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Introduction
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether
Americans are to be free men or slaves." [1]
Top to Bottom
The United States used to be the largest creditor nation. Now we are the largest
debtor nation. One bread winner used to earn enough to support the entire family.
This is no longer the case for most American households. It now takes two.
Why?
The savings of the American people is at all time lows, less than one half
of one percent. Debt levels are at historic highs. Our government is running
deficits of unprecedented proportions. What has happened in the past few decades
to cause such drastic changes in our standard of living and way of life?
Something is going on, and whatever it is, it isn't good. The goal of this
work is to ferret out what is wrong with our monetary system, and to offer
a possible solution before it is too late. Not so much for ourselves, as for
our children, and their children to come. Time is of the essence.
Appearances
Money is not easily understood, at least not in the way it has been presented
by the international bankers and the establishment. But why would anyone make
it appear different than it is?
"The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which
complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it." [2]
The question is - by whom and towards what end? Cui Bono?
The Issue
Many issues need to be corrected in any society: past, present, and to come
- including our own. Poverty, homelessness, and lack of affordable medical
care are some of the more obvious problems. There are others as well.
Our aging infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. The viability of a transportation
system dependent on fossil fuel must be addressed. A comprehensive energy program
should be developed and put in place.
Highway bridges are in a state of disrepair. Care for the elderly is in a
state of denial. Our educational system requires constant attention to remain
up-to-date across a broad range of issues, from buildings and supplies, to
teachers and the curriculum, and everything in between.
All these problems have one thing in common - money. Not one of them can be
corrected without money. This is why the money power is the greatest power
that man has, even greater than the military power.
Without money, a military presence is impossible. It requires huge sums to
pay for a standing army in full array. Since ancient times it has been known
that "endless money forms the sinews of war." [3] The
merchants of death know this all too well. War is business to those who profit
thereby.
None of the above problems can be fixed until the money problem is fixed.
Gold and silver can restore the loss of purchasing power that results from
paper money.
Without paper money it is much more difficult to rage war in the imperialistic
manner it is today. A monetary system of gold and silver coin would hold the
purse strings tight, reining in the dogs of war, and the inflation paper money
breeds. Only an honest currency can cure the ills of a cancerous debt based
system.
The Need to Know
This is why it is so important to understand money, and the money power, as
they are the keys to the proper functioning of society.
Spiritual, emotional, and other non-physical ideals are of great importance
as well, but the present work concerns itself with the economy of man: his
need to exchange with one another for life's basic necessities: food, water,
shelter, and their like.
"Money is the most important subject intellectual persons can investigate
and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse
unless it is widely understood and its defects remedied very soon." [4]
It is difficult to get excited over monetary theory. The reasons are many.
We are all so busy trying to put food on the table, who has time to study money?
But that's the rub. It is exactly because we do not understand money that we
have to work as subjects of feudalism 21st century-style - at the behest of
the new world order.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking
and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution
before tomorrow morning." [5]
Money has been made a difficult subject to understand, and this is not by
accident, but by design. Those who control the money power do not want the
common man to understand it, lest they forsake their power.
"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits,
or so dependent on its favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.
The great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous
advantages, will bear its burden without complaint." [6]
If we understood the way money works, we would not accept paper money. We
would realize why the Constitution provides for gold and silver coin, while
bills of credit, are disallowed. The Founding Fathers knew full well that paper
money is an evil contrivance that swindles the common man.
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of
all industry and commerce." [7]
The Constitution
According to the Constitution our money is gold and silver coin, not Federal
Reserve Notes of debt-obligation. Silver is the standard by which the dollar
is defined - the unit of account of the United States.
-
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: The Congress shall have Power…To
coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the
Standard of Weights and Measures. [8]
-
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: No State shall…coin Money; emit
Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment
of Debt. [9]
As the Constitution states, Congress is empowered to coin money out of gold
and silver, not to emit bills of credit. Nothing can be more simply said, yet
that is not the form of money we have today. Why?
Instead of gold and silver coin, we have dollar bills - bills of credit that
the Constitution disallows, paper fiat money.
The dollar of the Constitution is a weight of silver: the then current circulating
silver dollar. The dollar bill or Federal Reserve Note is not the silver dollar
of the Constitution or the Coinage Act of 1792. One is an honest weight of
silver - the other a mere piece of paper.
Perhaps there is something being hidden from our sight, so we do not understand
this thing called money, and thus accept the unacceptable in its place - paper
money.
"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from
defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue,
as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." [10]
The goal of this work is to shed some light on the ignorance that John Adams
mentions, an act of omission by the majority, and commission by a select few,
one that has been designed to hide the truth - not to reveal it. It is easy
to stumble by that which has been hidden out of sight.
In the Beginning
For most of the first century of its existence, the United States adhered
to the monetary system of the Constitution: gold and silver coins. No bills
of credit were allowed.
The Constitution expressly forbids such paper money. As the Supreme Court
has said:
"The prohibition in the constitution to make anything but gold or silver coin
a tender in payment of debts is express and universal. The framers of the Constitution
regarded it as an evil to be repelled without modification; they have, therefore,
left nothing to be inferred or deduced from construction on this subject." [11]
The words "emit bills of credit" were hotly debated during the constitutional
convention. Not only had the issue been discussed, it had been voted on to
disallow them - in clear and precise terms.
"Mr. Ellsworth thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against
paper money. The mischief 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. By withholding the power from the new Government, more friends
of influence would be gained to it than by almost any thing else. Paper money
can in no case be necessary. Give the Government credit, and other resources
will offer. The power may do harm, never good." [12]
"Mr. Read thought the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the
mark of the Beast in Revelations." [13]
"Mr. Langdon had rather reject the whole plan than retain the three words
(and emit bills)." [14]
"Mr. Sherman thought this a favorable crisis for crushing paper money. 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." [15]
According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and notes from the constitutional
convention, a monetary system that allowed bills of credit to circulate as
the currency was not only unconstitutional, but an evil blight to be wiped
out, once and for all. Yet today we have it in spades. Why? The purpose of
this book is to answer this and other similar questions.
Why has our money been allowed to devolve from gold and silver coin, to the
present paper fiat money known as Federal Reserve Notes?
Why have Federal Reserve Notes lost 95% of their purchasing power since the
Fed was created in 1913?
Why are we not taught in school the importance of purchasing power?
Why are we not taught in school the definition of a dollar according to the
Coinage Act of 1792?
Why does Congress act as if it is completely unaware of what the Constitution
states is money?
How can the greatest nation on earth accept the debasement and destruction
of its own currency?
Black & White
Our monetary system has stepped over the edge - into the abyss. With the unlawful
suspension of gold as money, the last vestige of an honest monetary system
disappeared. In its place paper money is allowed to circulate as the currency
de jour - in complete opposition to the Constitution.
"We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper,
representing neither gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but broken
promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors and a ruined
people." [16]
All through our history, there has been a fight between those who desire paper
money, and those who want gold and silver coin, as money, as mandated by the
Constitution.
It has always been the banking establishment, and those closely associated
with it, that fought for paper money. This is because the bankers want to control
the issue of money, and hence reap the profits such monopolization breeds.
If the bankers can simply create money out of nothing, it is easier for them
to control the entire monetary system. If, on the other hand, money is gold
and silver coin, then it is much harder, perhaps impossible, for the bankers
to control money.
"Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to
create money and control credit, and with a flick of a pen they will create
enough to buy it back." [17]
Watching the Watchers
Gold and silver do not lend themselves to the control of man - paper money
does. Paper is easily had. Gold and silver must be removed from the bowels
of the earth by hard and dangerous work. It cannot simply be spoken into existence
- by fiat.
Today's paper money system is the elite collectivist's dream come true, the
perfect wealth transference mechanism, not only here in the United States,
but across the entire world. Such a system is a vile and wicked thing - an
abomination that walks the earth in darkness, casting shadows far and wide.
In the words of Alan Greenspan, whom some consider the overlord of paper money:
"Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth.
Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector
of property rights." [18]
The beginning of our new nation was witness to money of gold and silver coin.
Slowly, however, things changed. Gold certificates were first authorized by
Congress in the Currency Act of March 3, 1863, but were not issued until 1865.[19]
Silver certificates were created by the Coinage Act if 1878.[20] Both
were backed by gold and silver coins held on deposit as reserves. A holder
of these certificates could redeem them at any time for gold or silver coins.
Then paper bank notes were issued, but they were only partially backed by
gold and silver reserves, which generally amounted to 40%, and steadily declined
there from. Finally, our monetary system devolved into the dysfunctional mess
of paper fiat money we have today, backed by nothing.
"Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions
of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess." [21]
Where were our elected representatives during the demise of our monetary system?
Where was the protection of our constitutional rights, which is the reason
the Constitution was written, and the reason why the government was created
- to protect our unalienable rights, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence,
the defining document of our country.
The President takes an oath to "... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitutionof
the United States." [22]
Has the Constitution been so defended, or treated like it is a mere piece
of paper, as some in high places claim?
These are serious questions that will greatly impact the future quality of
life - of the live's of our children and their children to come. This is about
destiny, make no mistake about it. And destiny hangs in the balance, waiting
to be weighed - it must not be found wanting.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Gold coin of Diodotos I (250)
Complete introduction and table of contents, etc. available at: http://honestmoneyreport.com/bookIntro.pdf

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[1] George
Washington
[2] John Kenneth
Galbraith
[3] Cicero
[4] Robert H. Hemphill
[5] Henry Ford
[6] Lord Rothschild
[7] James Garfield
[8] US Constitution
Article I, Section, Clause 5
[9] John Adams
in a letter to Thomas Jefferson
[10] U.S. Supreme
Court [12 Wheaton at 288]
[11] James Madison's
Notes of the Convention
[12] Mr. Read
from above notes
[13] Mr. Langdon
from above notes
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