6 Was the Silver Bullet Effective?

What Was the Silver Bullet?

The "Silver Bullet" was Roger Sherman's money clause of the Constitution.

"No State shall ... make any Thing but gold and
silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; ..."
-- Article I, Section 10, Clause 1

Roger Sherman was a delegate to the Constitution Convention from Connecticut, and the author of the money clause. His proven solution is both simple and effective.

Without the "silver bullet," the use of debt-based money precludes -- for any but the elite -- the possibility of continuing individual prosperity. Over time, the few use debt-based money to defraud the many of all their wealth. By the time hyperinflation sets in, which is the way nations usually go bankrupt, much of our personal property will probably be gone.



All arguments against returning to lawful money
(including "there is not enough gold") have been adequately overcome in the writings of Dr. Hans Sennholz, in Inflation, or Gold Standard; Dr. John Witherspoon, teacher of the Founding Fathers, in Essay on Money -- As a Medium of Commerce; and of Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., on Restoring the Dollar, and in THE STATE ELECTRONIC GOLD CURRENCY PLAN, Part 1. and Part 2.

As an alternative, some advocate government-issue debt-free currency. That could be far better than the monstrously fraudulent system now bleeding us to death. But the inherent temptation would remain. And certainly Congress has not proven itself fiscally responsible. As Dr. Vieira says, "NO ONE can be trusted with the power to loot the economy through manipulation of money. NO ONE." That, essentially, was also the opinion of the Framers of the Constitution.

See model Acts to be proposed to Congress (or to States): Monetary Reform 101 and Monetary Reform 102, posted as a public service "in the hope that hundreds and even thousands of Americans will propose [these models] -- immediately, if not sooner -- to their Representatives and Senators in Congress as [first steps] in returning this country to a semblance of sound money before the collapse of the Federal Reserve System throws the economy into possible irremediable chaos. With minor amendments obvious to anyone, [these models] can easily be adapted for use as State statutes, too." by Edwin Vieira, Jr.



The Framers were well acquainted with the biblical warning concerning "divers weights." ("Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. -- Proverbs 20:10, 23, Deuteronomy 25:13.) Here are two quotes from Roger Sherman.

... If what is used as a medium of exchange is fluctuating in its value, it is no better than unjust Weights and Measures, both which are condemned by the Laws of GOD and Man, ... the longest and most universal custom could never make the use of such a medium either lawful or reasonable.

and

When money is false, none of the financial affairs of men can be true; for by its use we are forced to defraud one another. -- Roger Sherman, in A Caveat Against Injustice,

Immediate Prosperity

The immediate prosperity of the new nation under the Constitution can largely be attributed to the work of Roger Sherman (1721 - 1793), who had spent most of his life struggling with a fluctuating medium of exchange. Sherman, a delegate to the Convention from Connecticut and the only man to sign all four founding documents, designed our country's monetary system by authoring the money clause -- the "(gold and) silver bullet," -- which rescued the perishing fledgling nation. With that clause the States sacrificed the power to engage in the paper money scam. "This is a favorable crisis for crushing paper money," James Madison reported him to have declared.

The only existing written expression of Roger Sherman’s monetary philosophy is the text of A Caveat Against Injustice -- An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange. This small volume laid the basis for our Constitutional economic system. Most interesting in itself, it has additional value for averting any misinterpretation of the meaning of the monetary provision of the Constitution. For this reason "A Caveat" was reproduced in The Treasury of Remarkable Remedy in its entirety. It is no small debt that we owe to this one man for the greatness that the United States achieved.

Tupper Saussy, who may have given his life for this cause, also deserves our gratitude because in 1982 he rescued “A Caveat” from near oblivion -- of two copies in existence. It was republished by Spencer Judd, with an engaging forward by Tupper -- also reproduced in The Treasury of Remarkable Remedy. Available from PRS Nutshells. Please select this link. Please put "RR.caveat" on the subject line.

How Quickly Did the Silver Bullet
Revive the Economy of the Moribund Fledgling Nation?

Letters from George Washington are quite revealing.
A letter to James Madison, in 1786, before the Constitution was ratified, reveals his despair over the bleak outlook:

The wheels of government are clogged, and we are descending into the vale of confusion and darkness. No day was ever more clouded than the present. We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion.

A letter to General Knox nine months before the signing of the Constitution:

Good God! Who could have seen or predicted the disorders which have arisen in these States.

Why was the situation so bleak? As we mentioned before -- the major cause was runaway inflation. The Continental Congress had issued Continental currency, supposedly redeemable in silver -- that is, until there were many more notes than there was silver to back them. The presses ran wild, and sailors returning from duty paraded down the streets in uniforms made of the worthless money.

Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures was among the most important of the issues Washington suggested for deliberation of Congress in his first message to that body.

Less than a year after the Constitution was ratified, in a letter to the Marquis de LaFayette, Washington cheerfully wrote:

You have doubtless been informed from time to time, of the happy progress of our affairs. The principle difficulties seem in a great measure to have been surmounted. Our revenues have been considerably more productive than it was imagined they would be. I mention this to show the spirit of enterprise that prevails.

And to David Humphreys, in that same year, he confided his utter amazement:

Tranquility reigns among the people with that disposition towards the general government which is likely to preserve it. Our public credit stands on that high ground which three years ago it would have been considered as a species of madness to have foretold.

And note what "The Pennsylvania Gazette" had to say on December 16, 1789:

... Since the Federal Constitution has removed all danger of our having a paper tender our trade has advanced fifty percent, our moneyed people can trust their cash abroad and have brought their coin into circulation....

Honest money -- the silver bullet -- resuscitated a nation that almost died in infancy and made possible the grand experiment that became one of the greatest nations the world has ever seen --
and all without an income tax.

Is that possible today? How can we do it?

Time to select Link 7 of the ...

Big Picture ...

• 1 Three Events
• 2 Consequences
• 3 Who Controls?
• 4 Government Schools
• 5 Good News
• 7 We Can Do It!
• 8 A Miracle of God
• 9 Our Job Now

.. a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong,
gives it a superficial appearance of being right,
and raises at first
a formidable outcry in defense of custom.
-- Thomas Paine in his preface to Common Sense

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