Executive Order 11110
Executive Order 11110 was issued by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on June 4, 1963.
This executive order delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the president's authority to issue silver certificates under the Thomas Amendment of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
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[edit] Purpose
President Kennedy's Executive Order (E.O.) 11110 modified the pre-existing Executive Order 10289 issued by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in 1951,[1] and stated the following[2]:
"The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby designated and empowered to perform the following-described functions of the President without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President..."
The order then lists tasks (a) through (h) which the Secretary may now do without instruction from the President. None of the powers assigned to the Treasury in E.O. 10289 relate to money or to monetary policy. Kennedy's E.O. 11110 then instructs that:
SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 9, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):'(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of an outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption,' and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.
SECTION 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.
John F. Kennedy, THE WHITE HOUSE, June 4, 1963.
[edit] Revocation
E.O. 11110 was never reversed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and remained on the books until President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12608 on September 9, 1987 as part of a general clean-up of executive orders.[citation needed] E.O. 12608 specifically revoked the sections added by E.O. 11110 which effectively revoked the entire Order. By this time, however, the remaining legislative authority behind E.O. 11110 had been repealed by Congress when Pub.L. 97-258 was passed in 1982.
In March 1964, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon halted redemption of silver certificates for silver dollars. In the 1970s, large numbers of the remaining silver dollars in the mint vaults were sold to the collecting public for collector value. All redemption in silver ceased on June 24, 1968.
[edit] Conspiracy theory
Executive Order 11110 is quite infamous among conspiracy theorists, such as Jim Marrs, author of the 1989 book Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy,[3] who speculate that there is a link between the John F. Kennedy assassination and E.O. 11110 by arguing that the Federal Reserve Board was involved in the murder to protect its power over the monetary policy of the United States.[4]
Based on findings in the Congressional Research Service's report for Congress, Money and the Federal Reserve System: Myth and Reality,[5] Edward Flaherty, a professor of economics at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, wrote a 2000 essay entitled Debunking the Federal Reserve Conspiracy Theories,[4] which concluded that this conspiracy theory and related claims about the executive order, the Federal Reserve and the financial system are demonstrably false.[further explanation needed]
[edit] See also
- Bimetallism
- Executive Order 6102
- History of the United States dollar
- Silver standard
- United States Note
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/John+F.+Kennedy+Miscellaneous+Information.htm
- ^ http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=59049
- ^ Marrs, Jim (1989). Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy. Basic Books. ISBN 0881845248.
- ^ a b Flaherty, Edward (2000). Myth #9: President Kennedy was assassinated because he tried to usurp the Federal Reserve's power. Executive Order 11110 proves it.. http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/flaherty/flaherty9.html. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
- ^ Woodward, G. Thomas (1996). Money and the Federal Reserve System: Myth and Reality - CRS Report for Congress, No. 96-672 E. Congressional Research Service.
