Opinion of the court.

Court of the State, which affirmed the judgment, and he has brought the case to this court for review.

Two grounds of jurisdiction here and of error below are relied upon:

I. It is alleged that this section of the constitution of Missouri "is a bill of pains and penalties within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and therefore invalid."

The Constitution of the United States declares that "no State shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts." When the Constitution was adopted, bills of attainder and bills of pains and penalties were well known in the English law. Each of those terms had a clear and well-defined meaning. Bills of attainder were acts of Parliament whereby sentence of death was pronounced against the accused. Courts of justice were employed only to register the edict and carry the sentence into execution. Bills of pains and penalties were acts denouncing milder punishments. The term "bill of attainder" in the National Constitution is generical, and embraces bills of both classes.* It is too clear to require discussion that the provision in question of the constitution of Missouri belongs to neither of the categories mentioned. If not the opposite of penal, there is certainly nothing punitive in its character. It simply exempts from suits in a certain class of cases those who might otherwise be harassed by litigation and made liable in damages. It is rather in the nature of the indemnity acts, also well known in the English law.t

II. It is insisted that this section "is a law impairing the obligation of contracts, in violation of the Constitution of the United States."

This proposition is founded upon a provision in the lease that the lessor should keep the lessee "in lawful possession

* 2 Woodeson's Lectures, 622-624; Gaines et al. v. Buford, 5 Duna, 509; Story on the Constitution, g 1344; Ex parte Garland, 4 Wallace, 324. Rowland on the English Constitution, 563; 2 May, 267, 324.

Opinion of the court.

of the said leased premises during this lease," &c. It is said that this covenant became obligatory upon Stifle by virtue of his being the assignee of the reversion of the estate; that the law of landlord and tenant of Missouri, in force when the lease was executed, became a part of the contract; that one of the remedies to which Drehman was entitled by this law to enforce the covenant in question was the proceeding by forcible entry and detainer; that this section of the constitution of Missouri, as construed by the Supreme Court of the State, has deprived him of that remedy, and thus impairs the obligation of his contract. This view of the subject is supported by the counsel for the plaintiff in error with ingenuity, research, and ability; but they have failed to convince us of the soundness of the proposition.

The 26th section of the statute of Missouri upon the subject of forcible entry and detainer declares as follows: "The merits of the title shall in no wise be inquired into on any complaint which shall be exhibited by virtue of the provisions of this act." This proceeding has no relation to the rights of property of the parties. It turns entirely on the facts of lawful possession by the plaintiff and unlawful entry by the defendant. The defendant may have a valid title, the plaintiff possession without any title; and yet the defendant, having entered without the plaintiff's consent, may be dispossessed, and the plaintiff be restored to possession. If a party desires to assert his title and enforce his rights, he must resort to the remedies provided for that purpose. This form of procedure is not one of them.* It cannot, therefore, be maintained that this remedy entered into the contract between the lessor and lessee. The legislature might have abolished it, by repealing the statute, without impairing any right within the meaning of the contract provision of the Federal Constitution, acquired while the statute was in force. In this respect it stands on the same footing with any other action ex delicto.

Whether the instructions excepted to were right or wrong

* Gibson v. Ting, 29 Missouri, 184; Butler v. Cardwell, 33 Id. 86.

Syllabus.

is an inquiry which lies beyond the sphere of our powers and duties. If an action of covenant or ejectment had been brought, and it had been held that the constitution of Missouri affected the right of recovery, the question would perhaps have presented a different aspect. But no such case is before us, and we have not had occasion to consider the subject. The right of a State legislature to pass retroactive laws, where there is no inhibition in the constitution of the State, provided they do not impair the obligation of a contract, and are not ex post facto in their character, is too well settled to admit of doubt.* We find no error in the record of which we can take cognizance.

JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.

HEPBURN V. GRISWOLD.

1. Construed by the plain import of their terms and the manifest intent of the legislature, the statutes of 1862 and 1863, which make United States notes a legal tender in payment of debts, public and private, apply to debts contracted before as well as to debts contracted after enactment. 2. The cases of Lane County v. Oregon, Bronson v. Rodes, and Butler v. Horwitz (7 Wallace 71, 229, and 258), in which it was held that, upon a sound construction of those statutes, neither taxes imposed by State legislation nor dues upon contracts for the payment or delivery of coin or bullion are included, by legislative intent, under the description of "debts, public and private," are approved and reaffirmed.

3. When a case arises for judicial determination, and the decision depends on the alleged inconsistency of a legislative provision with the Constitution, it is the plain duty of the Supreme Court to compare the act with the fundamental law, and if the former cannot, upon a fair construction, be reconciled with the latter, to give effect to the Constitution rather than the statute.

4. There is in the Constitution no express grant of legislative power to make any description of credit currency a legal tender in payment of debts. 5. The words "all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution" powers expressly granted or vested have, in the Constitution, a sense

* Williamson v. Leland, 2 Peters, 627; Watson v. Mercer, 8 ld. 88; Kearney v. Taylor, 15 Howard, 494; Sattelee v. Mathewson, 2 Peters, 380; Society v. Pawlet, 4 Id. 480; Railroad v. Nesbit, 10 Howard, 401; Albee v. May, 2 Paine, 74; Andrews v. Russell, 7 Blackford, 475.

Statement of the case.

equivalent to that of the words laws, not absolutely necessary indeed, but appropriate, plainly adapted to constitutional and legitimate ends, which are not prohibited, but consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution; laws really calculated to effect objects intrusted to the government.

6. Among means appropriate, plainly adapted, not inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution, nor prohibited by its terms, the legislature has unrestricted choice; but no power can be derived by implication from any express power to enact laws as means for carrying it into execution unless such laws come within this description.

7. The making of notes or bills of credit a legal tender in payment of preexisting debts is not a means appropriate, plainly adapted, or really calculated to carry into effect any express power vested in Congress, is inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution, and is prohibited by the Constitution.

8. The clause in the acts of 1862 and 1863 which makes United States notes a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, is, so far as it applies to debts contracted before the passage of those acts, unwarranted by the Constitution.

9. Prior to the 25th of February, 1862, all contracts for the payment of money, not expressly stipulating otherwise, were, in legal effect and universal understanding, contracts for the payment of coin, and, under the Constitution, the parties to such contracts are respectively entitled to demand and bound to pay the sums due, according to their terms, in coin, notwithstanding the clause in that act, and the subsequent acts of like tenor, which make United States notes a legal tender in payment of such debts.

ERROR to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, the case being this:

On the 20th of June, 1860, a certain Mrs. Hepburn made a promissory note, by which she promised to pay to Henry Griswold on the 20th of February, 1862, eleven thousand two hundred and fifty "dollars."

At the time when the note was made, as also at the time when it fell due, there was, confessedly, no lawful money of the United States, or money which could lawfully be tendered in payment of private debts, but gold and silver coin.

Five days after the day when the note by its terms fell due, that is to say, on the 25th of February, 1862, in an exigent crisis of the nation, in which the government was engaged in putting down an armed rebellion of vast magnitude, Congress passed an act authorizing the issue of $150,000,000

Statement of the case.

of its own notes,* and enacted in regard to them, by one clause in the first section of the act, as follows:

"And such notes, herein authorized, shall be receivable in payment of all taxes, internal duties, excises, debts, and demands of every kind due to the United States, except duties on imports, and of all claims and demands against the United States of every kind whatsoever, except for interest upon bonds and notes, which shall be paid in coin; and shall also be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid."

The note given by Mrs. Hepburn not being paid at maturity, interest accrued on it. And in March, 1864, suit having been brought on the note in the Louisville Chancery Court, she tendered in United States notes issued under the act mentioned, $12,720, the amount of principal of the note with the interest accrued to the date of tender, and some costs, in satisfaction of the plaintiff's claim. The tender was refused. The notes were then tendered and paid into court; and the chancellor, "resolving all doubts in favor of the Congress," declared the tender good and adjudged the debt, interest and costs to be satisfied accordingly.

The case was then taken by Griswold to the Court of Errors of Kentucky, which reversed the chancellor's judg ment, and remanded the case with instructions to enter a contrary judgment.

From the judgment of the Court of Errors of Kentucky, the case was brought by Mrs. Hepburn here.

The cause was first argued at the Term of December, 1867, upon printed briefs submitted by Mr. Preston for the plaintiff in error, and Mr. Griswold contra. Subsequently, upon the suggestion of Mr. Stanbery, then Attorney-General, as to the great public importance of the question, the court ordered the cause and other causes involving, incidentally, the same question, to stand over to December Term, 1868, for reargument, with leave to the government to be heard. Accordingly, at that term the constitutionality of the provision in

*For the general form of the notes, see 7 Wallace, 26.