June 11, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
Continental Congress and Paper Currency
Thus even though the Constitution did not
directly provide for the printing of fiat currency by the government but since
such printing of paper currency became necessary to support the army and navy,
then it was justifiable to do so or at least that was how the Constitution came
to be and made to be interpreted by the Congress.
Many Congressmen were still highly
suspicious and skeptical of such a convoluted argument (most would have
understood it was “wrong” being done under the guise of “right”) but in spite
of their resistance President Lincoln signed the First Legal Tender Act on
February 25, 1862 thereby transforming the Bill drafted by Spaulding into Law.
In a book that Spaulding later wrote and
published in 1869 titled “History of the Legal Tender Paper Money Issued during
the Great Rebellion” he wrote his take on the unpopular move of printing such
paper currencies:
“It was at once loan to the government
without interest and a national currency, which was so much needed for
disbursement in small sums during the pressing exigencies of the war.”
In 1862 this newly issued United States
Note (sometimes also called Legal Tender Note) completely replaced the Demand
Notes and got the tag of “greenbacks” transferred to it and has remained so
till this very day.
On the back green side of these notes the
following sentence was printed:
“This Note is a Legal Tender for All Debts
Public and Private Except Duties on Imports And Interest on The Public Debt; And
is Redeemable in Payment Of All Loans Made To The United States.”
This was the first time ever in the history
of United States that made it mandatory for a paper currency to be accepted by
everybody even though it was not backed either by gold or bank deposits or
government reserves.
Having said that let me make a small
significant inclusion to the above statement.
Before the United States was actually
founded constitutionally the Continental Congress had issued a paper currency
of sorts.
Now what is this Continental Congress?
Continental Congress was a group of people
(we cannot technically call them Americans the way we understand that word today)
from 12 of the thirteen British American Colonies who held their first meeting
session at the Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from September to
October of 1774.
They spoke and acted collectively on behalf
of the Thirteen Colonies calling for an economic boycott of Great Britain
seeking the King of Britain to act in a manner that was both fair and just.
They were, during that first Congress,
still undecided on the decision of separating from their mother country (yes,
Great Britain was indeed their mother country!) and seeking independence.
But eventually they did decide the very
next year and in 1885 the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent as
the United States of America but this decision would come at a price.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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