The Patriot Threat by Steve Berry, © 2015 Minotaur Books, MacMillan Co., ISBN 878-250-05623-8.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Here’s a bit of intrigue. Why does the dollar bill have on its reverse side thirteen stars forming a Magen David? And what does the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mean when it says “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
These 18th and 20th century pieces of American history may sound like the kind of trivia that Alex Trebec might ask a contestant on the Jeopardy television show, but for author Steve Berry and his master spy Cotton Malone, they provide the premises for an international thriller in which China, North Korea, and the United States all have vital interests.
Most students of American Jewish history are familiar with the story of Haym Salomon, the financier who so believed in the Patriots’ cause that he gave unsecured loans to keep the Continental Congress and Continental Army afloat. It is generally believed that the reverse side of the $1 bill was designed to show the appreciation of the United States government for Salomon’s effort.
Such thanks, even on all those $1 bills, didn’t begin to repay either Salomon nor his family for the generous loans he made to the United States during the crisis of its birth. What would be the impact on the economy of the United States if it had to pay the money back, all these years later?
And while we are in the realm of speculation, suppose the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—as some tax protesters argue—was not ratified properly? Would Congress still have the power to “collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States?” Or, would open-ended tax collection come to an end?
Can you imagine how different matters might be if the federal government had to first announce how much money it needed, pass a law authorizing collection of just that amount, and then having each state contribute its pro rata share?
Who cares?
In this fast-moving novel, a disgraced member of North Korea’s ruling Kim family cares because he sees .a way to exploit this question in his quest to win back what he considers to be his rightful position of power in North Korea. The Chinese care because, like it or not, China is a very large creditor of the United States.
In Berry’s story, the secrets behind the unpaid debt to Salomon and whatever flaws the 16th Amendment might have were known intimately by industrialist Andrew Mellon, who served three terms as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. And Mellon used those secrets to taunt President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
For a fictional U.S. President of some future time, all this is a very serious matter, threatening the capability of the United States government to defend itself against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And as the U.S. goes about trying to solve the mystery, bodies start dropping.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com