Found a good "BBS Text" link? Let Us Know!

This paper is presented in an historical context and is indicative of the various rants, raves, treatises, etc., that were prevalent in the old BBS (Bulletin Board Service) days. Content has not been changed, though formatting changes may have taken place to make it more presentable. (Spelling, sentence/paragraph structure, etc.) Wherever possible, credit is given to the originating source.

 Return to BBS Text Files

FUNNY MONEY 

I was rummaging through an antique chest in our attic. I found an old dollar bill which said "Silver Certificate" redeemable at any bank for one silver dollar. I looked at a dollar bill which I had in my pocket but it only said Federal Reserve Note. Not a word that I could redeem in silver dollars. I thought a note was a debt. I figured, Hell, I'll take it to my bank the next time I go and get a silver dollar for it. Would be nice to have an old silver dollar for a change.

The next time I was at the bank, I gave the teller the old silver certificate. I asked for a silver dollar to replace it.

Her mouth dropped open. She said, "I'm sorry, sir, I have no authority to give you a silver dollar for this bill." 

"What do you mean? It says right on the bill that it can be redeemed at any bank for a silver dollar!"
"Yes sir, it does. Just a minute while I ask the Vice-President to look at it and to give you his decision."

The Vice-President came to the window with the dollar in his hand. He said he was sorry but the redemption of these old bills stopped in 1964. 

"How did that happen?" I asked. 
"Congress passed a law taking us off the silver standard. They set a date to allow for the exchange of these old bills for silver. That ended in 1964. I can only suggest if you want a silver coin, you'll have to go to a coin shop."

I stopped at a coin shop on the way home. I found that I would have to pay 7 Federal Reserve Note dollars to purchase a one dollar silver coin. 

"What a lot of nonsense." I said, "Just what in blazes is going on with our money?"

GOLD--MONEY--SILVER--DOLLARS! 

What did our Founding Fathers have in mind concerning money when they set up our Constitution? Was it to be a piece of paper with different numbers printed on it? No. Do you think they had experience with paper money? You bet they did. 

In our Constitution, (Art I, Sec 8), we gave Congress authority "to coin money". Further, they are to regulate the value of our money. Nowhere in our agreement for this business of government was the power given to "print money."

The money experience of the colonists under the Articles of Confederation was disastrous! Each of the original colonies had gone through periods of coined money and paper money. They had over 100 years of experience with money which varied from day to day and from state to state. Paper money was no stranger to the men who went to Philadelphia in 1787.

Roger Sherman was one of the delegates from Connecticut. He was largely responsible for the restriction in our Constitution that money had to be coins and not a piece of paper. Roger Sherman had the distinction of being the only man to sign three major documents in the early history of our country. His signature appears on the Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence and of course, our Constitution. 

In 1752, he wrote a blistering article against paper money titled A CAVEAT AGAINST INJUSTICE. He had spent many years trying to run businesses in the private sector and experienced the evils of paper money first hand. The book has been reprinted by Publisher Spencer Judd. It is available from the publisher at Post Office Box 143, Sewanee, TN 37375.

Major William Pierce, a delegate from Georgia, wrote sketches of all the men who attended the Constitutional Convention. This is his description of Roger Sherman: 

"Mr. Sherman exhibits the oddest shaped character I ever remember to have met with. He is awkward, un-meaning, and unaccountably strange in his manner. But in his train of thinking there is something regular, deep, and comprehensive; yet the oddity of his address, the vulgarisms that accompany his public speaking, and that strange new England cant which runs through his public and private speaking make everything that is connected with him grotesque and laughable; -and yet he deserves infinite praise; -no Man has a better Heart or a clearer Head. If he cannot embellish he can furnish thoughts that are wise and useful. He is an able politician, and extremely artful in accomplishing any particular object; -it is remarked that he seldom fails."
(Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States, House Document No. 398, 69th Congress, 1st Session) (1965).

There was a lot of debate during the convention about permission to issue "bills of credit" or paper money. The other delegate from Connecticut was Mr. Oliver Ellsworth. During debates on money he declared this was a good time to shut the door against the future use of paper money. He further stated, "The mischief's of the various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America." On the motion to deny permission for the government allowing the issuance of paper money, only New Jersey and Maryland voted no. 

Roger Sherman was on the committee which considered the prohibitions against state governments. Mr. Sherman felt this was just the right situation for crushing paper money. One proposition was to allow the issuance of paper money by the states with the consent of the legislature. He said, "If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions of it, the friends of paper money, would make every exertion to get into the Legislature in order to license it." He and Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania moved to add some special words. "Nor emit bills of credit, nor make any thing but gold & silver coin a tender in the payment of debts."

The entire convention agreed to this clause and included it in our Constitution in Article I, Section 10.  Let's examine that command. No State shall emit bills of credit nor make any Thing but gold and silver coin a tender in the payment of debts! 

I point out a small yet important item in that restriction. Any Thing is two separate words and the word thing is capitalized. Our Founding Fathers were determined that only gold and silver coin could be legal tender. By capitalizing thing, they were certain no one could raise a question in that aspect.

If you have a debt with the state in which you live, they cannot make any thing a tender. This includes repayment of debt in other than gold and silver coin. You can volunteer, of course, to pay the debt in anything your state will accept. Be it money orders, checks, federal reserve notes, wampum, bingo chips or beads. 

But we know there is no gold or silver coin in circulation. For any state to force you to pay in any Thing but gold or silver is a violation of your rights. It is also a violation of a specific state duty under Art. I, Section 10. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and is binding on all states. The supremacy clause makes it very clear.

On March 3, 1884, the United States Supreme Court changed all that. In a case called Juilliard vs Greenman, they said the restriction against the issuance of paper money was against the states. It did not apply against the federal government. The so-called interpreters of law have again taken it on themselves to change our Constitution in violation of our amendment process. 

A book written in 1886 by a historian named George Bancroft called "A PLEA FOR THE CONSTITUTION" clearly points out the illegality and fallacy of the decision by the Supreme Court. I recommend it highly and it is also available in reprint from Publisher Spencer Judd, whose address appears above.

Another authorization we did not allow is for the legislative body to delegate any of their duties to any other body, under ANY circumstances. However, in 1913, Congress gave permission to a private corporation called the Federal Reserve System to control our money. More on this in a later chapter. 

Looking back to Section 8 of Article I, we find Congress is to "fix the Standard of Weights and Measures." For the sake of our illustration, and to show how idiotic it was to hand over the control of our money, let's pretend Congress also gave that required duty of weights to a private company. This outfit (whoever it might be) has decided an ounce is now a pound and a liquid ounce is now and forever a gallon.

They are controlling only weights and measures . . . not the value of an article. Now a gallon of gasoline costs you $32.00 instead of one dollar. The cost of a rib steak is now about $64.00 a pound. Can you imagine how the people would explode if this had happened? Only because Congress reneged on its duties to fix the standard of weights and measures. 

We know they didn't give this duty to a private outfit. They DID give the mandated duty to regulate the value of our money to a private company. Now who is breaking the law? The same thing happens to the value of our dollar as in the above illustration of variations in weights and measures. The effect is not as dramatic because they complete money manipulation slowly and it is carried on behind closed doors. People are mostly ignorant on money issues. The bureaucracy and the Fed prefer it that way. 

We often hear the phrase "ignorance of the law is no excuse." What do you suppose their excuse is for violating our basic law? Ignorance on our part of this dereliction of congressional duty is also no excuse. 

Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, No. 42 equates the value of coins with weights and measures. "The regulation of weights and measures is transferred from the Articles of Confederation, and is founded on like considerations with the preceding power of regulating coin."

All the gobbledygook in Washington DC will not change the fact our elected people in Congress did and are violating their oaths. They are breaking the law. And we are the victims!

James Madison, in paper No. 44, speaks of the restrictions against the states (Art I, Sec 10) by saying "The extension of the prohibition to bills of credit must give pleasure to every citizen in proportion to his love of justice and his knowledge of the true springs of public prosperity. The loss which America has sustained since the peace, 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 - . . it may now be observed that the same reasons which show the necessity of denying to the States the power of regulating coin prove with equal force that they ought not to be at liberty to substitute a paper medium in place of coin."

Yet the states cry they have to use whatever the federal government issues for money. From what we have looked at so far, we all know this is pure horse manure. The relationship of the states to the national government is turned upside down. The states were jealous of their sovereignty and that was apparent throughout the convention. This was to be a union of states, not an all powerful federal government which could do no wrong. We've let it get away from us. What consideration can our elected officials give to their oath? Perhaps it's just a ritual now, only so many words which have to be recited each time we return them to the funny farm in Washington. 

If they were honorable men, the oath would be all important and binding on them. Then we would not have to worry if our Constitution were being obeyed. 

Okay, now what do we have to do? Throw them all out of office whenever they come up for election. We certainly don't need Republicans, Democrats, liberals, right wingers, conservatives or left wingers. There is no requirement that a member of Congress be a lawyer either! We need those bakers, butchers and computer operators. We need honest Americans as our representatives who will restore our Republic to the greatness our Founding Fathers intended. 

Get on the phone and call the local offices of all Senators and Congressmen. Ask where they found authority to delegate their duties to a private company like the Federal Reserve or to any other body for that matter. Write letters to their Washington offices and ask the same questions.  

Write your Governors and ask if the United States Constitution is still binding on the state. Ask specifically about the restriction in Art I, section 10! Letters every couple of weeks would not be too often to let them know you know what is going on. You want it changed. Certainly it wouldn't be too much to require them to obey a document they swore to uphold.

Reports are that some of the State Supreme Courts have decided that the restriction does not apply to their particular states. By what right? Did you agree to allow the judiciary of your state to decide that the oaths to support the Constitution is no longer binding on them? They need to be denied their offices also. 

We now have lawyers running and manipulate our lives. Let's make it stop. These sort of decisions only show that lawyers are taking care of their own in the mutual admiration society called government. If government thinks we would agree to paper money instead of gold and silver, submit a proposed amendment to our Constitution. Let's find out if we will allow for the change. The amendment process is spelled out in Art V.

Make them use it and stop these violations of our basic law. They really have a good deal. They can issue a piece of paper with the number one on it followed by as many zeros as they feel necessary. Then it can be called money. They also are aware that gold and silver cannot be counterfeited! They prefer the paper method.

AFTER ALL . . . IT'S YOUR MONEY! But then, they will probably ask . . . just who are you? Simply remind them. 

REGISTRATION IS ONLY $19.95
PLEASE READ 'SALES PITCH' CHAPTER

 

Please Read The Website Disclaimer!
Copyright 2006, The Survival & Self-Reliance Studies Institute (SSRsi), All Rights Reserved
Site conceptualized, designed, created & maintained by MEG Raven
Snail Mail: SSRsi, PO Box 2572 Dillon, CO. 80435-2572