The global economy strains beneath a $300 trillion debt burden, with central banks churning out money as if it were confetti at a parade. The liberty-minded architects of the U.S. Constitution foresaw this fiat calamity, declaring gold and silver as the sole legitimate currency, and harbored deep contempt for the banking syndicates now orchestrating the system. Were they alive today, they would likely abandon the dollar in favor of Bitcoin and insist on a profound separation of money and state. Let us unearth the evidence and explore the rebellion they would champion.
The Constitutional Anchor: Gold and Silver Only
The U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10, Clause 1, leaves no room for debate: “No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”. This was no casual nod, it was a rampart against the fiat failures of colonial times, like the worthless Continental currency that imploded during the Revolution. Thomas Jefferson, the voice of reason, penned in 1784, “Paper is poverty… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself”. Gold and silver, with their unassailable scarcity, were the foundation of the sound money system they died to defend.
The Founders’ War on Banks and Fiat
The Founding Fathers weren’t armchair theorists, they were rebels who sniffed out centralized power’s stench, especially in finance. Their stances on banks and fiat were hammered by British monetary tyranny and the post-war paper money collapse.
Thomas Jefferson: The third President reviled banks, dubbing them “more dangerous than standing armies”. In a 1791 letter to John Taylor, he prophesied, “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 them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered”. The Federal Reserve, a private cabal with a government mask, fulfills his nightmare.
James Madison: The Constitution’s architect and fourth President clocked fiat’s threat early. In 1786, he cautioned, “History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance”. The Fed’s QE binge is his warning come to life.
Benjamin Franklin: The polymath tied British currency clamps to colonial fury, noting in his Autobiography that paper money, if specie-backed, could grease trade, but unbacked fiat? He’d choke on today’s digital flood.
Alexander Hamilton: The bank proponent imagined a national system tethered to gold and silver, not the fiat freefall we suffer. His vision was hijacked by bankers who scrapped the metal.
These patriots viewed banks as vampires, fiat as a sham, and sound money as the people’s bulwark. The First Bank of the United States, launched 1791, was a battleground, Jefferson and Madison resisted it, fearing it would centralize power and erode currency. They were spot-on: the Fed, since 1913, has gutted the dollar’s worth.
If They Were Alive Today: Bitcoin and the Separation of Money and State
The dollar’s decay is undeniable. Debt mountains and central bank panic herald the endgame. Enter Bitcoin, a decentralized, scarce asset with a 21 million coin limit, echoing gold’s rigor. If the Founders strode among us, they’d likely hail Bitcoin as their sound money successor.
Jefferson would salute Bitcoin’s bank-repellent design, aligning with his scorn for “moneyed interests”. He might proclaim, “This digital coin, unshackled from government, restores the people’s dominion”.
Madison would champion its money-state divorce, a shield against the “money changers” he despised. He could assert, “A currency beyond legislative reach safeguards liberty”.
Franklin would gape at its cryptographic genius, tweaking his specie-backed paper logic for a digital realm, demanding code over central fiat.
Even Hamilton, despite his bank tilt, might back Bitcoin’s stability over fiat’s wild swings, if ruled by markets alone.
The Founders’ creed, money as value, not state puppet, mirrors Bitcoin’s essence. A Bitcoin standard, with the U.S. adopting it as legal tender (El Salvador’s move since 2021), would dismantle the Fed’s stranglehold, enforcing a money-state split. The Constitution’s gold-silver clause could bend to Bitcoin’s scarcity, a digital gold for our age.
The Fiat Collapse and the Path Ahead
With debt at $300 trillion and central banks out of tricks, the reckoning nears. The Founders warned us, and their remedy, sound money, pulses in Bitcoin. As Jefferson might roar, “We must not let our rulers saddle us with endless debt… let us seize the coin of freedom”. A Bitcoin standard, with money free from state meddling, is their legacy reborn.
Stay alert, stack sats, and gear up for the reset. The revolution begins with you.
Bravo! Well written. I just became a subscriber! What is your background and can you write more technical pieces with regard to blockchain and the utilities of other alt coins and various rails, DeFi etc?