Part 2 of 5
the dangers of foreign entanglements
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations;
but even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand.
Why, entangle our peace and prosperity
George Washington
Eric LaMont Gregory
'Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.'
This rather lengthy quote from George Washington's Farewell Address is necessary to remind the American people that relations which bind us to any foreign power, whether the power of the sword or the purse, in our Republic, is to be undertaken with the 'advice and consent' of the United States Senate.
The term "advice and consent" first appears in the United States Constitutionin Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, referring to the Senate's role in signing and the ratification of treaties.
A treaty is an agreement under law entered into by sovereign states. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, among other terms. However, and irrespective of terminology, all of these forms of agreements are equally considered treaties and the rules governing them are the same.
In order to prevent the proliferation of secret treaties as occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. The United Nations Charter states that all treaties must be registered with the UN to be invoked before it or enforced in its judiciary organ, the International Court of Justice. The United States is not a member of the International Court of Justice.
Among the powers exercised by the Federal Reserve it maintains 'relations' with foreign official institutions. An understanding of foreign official institutions is important because they set their laws of commerce independently from that of governments.
Foreign official institutions include central governments of foreign countries, and all departments and agencies of national governments; central banks, exchange authorities, and all fiscal agents of foreign national governments that undertake activities similar to those of a treasury.
In spite of the Constitutional provision placing the 'advice and consent' responsibility in relation to treaties with the Senate of the United States, the Federal Reserve a private corporation, can enter into treaties with other central governments without Congressional scrutinity and the consent of the elected representatives of the people of the United States.
Over the past two years, the Federal Reserve has in agreement with other foreign central banks and governments put into circulation 2.7 trillion dollars of Federal Reserve Notes into the US economy without Congressional consent. The 2.7 trillion dollars is added to the debt of the federal government, the debt the American people are duty bound to repay.
This is just the kind of foreign entanglement George Washington wanted to prevent, 'Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.'
We cannot think of the treaty powers of Congress to be limited in any Constitutional way, "The people of the Unted States established a national government, with sovereign powers, legislative, executive, and judicial. The government of the Union," Chief Justice Marshall stated, "though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action, and its laws, when, made in pursuance of the Constitution, form the supreme law of the land. Among the enumerated powers of government, we find the great powers to lay and collect taxes; to borrow money; to regulate commerce; to declare and conduct a war, and to raise and support armies and navies. The sword and the purse, are entrusted to its government."
John Foster Dulles,Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration, warned that, 'Treaties make international law and they also make domestic law. Under our Constitution, treaties become the Supreme Law of the Land. They are indeed more supreme than ordinary laws, for Congressional laws are invalid if they do not conform to the Constitution, whereas treaty laws can override the Constitution.' John Foster Dulles stated that the power to make treaties 'is an extraordinary power liable to abuse.'
The defense of America, the sword; and the economy of the United States, the purse; are entrusted to the Congress of the United States; and not to a private corporation (Federal Reserve) that entangles us to foreign agreements over which the Senate has not given its advice and consent.
It is time for the people of the United States to take back control of our money as the Constitution prescribes.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.'
This rather lengthy quote from George Washington's Farewell Address is necessary to remind the American people that relations which bind us to any foreign power, whether the power of the sword or the purse, in our Republic, is to be undertaken with the 'advice and consent' of the United States Senate.
The term "advice and consent" first appears in the United States Constitutionin Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, referring to the Senate's role in signing and the ratification of treaties.
A treaty is an agreement under law entered into by sovereign states. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, among other terms. However, and irrespective of terminology, all of these forms of agreements are equally considered treaties and the rules governing them are the same.
In order to prevent the proliferation of secret treaties as occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. The United Nations Charter states that all treaties must be registered with the UN to be invoked before it or enforced in its judiciary organ, the International Court of Justice. The United States is not a member of the International Court of Justice.
Among the powers exercised by the Federal Reserve it maintains 'relations' with foreign official institutions. An understanding of foreign official institutions is important because they set their laws of commerce independently from that of governments.
Foreign official institutions include central governments of foreign countries, and all departments and agencies of national governments; central banks, exchange authorities, and all fiscal agents of foreign national governments that undertake activities similar to those of a treasury.
In spite of the Constitutional provision placing the 'advice and consent' responsibility in relation to treaties with the Senate of the United States, the Federal Reserve a private corporation, can enter into treaties with other central governments without Congressional scrutinity and the consent of the elected representatives of the people of the United States.
Over the past two years, the Federal Reserve has in agreement with other foreign central banks and governments put into circulation 2.7 trillion dollars of Federal Reserve Notes into the US economy without Congressional consent. The 2.7 trillion dollars is added to the debt of the federal government, the debt the American people are duty bound to repay.
This is just the kind of foreign entanglement George Washington wanted to prevent, 'Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.'
We cannot think of the treaty powers of Congress to be limited in any Constitutional way, "The people of the Unted States established a national government, with sovereign powers, legislative, executive, and judicial. The government of the Union," Chief Justice Marshall stated, "though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action, and its laws, when, made in pursuance of the Constitution, form the supreme law of the land. Among the enumerated powers of government, we find the great powers to lay and collect taxes; to borrow money; to regulate commerce; to declare and conduct a war, and to raise and support armies and navies. The sword and the purse, are entrusted to its government."
John Foster Dulles,Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration, warned that, 'Treaties make international law and they also make domestic law. Under our Constitution, treaties become the Supreme Law of the Land. They are indeed more supreme than ordinary laws, for Congressional laws are invalid if they do not conform to the Constitution, whereas treaty laws can override the Constitution.' John Foster Dulles stated that the power to make treaties 'is an extraordinary power liable to abuse.'
The defense of America, the sword; and the economy of the United States, the purse; are entrusted to the Congress of the United States; and not to a private corporation (Federal Reserve) that entangles us to foreign agreements over which the Senate has not given its advice and consent.
It is time for the people of the United States to take back control of our money as the Constitution prescribes.
