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 certificates 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 government
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learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any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, if so, is he willing to pay the
ultimate price for doing so?
Executive Order 11110 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-
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 --
By
revoking 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 credits 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 issuing 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 enough money 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 United States; 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 came
here 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.
Kennedy's comptroller of the currency, James J. Saxon, had
been at odds with the powerful Federal Reserve Board for
some time, encouraging broader investment and lending powers
for banks that were not part of the Federal Reserve system.
Saxon also had decided that non-Reserve banks could
underwrite state and local general obligation bonds, again
weakening the dominant Federal Reserve banks.
A
number of "Kennedy bills" were indeed issued - the author
has a five dollar bill in his possession with the heading
"United States Note" - but were quickly withdrawn after
Kennedy's death. According to information from the Library
of the Comptroller of the Currency, Executive Order 11,110
remains in effect today, although successive administrations
beginning with that of President Lyndon Johnson apparently
have simply ignored it and instead returned to the practice
of paying interest on Federal Reserve notes. Today we
continue to use Federal Reserve Notes, and the deficit is at
an all-time high.
The point being made is that the IRS taxes you pay aren't
used for government services. It won't hurt you, or the
nation, to legally reduce or eliminate your tax liability.
