The Trading With the Enemy Act,
Presidential Proclamation #2039, and
Bank Holiday Act of 9 March 1933
Statism postulates the doctrine that the citizen
has no rights which the State is bound to respect; the only rights he has are
those which the State grants him, and which the State may attenuate or revoke
at its own pleasure
-- Albert J. Nock
Pertinent sections of the Trading With the Enemy Act are as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act shall be known as the "Trading with the enemy Act"....
Sec. 2. That the word enemy, as used herein, shall be deemed to mean, for the purposes of such trading and of this Act-
(a) Any individual, partnership, or other body of individuals, of any nationality, resident within the territory (including that occupied by the military and naval forces) of any nation with which the United States is at war, or resident outside the United States and doing business within such territory, and any corporation incorporated within such territory of any nation with which the United States is at war or incorporated within any country other than the United States and doing business within such territory.
(b) The government of any nation with which the United States is at war, or any political or municipal subdivision thereof, or any officer, official, agent, or agency thereof.
(c) Such other individuals, or body or class of individuals, as may be natives, citizens, or subjects of any nation with which the United States is at war, other than citizens of the United States, wherever resident or wherever doing business, as the President, if he shall find the safety of the United States or the successful prosecution of the war shall so require, may, by proclamation, include within the term "enemy"....
Section 5. (b) That the President may investigate, regulate, or prohibit, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, any transactions in foreign exchange, export or earmarkings of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, transfers of credit in any form other than credits relating solely to transactions to be executed wholly within the United States....(1)
Presidential Proclamation 2039 reads as follows:
Proclamation #2039. [Bank Holiday, March 6-9, 1933, Inclusive]
By The President Of
The United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas there have been heavy and unwarranted withdrawals of gold and currency from our banking institutions for the purpose of hoarding; and
Whereas continuous and increasingly extensive speculative activity abroad in foreign exchange has resulted in severe drains on the Nation's stocks of gold; and
Whereas these conditions have created a national emergency; and
Whereas it is in the best interests of all bank depositors that a period of respite be provided with a view to preventing further hoarding of coin, bullion or currency or speculation in foreign exchange and permitting the application of appropriate measures to protect the interests of our people; and
Whereas it is provided in Section 5(b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, (40 Stat. L. 411) as amended, "That the President may investigate, regulate, or prohibit, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, any transactions in foreign exchange and the export, hoarding, melting, or earmarkings of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency ***"; and
Whereas it is provided in Section 16 of the said Act "that whoever shall willfully violate any of the provisions of this Act or of any license, rule, or regulation issued thereunder, and whoever shall willfully violate, neglect, or refuse to comply with any order of the President issued in compliance with the provisions of this Act, shall, upon conviction, be fined not more that $10,000, or, if a natural person, imprisoned for not more than ten years or both; ***";
Now, therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, in view of such national emergency and by virtue of the authority vested in me by said Act and in order to prevent the export, hoarding, or earmarking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, do hereby proclaim, order, direct and declare that from Monday, the sixth day of March, to Thursday, the ninth day of March, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty Three, both dates inclusive, there shall be maintained and observed by all banking institutions and all branches thereof located in the United States of America, including the territories and insular possessions, a bank holiday, and that during said period all banking transactions shall be suspended. During such holiday, excepting as hereinafter provided, no such banking institution or branch shall pay out, export, earmark, or permit the withdrawal or transfer in any manner or by any device whatsoever, of any gold or silver coin or bullion or currency or take any other action which might facilitate the hoarding thereof; nor shall any such banking institution or branch pay out deposits, make loans or discounts, deal in foreign exchange, transfer credits from the United States to any place abroad, or transact any other banking business whatsoever.
During such holiday, the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President and under such regulations as he may prescribe, is authorized and empowered (a) to permit any or all of such banking institutions to perform any or all of the usual banking functions, (b) to direct, require or permit the issuance of clearing house certificates or other evidences of claims against assets of "banking institutions", and (c) to authorize and direct the creation in such banking institutions of special trust accounts for the receipt of new deposits which shall be subject to withdrawal on demand without any restriction or limitation and shall be kept separately in cash or on deposit in Federal Reserve Banks or invested in obligations of the United States
As used in this order the term "banking institutions" shall include all Federal Reserve banks, national banking associations, banks, trust companies, savings banks, building and loan associations, credit unions, or other corporations, partnerships, associations or persons, engaged in the business of receiving deposits, making loans, discounting business paper, or transacting any other form of banking business.
In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the City of Washington this 6th day of March 1 a.m. in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh.FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
By the President:
Cordell Hull
Secretary of State.[No. 2039]
The reader will notice
that the original Trading With the Enemy Act said nothing about "hoarding";
such was the convenient addition which Roosevelt used to pin the blame for the
economic crisis on the American people, rather than on the Federal Reserve System,
where it belonged, and to justify the subsequent confiscation of the "enemy's"
property. In the words of the 93rd Congress, "Pursuant to authority
provided in the Emergency Banking Relief Act of March 9, 1933, gold held
by private persons in the United States was required to be surrendered to the
Government (48 Stat. 2, 12 USC 248). The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 prohibited
private ownership of gold."(2)
Title I, Section 2 of the Bank Holiday Act
of 9 March 1933 reads:
AN ACT To provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress hereby declares that a serious emergency exists and that it is imperatively necessary speedily to put into effect remedies of uniform national application.
TITLE I
Section 1. The actions, regulations, rules, licenses, orders and proclamations heretofore or hereafter taken, promulgated, made, or issued by the President of the United States or the Secretary of the Treasury since March 4, 1933, pursuant to the authority conferred by subdivision (b) of section 5 of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended, are hereby approved and confirmed.
Sec. 2. Subdivision (b) of section 5 of the Act of October 6, 1917 (40 Stat. L. 411), as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows:
"(b) During time of war or during any other period of national emergency declared by the President, the President may, through any agency that he may designate, or otherwise, investigate, regulate, or prohibit, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, any transactions in foreign exchange, transfers of credit between or payments by banking institutions as defined by the President, and export, hoarding, melting, or earmarking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, by any person within the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof....
Again, the reader should notice that
the original Act has been amended to appy to any person "within the United
States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Thus, all "U.S. citizens"
became and remain, under this Act, "enemies" of the United States Government.