Miracle on Main Street: The Right to Alter and Abolish/A Favorable Crisis For Crushing Paper Money: Chapter 3

 

Miracle on Main Street: The Right to Alter and Abolish/A Favorable Crisis For Crushing Paper Money

 

 

 

THE RIGHT TO

ALTER AND ABOLISH

 

 

me

 

 

Kerewiedecabie lawyers tell me that there is no finer

state constitution than Tennessee’s. The very first article in

our state’s Constitution is a Declaration of Rights, which

means that the authors put the people first, above all else.

The first section of Article I puts both state and local gov-

emment firmly under the control of you and me:

 

All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments

 

 

are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace,

safety, and happiness.

 

 

This is certainly a comforting statement and describes

the relationship of the people to government, but what if

the government gradually were to begin limiting the peace,

safety, and happiness of the people? Is there something the

people can do in that case? Yes. The very next clause in

Article I Section 1 spells it out in no uncertain terms:

 

For the advancement of those ends, they have, at all times, an

 

 

unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish the

government in such manner as they may think proper.

 

 

Now, if you know of a stronger guarantee of human

liberty than those words, please show it to me. Not even

the United States Constitution assures the individual such

 

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24 THE MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET

 

 

awesome power with such bold expression. “In such

manner as they may think proper’ preserves the right to

revolt in violence if you think it proper, it even allows you to

be wrong in the manner you choose to reform, abolish or

alter the government.

 

Happily, the lawful remedy for economic disaster pre-

sented here does not call for violence. But it does call for a

slight alteration in state governmental practice. Does

knowing that your Constitution immunizes you from

punishment for altering your government, does knowing

this allay any fears you might have had that you could get

into trouble for flexing your power in the face of officials? It

sure did for me, and I hope it does for you. (If you’re not a

Tennessean, your state constitution assures you the im-

plied right to alter your government lawfully, for reasons

you'll soon discover. See Appendix for states with “alter

and abolish” guarantee.)

 

There’s even further insulation against trouble. In the

Tennessee Constitution (and all state constitutions) there is

a requirement that all officials authorized by the

Constitution—all elected or appointed persons, state and

local—“take an oath to support the Constitution of this

State, and of the United States.” What this means is that

every judge, legislator, mayor, commissioner, agent, clerk,

governor, law officer, sheriff—everyone of authority in

state and local government must swear to support the

people’s “unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, re-

form, or abolish the government in such manner as they

may think proper.” Not only must they allow you to re-

form, alter, or abolish, they must also support you!

 

Did you know you had so much power over those

smart, influential dignitaries you read about in the papers

and see on TV? Perhaps you should pause a moment and

let it all sink in: all government officials are your servants,

 

_ and if you think they are not doing their job well, you can

’ deal with them in such manner (humane, of course) as you

may think proper. Guaranteed by law.

 

 

THE RIGHT TO ALTER AND ABOLISH 25

 

 

Public servants, of course, know of the power you re-

serve over them before they take their oath. If the terms

frighten them, they can always find work elsewhere. Cer-

tainly no one forces any civilian to join government.

They’re there of their own free will. Their awareness of

your power explains why so many state and local govern-

ment employees are so congenial and cooperative. They

are aware that at the slightest provocation you can arise

with your awesome and utterly lawful power and humiliate

them. You can put them out of a job if they in any way

abridge your “peace, safety, and happiness.”

 

It requires genuine dedication and unselfishness to be a

good public servant, and I’m happy to say that most of my

friends in government fit that description perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

d is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution as

well as the history of the times which gave birth to it, that it was

the purpose of the Convention to establish a currency con-

sisting of the precious metals. These were adopted by a per-

manent rule excluding the use of a perishable medium of

exchange, such as of certain agricultural commodities recognized

by the statutes of some States as tender for debts, or the still more

pernicious expedient of paper currency.”

 

— Andrew Jackson, 8th Annual

 

 

Message to Congress, December

5, 1836

 

 

26

 

 

4

“A FAVOURABLE CRISIS

FOR CRUSHING PAPER MONEY”

 

 

we

 

 

Viccisiy all social crises are caused and cured by

 

 

- money. The Constitution of the United States, which is the

 

 

Supreme Law of the Land, was drafted in order to relieve

 

 

“ the country of what George Washington dismally reported

« Was “anarchy and confusion.” This anarchy and confusion

was brought about by the people’s inability to produce,

buy, sell, and work for units of money with value that

 

 

could be counted on. The money had no substance. You

would agree to produce a chair for a man at a price, but by

 

 

' the time you finished and got paid, the money you re-

» ceived would not be worth half what it was worth when

_syou began. Therefore, people would not agree to assist one

 

 

another. Bad contracts. Bickering. Bad feelings. Suspicion.

Commercial paralysis.

 

Was George Washington less affected by inflation than

you and I? The definitive constitutional historian George

Bancroft portrays the father of our country as an ordinary

 

 

. Citizen harried by overdue bills—always a symptom of

_ paper money’s disease:

 

 

 

 

 

In 1786, “his income, uncertain in its amount, was not sufficient

_ to meet his unavoidable expenses, and he became more straitened

 

 

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28 THE MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET

 

 

for money than he had ever been since his boyhood; so that he

 

was even obliged to delay paying the annual bill of his physician,

 

to put off the tax-gatherer once and again, and, what was harder,

to defer his charities...”

 

Nine months before the Constitution was signed in

Philadelphia, Washington wrote to General Knox: “Good

God! who could have foreseen, or predicted the disorders

which have arisen in these states!” We could very well be

saying those same words ourselves today, you and I and

our most astute statesmen, businessmen and judicial offi-

cers, because (to repeat) inflation can’t be appreciated for what

it is until it’s felt, until it happens.

 

I remember people telling me in 1969 “We're going to

have a horrible inflation where a loaf of bread will cost a

dollar,” and I remember answering ‘’So what? If prices go

higher, government will simply print more money. No

problem.”

 

What I was pathetically ignorant of was that when bread

goes from a dime to a dollar a loaf, the entire order of

things tilts on its axis: government and education fatten to

insolence, quality and pride of craft vanish, drug highs are

celebrated in entertainments designed for families, sexual

aberrations become politicized into badges of dignity, au-

diences delight in blood gushing from stage and screen,

pornographers open shops in neighborhoods, and—all

across the land—an array of broken homes, broken

oaths, broken laws, broken hearts, broken bodies.

 

A decade ago I could say “So what?” to inflation simply

because I hadn’t felt it. Inflation as a future thing is utterly

incomprehensible. “Who could have foreseen or predicted the

disorders which have arisen. . . .”’ It’s precisely because we

couldn’t foresee (‘‘forefeel’’?) its disorders that we let infla-

tion happen to us. George Washington and the Continen-

tal Congress let it happen to them for the same reason.

 

The permanent antidote to inflation was arrived at in the

 

 

 

 

 

1. Bancroft: History of the United States of America, Volume VI, New York: D. Appleton

and Company, 1886, p. 179.

 

 

A FAVOURABLE CRISIS 29

 

 

Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

 

 

At the drafting of the U.S. Constitution,’ there were

many Friends of Paper Money present. On August 16,

1787, when the discussion arose on Article I Section 8, the

proposed wording was this:

 

 

“The Legislature of the United States shall have the power

to... coin money . . . and emit bills on the credit of the United

States.’”?

 

 

A hot argument ensued on the power to emit bills of

credit, which is another way of saying “printing paper

money.” Here are the actual words James Madison wrote

describing the debate in his diary:

 

 

Mr. G. Morris moved to strike out “‘and emit bills of credit.” If the

United States had credit such bills would be unnecessary; if they

had not, unjust and useless.

 

MADISON: Will it not be sufficient to prohibit the making them

a tender? This will remove the temptation to emit them with unjust

views. And promissory notes in that shape may in some em-

ergencies be best.

 

MORRIS: Striking out the words will leave room still for notes

of a responsible minister which will do all the good without the

mischief. The Monied interest will oppose the plan of Govern-

ment, if paper emissions be not prohibited.

 

COL. MASON: Though he had a mortal hatred to paper money,

yet as he could not foresee all emergencies, he was unwilling to tie

the hands of the Legislature. [Legislature = Congress]

 

MR. MERCER: (A friend to paper money) It was impoli-

tic . . . to excite the opposition of all those who were friends to

paper money.

 

MR. ELSEWORTH thought this was a favorable moment to

shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the

various experiments which had been made, were now fresh in the

public mind and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part

of America. By withholding the power from the new Government

more friends of influence would be gained to it than by almost

anything else... Give the Government credit, and other re-

 

 

1. The Constitution: See Appendix, page 136.

 

 

2. This and alf following transcripts of the Convention: Documents Illustrative of the

Formation of the Union of the American States, Spencer Judd, Publishers, Sewanee, TN

37375; 1,114 pp., $25.00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 THE MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET

 

 

sources will offer. The power may do harm, never good.

 

MR. WILSON: It will have a most salutary influence on the

credit of the U. States to remove the possibility of paper money.

This expedient can never succeed whilst its mischiefs are remem-

bered, and as long as it can be resorted to, it will be a bar to other

resources.

 

MR. READ, thought the words, if not struck out, would be as

alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelation.

 

MR. LANGDON had rather reject the whole plan than retain

the three words “‘and emit bills.”

 

 

—The motion for striking out carried.

 

 

George Bancroft writes:

 

 

James Madison left his testimony that ‘the pretext for a paper

currency, and particularly for making the bills a tender, either for

public or private debts, was cut off.’ This is the interpretation of

the clause, made at the time of its adoption alike by its authors

and by its opponents, accepted by all the statesmen of that age,

not open to dispute because too clear for argument, and never

disputed so long as any one man who took part in framing the

constitution remained alive."

 

 

Thus, as inflation gnawed painfully on their fortunes,

our forefathers deliberately and conclusively forbade Con-

gress the power to emit bills of credit, empowering Con-

gress only to coin money and regulate its value.

 

The door to paper money was shut but not locked. For,

although Congress was not given the power to print

money, it was not denied the power to borrow money. Thus,

the possibility still remained that Congress’ creditor, its

banker, might lend Congress money and circulate the

1.O.U.s of Congress as currency. Congress would not be

emitting bills o¢ credit, its bank would.

 

On August 28, Article I Section 10 was debated. The

standing version was worded this way:

 

“No state shall coin money; nor grant letters of marque and

 

 

reprisal; nor enter into any Treaty, alliance, or confederation; nor

grant any title of Nobility.”

 

 

 

 

 

1. Bancroft, op. cit., p. 303.

 

 

Sosa igh ad

 

 

A FAVOURABLE CRISIS 31

 

 

The remarks on Article I Section 10 were short and

sweet. Here is Madison’s account of them:

 

MR. WILSON & MR. SHERMAN moved to insert after the

words “coin money” the words “nor emit bills of credit, nor make

any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts”

making these prohibitions absolute, instead of making the meas-

ures allowable with the consent of the Legislature of the U.S.

 

MR. SHERMAN thought this a favourable crisis for crushing

paper money. If the consent of the Legislature could authorize

emissions of it, the friends of paper money would make every

exertion to get into the Legislature in order to licence it.

 

 

Mr. Wilson’s and Sherman’s motion was quickly agreed

to and became the Supreme Law of the Land. Is there any

doubt that Article I Section 10 absolutely prohibited paper

money, crushing it forever, locking the door in its face? The

system was, and is, simply ingenious. With Section 8, Con-

 

. gress was denied the power to print money. But in order to keep

.. the “friends of paper money’ from obtaining the ‘licence’ to

' monetize United States debt, Section 10 prohibited the states from

. declaring irredeemable paper (or anything other than gold and

-. silver coin) to be a tender in payment of debts. If you don’t quite

- understand the foregoing sentences, and the following one

‘as well, read and re-read them until you do; they’re the

«most important ones in this book.

Article I Section 10’s most salient part is this:

 

 

NO STATE SHALL MAKE ANY THING BUT GOLD AND

SILVER COIN A TENDER IN PAYMENT OF DEBTS.

 

 

Contemporary verbal sketches of Roger Sherman, the

delegate from Connecticut who was the author of those

monumental 17 words, depict him as a learned man,

steeped in historical knowledge but immensely bashful

due to stammering speech and a physical awkwardness:

He was born in 1721 in Massachusetts and learned farming

and shoemaking from his father. His formal education con-

sisted of just a few years in his youth; he filled out the rest

~ independently. He published almanacs based on his own

 

 

 

 

 

32 THE MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET

 

 

astronomical calculations, and included both original and

classical poetry. He operated his own general store. At the

age of 31 he wrote a searing indictment of paper money, A

Caveat Against Injustice: or, an Enquiry Into the Evil Conse-

quences of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange.'In 1766, at the

age of 45, Roger Sherman was elected Judge of the

Superior Court in New Haven, Connecticut, serving that

office with distinction until 1788.

 

He was the only American to sign all four historic docu-

ments: the Continental Association of 1774, the Declaration

of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the

United States Constitution. Renowned for his high intelli-

gence and unswerving honesty, Roger Sherman was de-

scribed by John Adams “as honest as an angel and as firm

in the cause of American independence as Mount Atlas.”

 

In 1791 he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he

served until his death in 1793. This quiet, humble, awk-

ward man who farmed, educated himself, worked with his

hands and his mind making shoes and poetry, making

astronomical and economic calculations, making law and

justice, is completely unknown to all but a handful of early

American historians. Yet, if Judge Sherman hadn’t stood

up that hot August afternoon in Philadelphia and uttered

Article I Section 10, America would have been an endless

series of banana republics, regime after regime printing

itself out of existence.

 

Thank God we're rediscovering those 17 words at this

late date, hopefully in time to avert the tragedy that is sure

to envelop us if we should choose to remain blind to them.

 

 

Those 17 words are the American Reality.

 

 

Thomas Jefferson paid Judge Sherman the most severe

and valuable compliment: “Roger Sherman was a man

who never said a foolish thing in his life.”

 

 

 

 

 

1. After 200 years of suppression, this vitally important treatise on the kind of money

the Constitution meant to crush forever is now available from Spencer Judd, Pub-

lishers. Only two copies of the original printing exist. This is the first reprinting. $6.00.

 

 

 

 

 

A FAVOURABLE CRISIS 33

 

 

Let’s have 60 seconds of silent prayer for the good deed

 

 

: ayer Lharmar—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I place economy among the first and most important virtues

and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared .. . We

must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make

our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude

_.. The same prudence which in private life would forbid our

paying money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the disposi-

tion of public money. We are endeavoring to reduce the govern-

ment to the practice of rigid economy to avoid burdening the

people...”

 

 

—Thomas Jefferson

 

 

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