He had called members of the two Houses of Congress from their seats and, by his great urgency, overcome their reluctance to vote for the Legal Tender Law.

My late colleague, Mr.Dawes, has more than once told me, and others in my hearing, that he was exceedingly reluctant to resort to that measure, and that he was induced to support it by Mr.Chase's earnest declaration that it was impossible that the War should go on without it, that he was at the last extremity of his resources.

A Government note had been formally protested in the city of New York.

I have heard a like statement from many public men, survivors of that time.

It is not too much to say, that without Mr.Chase's urgent and emphatic affirmation that the war must stop and the Treasury be bankrupt and the soldiers without their pay, unless this measure were adopted, it never could have passed Congress.
Notwithstanding this, Mr.Chase puts his opinion in the Legal Tender Cases on the ground that this was not a necessary, or plainly adapted means to the execution of the unquestionable power of carrying on a great war in which the life of the Republic was in issue.
The question whether this necessity existed was a question of fact.