Time: Wed Apr 16 12:08:59 1997
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Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 09:46:00 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: L&J: Criminal Gold, Federal Gold [Part 1] (fwd)
<snip>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>This is the first in a series of posts regarding private gold ownership
>and the restriction thereof through the invocation of omnipresent
>"federal emergencies", a government trick ...er, trend beginning with
>our illustrious F@#%! D@#%! Roosevelt. From Monograph #35, 1981,
>published by the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, Inc.
>
>-- <<Lynda>>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>HOW AMERICANS LOST THEIR RIGHT TO OWN GOLD
>AND BECAME CRIMINALS IN THE PROCESS
>
>by Henry Mark Holzer
>
>
>INTRODUCTION
>
> For the first time since [James] Bond had known
> Goldfinger, the big, bland face, always empty of
> expression, showed a trace of life... "Mr. Bond,
> all my life I have been in love. I have been in
> love with gold. I love its colour, its brilliance,
> its divine heaviness... I have worked all my life
> for gold... I ask you...is there any other
> substance on earth that so rewards its owner?"
>
>For centuries, most people have shared the fictional Mr. Goldfinger's
>attitude about gold, though not necessarily for the same reasons.
>While gold has been much sought after, both for ornamental and
>industrial purposes, modern times -- or, more specifically, modern
>governments -- have taught men to value it for one purpose above all
>others: as a hedge against the debasement of paper money. Monetary
>economist Charles Rist acknowledged this phenomenon when he wrote:
>'[I]n the absence of governments capable of maintaining stable money,
>private individuals seek to assure it for themselves, hoarding a
>purchasing power [gold] more stable than that of any other merchandise
>...stable money is one of the last arms that remains at the disposal of
>the individual to direct his own affairs, whether it be an enterprise
>or a simple household." Indeed, during the monetary crisis of the last
>several years, the price of gold soared in free world markets as more
>and more individuals around the world acquired gold as a hedge against
>actual and potential currency devaluations. Unfortunately, while
>others scrambled to protect themselves from the instability of paper
>money, Americans had to watch from the sidelines. For them, owning
>gold has long been a criminal offense, punishable by up to ten years in
>jail and/or up to a $10,000 fine; they also risk confiscation of the
>gold and a penalty of twice its value.
>
>Most Americans are unaware of the existence of these harsh criminal
>sanctions. Fewer still, including the legal community, are aware of
>how -- and why -- Americans lost their right to own gold in the first
>place. The facts, which should startle layman and lawyer alike, expose
>the shaky legal foundation on which the gold prohibition rests: an
>unconstitutional arrogation of congressional power and the improper
>delegation of that power to the President, leading to what can be
>called the "endless emergency" rationale.
>
>
>WORLD WAR I: THE SEEDS ARE SOWN
>
>The existence of a state of war between the United States and Germany
>in 1917 had prompted the passage of the Trading with the Enemy Act, one
>purpose of which was to make unlawful all dealings between Americans
>and the enemies of the United States. However, an obscure subsection
>of the Act authorized the President to regulate, investigate, and
>PROHIBIT "under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe...any
>transactions in foreign exchange, export or earmarkings of gold or
>silver coin or bullion or currency...by any person within the United
>States..." These sweeping new presidential powers had teeth in them:
>elsewhere the Act provided for severe criminal sanctions of up to ten
>years in prison and/or up to a $10,000 fine for violation of any
>decrees which the President might make under the Act.
>
>The net result of the Act, vis-a-vis transactions in gold, was the
>arrogation by the Sixty-Fifth Congress of a "money power" not granted
>by the Constitution -- and further: the delegation of that power to
>the Executive branch of the Government.
>
>The war emergency and the President's duty to fight the war provided
>Congress with a convenient rationale for the Act. The fact is,
>however, that the Constitution nowhere empowers Congress to prohibit
>dealing in gold -- much less authorizes Congress to delegate that power
>to a coordinate branch of the government.
>
>Worst of all, the power which Congress delegated to the President
>enabled him to make criminals out of honest American citizens whose
>"crime" would consist only of trying to protect themselves from
>official debasement of their money. In more fundamental terms,
>Americans henceforth would be "under the gun" for exercising a
>fundamental, inalienable right: the right to deal with their own
>property as they saw fit. Gold, no matter what its special
>characteristics, is, after all, just another form of property.
>
>If there were those who feared that Congress had more in mind than
>merely prohibiting transactions in gold during the World War I
>emergency, their concern would have been justified. On September 24,
>1918, less than a year after its original enactment, and virtually on
>the eve of the War's end, the Trading with the Enemy Act was amended in
>two important respects: not only was the wartime Act extended "[u]ntil
>the expiration of two years after the date of the termination of the
>war between the United States and the Imperial German Government...,"
>but the amendment actually ENLARGED the Executive's power to control
>private gold. Now, President Woodrow Wilson could also "[i]nvestigate,
>regulate, or prohibit ... any ... HOARDING ... of gold ... by any
>person within the United States." Less than two months later, on
>November 11, 1918, the war ended, and two years later Wilson's power
>over private gold expired. Once again, Americans were under no
>restraints with regard to what they did with their gold. Presumably,
>the emergency was over.
>
>
>THE NEW DEAL AND THE NEW "EMERGENCY"
>
>Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1933.
>Throughout the country, banks were slamming their doors on depositors
>clamoring to withdraw their own money, preferably in gold. For people
>who were seeking to exchange soft paper currency for the more stable
>metal -- as existing law allowed, and as the Government had solemnly
>pledged -- the new President had other ideas. On March 5, 1933, one
>day after taking office, Roosevelt issued a Proclamation convening
>Congress in Extra Session at noon <<Was that high apparent noon? Just
>asking!>> on March 9, 1933, a decision allegedly necessitated by what
>the Chief Executive referred to vaguely as "public interests." But
>March 9 was still four days away, and Roosevelt apparently was
>impatient to stop bank depositors from withdrawing their paper money or
>converting it to gold. Accordingly, the next day, March 6, 1933, he
>took an unprecedented step. For the first time in United States
>history, an American president closed the nation's banks. By
>Proclamation, he stated the following: the recent gold and currency
>withdrawals had been "unwarranted" and for the purpose of "hoarding";
>speculation abroad had caused "severe drains" on the "Nation's" gold
>stocks; the result was to create a national "emergency"; further
>"hoarding" and "speculation" must be prevented and "appropriate
>measures" taken "to protect the interests of our people"; the Trading
>with the Enemy Act, as amended, had given the President certain powers
>over private gold; and therefore, "to prevent the export, hoarding, or
>earmarking of gold," the banks would take a "holiday" from Monday,
>March 6, 1933, to and including Thursday, March 9, 1933, and that
>during the holiday no bank would "pay out, export, earmark, or permit
>the withdrawal or transfer in any manner or by any device whatsoever of
>any gold ... or take any other action which might facilitate ...
>hoarding..." Roosevelt's action was devoid of even arguable legal
>justification. Nowhere in the Constitution is any branch of govern
>ment, let alone the Executive, given the power to close privately owned
>banking institutions. Nor did the Proclamation even purport to invoke
>constitutional authority. And despite the Proclamation's passing
>reference to an alleged "national emergency," no war conditions were
>present which could have enabled Roosevelt to argue that, under the
>Commander-in-Chief's "war powers," he had the authority to place in
>suspended animation a huge, crucially important part of America's
>commercial establishment. The Proclamation's reference to the World
>War I Trading with the Enemy Act, which had long since expired, was a
>strained attempt to find some semblance of legal support for
>Roosevelt's unprecedented assumption of complete control over America's
>banking system.
>
>It is no wonder that Roosevelt immediately sent to a docile and
>compliant 73d Congress, a hastily drawn but comprehensive bill to amend
>the moribund Trading with the Enemy Act and to attempt to secure a
>legal basis for the unilateral action he had already taken.
>
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Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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