CH. VI.]
THE PREAMBLE.
469
of the times.[1] It is well known, that Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts took its origin from this source. The object was to prostrate the regular administration of justice by a system of terror, which should prevent the recovery of debts and taxes.[2]
§ 487. The Federalist speaks on this subject with unusual emphasis. "The loss, which America has sustained from the pestilent effects of paper money on the necessary confidence between man and man, on the necessary confidence in the public councils, on the industry and morals of the people, and on the character of republican government, constitutes an enormous debt against the states, chargeable with this unadvised measure, which must long remain unsatisfied; or rather an accumulation of guilt, which can be expiated no otherwise than by a voluntary sacrifice on the altar of justice of the power, which has been the instrument of it."[3] "Laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation."[4] And the Federalist dwells on the suggestion, that as such laws amount to an aggression on the rights of the citizens of those states, whose citizens are injured by them, they must necessarily form a probable source of hostilities among the states. Connecticut retaliated in an exem-- ↑ The case of Trevett v. Welden, in 1786, in Rhode-Island, is an instance of this sort, which is in point, and illustrates the text, though it would not be difficult to draw others from states of larger extent. The judges in that case decided, that a law making paper money a tender in payment of debts was unconstitutional, and against the principles of magna charta. They were compelled to appear before the legislature to vindicate themselves; and the next year (being chosen annually) they were left out of office for questioning the legislative power.
- ↑ 5 Marshall's Life of Washington, 111, 112, &c.; 2 Pitk. Hist. 214; Minot's History of the Insurrection in Massachusetts.
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 44.
- ↑ Id.
