seen, related back to December 1, 1873. But in the interim to the date of adoption many important amendments had been made to the laws that were revised. Thus the "National Currency Act," or "National Bank Act," was amended by act of June 20, 1874, abolishing the reserve to be held against circulation. This amendment was itself partly repealed by the specie resumption act of January 14, 1875. None of this legislation appears in the Revised Statutes, and these changes only appear in the Statutes at Large in the form of amendments to a law that does not exist in its original form and arrangement of sections. Unlike the laws in regard to the coinage and in regard to the issue and redemption of United States notes and bonds, there are no questions of general importance in connection with the history of the legis lation in regard to the national banks and to national bank currency. THE PLAN OF COMPILATION pursued in the following pages has, therefore, been to divide the monetary laws under three heads, viz.: Coinage, United States Notes and Bonds, and National Banks and Bank Currency,— each of these three divisions being compiled with a different view. Under the head of Coinage are given only such clauses of the laws as relate to the weight, fineness and legal tender value of United States and foreign coins. Under the head of United States Notes and Bonds are given only such clauses as relate to the character of the obligation on the part of the government as a borrower, and the kind of payment provided for in the redemption of such obligations; all minor points not having any important bearing on these are omitted. But under the head of National Banks and Bank Currency are given all the laws now in force regarding the organization and management of National Banks and the issue and redemption of National Bank Currency. The object, therefore, in the compilation of laws under the last mentioned head has been to embody in their proper places in the Revised Statutes all the amendments passed in the interim between December 1, 1873, and June 20, 1874, and to strike out all that was repealed in the same time, thus making the compilation of laws under the head of National Banks and Bank Currency the same as if the revision of laws had been continued to June 20, 1874, instead of terminating at December 1, 1873. 8 |