In many instances, these banks were insolvent even from the start, and closed their doors after issuing worthless notes on the public. As the banks went "Broke", their notes were called "Broken Bank Notes". Banks were founded or organized in inaccessible regions or areas where they would not be easily found by holders of notes wishing to redeem them. As it would take a "Wildcat" to locate the bank, they were called 'Wildcat Banks". Many of the banks were very reliable and they exist until today, but probably under different names due to reorganization.
However, the picture presented by the different State Banks, with too little or too stringent regulations was confusion and distrust.
At the start of the Civil War, the Nation was in a precarious position for an acceptable circulating currency. The Secretary of the Treasury was Salmon P. Chase. Under is guidance the first paper money backed by the government was issued. These were payable to the bearer on demand, and were named Demand Notes. Through the years other issues of notes followed, mostly for economic reasons. Only United States Notes (a few years back) and Federal Reserve Notes are current today.
DEMAND NOTES
Demand Notes authorized by Congress in 1861 were the first Paper Money issued by the United States. It was clearly stated on the face of each note that the amount was payable to the Bearer on Demand. They were issued in denominations of $5.00, $10.00 and $20.00. All the notes had green backs, and were promptly called "Greenbacks" by the public. They were in marked contrast to the State Bank Notes which had different colored backs or no back printing at all.
UNITED STATES NOTES
United States Notes quickly followed the Demand Notes. They are also known as Legal Tender Notes. Their issue was authorized by an Act of Congress in 1862. These notes issued are issued against earmarked or permanent Gold Fund held in the Treasury, and the amount of notes outstanding is always maintained at $346,681,016.00. When notes are worn and unfit for further circulation, they are withdrawn and destroyed and promptly replaced by a like amount of new notes.
NATIONAL BANK NOTES
The Act of February 25 1863, is the basic act for our present National Banking System. This Act provided for National Banks and the issuance of notes by them. The Banks issued notes against United States Bonds, deposited by them with the Treasurer of the United States. The early issues of these notes were printed by private Bank Note companies, and delivered to the Treasurer for numbering, control and distribution to the banks. Notes were printed with the name of the issuing bank and city on the face. National Banks received a Charter for twenty years, which was renewable upon application. Thus the early notes are divided into First Charter Period (1863-1882), Second Charter Period ( 1882-1902 ), and Third Charter Period, beginning with 1902. After this the charters were permanent.
NATIONAL GOLD BANK NOTES
In the early years of the National Bank Act, no National Banks were organized in California, as the early settlers of the West had a strong dislike toward paper money. The only circulating medium available to them and the Forty-niners, was hard money, in the form of Silver and Gold Coins and Gold Dust and Nuggets.
In order to provide for an acceptable circulating form of currency, Congress extended the National Bank to authorize the National Gold Banks. Nine such banks were eventually Chartered in California. (The Kidder National Gold Bank was Chartered in Boston, Massachusetts, but no notes were issued or circulated from this bank). The Charters of the National Gold Banks were similar to the other National Banks, with the special provision that these banks were permitted to redeem the notes in Gold Coin themselves. Therefore, the obligation to redeem the notes in Gold Coin, rested with the individual banks, as stated on the face of each note.
These notes are a very distinctive issue of United States Currency, being printed on a different type of paper from all other issues. The paper was of a light golden brown color. The face of the notes is similar to other National Bank Notes. The backs of the notes are in two colors, the border design in brown being similar to First Charter Period Notes of the same denomination. The center design in black, shows Gold Coins of the period from $1.00 to $20.00.
SILVER CERTIFICATES
Silver Certificates were first authorized in 1878. These notes were issued against Silver Dollars held in the Treasury for their redemption. Later issues were backed by Silver Bullion, and the obligation to redeem them in Silver Dollars has been removed from the face of the notes since 1934. On June 24, 1968 The Treasury ceased the redemption of Silver Certificates. They they circulated as ordinary notes.
REFUNDING CERTIFICATES
Refunding Certificates were issued under the Act of February 26, l879. These notes were intended to be more a form of Government Bond or Security, as they, bore interest at the rate of 4% per year. The $10.00 denomination made the notes available to people of moderate means. In 1907 the interest was stopped. Their redemption value today, (1975) with interest, is $21.30.
GOLD CERTIFICATES
The first Gold Certificates issued for general circulation were the series of 1882. These notes were issued against Gold Coins held by the Treasurer for their redemption. The last issues were the small notes of 1928.
In 1933 all Gold Certificates were ordered to be returned to the Treasury for redemption. In 1964 these restrictions were lifted and collectors were permitted to hold them.
TREASURY OR COIN NOTES
Treasury Notes were authorized in 1890. They were known as Coin Notes, because they were redeemable in either Silver or Gold Coin. There were only two issues, 1890 and 1891.
FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES
Federal Reserve Notes were authorized by the Federal Reserve Act of December 23, 1913. These notes are issued at the discretion of the Federal Reserve Board, and are released by the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. These notes are obligations of the United States. The original Act provided for their redemption in Gold at the United States Treasury, or lawful money at a Federal Reserve Bank. The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 provided that they be redeemable only in lawful money.
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK NOTES
These Notes were issued in 1915 and 1918 by the Federal Reserve Banks under conditions similar to National Bank Notes. United States Bonds or other securities were deposited with the United States Treasurer: While they were issued by and are redeemable by the issuing banks, they are secured by, and are obligations of the United States.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANKS
The Federal Reserve system is divided into 12 Federal Reserve districts, in each of which is a Federal Reserve Bank. Each district is designated by a number and the corresponding letter of the alphabet. The district numbers, the cities in which the 12 banks are located, and the letter symbols are:
1-A--BOSTON
8-H--ST.LOUIS
2-B--NEW YORK
9-I--MINNEAPOLIS
3-C--PHILADELPHIA
10-J--KANSAS CITY
4-D--CLEVELAND
11-K--DALLAS
5-E--RICHMOND
6-F--ATLANTA
7-G--GEORGIA
It's no wonder that so many citizens in the Western United States are seeing black helicopters and United Nations plots behind every federal government initiative. It's no wonder Mel Gibson's "Conspiracy Theory" is near the top of the box office. We're not paranoid. They really are after us.
Who is "they"? In the past couple of years, we have witnessed the biggest arms buildup in the history of the federal government. I don't mean the Defense Department; that would actually be constitutional and might even make sense.
No. The kind of arms that are proliferating these days are the kind pointed at the civilian population and carried by a growing number of federal police forces with ever-larger budgets and ever-deadlier arsenals. It's the militarization of the federal government.
In 1996 alone, at least 2,439 new federal cops were authorized to carry firearms, according to the General Accounting Office. As a result of that record one-year surge, there are nearly 60,000 armed federal agents representing departments as diverse as the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Postal Service.
The Environmental Protection Agency? I suspect that most Americans would be shocked to learn that agents of the EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers are packing heat. Has the protection of spotted owls and kangaroo rats become a matter of life and death? Why do EPA agents need to be armed? Well, if you were in the business of seizing people's property in the name of saving endangered species, you might want to be armed, too. But is it wise policy? Is it in the spirit of the Constitution? Where do we draw the line?
A few months ago, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tried to arm the Bureau of Land Management, thus forming yet another division of enviro-cops. Only a flurry of controversy has stalled the move.
To justify its need to carry weapons and exert police authority over its 268 million acres of land in the Western states, the BLM cites the long and growing list of other federal agencies -- such as the EPA and Fish and Wildlife -- that have criminal law enforcement powers. In other words, Pandora's box already has been opened. Following such logic, it's only a matter of time before officials at the National Endowment for the Arts are authorized to carry guns.
But the arms proliferation at the federal government level is no joke, innocent people are dying because of its abuses, people like Donald Scott, the Malibu, California millionaire gunned down in his home in a bogus marijuana raid by at least five federal agencies. Lots more are living in fear, as a recent report by the Western Journalism Center illustrates -- in fear of their own government and its virtual standing army of 60,000. Where is the American Civil Liberties Union when you need it?
The founders of this country never envisioned the need for a federal police force. They saw the inherent dangers in such ideas. Recent leaders such as Bill Clinton and George Bush, who have overseen this domestic arms buildup, seem to think there are no limits to federal authority.
Most of the growth in government militarization is not in the traditional agencies such as the FBI. Rather, it is among the agencies you would never guess have anything to do with guns. The ranks of armed enviro-cops, for instance, have soared from 2,471 in 1987 to 4,204 as of last September, a 70 percent increase. Do you feel safer now?
Those who have been watching such developments say that all this is leading to the establishment of a genuine national police force. You can see it in the way the FBI now routinely interferes in local law enforcement. You also can see it in the plans of big government architects such as Vice President Al Gore, who has urged that Treasury Department police agencies -- such as the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- be placed under the control of the Justice Department.
I've got a better idea. Let's disband BATF. That would be a good start. Then Congress should re-evaluate the police powers of every single federal agency.
Before our legislators pass one more law restricting the right of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms, tighter controls need to be placed on the proliferation of guns in government. That would be meaningful -- and constitutional -- gun control.
Congress should take a "Yea" or "Nay" vote on whether to prohibit the sale and use of tobacco products in the United States. If the vote is "Yea," then smokers will know exactly what their options are and act accordingly. If the vote is "Nay," elected officials should be constrained from continuing to gnaw away at the rights of adult consumers to purchase and use a legal product. Such a vote would be preferable to the charade now playing out in Washington. Some weeks ago, tobacco companies reached an agreement with the attorneys general of a number of states. That agreement would settle some of the litigation against the industry, but because of its far-reaching and complex provisions, it must be approved by Congress and the president.
America's 50 million adult smokers should be fuming over the zealotry of the bureaucrats and the anti-smokers, the greed of the trial lawyers, the political ambitions of the attorneys general and, yes, the willingness of the tobacco companies to concede some of our rights as smokers along with their own. We should be furious with ourselves for every time we did not oppose previous encroachments on our freedoms.
While the agreement would impose increased costs on smokers, further restrictions on where smokers can smoke and a host of other irritants, at least we would be able to continue to buy the tobacco products we want and would still have the freedom to smoke in places other than the confines of our own homes.
What's happened since the agreement was announced is Washington at its worst. There appears to be no limit to the burdens some propose to place on smokers. Two-dollar-a-pack tax hikes are discussed as a floor. Not only would we be told where we can smoke and when (in our homes -- maybe), but what we can smoke (bureaucrats from the Food and Drug Administration would decide how our cigarettes are made and how they taste).
If there is any good in this process, it is that the real motives of the anti-smoking zealots should now be clear to everyone. What has been and continues to be postured as government intervention to prevent teen-agers from buying cigarettes can now be seen for what it always was -- Prohibition, by that or any other name.
This is going to be a long, tortured process. Perhaps reason can still prevail, but only if smokers begin to shout will anyone in Congress listen. Here is where the National Smokers Alliance stands: Smokers already pay more than their way in society through existing taxes and participation in a free-market economy. Smokers should not be asked to pay more. Period.
Smokers should retain the right to assemble with others, in private places and in businesses that wish to accommodate us. Reasonable accommodation for us should be provided in public places as well.
Smokers have chosen to smoke a specific product -- one brand or another of cigarettes, cigars or pipes -- for a myriad of subjective reasons. Government bureaucrats have no business making changes to these products.
Children should not be allowed to purchase cigarettes. Adults should not be treated like children. Smokers should be accorded the same level of dignity and respect accorded others in an egalitarian society.
This is where the National Smokers Alliance stands. This is where the Resistance stands. We shall resist Prohibition. No one should be allowed to take away our rights as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.
Silence is assent. If the extremists control the debate, they will prevail. The only hope of stopping this assault on our freedom is to make sure we are heard -- loudly, defiantly and in large numbers. We may be a minority, but it is a minority of 50 million adult citizens. It is long past time for every one of us to say "No! This must stop." We must say it with our voices, with our wallets, with our votes. If we shrink from acting now we have no standing to resist if we lose.
(Does this sound familiar to anyone?)
If you live in Michigan, go to the MMC's list of all state senators' and representatives' address and phone numbers at http://militia.gen.mi.us/government.html.
House Bill 415 (Montana)
A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED:
"AN ACT REGULATING ARRESTS, SEARCHES, AND SEIZURES BY FEDERAL EMPLOYEES; PROVIDING THAT FEDERAL EMPLOYEES SHALL OBTAIN THE COUNTY SHERIFF'S PERMISSION TO ARREST, SEARCH, AND SEIZE; PROVIDING FOR PROSECUTION OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES VIOLATING THIS ACT; REJECTING FEDERAL LAWS PURPORTING TO GIVE FEDERAL EMPLOYEES THE AUTHORITY OF A COUNTY SHERIFF IN THIS STATE; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE."
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:
Section 1. Purpose. It is the intent of the legislature to ensure maximum cooperation between federal employees and local law enforcement authorities; to ensure that federal employees who carry out arrests, searches, and seizures in this state receive the best local knowledge and expertise available; and to prevent misadventure affecting Montana citizens and their rights that results from lack of cooperation or communication between federal employees operating in Montana and properly constituted local law enforcement authorities.
Section 2. County sheriff's permission for federal arrests, searches, and seizures -- exceptions.
(1) A federal employee who is not designated by Montana law as a Montana peace officer may not make an arrest, search, or seizure in this state without the written permission of the sheriff or designee of the sheriff of the county in which the arrest, search, or seizure will occur unless:
(a) the arrest, search, or seizure will take place on a federal enclave for which jurisdiction has been actively ceded to the United States of America by a Montana statute;
(b) the federal employee witnesses the commission of a crime the nature of which requires an immediate arrest;
(c) the arrest, search, or seizure is under the provisions of 46-6-411 or 46-6-412;
(d) the intended subject of the arrest, search, or seizure is an employee of the sheriff's office or is an elected county or state officer; or
(e) the federal employee has probable cause to believe that the subject of the arrest, search, or seizure has close connections with the sheriff, which connections are likely to result in the subject being informed of the impending arrest, search, or seizure.
(2) The county sheriff or designee of the sheriff may refuse permission for any reason that the sheriff or designee considers sufficient.
(3) A federal employee who desires to exercise a subsection (1)(d) exception shall obtain the written permission of the Montana attorney general for the arrest, search, or seizure unless the resulting delay in obtaining the permission would probably cause serious harm to one or more individuals or to a community or would probably cause flight of the subject of the arrest, search, or seizure in order to avoid prosecution. The attorney general may refuse the permission for any reason that the attorney general considers sufficient.
(4) A federal employee who desires to exercise a subsection (1)(e) exception shall obtain the written permission of the Montana attorney general. The request for permission must include a written statement, under oath, describing the federal employee's probable cause. The attorney general may refuse the request for any reason that the attorney general considers sufficient.
(5) (a) A permission request to the county sheriff or Montana attorney general must contain:
(i) the name of the subject of the arrest, search, or seizure;
(ii) a clear statement of probable cause for the arrest, search, or seizure or a federal arrest, search, or seizure warrant that contains a clear statement of probable cause;
(iii) a description of specific assets, if any, to be searched for or seized;
(iv) a statement of the date and time that the arrest, search, or seizure is to occur; and
(v) the address or location where the intended arrest, search, or seizure will be attempted.
(b) The request may be in letter form, either typed or handwritten, but must be countersigned with the original signature of the county sheriff or designee of the sheriff or by the Montana attorney general, to constitute valid permission. The permission is valid for 48 hours after it is signed. The sheriff or attorney general shall keep a copy of the permission request on file.
Section 3. Remedies.
(1) An arrest, search, or seizure or attempted arrest, search, or seizure in violation of [section 2] is unlawful, and individuals involved must be prosecuted by the county attorney for kidnapping if an arrest or attempted arrest occurred, for trespass if a search or attempted search occurred, for theft if a seizure or attempted seizure occurred, and for any applicable homicide offense if loss of life occurred. The individuals involved must also be charged with any other applicable criminal offenses in Title 45.
(2) To the extent possible, the victims' rights provisions of Title 46 must be extended to the victim or victims by the justice system persons and entities involved in the prosecution.
(3) The county attorney has no discretion not to prosecute once a claim of violation of [section 2] has been made by the county sheriff or designee of the sheriff, and failure to abide by this mandate subjects the county attorney to recall by the voters and to prosecution by the attorney general for official misconduct.
Section 4. Invalid federal laws. Pursuant to the 10th amendment to the United States constitution and this state's compact with the other states, the legislature declares that any federal law purporting to give federal employees the authority of a county sheriff in this state is not recognized by and is specifically rejected by this state and is declared to be invalid in this state.
Section 5. Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.
Section 6. Severability. If a part of [this act] is invalid, all valid parts that are severable from the invalid part remain in effect. If a part of [this act] is invalid in one or more of its applications, the part remains in effect in all valid applications that are severable from the invalid applications.
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