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Select: "Titles"
Now Updated Through The October 2012 Issue
Knight v. Runner ~ 2012 Legislative Year in Review: page 6.
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January's Social & Political Commentary by Amy Jingle!: page 3
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"THE BERLIN WALL" by Verena Hawkins, Contributing Writer: page 6
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Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, and the $2 Federal Reserve Note: page 2.
Promote Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness by Circulating The $2 Bill
The Spirit of 1776
This July 4 – Independence Day 2012 – Americans will celebrate the 235th anniversary of the unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence by State delegates to the Second Continental Congress.
The Political Observer - in seeking to do our part in re-igniting The Spirit of 1776 among The People – continue with our challenge to our loyal and like-minded readers, first mentioned in the June 2010 Political Observer. We propose all Freedom and Liberty-loving men and women reading these words, as a small, symbolic token measure, and in an attempt to reintroduce into the American consciousness the concepts espoused by Jefferson - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - begin making a habit of using the $2 Bill in their everyday life.
Thomas Jefferson - Patriot, Rebel, fierce opponent of central banking and paper money, and author of the Declaration of Independence - adorns the front of the $2 Bill, which is the least used denomination of paper currency in circulation. Conspiracy theorists are free to conjecture as they please.
In celebration of Independence Day, and as a service to our readers, following, is publication of the Declaration of Independence. We ask each reader to, sometime before July 4, to find a quiet place, and re-familiarize with the Laws of Nature, and the notion that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. These principles, sadly, are not well-remembered by too many Americans today.
DECLARATION OF
From the Library of Congress:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
THE UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION
OF THE
THIRTEEN
WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyranny only.
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.
HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
HE has constrained our Fellow-Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.
IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.
John Hancock.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND
Read and view images of founding documents at: www.Thomas.loc
Thomas Jefferson Fast Facts
Elected to Virginia House of Burgesses March 1769
Elected Deputy to Continental Congress March 1775
Elected Commissioner to
Attends Virginia Assembly October 1776
Appointed on Committee to Revise
Elected Governor of
Reelected Governor of
Resigns Governorship June 1781
Assembly Orders Investigation of his Administration June 1781
Appointed Peace Commissioner by Continental Congress June 1781
Appointment Declined June 30,
Attends Virginia Assembly November 1781
Elected Delegate to Congress November 1781
Appointed Peace Commissioner to
Appointment Withdrawn April 1783
Elected Delegate to Congress June 1783
Elected Chairman of Congress March 1784
Elected Minister to
Elected French Minister by Congress March 1785
Audience at
Prepares Charter for
Nominated to be Secretary of State September 1789
Leaves
At
Accepts Secretaryship of State February 1790
Writes to
Reconsiders Resignation January 1793
Offered French Mission February 1793
Resigns Secretaryship of State December 1793
Offered Foreign Mission September 1794
Elected Vice-President November 1796
Elected President of Philosophical Society January 1797
Takes Oath of Office as Vice-President March 1797
Drafts
Revises
Plans
Prepares Parliamentary Manual February 1800
Congress Begins to Ballot for President February 1801
Elected President February 1801
Farewell Address to Senate February 1801
Inauguration as President March 1S01
Reelected President of
Elected President of American Philosophical Society January 1807
Signs Bill to End Slave Trade March 1807
Retires from Presidency March 1809
Arrives at
Resigns Presidency of American Philosophical Society November 1814
Congress Passes Bill to Buy Jefferson’s Library January 1815
Drafts Virginia Protest December 1825
Executes Will March 1826
Declines Invitation to Fourth of July Celebration in
Writes Last Letter June 1826
Death July 4, 1826
The University of Virginia (UV) maintains a collection of works by its founder, Thomas Jefferson. This collection includes the searchable Jefferson Cyclopedia: a Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas Jefferson. Classified and arranged in alphabetical order under nine thousand titles, the compendium contains many of Jefferson’s thoughts and writings on Government, Politics, Law, Education, Political Economy, Finance, Science, Art, Literature, Religious Freedom, and Morals, among other subjects.
The Jefferson Cyclopedia preface explains its purpose by quoting a Jefferson biographer from the early 1800s: “It would be a happy circumstance for
The Political Observer examined Jefferson’s views on banking, war, paper money and other relevant matters of national finance as made available through the UV Jefferson Cyclopedia, and below readers will find published some of Jefferson’s more salient thoughts. Considering the dire economic straights and colossal debt facing our nation after 99 years of operating a monetary policy designed and controlled by a central bank - The Fed -
“As yet the delirium of speculation is too strong to admit sober reflection. Whether it was well judged to force on the public a paper circulation of so many millions for which they will be paying about 7 per cent, per ann. and thereby banish as many millions of gold and silver for which they would have paid no interest?” - 1791
“It seems nearly settled with the Treasurobankites that a branch shall be established at
“We are completely saddled and bridled, and the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must go where they will guide.” - 1796.)
“It was impossible the Bank and paper mania should not produce great and extensive ruin. The President is fortunate to get off just as the bubble is bursting, leaving others to hold the bag. Yet, as his departure will mark the moment when the difficulties begin to work, you will see that they will be ascribed to the new administration…” - 1797
“What an obstruction could not this Bank of the
“The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank… to be under the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who are to name all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having any power of interference in its administration…these schemes being always made unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them.” - 1813
“It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of
“They [Congress] authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions of dollars (three times the capital), which increases our circulating medium fifty per cent.; depreciates proportionably the present value of a dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same proportion.” - 1813
“…this bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions of dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it will be thrown, we have had abundant experience.” - 1813
“Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of our increase of medium [money], one by one. 1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for troops, ammunition. &c. Now. I had always supposed that war produced a diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from industrious pursuits for employment in arms, &c, which are totally unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from other branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it is but a shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.” - 1813
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That all powers not delegated to the
“To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are very different acts. He who erects a bank, creates a subject of commerce in its bills.” - 1813
To learn more about Thomas Jefferson via the
The $2 Federal Reserve Note
Obtaining the $2 Bill will require a visit inside a bank. It is not commonly readily available since it is not carried by merchants in the private sector economy.
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury denominations of currency presently in production are the $1, $2, 5$, $10, $20, $50 and $100 Federal Reserve Notes - debt.
On July 14, 1969, the Federal Reserve Board announced they would immediately stop distributing currency in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 - production of these denominations stopped more than 25 years earlier during World War II.
These Notes are legal tender and may still be found in circulation today, but, per Fed policy, the Federal Reserve Banks have ordered commercial banks and savings institutions to remove them from circulation and deliver them to The Fed where the Notes are destroyed.
Also according to the U.S. Treasury Department, the largest denomination of currency ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was the $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate featuring the portrait of President Woodrow Wilson. These notes were printed over a three-week period - December 18, 1934 through January 9, 1935 - and were issued by the Treasurer of the
EDITOR’S NOTE: Both the 16th Amendment – Income Tax - and the Federal Reserve Act were approved in 1913 during Woodrow Wilson’s first term as President.
On Mr. Jefferson and the $2 Bill, the Treasury website states although the $2 Bill has not been removed from circulation the Federal Reserve System does not request the printing of that denomination as often as the others. The Series 2003 $2 Bill was the last printed and as of April 30, 2007, there was $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 Bills in circulation worldwide.
Treasury does offer advice on how to successfully circulate the $2 Bill, which is for retailers to use them just like any other denomination in daily operations. Treasury also advises Citizens interested in obtaining $2 Bills that “most commercial banks” will “readily supply their retail customers with these Bills if their customers request them in sufficient volume to justify stocking them in their vaults.”
Treasury does not define “sufficient volume” and cautions that neither the Department of the Treasury nor the Federal Reserve System can force the distribution or use of any denomination of currency on banks, businesses or individuals.
From the Treasury website:
Q: I thought that
A: The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve Notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and National Banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.
Q: What are Federal Reserve Notes and how are they different from United States Notes?
A: Federal Reserve notes are legal tender currency notes. The twelve Federal Reserve Banks issue them into circulation pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. A commercial bank belonging to the Federal Reserve System can obtain Federal Reserve Notes from the Federal Reserve Bank in its district whenever it wishes. It must pay for them in full, dollar for dollar, by drawing down its account with its district Federal Reserve Bank.
Federal Reserve Banks obtain the notes from our Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). It pays the BEP only for the cost of producing the notes, which then become liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, and obligations of the United States Government.
Congress has specified that a Federal Reserve Bank must hold collateral equal in value to the Federal Reserve Notes that the Bank receives. This collateral is chiefly gold certificates and
This would meet the requirements of Section 411, but the government would also take over the assets, which would be of equal value. Federal Reserve Notes represent a first lien on all the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks, and on the collateral specifically held against them.
Federal Reserve Notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything – Fiat Money. This has been the case since 1933. The Notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy. In another sense, because they are legal tender, Federal Reserve Notes are "backed" by all the goods and services in the economy.
Portraits and Design
United States currency notes now in production bear portraits of: George Washington on the $1 Bill; Thomas Jefferson on the $2 Bill; Abraham Lincoln on the $5 Bill; Alexander Hamilton on the $10 Bill; Andrew Jackson on the $20 Bill; Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 Bill, and Benjamin Franklin on the $100 Bill.
There are also several denominations of currency notes that are no longer produced. These include the $500 Bill with the portrait of William McKinley, the $1,000 Bill with a portrait of Grover Cleveland, the $5,000 Bill with a portrait of James Madison, the $10,000 Bill with a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, and the $100,000 temporary, non-public Federal Reserve Note bearing a portrait of Woodrow Wilson printed over three-weeks in late 1934 into early 1935 in exchange for gold bullion held by Treasury.
All men were at one time President except Alexander Hamilton ($5) Secretary of Treasury under George Washington; American Rebel Benjamin Franklin ($100), and Salmon P. Chase ($10,000) of
What is the significance of the symbols on the back of the one-dollar bill? I'm particularly interested in the eye and the pyramid.
The eye and the pyramid shown on the reverse side of the one-dollar bill are in the Great Seal of the
The unfinished pyramid means that the
