Vile Acts of Evil

Volume 1

Banking in America

Dedicated to Doreen Kirchubel, my mother,

and William B. Kirchubel, my father,

who taught me right from wrong.

Thank you.  It came in handy.

Copyright © 2009

All Rights Reserved

 mikirch@comcast.net

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page 12 – How Benjamin Franklin Caused the Revolutionary War

Page 23 – The First Bank of the United States

Page 29 – One Nation, Under Debt, with Liberty and Justice for Few

Page 36 - Fractional Reserve Banking

Page 43 – The Rothschilds     

Page 47 – The Second Bank of the United States

Page 57 – Andrew Jackson’s Epic Battle against Evil

Page 74 – The Panic of 1857

Page 79 - Bank Notes vs. Government Notes 

Page 84 – Lincoln’s Two Wars

Page 94 – The National Banking Act – The Way We Make Money

Page 102 – The Reign of Tight Money – Three Decades of Depression                  The Contraction Act - The Credit Strengthening Act  – The Refunding Act - The Coinage Act  – The Resumption Act - The Bland – Allison Act

Page 163 – The Elusive Silver Slippers of Prosperity

Page 173 – America’s War with Spain

Page 177 – The Bankers’ Panic of 1907 – The First Bailout

Page 188 – Playing Monopoly with Real Money

Page 195 – The Trip to Jekyll Island

Page 205 – The Abortion is Born

Page 209 - So, What’s Wrong with the Federal Reserve?

Page 228 - The Eternal Curse of Debt Money

Page 241 - How Banks Make Money

Page 248 – Interest in Banking

Page 252 – An Interest-ing Paradox

Page 256 – The Incredible Shrinking Dollar

Page 259 – Now, We can have a Really Great War!

Page 268 – The Bankers’ War Board

Page 275 – The Bankers’ Revolution - Capitalism Funds Communism

Page 279 – Manufacturing an Agricultural Depression

Page 289 – 1929 – Bad News for the Little Guy

Page 297 – The Tinkle Down Theory

Page 308 – The Great Gold Grab

Page 317 – When is a Dollar Not a Dollar?

Page 321 – Deflation in the Depression

Page 328 – The Birth of Hitler

Page 338 – Finally, World Peace and Prosperity

Page 349 – A Central Bank for Central Banks

Page 360 – The Bankers’ Final Solution

Page 370 – Truth is not an Option 

Page 386 – Bush’s Bank Bailout Scam

Page 403 – Why is Economics so Complicated?

Page 410 – The Cure

Page 416 - Parting Thoughts

Preface

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” – Herbert Spencer.  

This book is not what you think.  Vile Acts of Evil – Banking in America does not discuss your bank’s usurious interest rates or ridiculous fees – irritants you know too well - and the title reflects neither joke nor hyperbole. This is the untold, true story of money, greed, and power in America.  If you dare continue, you will soon realize, that the vast underbelly of our American history - the recessions, depressions, panics, and wars - the enormous amount of needless human turmoil, suffering, and carnage - the millions of wasted lives over hundreds of years - are but byproducts of extremely wealthy bankers seeking further wealth - mere corporate externalities, not worthy of a bookkeeping entry.  Truly, Vile Acts of Evil.

This book almost wrote itself.  With minimal prodding on my part, this long-buried story tenaciously clawed its way to daylight through thick strata of rock-solid historic catechism and economic dogma.  The words of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and about a hundred other notables seamlessly wove themselves together forming web of intrigue.  Each of these venerable men spoke the truth as he saw it in his day and their isolated patches of quotes – spanning over two hundred years - formed a flowing, continuously consistent story quilt when sewn together.  So, when you find your warm and comfortable, well-worn convictions at odds with what you read, when you suddenly discover yourself angry, muttering or yelling at this book, when you absolutely refuse to believe what is written, don’t get mad at me; take it up with these gentlemen, because it is his story, his story, history. 

Newsworthy events are typically viewed through many eyes, from several angles, and refocused through the mental lens of each observer’s personal predisposition.  What we have been taught as a child to believe is straightforward factual “history,” is actually a complex mélange of personal opinions, usually written to bolster or undermine a person or cause; always to the detriment of truth.  “History is mostly guessing, the rest is prejudice” - According to Ariel and Will Durant, whose mammoth collection, The Story of Civilization, defined world history for generations. Writers invariably have a reason for writing and discerning their motive is the key to interpretation and understanding.  I claim nothing more here, other than this honesty: You will find my feelings open and transparent, not disguised in twists or spin, or hiding behind the patently deceptive mask of “Fair and Balanced.” Judge accordingly.

“We cannot understand the role of the people in history unless we also understand the historical illusions which misrepresent history in order to serve the interests of privileged classes.”  “Man cannot fully master his present without reconquering his own history, repossessing the hidden heritage of the past.”  – John Howard Lawson, The Hidden Heritage, 1950.   Your history has been hidden from you.  History is written by the winners and, as you will soon understand, these winners, these privileged few, do NOT want you to know their history.  Our ignorance enhances their power and knowledge undermines.  “He, who controls the present, controls the past.  He, who controls the past, controls the future.” - George Orwell, 1984, 1948.  I want you to reach into this book with both hands and wrest out your long lost past with vengeance.  For with it, together, we can control our future for our betterment.  My hope is that this book acts as a contagion spreading both anger and awareness - Anger to motivate action and awareness of what action to take.  As you read, consider how the events described have rippled through time to influence your life today and how they must have profoundly affected the lives of your ancestors. The tools you need are the facts found here, documented by quotations from noted eyewitnesses of each era.  These are the actual words of the individual, not the typical, subjective author’s interpretation followed by a reference number.  I figured you would sooner believe the people who actually participated in the events discussed, rather than the random rants of this writer.  You may be surprised to discover an American history new to you and your brain will naturally repel against the information presented here.  These facts universally rail against the well-ingrained framework of our carefully cultivated cultural preconceptions, but they remain facts, nonetheless.  Please, willingly suspend your preprogrammed disbelief, honestly weigh the evidence presented, and use your innate ability to judge truth for yourself.  “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy.  “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” Friedrich Nietzsche. Realize this: Your convictions flower from the manure of myths.

This book is filled with information you will not find assembled anywhere else.  You may have a nodding acquaintance with some of the quotations used; you may know a few of these stories; but, barring a soul bereft of compassion, I guarantee you a continuing series of jaw-dropping revelations. This book brings to light past evils, explains confusing economic terms, unravels mysterious conspiracies, and shows how they relate to today’s financial headlines.  I present you a view of our American history previously hidden, discuss problems intentionally ignored, and offer solid policies for improvement. By necessity, the format is very loosely structured, being both chronological and organized by subject matter – explained in useful order.  Our journey doesn’t just roar down the main highway of this tale, we take the scenic route, with side trips visiting interesting folks telling incredible tales, and particularly, poking at all the dead skunks in the middle of the road, stinking to high, high heaven. 

Many people believe our world history is either a grand chessboard of conspiracy or that humanity is continually bombarded, like cosmic rays from heaven, by random, unconnected events.  These people form the lips of our cultural bell curve. Obviously, truth lies somewhere in the middle and as sentient beings we should have the urge to determine which events are which.  Those who would disparage evil plots label it all “Conspiracy Theory” and, although conspiracy is universally ridiculed by our educational industry and corporate media, many historical events can best be explained within this context.  Perspective often defines our terms:  The bankers’ logical, long-range business plan is seen as a sinister conspiracy by victimized workers.   “The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep – for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.  Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon the definition of liberty.” – Abraham Lincoln.  I would like to transcend the word “Conspiracy” here, because of its overuse and denigration.  For the same reasons, I have also strained to carve out terms such as: Jesuit, Jew, Mason, and Illuminati. Assigning guilt to groups of people invariably starts an endless series of meaningless, un-provable arguments diverting attention from solving the problem.  I have seen this occur in nearly every book and article written on any “conspiracy.”  Not here. In order to avoid these divisive distractions - and that’s exactly what they are - what I have attempted to do is show you how and why certain historical events happened and ask you, the reader, what you would have done in the same situation.  This world and our lives are not by ruled by alien reptilian monsters, but by humans possessing the very same thoughts and emotions as us all.  Let there be no misunderstanding, the events described in this book are indeed vile, and therefore their perpetrators evil, but I believe many of us would duplicate their actions if given their opportunity.  But don’t fret; you will never be given that chance.  You will be asked to look into your mental mirror and honestly reflect on what you see. Would you have Congress enact a law that required every American send you half of their money?  That sounds good, but would you, if you knew a hundred million people would suffer for years and millions die because of your actions?  Would you start or prolong a war if you could make billions?  These questions may be repulsive or seem ridiculous, but such questions are entertained by people who have the power to make these things happen. 

By wading through a vast morass of sycophantic banking blathering, economic double-speak, intentional misdirection, and a myriad of paranoid conspiracy theories that lead to factual dead ends, I was able to glean the few hard kernels of truth presented here.  If you grew up in the same America as I, where free enterprise and fair play were extolled, you will find these kernels extremely difficult to swallow.  Because of this, you will find this an angry book - You will hear righteous anger continuously articulated by those whose words you read.   These disparate people, spanning centuries, are unified by Man’s collective morality: our common sense of right and wrong.  Big fish eating little fish is universal truth; but we are not fish.  Most of us acknowledge that humans should act humanely and the powerful should not pilfer pennies from the pockets of the poor.  Unfortunately, as you will soon learn, they do.  The information presented here is vitally important to our national history, identity, and destination but, amazingly, none of it is part of our national dialog.  That must change.   Please, share this book, this information, with others.   “The truth, to be sure, is sometimes hard to grasp, but it is never so elusive as when it is not wanted.” - Herman H. Dinsmore, Editor, New York Times. “Just let me have my toaster, my TV, and my steel-belted radials and leave me alone.” - Howard Beale, “Network,” written by Paddy Chayefsky, 1976.  False frames formulated by foundation spin specialists focus our eyes away from the truth and we have been conditioned to consume only sterilized, plastic-packaged reality in thirty-minute segments - but you will have to adjust your brain: “NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32 … the Revolution will not be televised.” – Gil Scott-Heron.  The “Vast Wasteland” may let your mind slumber; for that is its purpose, but I will not.  If you dare proceed, your next few hours of reading will very likely enrage you because, as Gloria Steinem very aptly stated: “The truth will set you free - But first it will piss you off.”  Much of what you find here will be too outrageous, too preposterous to believe and the continual, irritating dissonance will compel you to seek the truth.  Hopefully, you are already convinced that what I am writing must be pure, hyperbolic poppycock.  Good.  For you, this book will be a begrudging battle fought fact by fact and your ultimate realization will be profound.  True believers convince themselves.  I dare you: Google every doubt.  The truth is out there - Still.  “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” - Arthur Schopenhauer. “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein.  

We are trained to entertain the trivial - to detest substance.  We see only what others place before us.  “The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to ensure uniformity, but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.” – Allen Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, 1987.  “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1600.   “Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth.  Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.” - Winston Churchill.  Please, don’t jump up, brush yourself off, and hurry on about your business.  Take your time reading and savor every word - every Vile Act of Evil. Let each penetrate your mind and saturate your soul. Now, rub away the comfortable fog that clouds your eyes and relaxes your mind.  Focus and sharpen your brain. You are about to peek outside the carefully composed disinformation bubble surrounding you. I dare say, “You have stumbled across truth, Horatio.”- Mike Kirchubel, 2009.

Introduction

There is something you should know...  Beyond the blatant theft of our nation’s treasure outlined in today’s headlines, beyond the loss of our jobs, our meager savings, our homes, and our children’s futures, bankers have conspired to steal our money, property, and dreams for hundreds of years.  Today, without your knowledge, we exist as sharecroppers, toiling in their economic fields, sending them a significant portion of our income every year. As you read, you will come to realize that there exists a power more dominant than Congress or the President - A small cadre of wealthy bankers, manipulating the money supply of our nation and the world, controls our daily existence and the destiny of our children.  Each day, we are all ever more tightly bound by their chains, created from debt, forged by bankers’ pens. These wealthy few, through their all-embracing media, control popular opinion and direct the areas of interest for the mass of humanity.  They command Congress to create laws favorable only to them, to the detriment of all others.  They tell us who our enemies are; they tell us when to fight, and they tell us when to stop.  Those who know their power dare not deny their will, for they are the Grand Wizards who alone command that mystical force that controls us all: MONEY.

Today, as money and its pursuit occupy more and more of our lives, we seem to fall further and further behind.  Americans work more hours and pay more for healthcare than citizens of any other industrialized nation. Yet typically, we Americans are one car wreck, one hospital stay, from the total collapse of our financial house of cards. We are now witnessing this wreck on a national scale. We no longer live in the world of our fathers, with two-week vacations, eight-hour workdays, where only one parent is employed – unless the other one was just laid off.  Occasionally, rarely, one of us escapes our seemingly pre-ordained fate and, just like the variable reinforcement strategies so successful in casinos, inspires the rest to continue plugging along.

“The history of the world has been a struggle between the few and the many.  The few have used money as the instrument to enslave the many.  It is said that nothing occurs without precedent in history. ... The people of the world have never been sufficiently on their guard against the unjust and improper use of money.  They are too slow to believe that others would do that which they feel they would not do themselves.  The commonly accepted idea of a crime is the infraction of an existing law.  It does not occur to the ordinary citizen that it is possible to successfully covet and possess your neighbor’s property by, and with, the use of statute law.” – William Hope Harvey, A Tale of Two Nations, 1894.  I promise: You will soon know exactly how it is possible to “possess your neighbor’s property by and with, the use of statute law.”

Voter, you hold in your hands the documentation you need to understand our current economic turmoil as well as the major events of our country’s history.  You will soon realize that what is happening to you, happened to your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents and beyond.   You will come to recognize common themes as we travel through history from the Revolutionary War to our endless War on Terror – From the Panic of 1819 to the bank bailouts of today – From the debt money of the Bank of England to the debt money of the Federal Reserve.  While myriad variations exist, the song remains the same:  The wealthy few make their fortunes by simply taking money from those of us who work and earn it.  This is a fact.  Distilled proof forms every page of this book and you will soon understand this single and singular truth serves as the foundation for many of the events that have fashioned our world.  Page by page you will gradually, begrudgingly, accept this reality and, as the manipulated, black and white lies you were taught dissolve before your eyes, the carefully layered, hidden history of our world will reveal itself, unfolding like a beautiful, blood-red rose bud, beguiling you with beauty as her thorns puncture your palms.   As you read and mentally bleed, remember Gloria Steinem’s axiom: “The truth will set you free - But first it will piss you off.”   This is not a story you have ever seen on TV or read in your newspapers, magazines, or history books – nor are you likely to. You will be amazed with what you will discover within these pages.  Amazed and pissed. 

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” – Attributed to Thomas Jefferson.  Despite over two hundred years of warnings, just as poignant, pointed, and precise as this, we continue to let private bankers control the issue of our nation’s currency and these prophesied problems have come home to roost.  As you will soon see, time after time, throughout our history, bankers have used the same techniques to pick our pockets and steal our dreams.  They continue unabated today, while their corporate mass media has us looking the other way. 

Like the fisherman casting his net, then pulling it back in:  By expanding the money supply and then contracting it - by inflation and then deflation - by making credit easy and then difficult - by fomenting war and then proposing peace and by charging us interest on every dollar in circulation, wealthy bankers have bled us dry, both literally and figuratively, for hundreds of years.  Come with me now on a journey you have never gone and I will show you how these vile acts of evil are done ... and undone. 

VILE ACTS OF EVIL

 
VOLUME ONE

Banking in America

How Benjamin Franklin Caused the Revolutionary War

“Men don’t change. The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”
  - Harry S. Truman.

Our American story begins calmly enough, by the mid 1700s, the Colonies were well established and fairly prosperous, there was full employment, no income tax, and prices were generally stable.  Benjamin Franklin wrote, “There was abundance in the Colonies, and peace was reigning on every border.  It was difficult, and even impossible, to find a happier and more prosperous nation on all the surface of the globe.  Comfort was prevailing in every home. The people, in general, kept the highest moral standards, and education was widely spread.” – U.S. Representative, Charles Binderup, Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street, July 5, 1941.

When Franklin traveled to London in 1763, he saw a completely different situation.  “The streets are covered with beggars and tramps,” he wrote.  He asked his friends how England, with all its wealth, could have so much poverty among its working classes.  They replied that England had too many workers! The well-to-do were overburdened with taxes, and could not pay more to relieve the poverty of the unemployed workers. In a meeting with merchants and bankers at the British Board of Trade, members asked Franklin how the American Colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor.  Franklin replied, “That is simple.  In the Colonies, we issue our own money.  It is called Colonial Scrip.  We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.  In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”  “It passed through no banker’s hands, but was loaned to the people direct, thus saving banking toll and banking restriction of volume; nor are there any panics or fluctuations recorded.  Thomas Powell, M.P., of England, who had acted as governor and commander-in-chief of all provinces, in a book written by him in 1768, says in regard to this colonial system of money: ‘I will venture to say that there never was a wiser or better measure, never one better calculated to serve the uses of an increasing country, and never was a measure more steadily pursued or more faithfully executed for forty years together than the loan office in Pennsylvania, formed and administered by the assembly of the province.’” – Samuel Leavitt, Our Money Wars, 1894.  

“Gold and silver are not intrinsically equal value with iron.  Their value rests chiefly on the estimation they happen to be in among the generality of nations.  Any other well-founded credit is as much an equivalent as gold and silver.  Paper money, well-founded, has great advantages over gold and silver; being light and convenient for handling large sums, and not likely to have its volume reduced by demands for exportation.” – Benjamin Franklin. 

“A legitimate government can both spend and lend money into circulation, while banks can only lend significant amounts of their promissory bank notes, for they can neither give away nor spend but a tiny fraction of the money the people need.  When your bankers here in England place money in circulation, there is always a debt principal to be returned and usury to be paid. The result is that you have always too little credit in circulation to give the workers full employment.  You do not have too many workers, you have too little money in circulation, and that which circulates, all bares the endless burden of unpayable debt and usury.” – Attributed to Benjamin Franklin - Ellen Brown and Reed Simpson, Web of Debt, 2008.  The “endless burden” of debt-based money issued by banks hits the economic nail on the head.  The difference is that a government can “spend” money into existence without debt.  It enters the economy and circulates endlessly, facilitating trade.  Banks, however, by their very nature, can only “lend” money and then they demand it back, with interest, actually decreasing the circulating money supply.  In England, ALL the money in circulation was “lent” into existence by the privately-owned Bank of England, which collected interest on every pound and penny in circulation.  However, unlike a real loan, the Bank of England didn’t demand the return of its bank note money, it was content just to sit back and collect interest on it - year after year after year – forever.  The Bank lent the government the money it needed, in the form of paper bank notes and the government gave the bank an equal amount of interest-bearing government bonds as “collateral.”  The interest payments were made by taxing the citizens of England and her colonies, and the money continually flowed from the producers and workers, into the hands of the owners of England’s bonds, the privately-held, Bank of England.  This debt money system continually siphons the earnings of all of the producing classes and transfers it – through the government - to the wealthy bankers in a manner few would recognize.

Realizing Colonial Scrip was cutting into their profits, the Bank of England demanded an end to the practice and pressed Parliament for the passage of the Currency Act of 1764.  Franklin “…went before a committee of Parliament to answer a report of the Board of Trade, dated February 9, 1764, containing reasons for restricting the issue of paper bills of credit in America ‘as a legal tender,’ and, in his unanswerable argument against the restriction, he said: ‘If carrying out all the gold and silver ruins the country, every colony was ruined before it made paper money.  But far from being ruined by it, the colonies that have made use of paper money have been and are all in a thriving condition. … Pennsylvania, before it made and paper money, was totally stripped of its gold and silver … The difficulties for want of cash were accordingly very great, the chief part of trade being carried on by the extremely inconvenient method of barter; when, in 1723, paper money was first made there, which gave new life to business, promoted greatly the settlement of new lands (by lending small sums to beginners on easy interest, to be paid in installments), whereby the province has so greatly increased in inhabitants that the export from hence thither is now more than tenfold what it then was, and by their trade with foreign colonies they have been able to obtain great quantities of gold and silver to remit hither in return for the manufactures of this country.” – Freeman Otis Willey, Whither are We Drifting as a Nation, 1882.  

“In 1763 the British Parliament declared all Colonial acts for the issue of paper currency to be void.  ‘Every medium of exchange,’ said the British Board of Trade, ‘should have an intrinsic value, which paper has not.’  Dr. Franklin there and then exploded this bosh – more than a century and a quarter ago – though many parrots are still repeating it. ‘However fit, (said Franklin) a particular thing may be for a particular purpose, whenever that thing is not to be had, or not to be had in sufficient quantity, it becomes necessary to use something else, the fittest thing that can be got in lieu of it.  Bank bills and banker’s notes are in daily use here (in London), as a medium of trade, yet they have no intrinsic value, but rest on the credit of those that issued them, as paper bills in the Colonies do on the credit of the respective settlements there.” … “Being payable in cash upon sight by the drawers is indeed a circumstance that cannot attend the Colony bills, their cash being drawn from them by the British trade; but the legal tender being instituted, is rather a greater advantage to the possessor, since he need not be at the trouble of going to a particular bank or banker to demand the money.” – Gordon Clark, Shylock: As Baker, Bondholder, Corruptionist, Conspirator, 1894. 

The British Parliament apparently cared more for the Bank of England’s argument than Ben Franklin’s. The passage of Parliament’s 1763 Currency Act forced the Colonies to use only British money – Bank of England notes, and put the colonists squarely under the thumb of the British central bank, just like the citizens of England.  The American colonists were forced to borrow all their money from the Bank of England and pay them interest, in order to conduct their business without resorting to barter.  With the loss of Colonial Scrip, there was a sharp decrease in the American money supply, resulting in an economic depression.  Whenever the money supply is reduced, you invariably have a recession or, if severe enough, depression.  You will see this principle in action again and again – throughout our history.  “I know of no severe depression, in any country or any time, that was not accompanied by a sharp decline in the stock of money, and equally of no sharp decline in the stock of money that was not accompanied by a severe depression.” – Milton Friedman, economist.  If banks cut the amount of money in circulation, there is less money to go around, but everyone’s debts remain the same.  Businesses fail, people become unemployed, foreclosures rise, and farmers and manufacturers get less money for their crops and products.  It’s an economic depression and only the wealthy prosper. – Because they have money and can now buy crops, products, land, and labor cheaper. 

“After Franklin gave explanations on the true cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, the Parliament exacted laws forbidding the use of this money in the payment of taxes. This decision brought so many drawbacks and so much poverty to the people that it was the main cause of the Revolution. The suppression of the Colonial money was a much more important reason for the general uprising than the Tea and Stamp Act.” – Peter Cooper, industrialist, philanthropist, inventor, and Presidential candidate in 1876. 

“In an evil hour, the British Government took away from America its representative money, commanded that paper bills of credit should be issued no more and cease to be legal tender, and collected the taxes in hard silver.  This was in 1763.  Mark the consequences.  The contraction of the circulating medium paralysed all the industrial energies of the people.  Ruin seized upon those once flourishing colonies; the most severe distress was brought home to every interest and every family; discontent became desperation.  In 1775 the first Congress was held in Philadelphia.  In 1776 America became an independent state.” – John Twells, London Banker, Parliamentary Debates, Volume 80, 1895.   

Franklin reported that one year after the implementation of the Currency Act that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed beggars, just like in England. The amount of circulating money had been cut in half.  Franklin stated that the British Currency Act was the true cause of the American Revolution - and not the tax on tea or the Stamp Act.  Franklin wrote, “The colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction. The inability of colonists to get power to issue their own money permanently out of the hands of George III and the international bankers was the prime reason for the Revolutionary War.” – Robert Lantham Owen, National Economy and the Banking System of the United States, 1939.   The “Tea Baggers” of today, while they do have a catchy name, perpetuate the myth that American Colonists revolted because of a $1 per year tax on tea.  We would all be better served following the true lead of our Founding Fathers and revolt against the curse of the debt money, the very same monster currently bankrupting our nation and goring us taxpayers.  

“Our early history books strangely omit the facts that for some years prior to 1773 the British Parliament had busied itself annulling the laws under which the American Colonies had exercised their fundamental right to create and issue their own money.  Much is said of Taxation without Representation, but what underlies that phrase is omitted.  The fact that the Bank of England manipulators, having gained control over British industry through frequent depressions, cast their greedy eyes on the commerce and industry of America, and set to work to lay hold of the money of the Colonies and, hence, the industry of the Colonists.” – Gertrude M. Coogan, Money Creators, 1935.

“The Bank of England has played a prominent role in American history – Without it, the United States would not exist. The American colonists considered themselves loyal Englishmen to a man, but when they began to enjoy unequaled prosperity by printing and circulating their own Colonial scrip, the stockholders of the Bank of England went to George III and informed him that their monopoly of interest-bearing notes in the colonies was at stake.  He banned the scrip, with the result that there was an immediate depression in the commercial life of the Americas.  This was the cause of the Rebellion; as Benjamin Franklin pointed out, the little tax on tea, amounting to about a dollar a year per American family, could have been borne, but the colonists could not survive the banning of their own money.” – Eustace Mullins, The World Order, 1985. 

“There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men.  These are love of power and love of money.  When united, they have the most violent effects.”  “The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the Revolution.” - Benjamin Franklin.

As the American economy progressed from bad to worse, many colonists ignored the British ban on their scrip.  Various colonies, seeing the destruction caused by a lack of money, reinstituted their scrip – At great peril.  “Says Jefferson: ‘Before the 19^th of April, 1775’ the day succeeding the Battle of Lexington, ‘I never had heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from Great Britain.  The Colonies had not yet cut asunder the ties of allegiance to the Crown.  The Continental Congress had sent a petition to the King denying any intention of separation from England.’  But, although the Colonies were as yet uncertain of their course with respect to separation, there was no uncertainty with regard to their monetary system.  This they had determined should be independent of the Crown and this determination the had expressed in overt acts that had long marked them as disaffected rebels and were now to mark them as outlaws.  Lexington and Concord were trivial acts of resistance which chiefly concerned those who took part in them and which might have been forgiven; but the creation and circulation of bills by revolutionary assemblies in Massachusetts and Philadelphia, were the acts of a whole people and coming as they did upon the heels of the strenuous efforts made by the Crown to suppress paper money in America, they constituted acts of defiance so contemptuous and insulting to the Crown that forgiveness was thereafter impossible.  After these acts there was but one course for the Colonies; to stand by their monetary system.  Thus the bills of credit of this era, which ignorance and prejudice have attempted to belittle into the mere instruments of a reckless financial policy, were really the standards of the Revolution.  They were more than this: they were the Revolution itself!” – Alexander del Mar, The History of Money in America, 1899.  Noted historian Alexander del Mar tells us that, in spite of the taxes, and beyond the skirmishes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, it was the Colonists’ legal tender monetary system that was the primary cause of the Revolutionary War.  “Thus the bills of credit of this era … were really the standards of the Revolution.  They were more than this: they were the Revolution itself!” The Colonists, seeing first-hand how the English debt-money had so quickly destroyed their growing economy, resumed printing their legal-tender scrip.  Printing their own colonial money, thereby defying the laws of the most powerful nation on earth, was the revolutionary act.  It was, in fact, treason, punishable by death.

“When Great Britain commenced the present war upon the colonies they had neither arms nor ammunition, nor money to purchase them, or pay soldiers.  The new government had not immediately the consistence necessary for collecting heavy taxes; nor would taxes that could be raised within the year during peace have been sufficient for a year’s expense in time of war; they therefore printed a quantity of paper bills each expressing to be the value of a certain number of Spanish dollars, from one to thirty.  With these they paid, clothed, and fed their troops; fitted out ships and supported the war during five years against one of the most powerful nations of Europe.” – Benjamin Franklin.  Some Colonists accepted this paper money without problem, some, more loyal to the King, were coerced by law: “… any person who shall hereafter be so lost to all virtue and regard for his country as to refuse to receive said bills in payment, or obstruct and discourage the currency or circulation thereof, and shall be duly convicted … shall be deemed, published and treated as an enemy of his country, and precluded from all trade or intercourse with the inhabitants of those colonies.” – Continental Congress Journal.  Talk about being cut-off! – No trade or intercourse with the other Colonists.  That’s a stiff sentence.  

“By the time the first shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on 19 April, 1775, the colonies had been drained of gold and silver coin by British taxation.  Consequently, the Continental government had no choice but to print its own paper money to finance the war.  At the start of the Revolution, the American colonial money supply stood at $12 million.  By the end of the war, it was $500 million.  This was partly a result of massive British counterfeiting.  Consequently, the currency was virtually worthless.  Shoes sold for $55,000 a pair.” – Alexander del Mar, historian and first Director of the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, 1866-69.   “It is a fact too well authenticated to admit of dispute that (British) Gen. Howe aided the making and uttering of counterfeit Continental bills.  In the same newspaper, in New York, in which the British official documents were printed, there were also printed advertisements proposing to supply counterfeit money to persons going into other colonies, so nearly and exactly executed that no risk attended their circulation.” – Alexander del Mar, The History of Money in America, 1899. 

In 1776, the British brought a printing press out the H.M.S. Phoenix, moored in the New York harbor, and started printing up “Continentals” – the now illegal, legal-tender money of the Colonies.  They distributed these to Colonists loyal to the Crown who dutifully spent them - For the times, a very innovative strategy.  These New York newspaper ads, in addition to being blatantly ballsy and letting the Americans know they were but gnats in the eyes of England, had the added effect of planting seeds of doubt in the minds of the colonists as to the validity of all their money.    Soon, Washington had a hard time purchasing supplies for his troops and the phrase, “Not worth a Continental,” entered the American lexicon.  “A wagon load of money will scarcely buy a wagon load of provisions.” – General George Washington. 

The paper Continentals issued by the colonists promised to pay – a few years after the war – their face value plus interest in “Spanish milled (silver) dollars.”  “The fulfillment of these promises was impossible.  They were made in good faith and with the hope of speedy success for the American army.  For a year, the bills circulated at par with silver, and in their third year the premium on the coin was only seventy-five percent.  But, as the struggle continued, the people came to realize the huge joke of attempting to redeem, in ‘Spanish milled dollars,’ an amount of paper, genuine and counterfeit, calling for more than fifty times the whole sum of coin in the country, and counting interest, three or four hundred times the sum of coin specified in the promises.  Still, the paper circulated; and the determined, patriotic people kept passing it from hand to hand, as it went down, buying and selling with it – receiving it for something – until 1781.  It then sank out of sight at a depreciation of five hundred per cent, but ‘with indulgence for its memory,’ said Jefferson, ‘as a thing which had vindicated the liberties of the country’ and ‘fallen in the moment of victory.’

“In other words, the American people came to regard the loss on Continental money – a loss borne by the whole of them – as a general tax on their property, to secure American independence.  Thus the losers were not cheated.  It was they, in fact, who insisted on letting their losses go, and would sanction no attempt to recover them.  Congress did its best to fulfill its pledges, but the people laughed away every effort to fund or redeem the currency, and ‘barbers papered their shops with it.’ For once we got the better of the British bullionists and counterfeiters.” – Gordon Clark, Shylock: As Banker, Bondholder, Corruptionist, Conspirator, 1894.   

“In 1764 the prohibition against issuing their money was extended to all the colonies.  It then became mandatory for all the colonies to borrow their money into circulation at huge interest rates.  It is probable that these acts were more responsible for the Revolution than any other factors.  Many of our founding fathers were keenly aware of the problem this debt money created and this is one of the principle reasons why our Constitution so clearly provided for an honest money system.  Article 1, Section 8, Par. 5 of the Constitution provides that ‘Only Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof.’” – June Grem, The Money Manipulators, 1971.  

“Fortunately, for Americans and for the entire world, the founders of this country, the authors of the Constitution of the United States, knew well the supreme importance of a scientific and honest money system. Farsighted and intelligent, they took the enormous precaution of placing the power to coin money and regulate its value, with Congress alone. That power is the greatest power inherent in any people who constitute a civilized nation, because with money we make our exchanges of goods and services.  The founders of this nation, being learned men, knew well the effects of allowing money creation to be made a privilege and function of private individuals. The phrase ‘to regulate the value thereof’ gives power to control the purchasing power of all money in the nation. Wide and sudden gyrations in the purchasing power of money have been the direct cause of more human misfortune and suffering than any other single force in the experience of civilized peoples. To entrust that power to private individuals gives them controls which can actually jeopardize the welfare of every individual in a nation.” – Gertrude M. Coogan, Money Creators, 1935.

Unfortunately, what we continually learn from history is that we fail to learn from history.  Today, we Americans borrow every single dollar into circulation from private bankers - just like pre-Revolutionary War colonists had to do with the Bank of England.  This “borrowed money” is called, “debt money” and as you can imagine, the interest costs that are generated by borrowing every single dollar in the U.S. economy are staggering. Go get your wallet, I’ll wait...  Now, pull out some Federal Reserve Notes and look at them. Every dollar you have there is money that is owed, with interest, to the Federal Reserve Bank.  I know, you think you own that dollar free and clear – You don’t.  If you pay income tax, you pay an annual interest, not only on the dollars in your hand, but on every dollar in circulation, whether physically printed on paper, or floating in the ether as an electronic computer digit.  Remember, the Bank of England lent every pound and penny into circulation in England and, unlike a real “loan,” didn’t demand it back – The Bank was content to sit back and collect the interest year after year after year - forever.  Same here. 

This debt money interest is the principle reason why we have to pay Federal Income Tax.  Imagine, for a minute, what your personal economic situation would be like if you didn’t have to pay most of your income tax.  If you are a worker, take a look at your pay stub or refer back to last year’s federal income tax filing.  Imagine keeping those hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars for your own use.  Most of what you pay approximates the annual price for your privilege of using debt money.  If you want to cut your taxes, look here.  As Franklin pointed out and as we saw, there is an alternative and the economic life of the American Colonies before and after the advent of debt money illustrates just how dramatically these two systems can influence our nation’s welfare.  Recall his stories and contemplate today’s economy.

Our forefathers saw first-hand how the bankers’ giant debt money leech sucked the life out of their struggling economy and they wanted no part of it.  They were willing to fight and they were willing die so that their children would not have to suffer under its continual, intolerable burden - Such was the magnitude of their disgust.  They stipulated in Article 1 of our Constitution that, “Only Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof.”  Also, and equal in importance: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.”   This put the creation of money exclusively in the hands of the U.S. Treasury and its issuance, strictly controlled by Congress.  Period. 

These concepts were so important that they were in Article 1 of our Constitution!  Top billing! – Page one!  The Founding Fathers may have even used highlighter pens to let future generations know just how important this section was. Unfortunately, we can’t tell if they did because the whole thing turned yellow with age.  Anyway, either way, nobody seemed to notice, and now we have that private banking corporation, the Federal Reserve System, lending us our own money – debt money - and – believe it or not - even telling us how much of it we can have and how much interest we have to pay them. Where is Congress in all this?  Where’s the Treasury?  Is our Constitution so old that it no longer matters?  Is it now JUST a tourist attraction?  Our Forefathers had fought a bloody, bitter war to stop the injustice of debt money, money that carried the burden of interest payments, and with instructions clearly noted in Article 1 of the foundational legal document of our nation – the Constitution of the United States of America - I’m sure they thought that this issue was well taken care of – that there was nothing to worry about – nobody would ever be stupid enough to try that again. 

Now, let me ask you a question (and you can just think the answer): You’ve just read the words of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and later historians and now understand how important a debt-free money system was to our Founding Fathers in fighting the Revolutionary War and in the framing of our Constitution, had you ever – at any time in your life – heard this story?  Don’t you think the real reason for fighting the Revolutionary War is an important part of understanding our American history?  I’m sure, as a child, you were told about the $1 per year tax on tea – over and over again – as a deflection from the truth of the matter, but had you ever learned that our nation’s currency was debt money?  Or that you have to pay interest on the money in your wallet?   Or that most of your personal income tax goes to pay the interest on this debt money?   Here’s the follow-up question for extra points: Why?  Unbelievably and unfortunately, the Bank of England’s debt money system is exactly what we have in America today and, just like in the past, the interest payments are sucking the vitality right out of our economy. What happened?  How did we get back to the same stinking situation our Founding Fathers fought so valiantly to end?    Let’s find out….