Repealed in 1982 (96 Stat 877 - P.L. 97-258) however the substance of H.J. Res. 192 still stands as obviously the status of the insolvency of the United States has not changed, and money is still debt.
JOINT RESOLUTION TO SUSPEND THE GOLD STANDARD AND ABROGATE THE
GOLD CLAUSE
JUNE 5, 1933 H.J.192 73rd Cong. 1st Sess.
Joint resolution to assure uniform value to the coins and currencies of
the United States.
Whereas the holding of or dealing in gold affect the public interest, and
therefore subject to proper regulation and restriction; and
Whereas the existing emergency has disclosed that provisions of obligations
which purport to give the obligee a right to require payment in gold or a
particular kind of coin or currency of the United States, or in an amount
of money of the United States measured thereby, obstruct the power of the
Congress to regulate the value of money of the United States, and are inconsistent
with the declared policy of the Congress to maintain at all times the equal
power of every dollar, coined or issued by the United States, in the markets
and in payment of debts.
Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled.
That (a) every provision contained in or made with respect to any obligation
which purports to give the obligee a right to require payment in gold or a
particular kind of coin or currency, or in an amount of money of the United
States measured thereby, is declared to be against public policy; and no such
provision contained in or made with respect to any obligation hereafter incurred.
Every obligation, heretofore or hereafter incurred, whether or not any such
provisions is contained therein or made with respect thereto, shall be discharged
upon payment, dollar for dollar, in any such coin or currency which at
the time is legal tender for public and private debts. Any such provision
contained in any law authorizing obligations to be issued by or under authority
of the United States, is hereby repealed, but the repeal of any such provision
shall not invalidate any other provision or authority contained in such law.
(b) As used in the resolution, the term "obligation" means an obligation
(including every obligation of and to the United States, excepting currency)
payable in money of the United States; and the term "coin or currency"
means coin or currency of the United States, including Federal Reserve notes
and circulating notes of Federal Reserve banks and national banking associations.
SEC. 2. The last sentence of paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of section 43
of the Act entitled "An Act to relieve the existing national economic
emergency by increasing agricultural purchasing power, to raise revenue for
extraordinary expenses incurred by reason of such emergency, to provide emergency
relief with respect to agricultural indebtedness, to provide for the orderly
liquidation of joint-stock land banks, and for other purposes", approved
May 12, 1933, is amended to read as follows:
"All coins and currencies of the United States (including Federal reserve
notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve banks and national banking
associations)hereunto and hereafter coined or issued, shall be legal tender
for all debts, for public and private, public charges, taxes, duties, and
dues, except gold coins, when below the standard weight and limit of tolerance
provided by law for the single piece, shall be legal tender only at valuation
in proportion to their actual weight." Approved June 5,1933, 4:30 p.m.
Commentary:
The House Joint Resolution 192 (shown above) states:
"Every
obligation, heretofore or hereafter incurred, whether or not any such provisions
is contained therein or made with respect thereto, shall be discharged upon
payment, .... "
Note that the words do not talk about 'payment'of debt,
but clearly states that 'Every obligation, . . .
. . . shall be discharged.'
In the U.S. case of Stanek v. White, 172 Minn. 390, 215 H.W. 784, the court
explained the legal distinction between the words "payment" and
"discharge":
"There is a distinction
between a `debt discharged' and a `debt paid.' When discharged the
debt still exists though divested of its character as a legal obligation
during the operation of the discharge. Something of the original vitality
of the debt continues to exist, which may be transferred, even though the
transferee takes it subject to its disability incident to the discharge. The
fact that it carries something which may be a consideration for a new promise
to pay, so as to make an otherwise worthless promise a legal obligation, makes
it the subject of transfer by assignment."
The suspension of the gold standard, and prohibition against paying debts, removed the substance for the Common Law to operate on, and created a void, as far as the law is concerned.