Why was the power of fixing the standard of weights and measures given to Congress however to allow it to repair a normal and uniform normal of weights and measure ? The facility given Congress by the Constitution to coin money and regulate the worth thereof, and of foreign coins, and to provide for punishing the counterfeiting of the securities and current coin of the United States; the analogous energy given it to fix the usual of weights and measures; and the restriction upon the power of the States in opposition to making something however gold and silver coin a tender in fee of debts, all mix to establish that the government has no power to make any authorized tender whatever except the coin that it strikes. But it is precisely because the categorical power given in each one of these situations is wanting in this instance, and is sought to be implied, and because it is the settled rule that a energy to be implied as an auxiliary to a delegated energy should be 'not prohibited,' that I assert towards the implication of the authorized tender provision the prohibition which the Constitution imposes. It is also clear that if we hold the acts invalid as relevant to debts incurred, or transactions which have taken place since their enactment, our decision must cause, all through the country, nice business derangement, widespread distress, and the rankest injustice.
