GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. - Speech in the House of Representatives - 12th January, 1869

"We want a uniform, sound, cheap, stable, and elastic currency ... national bank-notes, based upon the faith and credit of the country, possess the quality of soundness equal to any possible currency ... paper money, regulated as to volume by law, is absolutely stable, while money coined of gold or silver, or any other substance, limited in production, and fluctuating as to amount, is unstable and fluctuating.

"More than three thousand years ago the despots of the world, as the most potent method to enrich themselves and their favorites, and perpetuate their tyranny, hit upon the device of impressing their image and superscription, or other peculiar stamp, upon pieces of two of the metals, not the most intrinsically useful or the most beautiful, but the most scarce, and difficult of attainment by the masses of the people; thus arbitrarily making a measure of value and equivalent for which the property of their subjects must be exchanged.

"In the earliest republics, when governments were established by the people for themselves, the worth and potency of these metals were antagonized as attributes of despotism. They stamped value upon the more common and equally useful metals generally distributed among the people, to be used by them as instruments of exchange and trade.

"Our patriot fathers, founding a government for themselves on this continent, carefully eliminated from its framework every attribute of monarchy and aristocracy, the divine right of kings, patents of nobility, the succession of primogeniture, the law of entail, the fealty of one man to another, every one of the devices of kingcraft and oppression with which the people are governed by a class, all, save one: they retained, whether for good or evil, the precious metals stamped with the kings image as the standard by which to measure the property and industry of the new Republic. It was a grievous fault, and grievously have their children answered it. Great, wise, and good men, we marvel that they foresaw so much; but they saw not all things.

Gen. Butler closed his speech as follows :

" Instead of this money, the instrument of tyrants ... I propose a paper currency ... its value based not only upon the gold in the country, but upon every other source and element of the national prosperity, emancipated from the control of all other nations, whether civilized or barbarous. It is the currency for a free people, strong enough to maintain every other of their institutions against the world, whose governments they have antagonized; strong enough to sustain the measure of their business transactions with each other, independent of kings, the least, or bankers, now the most, potent sovereigns in the world.

"My ... proposition is to take from the banks all power to issue notes to circulate as money, leaving them as they are now banks of deposit, loans and discounts, but not of issue.

"I stand here, therefore, for inconvertible paper money, the greenback ... founded on the faith, the wealth, and property of the nation ... the money which saved the country in war, and which has given it prosperity and happiness in peace ... I stand for that money, therefore, which is by far the better agent and instrument of exchange of an enlightened and free people than gold and silver, the money alike of the barbarian and the despot."

Later in life General Butler summarized:

"First, a dollar that shall have at all times a certain fixed and stable value below which it cannot go.

"Second, I demand that that dollar shall be issued by the Government alone, in the exercise of its high prerogative and constitutional power, and that that power shall not be delegated to any corporation or individual

"Third, I want that dollar stamped upon some convenient and cheap material of the least possible intrinsic value, so that neither its wear nor its destruction will be any loss to the Government issuing it.

"Fourth, I also desire the dollar to be made of such material for the purpose that it shall never be exported or desirable to carry out of the country.

"Fifth, I desire that the dollar so issued shall never be redeemed. I see no more reason why the unit of measure of value should be redeemed or redeemable, than that the yard stick with which I measure my cloth or the quart with which I measure my milk should be redeemed.

"Sixth ... that the dollar so issued shall be quite equal to, or a little better than, the present value of the average gold dollar of the world, not to be changed ... if the gold dollar grows lower in value or grows higher, or to be obliged to conform itself in value in any regard to the dollars of any other nation of the world ... But, if it is ever changed, it shall change equally and alike for the creditor and the debtor; not as the dollar based upon supposed gold, whose changes always have given the creditor the advantage."

I could not state the case for Greenbacks as eloquently as General Butler.

My only observation is that guidelines with respect regulating the proper quantity (volume) of issue are vague.

Currency is issued against the credit of the United States, therefore, each greenback issued must be matched by an equal claim upon the citizenry of the United States. In practice, any currency issued over and above economic growth must be matched with an equal future tax.

The principle of 'no taxation without representation' - would preclude reliance upon any taxation of currently minor or unborn citizens. Any increase of issue must, therefore, be limited by the willingness of the current voting citizenry to pay increased taxes.

Once the necessary quantity of currency is in circulation, the increase in supply should match economic growth. A fixed annual increase of about 2 or 3% would suffice.

Standing applause to General Butler! That quotation is a keeper for sure. Thank you. I doubt I could do better either, or as well, especially since it was said 140 years ago.

Yes, Ellen Brown and I are in basic agreement as to the value of the Greenback paper dollar, and all of Gen. Butler's comments.

Kudos...

Yeah, the greenback makes sense. It worked for Lincoln, it worked for Hitler, and it's working for China(if I understand correctly).
But it isn't likely that Helicopter Ben is going to say, "Well, okay, sure, I'll hand the Federal Reserve back to the full control of the U.S. government so you can print greenbacks and pursue a new paradigm."

The idea is fabulous; how on earth could it be implemented? The central bankers aren't going to give away their cash cow.

The issue will be settled responsibly and peacefully in the courts now, or in blood later.

The courts are one possibility, but an unlikely one. It seems to me more likely that the issue will be settled by congress rescinding the Federal Reserve Act, or modifying it to bring it under real congressional control again. Of course, that will also entail a struggle for the citizens (we the people) to take back the control over congress that the monopolistic international bankers, financiers and corporations have usurped over the decades and centuries.

That is the struggle that is ultimately needed, and the one that could be the most difficult.

The bankers now own the earth, plus 6%.

Congress gave their cash cow to them; congress can take it away again. How that is achieved or how much time it takes to do so is the real question. It will happen someday though. It might take catastrophic events and new local money systems, but someday the money powers will be controlled by democracies tather than the other way around, as it is now.

You're right. Implementation is a problem once a leader determines that he/she has the guts to actually take the necessary actions to wrest from the central bankers the nations sovereignty. Lincoln did it. He got Congressional approval for his Greenbacks. However, there just might be a case for President Obama to use his Emergency Powers and transfer authority to issue currency for a national emergency....bankruptcy....from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury Dept. I'll do a bit more research on this.

However, it would not be a stretch to define our current financial situation as an emergency. From whence will Obama find funds to adequately maintain military force status, Social Security, Medicare, infrastructure rehabilitation, etc, without first driving creditors away, devaluing the dollar, losing reserve currency status, etc. We have a myriad of emergencies. I don't consider the current banking/financial debacle an emergency. Allowing these miscreants to fail would be a "free market" outcome. Moreover, we have the perfect alternative; print debt free money and then monetize all existing debt, retiring all debt instruments. An admixture of ideas from Zarlenga, Hummel, Brown, etc., could be fashioned to provide a new monetary system.

Let's work on the emergency Powers angle.