Honest Money Gold & Silver Report
"Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!" [1]
Introduction
The following is part five of the Gold & Silver Certificates Series. We will begin where we left off last week. The next sentence under review states:
"This prompted Congress to quietly place the U.S. on the silver standard." [2]
As we have seen in last week's paper, as well as in previous papers, the U.S. has ALWAYS been on a silver standard: since the beginning of our history, up to and including today. Only a constitutional amendment can change the silver standard. See Silver IS Money, Part I - V for a more detailed study.
What it did was to simply give Congress an excuse to reaffirm what had always been the case: a silver standard. Congress can not simply place our country on a new standard without passing a constitutional amendment that approves it according to due process; which has yet to occur.
"On May 12, 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed, which included a clause allowing for the pumping of silver into the market to replace the gold. A new Series 1933 $10 Silver Certificate was printed and released, but not many were released into circulation." [3]
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Title I -- Agricultural Adjustment- 1933 (Declaration Of Emergency) included many different actions, the most far reaching being a declaration of emergency, which was used to pass executive decrees of the President as if he were a King; his executive orders acting as the King's Perogative. The gold dollar was said to be the standard. However, as we have seen, only a constitutional amendment can change the standard. The act of stating the gold dollar as the standard was an unconstitutional act - and is as if, it never occurred.
The agricultural adjustment act also called for government intervention within the agricultural markets of a magnitude never before seen: including price controls, production and consumption controls, and even the stated goal of purchasing power controls. This is not how a free society with free markets works. This is pure socialism with fascist overtones.
Title I -- Agricultural Adjustment- 1933 (Declaration Of Emergency)
That the present acute economic emergency being in part the consequence of a severe and deceasing disparity between the prices of agricultural and other commodities, which disparity has largely destroyed the purchasing power of farmers for industrial products, has broken down the orderly exchange of commodities, and has seriously impaired the agricultural assets supporting the national credit structure, it is hereby declared that these conditions in the basic industry of agriculture have affected transactions in agricultural commodities with a national public interest, have burdened and obstructed the normal currents of commerce in such commodities, and render imperative the immediate enactment of title I of this Act.
DECLARATION OF POLICY
SEC. 2. It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress --
(l) To establish and maintain such balance between the production and consumption of agricultural commodities, and such marketing conditions therefore, as will reestablish prices to farmers at a level that will give agricultural commodities a purchasing power with respect to articles that farmers buy, equivalent to the purchasing power of agricultural commodities in the base period. The base period in the case of all agricultural commodities except tobacco shall be the prewar period, August 1909-July 1914. In the case of tobacco, the base period shall be the postwar period, August 1919 July 1,1929.
(2) To approach such equality of purchasing power by gradual correction of the present inequalities therein at as rapid a rate as is deemed feasible in view of the current consumptive demand in domestic and foreign markets.
(3) To protect the consumers' interest by Adjusting farm production at such level as will not increase the percentage of the coiners retail expenditures for agricultural commodities, or products derived therefrom, which is returned to the farmer, above the Parentage which was returned to the farmer m the prewar period, August 1909-July 1914....
The above is a bit more than is alluded to in the quotes under review. Once again more information was left out of the explanations concerning the historical events surrounding gold and silver certificates, then was mentioned.
The only point the quoted paragraph made regarding the entire Agricultural Act is that it "pumped silver into the market to replace gold." That is an understatement of the first order.
By What Authority
As if the above were not enough, the Agricultural Act did even more damage to the socio-economic fabric of society. The following are the main parts of the act that directly deals with monetary policy, and as is evident, did much more than just pump silver into the market to replace gold.
TITLE III -- FINANCING -- AND EXERCISING POWER CONFERRED BY SECTION 8 OF ARTICLE I OF THE CONSTITUTION: TO COIN MONEY AND REGULATE THE VALUE THEREFORE
SEC 43. Whenever the President finds upon investigation, that
(1) The foreign commerce of the United States is adversely affected by reason of the depreciation in the value of the currency of any other government or governments in relation to the present standard value of gold, or
(2) Action under this section is necessary in order to regulate and maintain the parity of currency issues of the United States, or
(3) An economic emergency requires an expansion of credit or
(4) An expansion of credit is necessary to secure by international agreement a stabilization at proper levels of the currencies of various governments, the President is authorized, in his discretion -...
(I) To direct the Secretary of the Treasury up to cause to be issued in such amount or amounts as he may from time to time order, United states notes, . . . in the same size and of similar color to the Federal Reserve notes heretofore issued and in denominations of $1 $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1000 and $10,000; but notes issued under this subsection shall be issued only for the purpose of meeting maturing Federal obligations to repay sums borrowed by the United States and for purchasing United States bonds and other interest bearing obligations of the United States: Provided, That when any such notes are used for such purpose the bond or other obligation so acquired or taken up shall be retired and canceled.
Such notes outstanding at any time shall not exceed $3,000,000,000. There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, an amount sufficient to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to retire and cancel 4 per centum annually of such outstanding notes, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to retire and cancel annually 4 per centum of such outstanding notes. Such notes and all other coins and currencies heretofore or hereafter coined or issued by or under the authority of the United States shall be legal tender for all debts public and private.
(2) By proclamation to fix the weight of the gold dollar in grains nine tenths fine and also to fix the weight of the silver dollar in grains nine tenths fine at a definite fixed ratio in relation to the gold dollar at such amounts as he finds necessary from his investigation to stabilize domestic prices or to protect the foreign commerce against the adverse effect of depreciated foreign currencies, and to provide for the unlimited coinage of such gold and silver at the ratio so fixed, or in case the Government of the United States enters into an agreement with any government or governments under the terms of which the ratio between the value of gold and other currency issued by the United States and by any such government or governments is established, the President may fix the weight of the gold dollar in accordance with the ratio so agreed upon, and such gold dollar, the weight of which is so fixed, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity with this standard and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain such parity, but in no event shall the weight of the gold dollar be fixed so as to reduce its present weight by more than 50 per centum....
It is most obvious that the mere mention of one sentence "pumped silver into the market to replace gold" falls far short of explaining the Agricultural Act and its litany of over reaching economic, monetary, and financial policies; policies that ended up affecting future generations; and how they live to this very day and into the future as well. [4]
The most important part of this section of the Agricultural Act is the title: AND EXERCISING POWER CONFERRED BY SECTION 8 OF ARTICLE I OF THE CONSTITUTION: TO COIN MONEY AND REGULATE THE VALUE THEREFORE.
Section 8 Article 1 of the Constitution reads in part:
Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; [5]
Beyond Comprehension
Where Roosevelt and his cronies ever found the authorization to confiscate the citizen's private property (gold) was never explained because it can't be explained. They tried an end run around the Constitution by enacting an emergency act that changed the rules of engagement, thereby allowing themselves the power to implement price, production, and consumption controls over the entire agricultural market.
That all these powers are supposedly conferred by Section 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution is beyond human comprehension.
The power to coin money and regulate the value thereof refers to silver and gold coin and their respective exchange ratios, one to the other, as expressed in WEIGHT, hence the wording: honest weights and measures.
The power to borrow money on the credit of the United States has nothing to say or do with confiscating the people's gold and the other acts that were implemented. What Roosevelt did was the same as the royal prerogatives of the Kings of Old, or the decrees of a dictator.
Protect and Defend
Such acts were definitely NOT how the President is, according to his oath of office, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The policies implemented were arguably acts of fraud, embezzlement, and may have even crossed the line of treason.
"The Constitution gives to Congress the power to regulate the currency. It does not give us the power to delegate it. And the Constitution was wise in that provision, because to put such a power to into the hands of a single individual would be the most unwise governmental act that could be conceived." [6]
Nowhere does Section 8 of Article One of the Constitution grant Congress the power to create paper currency. Even the Supreme Court during the legal tender acts got this point correct, although they tore asunder many other constitutional rights in the process.
"The legal tend acts do not attempt to make paper a standard of value. We do not rest their validity upon the assertion that their emission is coinage, or any regulation of the value of money; nor do we assert that Congress may make anything which has no value money;" [7]
Furthermore
"This power of emitting legal-tender paper currency is entirely distinct from that of coining money and regulating the value thereof. It is not an attempt to coin money out of a valueless material; it is not an attempt to make dollars." [8]
License
What the Farm Emergency Act was attempting to do was to give LICENSE to government intervention, and hence control, of all things monetary, financial, and commercial. Because the Constitution did not grant such authorization, the elite were compelled to steal it from the People, and they did.
The most blatant and egregious fault of the Farm Emergency Act is its granting to the President both constitutional (real) and unconstitutional (unreal) monetary powers.
It does not matter if these powers exist or not. Congress cannot delegate such powers to the executive office according to their own personal whim.
"Congress is manifestly not permitted to abdicate, or to transfer to others, the essential legislative power functions with which it is vested". [9]
"That Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the President is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution." [10]
We could continue to cite case after case, and reason after reason as to why the Farm Emergency Act, as well as just about all of Roosevelt's New Deal acts, were far astray of the Constitution, but we will not do so, as enough evidence has been given. For a more in depth discussion of Roosevelt's New Deal see Social Security: The New Deal - A Raw Deal, Part 5.
Main Point
The main point in all of this is to show that there is much more to the story then a simple one line sentence that "On May 12, 1933, the Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed, which included a clause allowing for the pumping of silver into the market to replace the gold."
Even Title I of the Agricultural Adjustment Act had several paragraphs regarding the issuance of silver certificates. The following is a bit more than a clause, and the ramifications of the Act were far more reaching, than "dumping silver into the market", if such even occurred.
SEC. 45. (a) The President is authorized for a period of six months from the date of the passage of this Act, to accept silver in payment of the whole or any part of the principal or interest now due, or to become due within six months after such date, from any foreign government or governments on account of any indebtedness to the United States, such silver to be accepted at not to exceed the price of 50 cents an ounce in United States currency. The aggregate value of the silver accepted under this section shall not exceed $200,000,000....
(d) The Secretary of the Treasury shall cause silver certificates to be issued in such denominations as he deems advisable to the total number of dollars for which such silver was accepted in payment of debts. Such silver certificates shall be used by the Treasurer of the United States in payment of any obligations of the United States.
(e) The silver so accepted and received under this section shall be coined into standard silver dollars and subsidiary coins sufficient, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, to meet any demands for redemption of such silver certificates issued under the provisions of this section, and such coins shall be retained in the Treasury for the payment of such certificates on demand. The silver so accepted and received under this section, except so much thereof as is coined under the provisions of this section, shall be held in the Treasury for the sole purpose of aiding in maintaining the parity of such certificates as provided in existing law Any such certificates or reissued certificates, when presented at the Treasury, shall be redeemed in standard silver dollars, or in subsidiary silver coin, at the option of the holder of the certificates:
(f) When any silver certificates issued under the provisions of this section are redeemed or received into the Treasury from any source whatsoever, and belong to the United States, they shall not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation; ...[11]
Conclusion
Needless to say, it is obvious that there is much more then meets the eye regarding gold and silver certificates; as well as the very convoluted state of our monetary history that reads more like Nijinski's Diary of a Madman, then a viable monetary policy, functioning according to sound principals of honest weights and measures.
"Now, that bird," he would say, "is, maybe, two hundred years old, Hawkins -- they live forever mostly; and if anybody's seen more wickedness, it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England, the great Cap'n England, the pirate.
She's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was at the fishing up of the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of eight,' and little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em, Hawkins! She was at the boarding of the viceroy of the Indies out of Goa, she was; and to look at her you would think she was a baby. But you smelt powder -- didn't you, cap'n?" [12]
"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.
"Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!
Pieces of eight!" [13]
Come visit our new website: Honest Money Gold & Silver Report
And read the Open Letter to Congress
Coming Soon: A Request For An Audit of the U.S. Gold Reserves
[1] Treasure Island (the parrot)
[2] Precious Metal Timing - by Ron Rosen
[3] Same as above - taken from Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia
[4] Title I -- Agricultural Adjustment- 1933 (Declaration Of Emergency)
[5] Section 8 Article 1 of the Constitution
[6] 77 Congressional Record at 2307
[7] 79 US at 553
[8] 79 US at 560
[9] Panama Refining Co. vs. Ryan 293 U.S. 388, 421 (1935).
[10] Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649 (1982).
[11] Title I -- Agricultural Adjustment- 1933 (Declaration Of Emergency)
[12] Treasure Island
[13] Same
