By George Butler
There has been from our nation’s founding a struggle between two groups, the first group backed the bankers and a second group was opposed to monopolistic banking.
Historical Background
Thomas Jefferson was an enemy of monopolistic banking and in his now-famous quote he stated:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of US (1743 – 1826)
The pro-banking group early on was led by Alexander Hamilton. Being a statist, he naturally advocated for a monarchical form of government during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757[1] – July 12, 1804) was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America’s first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. He has been described as one who “more than any other designed the Government of the United States”:[2] As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington Administration, especially the funding of the state debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. He became the leader of the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views, and was opposed by Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Later Alexander Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury and would establish the first bank of the United States.
The First Bank of the United States
This bank had a 20-year charter expiring 1811. When congress refused to renew the charter some would maintain that this was the cause of the 1812 war with England. During the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson mounted a mighty defense of New Orleans which effective established the United States as an international military power to be reckoned with. Later “The Second Bank of the United States” would be established in 1816 with a 20 year charter. It was closed after its initial 20 year charter period. These banks many believe were extensions of European money power and control.
Previous to the Civil War during the years between 1816 and 1861 was a period punctuated by the rise of independent, wildcat and state charted banks who issued their own specie. The financial panics that ensued whatever the cause, during this period caused many to advocate bank reform. During the Civil War the Lincoln administration issued greenbacks,with congressional approval. The first of these notes, issued between August 1861 and April 1862, were called demand notes. These “Demand Notes” were nicknamed “greenbacks”, a name later inherited by Legal Tender and Federal Reserve Notes. The obverse of the Demand Notes contained familiar elements such as the images of a Bald Eagle, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Hamilton, though the portraits used on Demand Notes are different than the ones seen on U.S. currency today.
The greenback was a phenomenal success in financing the Civil War, for like the American Continental earlier issued by the individual colonies, the supply of greenbacks provided for enough specie to turn over goods and services. Eventually England outlawed the American Continental which some claim was one of the main causes of The American Revolution. After the conclusion of the Civil War the greenback still remained popular, but as the American economy grew an increase of greenbacks was necessary to fuel an expanding economy. The farmers and workers, all clamored for an increase of greenback supply but the bankers all resisted the call. They were conspiring to kill off the greenback which was a direct issue by The U.S. Treasury thus circumventing their control of the money stock.
Farmers Alliance
Post Civil War, farmers were trying to establish their farms, families and well-being. Cotton was king and especially in the defeated south was the major cash crop. The South was trying to re-establish their own economies and trying to regain the sovereignty of their individual States. The farmers had a problem in marketing their cotton, with commodity brokers acting as middlemen, but they also believed that there existed not enough greenbacks to turn over their crops and establish a viable market. Thus, in 1876 in Lampasas, Texas, the Farmers Alliance was founded to protect their interests in the marketing of cotton, but also to facilitate financial reform. The Farmers Alliance supported the greenback.
The Farmers Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement amongst U.S. farmers that flourished in the 1880s. One of the goals of the organization was to end the adverse effects of the crop-lien system on farmers after the American Civil War.[1][2] First formed in 1876 in Lampasas, Texas, the Alliance was designed to promote higher commodity prices through collective action by groups of individual farmers. The movement was strongest in the South, and was widely popular before it was destroyed by the power of commodity brokers. Despite its failure, it is regarded as the precursor to the Populist Party, which grew out of the ashes of the Alliance in 1892.
The money problem conflict throughout the United States seemed to divide those same forces whose ancestors originally founded a great nation in opposition to the money powers of Great Britain.
Greenback Movement
One prominent opponent of the greenback was William Graham Sumner. Sumner was a critic of natural rights, famously arguing that “Before the tribunal of nature a man has no more right to life than a rattlesnake; he has no more right to liberty than any wild beast; his right to pursuit of happiness is nothing but a license to maintain the struggle for existence…”
—William Graham Sumner, “Earth-hunger, and other essays,” p. 234.
From William Graham Sumner 1840-1910: His Life And Work by Robert C. Arne:
“Sumner worried that capital would be squandered if America abandoned the post-1873 gold standard: “the best system of coinage yet devised.” Many American farmers believed that cheaper money would reduce their debt payments and give them more dollars for their crops. When Congress abandoned greenbacks (Civil War paper currency), debtors and speculators favoring inflation turned to the palliative of bimetallism. Congress responded by passing the silver purchase acts in 1878 and 1890. Indignantly aroused, Sumner thought that this fiscal irresponsibility caused the Panic of 1893. In the 1890s Sumner made himself the most conspicuous opponent of
Bimetallism; he spoke frequently before large and sympathetic eastern audiences in famous clubs and before smaller audiences of mid-western hecklers. Sumner and the Republicans successfully defended gold against William Jennings Bryan, the Democrats, and the Populists.”
William Graham Sumner’s Civil War obligation was bought out at Yale by his Skull and Bones brothers. He steadfastly supported the banking system and attacked the greenback ferocious after the Civil War. I consider him to be a useful agent of the money powers as exemplified by the members of the Skull and Bones at the Yale University. Once they bought him out of having to serve in the Civil War, he was theirs.
William Jennings Bryan was a staunch proponent of the greenback and opponent of the “Gold Standard”. In his famous Cross of Gold speech he stated the following:
“They say that we are opposing national bank currency. It is true. If you will read what Thomas Benton said you will find he said that, in searching history, he would find but one parallel to Andrew Jackson; that was Cicero, who destroyed the conspiracy of Cataline and saved Rome. Benton said that Cicero only did for Rome what Jackson did for us when he destroyed the bank conspiracy and saved America. We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin and issue money is a function of government. We believe it. We believe that it is a part of sovereignty, and can no more with safety be delegated to private individuals than we could afford to delegate to private individuals the power to make penal statutes or levy taxes.”
The battle between proponents of fiat currency such as the greenback, bimetallism supporters and a strictly gold-backed currency would eventually manifest in the establishment of a central bank.
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913
After the Greenback was attacked and taken out of circulation, the next focus of the bankers who were advocates of “The Gold Standard”, was to establish only a gold standard as a requirement of bank creation. They possessed plenty of gold, so thus was created an automatic monopoly for themselves. Since they were wealthy and could command the needed gold reserves than they too would be the few founders of the gold reserve-backed money banks. So the bankers advocated “The Gold Standard” which was a play and hustle that looked good on the outside — but it provided the inside power bankers a means of allowing them a monopoly of money creation.
Senator Aldrich being an in-law of the Rockefellers was very interested in achieving total control over the money system, so he along with Vreeland enacted the following law:
The Aldrich–Vreeland Act was passed in response to the Panic of 1907 and established the National Monetary Commission, which later would recommended the passing of the The Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Soon after the enactment of the Aldrich–Vreeland Act in 1908, the National Monetary Commission embarked on a tour of Europe. Upon their return, they declared that the efficiency of the central banks in Europe was amazing.
The Commission issued a number of reports from 1909-1912 in favor of the creation of a central bank. During this period, ‘The Federal Reserve System” was planned and created at a secret meeting during November 1910 at Jekyll Island, Georgia.
G. Edward Griffin authored a ground breaking book entitled ‘The Creature of Jekyll Island”. In his book he reveals the conspiracy that was assembled to create, take over and establish a privately-owned Federal Reserve System that would possess a monopoly of money creation in the United States. In his book he not only names the individuals attending the meeting but gives the reader an inside look at their goals.
The attendees of this secret meeting were some of the most powerful bankers in the world in addition to an Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury. Together they conspired to begin to monopolize the power of money creation in America. Since 1913, the privately-owned Federal Reserve System has been dominating the majority of business in America. More recently, under Benjamin Bernanke, the credits granted to some of the largest financial concerns in both the U.S. and Europe prove beyond a doubt that the Federal Reserve System has been totally self-serving, primarily to save the financial institutions that became illiquid or insolvent during the last several years. The credits controlled by the Fed did not make it into the economy at large, thus we have a deteriorating economy. Alan Greenspan has just in the last few days critized Ben Bernanke for pursuing a policy that did not help the economy
Sorcery Notes
The Federal Reserve System can create money out of thin air. These are money credits of which no work was performed to secure. So we have a witchcraft, a sorcery, a magic mode of using an idea sold to the public as a legitimate system of fractional banking. But instead, this has been surreptitiously used to dominate the Space-Time Continuum which we are all within. Thus “Money Sorcery” is the name, the game, and the hustle, so.……END THE FED.
George Butler and Charlotte Littlefield are the talk radio co-hosts of The Secret Truth, which airs every Saturday evening, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. CST on GCN. Or listen On Demand anytime. Butler is also a playwright, having written the musical drama Give Them A Chance, which debuted in Austin, Texas in June 2007.