You mean all the "promise to pay bearer on demand in gold, silver coin or lawful money" stuff that used to be on US bills?
Your post prodded me to dig out one of my old favorite books, The Biggest Con by Irwin Schiff, and do a little research.
It's interesting that the paper money we have left today is a note (Federal Reserve) which would lead one to beleve there should be something owed. After all a note should be a promise to pay something.
According to Schiff:
>>>Currently issued Fedral Reserve notes do not even conform to the "Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act" which states that a note "to be negotiable" (1) must be in writing and signed by the maker or drawer, (2) must contain an unconditional promise or order to pay a certain sum in money, (3) must be payable to order or to bearer, and (4) where addressed to a drawee, he must be named or otherwise indicated therein with reasonable certainty.
The language on the Federal Reserve notes ...does not. So what does this mean? It means that Federal Reserve notes are not notes at all and are not negotiable as defined by law! How could this fact have escaped the notice of the entire US Bar, including our Supreme Court Justices? Surely, somebody must have completed a course on negotiable instruments and should, therefore, have protested the government's action in flooding the nation with non-negotiable "legal tender".<<<
Schiff says further:
>>>In its campaign of currency debasement, the US govt. gradually switched from honest paper currency...to the dishonest and fraudulent kind it now circulates. Federal Reserve notes, the only type of paper currency in circulation today, came into being as a result of the Federal Reserve act of 1913. Changes that have occurred on the face of the FRN dramatically reveal how the ability of FRNs to serve as legitimate money substitutes was effectively terminated and how the total destruction of the US money supply was engineered.
FRNs, when first authorized, were not considered lawful money. This simple fact can be established from the very wording that appears on their face...
Those original FRNs stated that they would be redeeemable in "gold" at the US Treasury or "in gold or lawful money at any FR Bank."
When the note stated that it would be redeemed in "lawful money," it was emphasizing that it was not to be regarded as "lawful money." What was the "lawful money" in which FR Banks would redeem their notes? Gold and US notes. Strange as it seems, even gold certificates were not accorded legal tender status until 1920, while silver and silver certificates did not attain it until 1933.
When the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 made it illegal for Americans to own gold, the gold clause was removed from FRNs and a new redemption clause appeared. This new clause read: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private, and is redeemable in lawful money at the US Treasury, or at any FR Bank.Two things should be noted from the changes in the redemption clause. Suddenly FRNs became "legal tender", since this was not a characteristic of FRNs when they were originally issued, how or why did they suddenly earn this "legal tender" status? And, FRNs are still redeemable in "lawful money", further evidence that the notes themselves were still not regarded as being "lawful money". What was the "lawful money" with which the FED banks would redeem their notes? Apparently, silver coins, silver certificates, and US notes. These notes continued to circulate until discontinued by the govt. in 1963.
In 1963 the redemption clause on FRNs was totally destroyed...It only says: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." In other words, the FED is under no obligation to redeem its paper IOUs. Even "will pay to the bearer on demand" has disappeared...Since all FRNs are now nonredeemable, they are in effect IOU-nothings of the FED<<<<<<<
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And US Constitution:
Article I, Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. |
