Our money system in a nutshell.

TREATISE, Of the U.S. Constitution and our Money System:

To fully understand money as used in the United States, let me review a little history before and after the adoption of the United States Constitution. During the years immediately preceding the adoption of the Constitution, mobs drove our Congress from Philadelphia into New Jersey and shot up the courthouses in Massachusetts. These events were illustrative of the general situation existing throughout the country with respect to law and order.

See money was worth anything from two and a half cents on the dollar down to nothing. Credit was ruined, trade paralyzed and discipline at a low ebb. Anarchy, bankruptcy, and confusion prevailed.

This situation was so desperate and the problems so perplexing that during 1785-1786 and the first part of 1787 (the years immediately preceding the writing of the United States Constitution), George Washington's letters to his friends were filled with gloom and despair.

He told them how futile the efforts of the past seemed, how awful the present was, and how bleak the future seemed. He wrote numerous letters in a tone similar to the ones from which brief excerpts are quoted below. (Remember that the Constitution was signed September 17, 1787.) On October 7, 1785, George Washington wrote to James Warren: "The wheels of government are clogged, and ... we are descending into a vale of confusion and darkness."

This letter was written nearly ten years after the Declaration of Independence was signed and long after the Revolutionary War was over. On August 1, 1786, a little over a year before the Constitution was signed, Washington wrote to James Madison: "No day was ever more clouded than the present ... we are fast verging into anarchy confusion."

On December 26, 1786, less than nine months before the Constitution was signed, Washington wrote to Henry Knox: "I feel my dear General Knox, infinitely more than I can state. Good God, who could have foreseen or predicted them?" Then, on February 3, 1787, Washington again wrote to Henry Knox: "If any ... person had told me that there would have been such formidable rebellion as exists, I would have thought him a bedlamite, a fit subject for a mad house."

It took slightly more than four months to write the Constitution; almost a year to have it ratified; then another year to set up the government under it. Yet, within three years conditions had so changed that Washington began writing letters of cheer and hope.

On June 3, 1790, Washington wrote to the Marquis de LaFayette: "You have doubtless been informed, from time to time, of the happy progress of our affairs ... Our revenues have been considerably more productive than it was imagined it would be."

On July 19, 1791, Washington wrote to the Catherine Macauloy Graham: "The United States enjoys a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government, that could hardly been hoped for." Within five years, we had credit around the world, law and order reigned paramount, and thoughtful men were asking what was it that those men did that brought about this wonderful change?

IGNORANCE ABOUT MONEY.

Here's what John Adams had to say about the subject of money: "All the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arise not from defects in their constitution or confederation. Not from want of honor or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." It is not widely known that the Constitution deals with economics, and most people are surprised to learn that the purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to "take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States," as stated by Alexander Hamilton in a report to Congress in 1786, recommending that there be a convention.

It was the purpose of the convention to establish a currency consisting of the precious metals. These were affixed by a permanent rule forbidding the use of the perishable medium of exchange such as certain agricultural products recognized by the statutes of some states as tender for debts, or the still more "pernicious expedient of paper currency" as President Andrew Jackson stated in his message to Congress on December 5, 1836.

SILVER AND GOLD AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Gold and silver were always to be the people's money. There is only one way for gold and silver to get into circulation and that is to go find it, dig it out of the ground, and then take the bullion and have it coined into money at a U.S. Mint. (Monetize it).

The Constitution clearly states that Congress was to do the coining (monetizing) so that all people would be assured the weight and purity was correct and that the value was in accordance with the guidelines set forth by Congress. In other words, they were to "set the value thereof."

On December 16, 1789, the Pennsylvania Gazette had this to say: "Since the federal constitution has removed all danger of our having paper tender, our trade is advanced fifty percent. Our monied people can trust their case abroad, and have their coin into circulation."

Merrill Jenkins, Sr. in his book, "The Greatest Hoax on Earth" said: "The writers of the Constitution knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote in Article 1, Section 10, Paragraph 1, ' No state shall ... make anything but gold and silver coin tender in payment of debts' ".

Before continuing further, I want to strongly emphasize the words "DEBT-FREE." It's not just that gold and silver was used, but the fact that gold or silver coin was brought into circulation DEBT-FREE. This is the key to free money.

Gold and silver backed money loaned into circulation would be a little better than what we have now. The important point that must be understood is: Whatever is used as money (gold, silver, Federal Reserve Notes, Treasury Notes - whatever, must be put into circulation DEBT-FREE.

From the Supreme Court of South Dakota, April 5, 1892, in the State v. Scougal Northwestern Reporter Vol. 51, it states: "In 1694 the British Parliament chartered the Bank of England, and conferred upon that bank the power to issue demand notes to circulate as money."

That was the beginning of paper money, bank issued debt-money, as we know it to be in use today in our country. The Bank of England did not then, nor does it now, belongs to the English government, but is owned by individuals. Their power has grown from that day until now, and it will continue to grow unless the English people put a stop to it.

In the United States, our central bank, private bankers own the Federal Reserve. Private bankers control all the central banks in the world because the citizens of those countries are as ignorant about money as the Americans. We have been made slaves to these privately owed central banks though the issuing of money which they loan to us and tax us for its use through interest. A return to honest money as mandated in the United States Constitution is our only hope.

Money is an obvious necessity. Business, society and government could not possibly operate without a convenient medium of exchange, but it must be circulated among all the people by a means that will benefit all equally, and which will not incur debt to anyone by the means of how it's circulated.