What did the presidents featured on dollar bills say about banking institutions?

57  2014-09-22 by [deleted]

"I have always been afraid of banks...If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations. "

  • Andrew Jackson (on 20 dollar bill)

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”

  • Thomas Jefferson (on 2 dollar bill)

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.

  • James Madison (on 5000 dollar bill)

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.

  • Abraham Lincoln (on 5 dollar bill)

"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."

  • George Washington (1 dollar bill)
18 comments

14  OB1_kenobi 2014-09-22

I think George Washington said it best:

Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body

9  gonzobon 2014-09-22

It's so ironic that AJ is on the 20 dollar bill at this point. He spent his last life and credibility fighting the central banking system..

9  mastigia 2014-09-22

I think that was totally intentional. Everybody enjoys a good mean joke at the expense of those that they are against, tptb are no different. This was a big middle finger to AJ's memory.

7  Gr1mreaper86 2014-09-22

ya that's what I think it is too...it can really only be taken two ways.

It's either a salute to a worthy foe, or more then likely the last and best insult they can give. I'd say it's more of an insult considering the content. If it was a statue it might be a salute but printing his face on the very bank notes he opposed definately seems more of an insult.

5  SolipsisticEgoKing 2014-09-22

I see it more as a trophy head, as if to say "This one here almost killed us, but we got the best of him in the end."

4  OnSpeakerCrab 2014-09-22

I see it more as a trophy head

Wow. I never thought of it like that, but you are right on the money.

2  metal_up_your_ass 2014-09-22

right on the money.

slow. clap. :)

1  ImASharkImAShark 2014-09-22

right on the money

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/fc/fc454bbc78a0dfa9ae80c9ea9272caf566934cafef1bbc391f020515d748d064.jpg

2  eagleshigh 2014-09-22

To all of their memories. I thought why would they be on the bills jf they were against fiat? Thats the conclusion I came to

6  Shillyourself 2014-09-22

They are trying to tell us that fighting them will only make them stronger.

They put Kennedy on a 50 cent piece after they blew his brains out.

5  Gr1mreaper86 2014-09-22

Interesting choice they used since he tried to implement the "silver certificate" and the 50 cent peice certainly is more silver in apearence then paper money.

1  twsmith 2014-09-22

Actually Kennedy eliminated the silver certificate. Silver certificates were issued from 1878 to 1964. Kennedy had a law passed to phase them out in favor of Federal Reserve notes. Executive Order 11110 was an order giving0 the Treasury the power to keep printing them until the new Federal Reserve notes were ready. Before the new law passed, the Treasury could print them without presidential authorization.

2  Gr1mreaper86 2014-09-22

Holy shit, your right. I was always under the impression he had created the silver certificate. Not destroyed it. TIL. Thanks, and for anyone else wanting to learn more about this: JFK Not Killed in Fed Conspiracy

1  ImASharkImAShark 2014-09-22

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - Executive Order 11110

3  SlumberMachine 2014-09-22

Someone needs to start printing these quotes on the bills. Might not do anything constructive, but at least it would feel good.

2  OnSpeakerCrab 2014-09-22

So, you get $100 out from the bank in different denominations, print or write a quote on each one, and then go to any store and ask for change. I did something like this when I was in highschool, but instead of quotes, it was mustaches and hats.

2  twsmith 2014-09-22

I don't think the quote "I have always been afraid of banks" is a real quote from Andrew Jackson. It seems to be a relatively recent invention. The rest of the quote is a fairly accurate paraphrase of what Jackon wrote in his "Veto Message Regarding the Bank of the United States":

It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing the constitutional power "to coin money and regulate the value thereof." Congress have established a mint to coin money and passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its legislative power to such a bank, and therefore unconstitutional.

The quote from Thomas Jefferson is accurate. It is from this letter to John Taylor.

The quote from James Madison is not real. It's actually Olive Cushing Dwinell commenting on a quote from Alexander Hamilton in her book The Story of Our Money (1946). Because of an editor's error, this author's note is followed by "From Writings of Madison, previously quoted. Vol. 2, Page 14.", but it's clearly not from Madison.

The quote from Abraham Lincoln is actually Gerald McGeer's interpretation of Lincoln's monetary policy in his book The Conquest of Poverty (1935).

Here are Lincoln's messages to Congress where he discusses banking and money:

I've just started researching the alleged Washington quote. The sentence "Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce—oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice" is from this letter.

The rest of the quote is not in the letter. So far I haven't been able to verify it. This website —where the text may be from a 1982 book— just gives the other quote and says it's from 1789. But it doesn't give a source.

0  EnoughNoLibsSpam 2014-09-22

In God We Trust #Psalm135

5  SolipsisticEgoKing 2014-09-22

I see it more as a trophy head, as if to say "This one here almost killed us, but we got the best of him in the end."