So, why is it that America now has a paper-money system? It is undeniable that the Constitution has never been amended to abolish the gold coin/silver coin system and replace it with a paper-money system. Yet, it is also undeniable that despite the fact that the Constitution doesn’t vest the federal government with the power to issue paper money, it has been doing precisely that for almost 100 years. Moreover, it is also undeniable that although the Constitution prohibits the states from making anything but gold coins and silver coins legal tender, the states have been making paper money legal tender for that same length of time.
The answer lies in the presidential regime of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Although the Depression had been brought about by the Federal Reserve, which had been established in 1913, Roosevelt blamed the Depression on America’s gold-coin/silver coin system that had been functioning for more than a century. Therefore, Roosevelt decided to convert America’s monetary system to a paper-money system. He ordered every American to deliver his gold coins to the federal government, on pain of a felony conviction for failing to do so. In exchange for their gold, Americans received government-issued paper money.
Amazingly, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of what was obviously a flagrantly unconstitutional action. The Court’s rationale was that the national emergency of the Great Depression vested the president with extraordinary powers to save the country.
But there was one big problem with the Court’s legal rationale: The Constitution did not provide for an emergency exception. In fact, the Framers expressly excluded an emergency exception from the Constitution because they knew that emergencies have always been the time-honored way that tyrants have assumed dictatorial powers.
But even if we were to accept the Court’s emergency rationale for upholding FDR’s extraordinary action, there is no question but that the “emergency” ended a long time ago. In fact, I think everyone would agree that at least by the year 1950, the “emergency” of the Great Depression had ended.......
 | I don’t get it. The Constitution clearly established a monetary system based on gold coins and silver coins. That was the American monetary system for more than 125 years. There has never been a constitutional amendment to convert that system to a paper-money system. Given such, why do we have a paper-money system? The Constitution called the federal government into existence. Unlike European regimes, the federal government was not vested with inherent powers. If the Constitution had done that, there is no doubt that the American people would have rejected it and would have continued operating under the Articles of … Continue reading → www.lewrockwell.com |
The answer to all these questions is simple: We all live under a lawless regime, one to which the Supreme Court dutifully defers. And it’s not just the destructive paper-money system under which they plunder and loot us and bring us an endless series of economic booms and busts. There are also the unconstitutional wars that presidents wage without the congressional declaration of war that the Constitution requires — wars to which the Supreme Court, again, dutifully defers. There is also the military draft, which is not among the powers that the Constitution vests in the federal government. Indeed, where are the powers to establish a welfare state and a national-security state? Where are the powers to engage in state-sponsored assassinations, torture, coups, and wars of aggression? Where are the powers to establish a socialist (i.e., central planning) system of immigration controls and the militarized immigration police state, including mass violent deportations, that comes with it?
The dark reality is the federal government forces us to obey its laws, such as with its evil and immoral war on drugs, while, at the same time, ignores the higher law of the Constitution that we the American people have placed on federal officials. Let us never forget that as Thomas Jefferson pointed out in the Declaration of Independence, when any government becomes destructive of the rights and liberties of the people, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government and institute new government that protects, not destroys, our rights, freedom, and well-being.
