Executive Order No. 2039 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
as transcribed verbatim from The Statutes at Large of the United States
of America from March 1933 to June 1934. (1) (Notes follow).
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           [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 activ-
ity abroad in foreign exchange has resulted in severe drains on the
NationUs 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 hoard-
ing 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 investi-
gate, 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 con-
viction, be fined not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, im-
prisoned 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 pro-
vided, 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, association 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
   [SEAL]   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]
                             __________

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NOTES AND COMMENTS

(1) Source:  The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from
March 1933 to June 1934. Concurrent Resolutions, Recent Treaties and
Conventions, Executive Proclamations and Agreements, Twenty-First
Amendment to the Constitution. VOL XLVIII.  Page 1689.  Published by
the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

(2) The Statutes at Large should be available in the Government
Documents section of any major library.

(3) The Executive Order reproduced above is not Copyrighted, nor is
it copyrightable inasmuch as it is a facsimile of an official
United States federal government document.  Accordingly, please
feel free to copy, distribute, or redistribute this Executive
Order.  Furthermore, these notes and comments appended to this
Executive Order are also explicitly not copyrighted.  You are
requested, however, when redistributing this computer file, to
include these notes and commentary with said file, as these
notes and commentary add additional source information, provide
clarifications, and call attention to details and key points.

(4) Note: The first WHEREAS clause in the Preamble of the order
above indicts the American people for withdrawing their own money
that they had deposited in banks and accuses them of hoarding
what was rightfully theirs.

(5) Note: The second WHEREAS clause in the Preamble of the order
above calls attention to the fact that the Nation's gold, i.e., the
people's money, said people being accused by their president of
"unwarranted" withdrawals of their own money, had been speculated with
in such a way that the country's stocks of gold were "drained."  Where
did it go, and who did the speculating?

(6) Note: The third WHEREAS clause in the Preamble of the order
above stipulates that the conditions mentioned in the first two
clauses "have created a national emergency."  There it is in black
and white, "national emergency."

(7) Note: The fourth WHEREAS clause in the Preamble of the order
above presumes to act in the best interests of the American people.

(8) Note: The fifth WHEREAS clause in the Preamble of the order
above mentions Section 5(b) of the Act of October 6, 1917,
(40 Stat. L. 411) as amended.  The following set of notes pertains
to this fifth WHEREAS:

(8b) The Act of October 6, 1917 is the Trading with the Enemy Act.
This Act was passed by the Sixty-Fifth Congress, Session 1, and is
designated Chapter 106.  The Act was published in the Statutes at
Large of the United States of America, Volume 40, Part 1, pp. 411
to 426. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

(8c) Note that President Roosevelt wrote "WHEREAS it is provided in
Section 5(b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, (40 Stat. L. 411)
as amended," BEFORE the Act of October 6, 1917 was actually
amended!  Section 5(b) of the Act of October 6, 1917 was amended
by Congress in Public No. 1 (H.R. 1491) passed on March 9, 1933,
which was THREE DAYS AFTER President Roosevelt's Executive Order
No. 2039 of March 6, 1933.

(8d) Note that President Roosevelt in the fifth WHEREAS clause
cites as justifying his authority to issue Executive Order No.
2039 the Act of October 6, 1917, *** AS AMENDED *** three full
days before the Act of October 6, 1917 was in fact amended!  This
seems patently unconstitutional.

(8e) Section 5(b) of the original, unamended Trading with the
Enemy Act of October 6, 1917 reads as follows in its entirety:

"(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 ear-
markings 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), and transfers of
evidences of indebtedness or of the ownership or property between
the United States and any foreign country, whether enemy, ally of
enemy or otherwise, or between residents of one or more foreign
countries, by any person within the United States; and he may require
any such person engaged in any such transaction to furnish, under
oath, complete information relative thereto, including the produc-
tion of any books of account, contracts, letters or other papers, in
connection therewith in the custody or control of such person, either
before or after such transaction is completed." (40 Stat. L. 415).

(8f)  Note the key phrase in the original, unamended Act of October
6, 1917:  "(other than credits relating solely to transactions to be
executed wholly within the United States)."  This phrase is crucial.
It exempts the American people from an unconstitutional action on
the part of the President; namely, the authority to "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," in the case of transactions between Americans
as carried out entirely within the United States.  This key phrase
will be deleted from the AMENDED Act of October 6, 1917, when it was
amended on March 9, 1933.

(8g) Note that in the original, unamended Trading with the Enemy Act
of October 6, 1917 that the President was given the authority to
investigate, regulate, or prohibit any transactions between Americans
and enemies of the United States or allies of said enemies.  But that
a distinction was made regarding transactions taking place wholly
within the United States.  In the amended Trading with the Enemy
Act, that distinction between trades between Americans and enemies
on the one hand and trades between Americans and other Americans
on the other hand is erased.  In effect, the amended Trading with
the Enemy Act, presumably, and possibly puts the American people into
the same category as declared enemies of the United States!

(8h) Section 5(b) of the amended Trading with the Enemy Act of
October 6, 1917, as amended in Public Law No. 1 of March 9, 1933 reads
as follows in its entirety:

"(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 ear-
marking of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency, by any person
within the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction
thereof; and the President may require any person engaged in any
transaction referred to in this subdivision to furnish under oath,
complete information relative thereto, including the production of
any books of account, contracts, letters or other papers, in connec-
tion therewith in the custody or control of such person, either before
or after such transaction is completed. Whoever willfully violates
any other provisions of this subdivision or of any license, order,
rule or regulation issued thereunder, shall, upon conviction, be fined
not more than $10,000, or, if a natural person, may be imprisoned
for not more than ten years, or both; and any officer, director, or
agent of any corporation who knowingly participates in such
violation may be punished by a like fine, imprisonment, or both.
As used in this subdivision the term 'person' means an individual,
partnership, association, or corporation."


(8i) Note that under the amended Trading with the Enemy Act that
under conditions of a declared national emergency that the President
has the power to investigate, regulate, or prohibit any transactions
regarding any kind of money between and by any person within the
United States.  Further, note that in the original, unamended
Trading with the Enemy Act that if an American traded with a declared
enemy that said person could be compelled to provide testimony, that
is, to be a witness against him or herself.  Even further, note the
wording of the amended Act: "During time of war or during any other
period of national emergency declared by the President...."
Presumably, this means that the President can declare war, or at least
declare a "national emergency."  Of course, the Constitution says that
only the Congress has the power to declare war, but the amended
Trading with the Enemy Act seems to indicate that the President can
now do so.  In any event, it more clearly indicates that the
President can, on his own, declare a "national emergency."  Further,
this means that the provisions of Section 5(b) of the amended
Trading with the Enemy Act are put into effect during the lifespan
of said "national emergency."  Note also that "hoarding" was not
mentioned in the original, unamended Trading with the Enemy Act, but
is listed in the amended version.

(9) An executive order can be repealed in either of several ways.
(a) It can stipulate its own termination date (the Executive Order
by FDR above does not do this). (b) It can be repealed by another
Executive Order.  Or (c) Congress can pass a law, signed by the
President, that terminates the Executive Order.  Otherwise, the
Executive Order remains in force.  It does not die or lose its
force of authority just because of passage of time, including passage
of long periods of time.  Nor does it die or lose its force of
authority just because conditions have changed.

(10) At this point in time there is no known Executive Order or
Act of Congress that has repealed President Roosevelt's Executive
Order No. 2039 of March 6, 1933.  Presumably, that order remains
in force to this day.  And further, the national emergency
declared in said order therefore also remains in effect to this
day.

JWE November 3, 1994