One of the most influential and underrated figures in the history of this country is without a doubt Thomas Paine. Paine who was an anti-Federalist, which is most likely the cause for his absence from our curriculum, had more to do with the formation of this country’s government than any other figure in our history. I say this because Paine was single-handedly the most significant figure whose hand played a major role in the Revolutionary war and the Declaration of Independence than any of the Founding Fathers. In fact, it is my fact based assertion that Paine should have had shrines built of him as did all the Federalists. Funny how the anti-Federalists, save for Patrick Henry, were barely mentioned. I have concluded that this is simply because the Federal Government had no want, need, nor desire to allow people to know about them or their role for fear they might catch on to the fact that they had been duped out of true freedom from the biggest tyrant of all, the Federal Government itself!
Though, throughout time, we have been cajoled into the premeditated mindset that the founding fathers could do no wrong, I assert otherwise. In fact, I can’t understand why anyone would think they were any less calculated than our politicians are today? Further, that they had actually hatched, (or conspired) their own plan to take control of this portion of the American Continent. In the vague history lessons I was presented with in school much was surely left out in order to paint a prettier picture. History is always written to depict the best of government as its media usually, as now, comes under the control of that governance, in one form or another. Never mind that George Washington was stealing his slaves’ teeth to utilize them for himself, and that he even had slaves, he was painted as a hero to package and sell to generation upon generation. This is indoctrination at its finest. This form of mind manipulation carried out via the school system history lessons reminds me of the Nazi Germany schoolrooms with the children saluting their leader, Adolf Hitler. The same techniques have been used on us for over two and a half centuries. We must stop the tyranny of our Federal Government through all of its equally out of control federal agencies like the IRS, CIA, FBI, DEA and the newly created Homeland Security to name a few which have done nothing but infringe upon us and force our [supposed] will upon other nations about the globe by economic sanctions and war. While our governing body commits these heinous acts, our media sits idly by reporting nothing but government sound bites. It is my assertion that we are all as Daniel Webster put it, “the dupes of designing men.” Those designing men come in the form of the unelected monetary masters whose money runs our leaders like puppets on strings and coerces the voting through media and monetary manipulations with a list of such that would take an entire encyclopedia set to divulge. Paine once stated:
“It has been thought a considerable advance toward establishing the principles of freedom, to say, that government is a compact between those who govern and those who are governed: but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as a man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments did not exist, and consequently there could originally exist no governors to form such a compact with. The fact therefore must be, that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government; and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.”
That, to be sure, was Paine’s reassurance that he was against big government and thus an anti-Federalist.
Thomas Paine was a pioneer and visionary way ahead of his time in many ways as he spoke out against big government , slavery, treatment of the Indians and for the equal rights of women today we have come to a point in our true history where we need a dozen Thomas Paine’s to set us on a far better course, but it appears all we have is one man I liken to Paine and that is Ron Paul, who for his efforts of equal vision with his voice against the Federal Reserve, our massive federal government and the rights of man gets shunned by the mainstream media and his seemingly less educated and more timid government peers. Nonetheless, Congressman Paul has awaken possibly enough of the populace to do what Paine before him has done, create a Revolution. Hopefully, not a bloody Revolution, but one of rationality and words, and one which seems to be growing considerably in the form of Occupy Wall Street as I post this, that is clearly indicative that .
In 1786 Thomas Paine wrote about the effects of paper money and the monetary system in comparison to Gold and Silver Coin as Tender in Payment of debts.
He wrote:
“ Man has no share in making gold or silver; all that his labors and ingenuity can accomplish is, to collect it from the mine, refine it for use and give it an impression, or stamp it into coin.
Its being stamped into coin adds considerably to its convenience but nothing to its value. It has then no more value than it had before. Its value is not in the impression but in itself. Take away the impression and still the same value remains. Alter it as you will, or expose it to any misfortune that can happen, still the value is not diminished. It has a capacity to resist the accidents that destroy other things. It has, therefore, all the requisite qualities that money can have, and is a fit material to make money of — and nothing which has not all those properties can be fit for the purpose of money.
Paper, considered as a material whereof to make money, has none of the requisite qualities in it. It is too plentiful, and too easily come at. It can be had anywhere, and for a trifle. . . .
But when an assembly undertakes to issue paper as money, the whole system of safety and certainty is overturned, and property set afloat. Paper notes given and taken between individuals as a promise of payment is one thing, but paper issued by an assembly as money is another thing. It is like putting an apparition in the place of a man; it vanishes with looking at it, and nothing remains but the air. . . .
By what power or authority an assembly undertakes to make paper money, is difficult to say. It derives none from the Constitution, for that is silent on the subject. It is one of those things which the people have not delegated, and which, were they at any time assembled together, they would not delegate. It is, therefore, an assumption of power which an assembly is not warranted in, and which may, one day or other, be the means of bringing some of them to punishment.
I shall enumerate some of the evils of paper money and conclude with offering means for preventing them.
One of the evils of paper money is that it turns the whole country into stock jobbers. The precariousness of its value and the uncertainty of its fate continually operate, night and day, to produce this destructive effect. Having no real value in itself it depends for support upon accident, caprice, and party; and as it is the interest of some to depreciate and of others to raise its value, there is a continual invention going on that destroys the morals of the country.
It was horrid to see, and hurtful to recollect, how loose the principles of justice were left, by means of the paper emissions during the war. The experience then had should be a warning to any assembly how they venture to open such a dangerous door again.
As to the romantic, if not hypocritical, tale that a virtuous people need no gold and silver, and that paper will do as well, it requires no other contradiction than the experience we have seen. Though some well-meaning people may be inclined to view it in this light, it is certain that the sharper always talks this language.
There are a set of men who go about making purchases upon credit, and buying estates they have not wherewithal to pay for; and having done this, their next step is to fill the newspapers with paragraphs of the scarcity of money and the necessity of a paper emission, then to have a legal tender under the pretense of supporting its credit, and when out, to depreciate it as fast as they can, get a deal of it for a little price, and cheat their creditors; and this is the concise history of paper money schemes.”
How much detailed could Paine have put it? Now, astonishingly, 225 years later Ron Paul echoes Paine on monetary policy and likewise he suffers the same roadblocks for those efforts as did Paine. First off, Paul was the most prominent Republican Congressman to publicly announce in the Presidential debates that the Central Bank known as the Federal Reserve was a corrupt, unconstitutional, privately run entity that should be shut down, and is solely responsible for our economic woes. Secondly, he is being shunned by his own party, as well as the Democrats for his outside the box, visionary views as was Paine before him. Thirdly, he is being snubbed and marginalized by the media, including the debate referees, despite his being a clear top contender for the Republican Party Nomination, which they pathetically seem to fear for what I believe to be obvious reasons. Not only had the repeatedly thrown him curve balls throughout, the 2008 election, they continue to do so 4 years later, in the 2012 election despite his obvious momentum which evinces itself despite the media blackout. Certainly, if Paul had the media behind him, rather than stifling him, he would, in my opinion, most probably beat Obama handily in the 2012 election. For my money, with the mainstream so against him the way they are, that makes him all the more an attractive prospect for my vote!
So, is Ron Paul an anti-Federalist like his predecessor Thomas Paine? Only Paul knows, but I myself see striking similarities between the two men which give pause and hope that the Ron Paul campaign is alive and well and may truly be the new Revolution of the new century!
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