Do Not Forget FDRs Authoritarianism By Jacob G. Hoernberger!!
(2016-11-23 at 22:31:13 )

Do Not Forget FDRs Authoritarianism by Jacob G. Hornberger

As the left continues to decry the authoritarian tendencies of President-elect Trump, they conveniently forget those of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who they continue to extol as one of Americas greatest presidents. Even though FDRs authoritarian actions took place more than 80 years ago, they have had a lasting impact on the American people and American society.

Just think about only one of the things that FDR did: He nationalized and confiscated the gold-coin holdings of the American people, replacing them with irredeemable and devalued paper bills and notes. It is difficult to get more authoritarian than that, especially considering that gold coins had been the official money of the American people for more than a hundred years.

When the Constitution called the federal government into existence, one of its main provisions was the establishment of a monetary system in which gold coins and silver coins were the nations official money. The federal government was expressly given the power to coin money and was not given the power to issue paper money. The Constitution also expressly prohibited the states from making anything but gold and silver legal tender. The states were also expressly prohibited from issuing paper money.

Keep in mind that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is the instrument by which the American people brought the federal government into existence. With the Constitution, the American people told United States officials what they could and could not do. In the realm of monetary policy, people said: "We do not want a paper-money system. We want a gold-coin system." The supreme law of the Constitution reflected their conviction.

What if United States officials did not agree with the assessment of the American people? The Constitution provides a remedy - in fact, the only remedy. If anyone wanted a different monetary system, the only way he could do it is through a constitutional amendment that abolished the gold-coin system and replaced it with a paper-money system.

What if Congress enacted a law that abolished the gold-coin system and replaced it with a paper-money system? It would not work. That is because the Constitution is the supreme law. It controls the actions of both the Congress and the president.

When the president adopts a policy or Congress enacts a law that violate the Constitution, they are null and void. That is where the judicial branch comes into play. Its job is to declare any action or law that violates the Constitution to be null and void.

Franklin Roosevelt understood all this, but it did not matter to him. He was determined to abolish the gold-coin system that the Constitution had established and that had been in place for more than a century and replace it with a paper-money system. But he was not about to go the long, arduous route of seeking a constitutional amendment.

So, he just did it. Through executive decree, which was the same way that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were ruling in Germany and Italy during the 1930s, Roosevelt issued an order to the American people: Deliver your gold coins to the United States government or be jailed and fined. (See Three New Deals: Reflections or Roosevelts America, Mussolinis Italy, and Hitlers Germany, 1933-1939 by Wolfgang Schivelbusch or see this review of the book by the Cato Institutes David Boaz.)

What about the judicial branch, whose responsibility under the Constitution is to nullify acts and laws that violate the Constitution? It buckled, just as judiciaries in foreign countries often do when faced with authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. (Example: The federal judiciary in Chile under Pinochet.) Pointing to the economic crisis of the Great Depression, the United States Supreme Court in the Gold Clause Cases upheld the constitutionality of FDRs gold-coin seizure, his destruction of Americans more-than-a-century-old gold-coin system, and his establishment of a paper-money system. (See the following two FFF articles: "The Gold Clause Cases" by Jacob G. Hornberger and "Roosevelts Crusade Against Gold," as well as an article on the Gold Clause Cases by FFF policy adviser David d Amato that will appear in an upcoming issues of Future of Freedom .)

But there was one big flaw in the Courts reasoning: The Constitution itself, which does not provide for economic crises or emergencies as exceptions to its provisions. The Framers made it clear that its provisions were to be sovereign and supreme regardless of "emergency" or "crisis" circumstances. In fact, because "emergencies" and "crises" always pose greater dangers to liberty than under normal circumstances, the judiciary should be even more diligent to enforce the Constitution during such periods.

The Americans living under Roosevelt undoubtedly believed that FDRs destruction of Americas monetary system would be only temporary, lasting only so long as the Great Depression. It was not to be. FDRs destruction of the gold-coin standard established under the Constitution turned out to be permanent, which, among other things, enabled welfare-warfare state expenditures to grow exponentially over the next 80 years and gave the American people an ever-depreciating currency. It is not a coincidence that although Roosevelt permitted the American people to continue using silver coins as legal tender, they ultimately disappeared from circulation. As Greshams Law points out, that is what bad money does to good money.

The next time a leftist decries Trumps upcoming authoritarian regime, remind him that his idol FDR set a standard for like-minded presidents to follow.

Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!