Warren G. Harding, who was elected to the Presidency in 1920, said in a 1921 Congressional inquiry that the Reserve was a private banking monopoly. He said: "The Federal Reserve Bank is an institution owned by the stockholding member banks. The Government has not a dollar's worth of stock in it." His term was cut short in 1923 when he mysteriously died, leading to rumors that he was poisoned. This claim was never substantiated because his wife would not allow an autopsy.
Three years after the initiation of the Federal Reserve, Woodrow Wilson said: "The growth of the nation ... and all our activities are in the hands of a few men ... We have come to be one of the worst ruled; one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world ... no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the free vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
In 1933, Vice-President John Garner, when referring to the international bankers, said: "You see, gentlemen, who owns the United States ."