"Emitting bills of credit, or the creation of money by private corporations,
is what is expressly forbidden by Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution."
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Source:
Spurious: supposedly from Craig v. Missouri, 4 Peters 410 (1830) but quote is not found in court record
see: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=29&invol=410
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Reader comments about this quote:
The Constitution does NOT forbid private corporations to create money. It does NOT forbid private corporations to do anything for that matter. The Constitution forbids the government to do these things. This decision is based on a completely false premise. The Supreme Court doesn't even understand something as simply as the Constitution. How can we expect them to make wise decisions about it.
 -- Ben, Orem, UT     
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    Ben, you are right, it was a "contract" with the FRB to "manage" our economy where all this started. The rest is history. Article 1 section 10 was to keep fiat (unbacked by gold and silver coin) paper money out of the system. Amazing how many are ignorant of this fact. I believe the Treasury Department still physically creates the fiat money we use today.
     -- Anon     
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    Thieves hate competition, consequently they lie, redefine terms, enforce despotic rulings and only allow their own brand of larceny. The slavers just hate those governments of laws when they can have governments of men. Said well Ben and Anon, the Constitution was exclusively a limitation on government, not on the individual sovereign.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    This reminds me of people who will say, "The Constitution doesn't give you the right to do 'X'. The Constitution doesn't GIVE you the right to do anything. Rights are yours already and cannot be granted by men or governments. Nor does the exclusion of any action from the Bill of Rights mean that you don't have that right. The US Constitution, for all practical purposes, is just the Federal Government's job description and the things it's allowed to do are few and enumerated.
     -- Bryan Morton, Stuart, Florida     
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    Our government has been ignoring the Constitution ever since the 16th ammendment in 1913. Read "The Law that Never Was"which contends that the 16th ammendment was never legally rattified. Put " The 16th Ammendment " in the adress bar and read all about it on the web. 1913 was the year that our nation started a long, downhill slide into Socialism culminating in electing a Marxist last November.
     -- jim k, austin     
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    Good points jim k. "We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism." Nikita Krushchev
     -- Anon     
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    Good comments by all. I've now reread Article 1 Section 10 and still do not find an expressly forbidden clause concerning private corporations (what ever they were specifically talking about). I guess if that clause could be found by the Supreme Court again, they could eliminate the Federal Reserve and the national debt. Nah, too much exposure.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Thumbs down because no one in the court said this. Read the record: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=29&invol=410
    I agree with the sentiment that private corporations and individuals have a right to emit bills of credit (i.e. IOUs, or promissory notes); however, the state legislature may not -- and in this case, the Missouri legislature did issue the 'certificates' and made them acceptable for payment of government taxes and fees. It should be noted however that the legislature did so because of the debasement of the national currency (like what is happening today) by the First National Bank of the US nixed by Jefferson in 1820. Chief Justice Marshall did have to say this: "At a very early period of our colonial history, the attempt to supply the want of the precio is metals by a paper medium was made to a considerable extent; and the bills emitted for this purpose have been frequently denominated bills of credit. During the war of our revolution, we were driven to this expedient; and necessity compelled us to use it to a most fearful extent. The term has acquired an appropriate meaning; and 'bills of credit' signify a paper medium, intended to circulate between individuals, and between government and individuals, for the ordinary purposes of society. Such a medium has been always liable to considerable fluctuation. Its value is continually changing; and these changes, often great and sudden, expose individuals to immense loss, are the sources of ruinous speculations, and destroy all confidence between man and man. To cut up this mischief by the roots, a mischief which was felt through the United States, and which deeply affected the interest and prosperity of all; the people declared in their constitution, that no state should emit bills of credit. If the prohibition means any thing, if the words are not empty sounds, it must comprehend the emission of any paper medium, by a state government, for the purpose of common circulation." No where in the text of the court record does 'creation of money' or 'private corporations' appear. Editor, you may have to categorize this popular quote as 'False.'
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Appears to be an esoteric area that some have kind of got off on a tangent with. States are forbidden to issue bills of credit (paper money that is) based solely on the good faith of the state. States license and regulate corporations, It would be surprising for states to give corporations rights and powers that it itself does not have to issue money.
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    Thanks Archer, I wasn't aware of that.
     -- Anon     
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    States don't, and can't, GIVE rights.
     -- Bryan Morton, Stuart, Florida     
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    Thanks, E Archer. We have updated the quote source as 'Spurious' until we can find a source. Cheers.
     -- Editor, Liberty Quotes     
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    States grant the right of incorporation to individuals and generally the individulas will state their purpose of incorporation. A state allowing an corporation to "emit bills of credit" or "create money" would appeat to be afoul of the Constitution. Again if a state cannot issue money then certainly it cannot authorized a corporation to do so. Ipso facto!
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    No, Waffler. Your messed up concept of rights is what leads you to believe that states can grant rights. Rights are inherent and cannot be granted by other humans. That's an attribute of rights and what sets them apart from privileges, (legitimate or illegitimate), which can be granted by humans and human institutions. Individuals already have the right to incorporate. Either the state merely recognizes that right, or it violates that right through licensure and regulation and then grants privilege to those willing to jump through their hoops.
     -- Bryan Morton, Stuart, Florida     
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     -- Johann Hollar, Saint Paul      
    Waffler, the Federal Govt gets its powers from the people and the states. If the states don't have the right, the Federal Govt doesn't have the right because the people could have never delegated that right to the Federal Govt in the first place. I am surprised so many times that your ideas are totally backwards on natural law and rights.
     -- Ben, Orem, UT     
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    The people, Ben, have stated via their Constitution that States may not "create money." Corporations are granted existence by the States. A corporation cannot create money if a state cannot create money. I am not talking about Natural Law and Rights. I am talking about the laws and concepts that run and govern the USA. And as some say if you don't like it leave it!
     -- Waffler, Smith     
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    ANON stated...

    "Article 1 section 10 was to keep fiat (unbacked by gold and silver coin) paper money out of the system. Amazing how many are ignorant of this fact. I believe the Treasury Department still physically creates the fiat money we use today."

    First of all: Fiat money is... whatever is declared to be "legal tender", by the King (or other recognized ruler) and which fiat legal tender currently happens to be Federal Reserve Bank Notes and Coins; and as such it can't be refused acceptance in payment for debts--public and private.

    Well, actually... you can refuse it--at your own peril... especially when dealing with the Gov. That's why these days, everything is done with Fed Notes ("dollar bills"), which is what people think of as "money". That way they can't confuse that archaic, phony gold and silver money... with "real paper money". LOL

    Funny how people have lost track of so many facts; like the term "dollar". The term "dollar", two hundred years ago, was used to denote a specific weight of gold (or silver)... as specified in the Coinage Act implemented by Congress. (Remember the Constitution? "...coin money and regulated the value thereof..."). At that time, a dollar was (as I recall) equal to 1/20 oz of gold; which weight varied slightly over the following decades.

    So... a $5 gold piece was of a weight of 1/4 oz of gold... and a $20 gold piece was of a weight of 1oz of gold. This is not an exact coin weight. There are other factors, such as the alloy, which is specified in the Coinage Act as to how much copper, exactly, must be present. But the coin MUST contain the exact amount of gold/silver as specified by the Coinage Act and such weight reflected by the denomination on the coin, such as $20.

    The dollar being a legally specified weight and denominated as such, with the corresponding date of strike, the value of a coin did not fluctuate over time. And if the Congress decided to change the dollar by altering the future weight, it had no effect on the existing coin weight... and thus people could save their accumulated "wealth"... without the fear of inflation (devaluation of the existing dollar). And then, too, the people could take the offending Congress people out to the nearest tree... and stretch their necks for robbing them.

    The constitution does not allow for gold or silver "backed" money. It only allows for gold or silver coin (specie) as specified in the Coinage Act; and that only applies to the Federal government. States cannot create "money"; and they can't make anything but gold and silver coin a "legal tender" in payment of debt--i.e.: they can't create any "fiat money".

    The people can use anything they want to use for money--peanuts, chewing gum, tobacco, gasoline, matches, gold, silver; you name it. But... nowadays, if they use gold and silver coin to pay their taxes, it better be "legal" specie (as defined in the Coinage Act--and who in their right mind would do such a foolish thing?)... or Federal Reserve Bank Notes.

    Yes; the US Treasury (Bureau of Engraving) does print the "fiat money" that is circulated as Federal Reserve Notes ("dollar bills", if you will). It also "coins" fiat money (which coins used to be constitutionally legal specie when they were punched from gold and silver).

    BTW: The reason the 16th amendment was passed was to allow the Federal Reserve Bank to create a demand for their Notes... thereby allowing the FED to begin to manipulate the inflation/deflation of the value of money. The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913.

    The 16th amendment was enacted in 1913. But the 16th was actually begun (in process) in 1909. You hear the old adage that the Income Tax was intended to "pay for the war"... and which war was that??? WWI? Spanish American? In order to sync the FED Act with the 16th,they had to start the amendment long before the act. And that's the facts, Jack.

    BTW #2: Did you know that the Coinage Act provided for the penalty of DEATH for altering or counterfeiting a legal specie coin?

    Them ol' boys took their money seriously!
     -- Bruce Ballard, Shingletown, CA     
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    Thanks, Bruce!
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    E Archer--

    You are quite welcome.

    Now; don't take my word on ANYTHING! Go to the sources for verification. The FED has ALL THE DATA YOU COULD EVER WANT... stored away in their publicly accessible data banks--online. As for the original Coinage Act (1792), and all successor acts... they are available all over the net as PDF's--scanned directly from the legislative docs.

    Since you're in NYC, you can visit the kingpin bank of the FED--The Federal Reserve Bank of New York--which holds the power of the Discount Window.in their hot little hands.

    An EXCEPTIONAL work is... "Modern Money Mechanics", published by the Federal Reserve itself. Used to be available from the Chicago Fed, online. May not be there, now... but it is available on a number of other sites. Just type in Modern Money Mechanics, and you'll have a plethora of PDF's and other formats to chose from. Boring as HELL, as a read. Indispensable for opening the eyes of one who needs to know the way the system actually works. Here's the opening statement from the work...

    "The purpose of this booklet is to describe the basic process of money creation in a "fractional reserve" banking system."

    In other words... how to create money from thin air.

    They don't hide their secrets from anyone. But, then... who's gonna take the time to learn the tricks of their trade?
     -- Bruce Ballard, Shingletown, CA     
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