When FDR made gold illegal to own for everyday people – At the point of a gun

Townhall ^ | Jan 31, 2015 | Nick Sorrentino

[george76]

FDR, the man who studied Mussolini, who birthed the current intrusive state, who started the drug war in earnest, who put Japanese Americans into concentration camps, who extended the Depression years longer than it needed to be and thereby contributed to the genesis of the Second World War, who tried to pack the Supreme Court, who gave away half of Europe to the Soviets at Yalta, and who confiscated the gold – the real wealth – of the American people.

What a guy. And he still has his face on the dime.

There is a reason why my grandmother, a good New York City Irish catholic despised the man. She thought Roosevelt was a hair’s breadth short of being a dictator.

She was probably being nice.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I read that the SCOTUS once declared GOLD and SILVER to be the only true money. This came some time after the Civil War.

I’m too lazy to go look it up right now.

[smoothsailing]

Maybe he was told it would anger the American people’s sense of fair play.

Also he could have feared having his own infirmities made public.

Remember, he too was a megalomaniac.

[Georgia Girl 2]

My Mom said that many people did not turn in their gold.

[gopheraj]

I’ve been wondering what the government did for money to run the government before SS. I know the salaries of the durn pols weren’t like they are today.

[justrepublican]

Known in this household for three generations as “The great American wrecker”.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I appreciate that you remembered that I did that.

To be fair, the epub version was done by this person.

Still, the content is highly valuable and under appreciated/discussed.

[ConservingFreedom]

who birthed the current intrusive state, who started the drug war in earnest

The author repeats himself.

[Theophilus]

I don’t get it.

He was the original Gruber and the people of his day who never bought his B.S. for a single second were the biggest suckers of all because they apparently couldn't do anything to stop it.

[Jet Jaguar]

Goldbug ping.

[grumpygresh]

Trust in government is at all time lows. I don’t think that the Feds will have an easy time confiscating physical gold as long as people have guns. I think that’s another reason why the totalitarians want gun control/confiscation.
That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Feds aggregate/organize information on gold owners (CC purchases, checks) and pass this info to other criminal organizations to do the dirty work, (gangs, contractors) and then take a cut.

[Albion Wilde]

I hope that when people start to realize how long it has been going on, they may feel less powerless about doing their part to halt or slow it again this time.

My family's long-held affiliation to what has become the United Methodist Church made it seem like a great betrayal when I just couldn't support its leftward drift any more and had to leave. But after researching just how far back the creeping Marxism went, back to the 1920s, I stopped feeling guilty. God rewarded me after more than a decade "in the desert" spent trying out many different churches by leading me to a new church home.

I hope the same thing will apply to our nation. Many citizens have been trying to turn back the evil tide but are getting smacked down by judges and regulators. I pray that when they start to see the truth they will rise up in an effective resistance to the progressive overlords. Only through repenting of the hopelessness and powerlessness and praying for deliverance can God heal our land and lead us to the right actions to reclaim it.

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. — 2 Chronicles 7:14

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Timothy 1:7

[Rockingham]

FDR and his record are vulnerable to many valid criticisms, but sweeping too broadly is foolish because it offers easily discredited arguments.

In fairness to FDR, the supposed "concentration camps" for Japanese Americans were spare but humane and solved a major US security problem in the form of about a dozen Japanese spy and sabotage rings that operated on the US West Coast. With internment, the transmitters for those spy rings went permanently dark.

As for giving East Europe away to the Soviets, they took it by defeating the German Army in WW II and would not have relinquished it due to pressure from FDR. It took the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and its communist governments at the end of the Cold War for East Europe to regain its freedom.

Finally, many conservatives have a fundamentalist belief in the gold standard and revile FDR for taking the US off of it. I too thought so for a long time, but eventually concluded that it was correct to go off the gold standard as a response to the deflationary pressures generated by the Depression. Indeed, in accumulating gold during the 1920s and 30s, the US and France helped to provoke the Depression by diminishing the stock of gold available as backing for the currencies of other nations.

[Ozark Tom]

Thurston Howell III and F.D.R. shared dialect “Long Island Lockjaw”.

[Jack Black]

The link includes this 90 second video report on the confiscation. Here it is:
FDR Confiscates Gold.

My very first post on Free Republic, in 1998, was on this same topic. It included the actual Executive Order. Here it is again in facsimile format:

FDR's financial plans were largely guided by Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Here is a little information about him from his Wiki bio:

Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (/ˈmɔrɡənθɔː/; May 11, 1891 – February 6, 1967) was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while still in charge of the Treasury, he played the central role in financing US participation in World War II.[1] He also played an increasingly major role in shaping foreign policy, especially with respect to Lend Lease, support for China, helping Jewish refugees, and proposing (in the "Morgenthau Plan") to prevent Germany from again being a military threat by wrecking their industry and mines.[2]

Early life[edit] Morgenthau was born into a prominent Jewish family in New York City, the son of Henry Morgenthau, Sr., a real estate mogul and diplomat, and Josephine Sykes. He had three sisters. He attended the Dwight School, then studied architecture and agriculture at Cornell University. In 1913, he met and became friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. He operated a farm near the Roosevelt estate in upstate New York, specializing, like FDR, in growing Christmas trees.[3] He was concerned about distress among farmers, who comprised over a fourth of the population. In 1922 he took over the American Agriculturalist magazine, making it a voice for reclamation, conservation, and scientific farming.[2] In 1929, Roosevelt, as Governor of New York, appointed him chair of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee and to the state Conservation Commission.

Here is the full text of the Executive Order:

Executive Order 6102 - Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates to Be Delivered to the Government April 5, 1933

By virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended by Section 2 of the Act of March 9, 1933, entitled "An Act to provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking, and for other purposes," in which amendatory Act Congress declared that a serious emergency exists, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare that said national emergency still continues to exist and pursuant to said section do hereby prohibit the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States by individuals, partnerships, associations and corporations and hereby prescribe the following regulations for carrying out the purposes of this order:

Section 1. For the purposes of this regulation, the term "hoarding" means the withdrawal and withholding of gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates from the recognized and customary channels of trade. The term "person" means any individual, partnership, association or corporation.

Section 2. All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933, except the following:

(a) Such amount of gold as may be required for legitimate and customary use in industry, profession or art within a reasonable time, including gold prior to refining and stocks of gold in reasonable amounts for the usual trade requirements of owners mining and refining such gold.

(b) Gold coin and gold certificates in an amount not exceeding in the aggregate $100 belonging to any one person; and gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.

(c) Gold coin and bullion earmarked or held in trust for a recognized foreign Government or foreign central bank or the Bank for International Settlements.

(d) Gold coin and bullion licensed for other proper transactions (not involving hoarding) including gold coin and bullion imported for reexport or held pending action on applications for export licenses.

Section 3. Until otherwise ordered any person becoming the owner of any gold coin, gold bullion, or gold certificates after April 28, 1933, shall, within three days after receipt thereof, deliver the same in the manner prescribed in Section 2; unless such gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates are held for any of the purposes specified in paragraphs (a), (b), or (c) of Section 2; or unless such gold coin or gold bullion is held for purposes specified in paragraph (d) of Section 2 and the person holding it is, with respect to such gold coin or bullion, a licensee or applicant for license pending action thereon.

Section 4. Upon receipt of gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates delivered to it in accordance with Sections 2 or 3, the Federal Reserve Bank or member bank will pay therefor an equivalent amount of any other form of coin or currency coined or issued under the laws of the United States.

Section 5. Member banks shall deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned or received by them (other than as exempted under the provisions of Section 2) to the Federal Reserve Banks of their respective districts and receive credit or payment therefor.

Section 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, out of the sum made available to the President by Section 501 of the Act of March 9, 1933, will in all proper cases pay the reasonable costs of transportation of gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates delivered to a member bank or Federal Reserve Bank in accordance with Section 2, 3, or 5 hereof, including the cost of insurance, protection, and such other incidental costs as may be necessary, upon production of satisfactory evidence of such costs. Voucher forms for this purpose may be procured from Federal Reserve Banks.

Section 7. In cases where the delivery of gold coin, gold bullion or gold certificates by the owners thereof within the time set forth above will involve extraordinary hardship or difficulty, the Secretary of the Treasury may, in his discretion, extend the time within which such delivery must be made. Applications for such extensions must be made in writing under oath, addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury and filed with a Federal Reserve Bank. Each application must state the date to which the extension is desired, the amount and location of the gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates in respect of which such application is made and the facts showing extension to be necessary to avoid extraordinary hardship or difficulty.

Section 8. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and empowered to issue such further regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this order and to issue licenses thereunder, through such officers or agencies as he may designate, including licenses permitting the Federal Reserve Banks and member banks of the Federal Reserve System, in return for an equivalent amount of other coin, currency or credit, to deliver, earmark or hold in trust gold coin and bullion to or for persons showing the need for the same for any of the purposes specified in paragraphs (a), (c) and (d) of Section 2 of these regulations.

Section 9. Whoever willfully violates any provision of this Executive Order or of these regulations or of any rule, regulation or license issued thereunder may be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both; and any officer, director, or agent of any corporation who knowingly participates in any such violation may be punished by a like fine, imprisonment, or both.

This order and these regulations may be modified or revoked at any time.

[Jack Black]

You make this sound so reasonable: Finally, many conservatives have a fundamentalist belief in the gold standard and revile FDR for taking the US off of it.

He didn't "taking the US off of it". He confiscated the gold of American citizens, and did so by executive order. US dollars continued to be exchangeable for Gold -- to foreign central banks. NIXON, ended that, not FDR.

FDR appeased Stalin and allowed him to seize Eastern Europe. Just as Neville Chamberlain thought it was OK for Hitler to seize Poland, so too did FDR think it was OK for Stalin to seize it. Poland was not FDR's to give away. Nor were any of the other nations.

The Polish Free Army fought Hitler until Warsaw was reduced to utter rubble, then they fought the Soviets. The Poles were not incidental to WW2, they were allies of the first order.

And they were betrayed by FDR.

In Poland, and many of the other "captive nations" you will find statues of Ronald Reagan for a reason. There are no statues of FDR.

It is difficult to "sweep too broadly" in condemnation of FDR, he was a fascist loving creep who did more to set us on our present course than any other single individual.

May he rot in hell.

[HereInTheHeartland]

More accurately their parents did.

[smoothsailing]

While it’s true that their parents had more years to accumulate it, they were not immune. But your point is well taken.

[Rockingham]

FDR ordered the seizure of privately held gold in order to be able to more easily set an official dollar price in gold without the impediment of a private monetary gold market. I point this out by way of explanation and not in agreement or defense. On the larger issue -- the US going off the gold standard -- I am in agreement.

Just how did FDR allow Stalin to seize Poland? The Soviets occupied Poland as a consequence of defeating the Nazis. The issue was whether after the war, Stalin would permit the Poles to have free elections and form a government of their own choosing.

On that issue, the West had little leverage. There is some reason to think that after Yalta, FDR had at last begun to realize that Stalin had lied and could not be trusted, but FDR died before he could take action and it was his successor Truman -- yes, Truman -- who negotiated a deal with Stalin after WW II that effectively abandoned the pro-Western Polish exile government in London. It is not clear though that a better result could have been obtained by diplomatic means.

Of Polish extraction, I am acutely aware that Poland's fidelity to the Allied cause in WW II was exemplary yet, in a world little given to fairness and justice, Poland suffered terribly during and after WW II. This included my Polish grandparents' ancestral home region, which was looted and had its Jewish population murdered by the Nazis, and then, after WW II, was looted again and burned to the ground by an invading army of Ukrainian partisans led by an SS colonel.

Might the US under FDR and Truman have rescued Poland from the cruelties imposed by bad neighbors and unfortunate geography? Immediately after WW II, weary Americans were not willing to go to war with the USSR for the sake of liberating Poland and Eastern Europe. And once the Soviet nuclear program tested an atomic bomb in August of 1949, any direct fight with the Soviets had to be avoided because it would have involved the existential menace of nuclear weapons.

As it was, in the 1980s, with Reagan as President, the US helped Poland to liberate itself from communist rule and set in motion the events that destroyed the Warsaw Pact and fatally discredited Communism and the Soviet Union. I suspect that more than once curses were whispered in the Kremlin against Stalin for thinking that Russians could indefinitely rule over the Poles.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Not “Long Island Lockjaw”; it was the “Hudson Valley Lockjaw.”

[hinckley buzzard]

And, he was elected for 3 terms. Go figure the stupidity of the American people. Has anything really changed?

Apparently not. He was elected to four terms.

Oh and btw the gov paid the market value for gold bullion coins. So it wasn't "stolen" or "confiscated" but no it was not allowed to remain in private hands. Collectors' coins were excepted, which is why we can buy gold pieces from the 1800's and early 1900's today.