"This note is a promise to pay one dollar. The legal effect of this note has been announced by the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court of the United 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.