what moved Thomas Jefferson to write this:?

Question

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, 1802

Answer 1

he wanted to open his own bank

Answer 2

A more detailed example of that quote defines Jefferson’s concern:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

His concern was the banking structure’s control of money system. With such a control of the money system there would be increasing control of individual freedoms..

Answer 3

I think that Jefferson wrote this because he wanted the country to have a national bank that would issue currency. Jefferson's reasoning behind this was if the private banks controlled all of the money they would only do what is best for the big banks and corporations (the rich), instead of doing what is best for all of the American people.

Ex. The banks could charge the common person a ton of interest on a mortgage to make a ton of money while that bank prints off very little currency (making each dollar worth more).

Answer 4

I am not familiar with the quotation, but it seems to me a straightforward view of monetary policy that would certainly be consistent with Jefferson's political stance.

While Jefferson is identified with the proposition that government is best which governs least (remember that he drafted the Declaration of Independence, denouncing the despotism of King George), he also realized that giving uncontrolled power to any organized group would inevitably result in that group arranging things to their own advantage at the expense of others.

He is warning that if we let private banks control and manipulate the money supply they will whipsaw private borrowers by artificially raising and lowering rates of exchange and interest until they end up owning most of the land (very important at that time because we then had a largely agricultural economy) and means of production of manufactured goods, through foreclosure proceedings.

Why would the banks do this? Greed. Jefferson was a realist.That's why he also maintained that if there was one thing in the Constitution that could never be sacrificed, it was freedom of the press, so that there would always be an effective whistle-blower that could not be silenced. Is it working?

Answer 5

Jefferson could see that this scenario, this tragedy, could happen over time, given certain things happening, and so, felt moved to record his thoughts in correspondence with the Secretary of the Treasury. Banks, or any institution for that matter, should never be allowed to be the sole creators of wealth, was Jefferson's forethought. This is like a prophecy, an attempt at predicting the future according to the current circumstances of Jefferson's time, and, almost an accurate prophecy it was, unless you consider that "the children" also worked in and created the banks.

Answer 6

It was well-known among the Founding Fathers that Europe had been corrupted by Jewish banking practices. They wanted to avoid the same thing from happening to America. They thought they succeeded by adding provisions to the Constitution saying that Congress controlled the treasury. This worked until 1913, when the Federal Reserve Act was fraudulently passed through a corrupt Congress. The rest is history.

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