American Chronicle | A Constitutional Fix for the Fix We Are In

"In 1787 the leaders of the thirteen newly independent states, amid economic chaos and crisis, gathered to write a constitution for a new central government. They came up with a document that created a severely limited authority with specifically enumerated powers. It contained compromises that would prove troublesome down the road, not the least of which was over the question of chattel slavery. But despite its weaknesses it served the purpose admirably. It set up a government whose primary purpose was to safeguard the freedom and rights of its people, in whom resided the ultimate sovereignty.

"Among the most hotly debated and controversial items that was decided at the constitutional convention was whether the new government would be allowed to "emit bills of credit on the United States." The original draft would have allowed the new government to do so.

"To emit bills of credit means to print unbacked money. There were many "friends of paper money" present among the delegates. There are, after all, enormous profits to be had by whomever is in charge of such an enterprise. The problem was, however, and is still, that those profits are the result of subtle, deceptive theft. Fortunately, the delegates were educated, honest men who recognized inflation for what it was and forbid their new government from engaging in it.

"In the end, having experienced the ruinous results of dishonest money, the delegates agreed on a constitution that forbid the central government and the states from "emitting bills of credit." Article I section 8 denied the central government the power to print money. Article I section 10 goes on to try to hammer the lid down on the paper money´s coffin by stating "no state shall make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

"Through the machinations of powerful bankers and powerful politicians, however, what the Founders thought was a sealed coffin has become a Pandora´s box. The Federal Reserve is a private entity, and under no constitutional obligation. A self interested Congress granted this private bank the power to lend printed notes to the U.S. government at interest and circulate them as currency in the Land of the Free. In not quite a hundred years under this scheme vast wealth has been confiscated and squandered by the bankers and our own government. It has been used to make us ever more dependent upon them."