The Secretary was sworn to obey his volume of written "instructions," and these commanded him to do two certain things without fail, viz.: 1.

Get the House and Senate journals printed; and, 2.

For this work, pay one dollar and fifty cents per "thousand" for composition, and one dollar and fifty cents per "token" for press-work, in greenbacks.
It was easy to swear to do these two things, but it was entirely impossible to do more than one of them.

When greenbacks had gone down to forty cents on the dollar, the prices regularly charged everybody by printing establishments were one dollar and fifty cents per "thousand" and one dollar and fifty cents per "token," in gold.

The "instructions" commanded that the Secretary regard a paper dollar issued by the government as equal to any other dollar issued by the government.