Executive Orders
President Kennedy, the Federal
Reserve and Executive Order 11110
by
Cedric X.
From The Final Call, Vol15, No.6, on
January 17, 1996 (USA)
On
June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal
Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at
interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive
Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power
to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve.
Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver
certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard
silver dollars in the Treasury." This meant that for every ounce
of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could
introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought
nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications
of this bill are enormous.
With
the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough
of these silver certificats were to come into circulation they
would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes.
This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver
and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive
Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching
its current level, because it would have given the gevernment
the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve
and being charged interest in order to create the new money.
Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its
own money backed by silver.
After
Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more
silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned
that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President
through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has
no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion
in debt has been created since 1963, and if a U.S. president
had utilized Executive Order 11110 the debt would be nowhere
near the current level. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was
a warning to future presidents who would think to eliminate
the U.S. debt by eliminating the Federal Reserve's control over
the creation of money. Mr. Kennedy challenged the government
of money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that
have ever been used to drive up debt - war and the creation
of money by a privately-owned central bank. His efforts to have
all troops out of Vietnam by 1965 and Executive Order 11110
would have severely cut into the profits and control of the
New York banking establishment. As America's debt reaches unbearable
levels and a conflict emerges in Bosnia that will further increase
America's debt, one is force to ask, will President Clinton
have the courage to consider utilizing Executive Order 11110
and, ifso, is he willing to pay the ultimate price for doing
so?
Executive
Order 11,110
AMENDMENT
OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289
AS
AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING
THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
By
virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title
3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:
Section
1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended,
is hereby further amended-
a. By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following
subparagraph (j):
(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of
section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)),
to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver,
or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for
redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe
the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard
silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption
and --
b. Byrevoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.
Sec.
2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act
done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding
had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the
date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and
may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.
John
F. Kennedy
The
White House,
June
4, 1963.
Of
course, the fact that both JFK and Lincoln met the the same
end is a mere coincidence.
Abraham
Lincoln's Monetary Policy, 1865
(Page
91 of Senate document 23.)
Money
is the creature of law and the creation of the original issue
of money should be maintained as the exclusive monopoly of national
Government.
Money
possesses no value to the State other than that given to it
by circulation.
Capital
has its proper place and is entitled to every protection. The
wages of men should be recognised in the structure of and in
the social order as more important than the wages of money.
No
duty is more imperative for the Government than the duty it
owes the People to furnish them with a sound and uniform currency,
and of regulating the circulation of the medium of exchange
so that labour will be protected from a vicious currency, and
commerce will be facilitated by cheap and safe exchanges.
The
available supply of Gold and Silver being wholly inadequate
to permit the issuance of coins of intrinsic value or paper
currency convertible into coin in the volume required to serve
the needs of the People, some other basis for the issue of currency
must be developed, and some means other than that of convertibility
into coin must be developed to prevent undue fluctuation in
the value of paper currency or any other substitute for money
of intrinsic value that may come into use.
The
monetary needs of increasing numbers of People advancing towards
higher standards of living can and should be met by the Government.
Such needs can be served by the issue of National Currency and
Credit through the operation of a National Banking system .The
circulation of a medium of exchange issued and backed by the
Government can be properly regulated and redundancy of issue
avoided by withdrawing from circulation such amounts as may
be necessary by Taxation, Redeposit, and otherwise. Government
has the power to regulate the currency and creditof the Nation.
Government
should stand behind its currency and credit and the Bank deposits
of the Nation. No individual should suffer a loss of money through
depreciation or inflated currency or Bank bankruptcy.
Government
possessing the power to create and issue currency and creditas
money and enjoying the right to withdraw both currency and credit
from circulation by Taxation and otherwise need not and should
not borrow capital at interest as a means of financing Governmental
work and public enterprise. The Government should create, issue,
and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy
the spending power of the Government and the buying power of
the consumers. The privilege of creating and issueing money
is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is
the Governments greatest creative opportunity.
By
the adoption of these principles the long felt want for a uniform
medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense
sums of interest, discounts, and exchanges. The financing of
all public enterprise, the maintenance of stable Government
and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become
matters of practical administration. The people can and will
be furnished with a currency as safe as their own Government.
Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.
Democracy will rise superior to the money power.
Some information
on the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve, a Private Corporation
One
of the most common concerns among people who engage in any effort
to reduce their taxes is, "Will keeping my money hurt the government's
ability to pay it's bills?" As explained in the first article
in this series, the modern withholding tax does not, and wasn't
designed to, pay for government services. What it does do, is
pay for the privately-owned Federal Reserve System.
Black's
Law Dictionary defines the "Federal Reserve System" as, "Network
of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong
and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules
require investment of stock and minimum reserves."
Privately-owned
banks own the stock of the Fed. This was explained in more detail
in the case of Lewis v. United States, Federal Reporter, 2nd
Series, Vol. 680, Pages 1239, 1241 (1982), where the court said:
Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by
commercial banks in its region. The stock-holding commercial
banks elect two thirds of each Bank's nine member board of directors.
Similarly,
the Federal Reserve Banks, though heavily regulated, are locally
controlled by their member banks. Taking another look at Black's
Law Dictionary, we find that these privately owned banks actually
issue money:
Federal Reserve Act. Law which created Federal Reserve banks
which act as agents in maintaining money reserves, issuing money
in the form of bank notes, lending money to banks, and supervising
banks. Administered by Federal Reserve Board (q.v.).
The
FED banks, which are privately owned, actually issue, that is,
create, the money we use. In 1964 the House Committee on Banking
and Currency, Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, at the second
session of the 88th Congress, put out a study entitled Money
Facts which contains a good description of what the FED is:
The Federal Reserve is a total money-making machine.It can issue
money or checks. And it never has a problem of making its checks
good because it can obtain the $5 and $10 bills necessary to
cover its check simply by asking the Treasury Department's Bureau
of Engraving to print them.
As
we all know, anyone who has a lot of money has a lot of power.
Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money.
Imagine the power these people would have. This is what the
Fed is.
No
man did more to expose the power of the Fed than Louis T. McFadden,
who was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee back in
the 1930s. Constantly pointing out that monetary issues shouldn't
be partisan, he criticized both the Herbert Hoover and Franklin
Roosevelt administrations. In describing the Fed, he remarked
in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June
10, 1932, that:
Mr. Chairman,we have in this country one of the most corrupt
institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal
Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve
Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the
United States and he people of the United States out of enoughmoney
to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities
of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting
together have cost this country enough money to pay the national
debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished
and ruined the people of the UnitedStates; has bankrupted itself,
and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this
through the maladministration of that law by which the Federal
Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed
vultures who control it.
Some
people think the Federal reserve banks are United States Government
institutions. They are not Government institutions. They are
private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the
United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign
customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and
rich and predatory money lenders. In that dark crew of financial
pirates there are those who would cut a man's throat to get
a dollar out of his pocket; there are those who send money into
States to buy votes to control our legislation; and there are
those who maintain an international propaganda for the purpose
of deceiving us and of wheedling us into the granting of new
concessions which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds
and set again in motion their gigantic train of crime. Those
12 private credit monopolies were deceitfully and disloyally
foisted upon this country by bankers who camehere from Europe
and who repaid us for our hospitality by undermining our American
institutions.
The
Fed basically works like this: The government granted its power
to create money to the Fed banks. They create money, then loan
it back to the government charging interest. The government
levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this
point, it's interesting to note that the Federal Reserve act
and the sixteenth amendment, which gave congress the power to
collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible
power of the Fed over the economy is universally admitted. Some
people, especially in the banking and academic communities,
even support it. On the other hand, there are those, both in
the past and in the present, that speak out against it. One
of these men was President John F. Kennedy. His efforts were
detailed in Jim Marrs' 1990 book, Crossfire:
Another overlooked aspect of Kennedy's attempt to reform American
society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by
returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress
shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could
be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal
Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government
at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing
Executive Order 11,110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815
in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than
the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy
signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills
from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.