Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 12 Num. 44
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
"The sovereign right to regulate commerce among our magnificent union of States, and to control the instruments of commerce, the right to issue the currency and to determine the money supply for sixty-three million people and their posterity, have been leased to associated speculators. The brightest lights of the legal profession have been lured from their honorable relation to the people in the administration of justice, and through evolution in crime the corporation has taken the place of the pirate; and finally a bold and aggressive plutocracy has usurped the Government and is using it as a policeman to enforce its insolent decrees." -- General James B. Weaver, 1892.
"From the remotest period in the history of the Saxons it had been the settled policy never to submit to the imposition of taxes unless the subject had consented thereto... So scant were the royal revenues at this remote period, as compared with the extravagant expenditures, that it was with extreme difficulty that the wants of the crown and the nobility could be supplied at all; and history shows that in nearly every instance the taxes were voted only in return for some new concession of liberty to the people."
The Saxon people wished to be represented "in the great council. The prince and his barons consented -- for a price. The purchase was made and in this way the great body of the English people... gradually acquired a foothold among the law makers of the realm... When the crown was powerful and the unrepresented people weak, the right of representation was sold for so much money paid directly into the royal treasury. When the electors became numerous and had the power of electing members of Parliament within their own hands, they in turn sold their votes to the highest bidder. Mr. May, in his excellent work on the British constitution, informs us that up to within a very recent period, it was a common thing for candidates for Parliament to visit the locality of their candidacy and with ready cash purchase the votes necessary to elect them, and then close the negotiations with an agreement properly signed and witnessed."
-+- The Rise of the Corporation -+-
The U.S. Senate of 1861-1865 had not only to legislate during the Civil War, but also had the task of "reconstructing and readjusting civil government after the conflict was over."
"It seems strange that the legislators of the war and reconstruction periods failed to comprehend that those who drove hard bargains and exacted cruel concessions when the Republic was in peril, were as hostile to the spirit of liberty, though not so brave, as the armed Confederate."
"Those who drove hard bargains and exacted cruel concessions," for example:
** J.P. Morgan, who offered to sell "5,000 new carbines in perfect condition" for $22 each to the Union army. But Morgan's rifles had a problem: they kept misfiring and blowing off soldiers' thumbs. No matter. J.P. Morgan insisted on and received full payment.
** Northern bankers and cotton speculators, who avoided fighting and preferred instead to rake in the loot by dealing in Civil War contraband.
** Northern bankers who tried to force the Union into accepting loans from them at usurious rates of interest, as high as 30 percent.
This last usurious extortion attempt by northern bankers led to an indignant President Lincoln issuing lawful government money: the "greenbacks." But those who "drove hard bargains and exacted cruel concessions," those "hostile to the spirit of liberty," the ascendant nouveau riche class of corporate capitalists, did not sit still for Lincoln's affront to their money monopoly; they...
(1) ...inserted an "exception clause" into the Legal Tender act, "which placed a premium on gold for the benefit of gold gamblers... The exception clause was not in the bill when it passed the House. It was inserted in the Senate."
(2) ... pushed through a law authorizing the issuing of bonds. "The exigencies of war never called for the issue of a single bond. Those who framed the law simply intended to provide an opportunity for speculators whereby they could dispose of, at its face value in United States bonds, the paper [Greenbacks] which they had purposely depreciated and afterward purchased. They procured one law which enabled them to purchase Greenbacks at less than their face value, and another which empowered them to realize in gold the face value of the Greenbacks."
(3) ...forced through the National Bank Act. That Act authorized "the bond holder to deposit his gold bearing bonds and secure from the treasury ninety percent of his investment, and still draw quarterly from the people interest on the whole amount of the bond. It further invested the associated banks with the power which belongs to the Government -- the power to issue the money of the people and regulate its volume."
(4) ...overthrew the Homestead law with the Land Grants Acts. "By these acts the Homestead law was made a nullity and the Public domain given away to corporations, syndicates, and foreign nabobs."
(5) ...snuck through "the contraction act of 1866... Under this act more than one billion of the currency [Greenbacks] was taken from circulation and destroyed."
(6) ...passed the Credit Strengthening Act of 1869, which pledged the payment of the entire public debt in gold.
(7) ...passed the infamous act which demonetized silver, in 1873. This act, known as "The Crime of '73," stealthily "struck down one-half of our coin money, doubled the value of gold and converted the coin bonds into gold obligations."
"Honest men had their eyes on the salvation of the Union. Bad men took advantage of the situation... The slaveholder lost his human chattels and the Confederacy perished. But the tyranny of capital was not broken by the war. On the contrary it was augmented beyond measure. The money power gained all that the slaveholder lost. It conquered the whole country and chained the children of toil, both black and white, to its chariot wheels... THE BATTLE FOR SUBSTANTIAL AND REAL EMANCIPATION HAS YET TO BE FOUGHT..."
"The slave holding aristocracy, restricted both as to locality and influence, was destroyed by the [Civil] war only to be succeeded by an infinitely more dangerous and powerful aristocracy of wealth, which now pervades every State and aspires to UNIVERSAL DOMINION ['New World Order']."
This aristocracy of wealth first gained control of politics and politicians, "and finally found expression in a vast net work of corporations... Neither the military achievements of Caesar, the exploits of Cyrus, Hannibal, Alexander, nor the dazzling conquests of Napoleon in the fields of war, can compare with the stupendous victories of organized capital in this country..."
The aristocracy of wealth, the corporations, "have filled the Senate of the United States with men who represent the corporations and the various phases of organized greed... The corporations never make public their purpose... Their plans are laid in the counting room, around the lunch table, and in the secret meetings of their directors away from the public. When the plan is matured, a skillful agent is employed to carry it out, and a check is drawn to cover expenses. The people at large are about their daily toil in the field and the workshop. They are honest, unsuspecting, and devoted to their respective [political] parties. The work that is to rob and ruin them is being done under cover. The corporations -- apparently wholly indifferent -- having determined whom they wish to elect... the people are betrayed."
-+- How The Game Is Played -+-
The above quotations come from Union General James B. Weaver's book, "A Call To Action," first published in 1892. Note the time frame in the above summary: starting from his perspective in 1892, General (and Congressman) Weaver looks back to the beginnings of popular representation in early England. He then covers his immediate past, the Civil- and post-Civil War era. Implicit in your own time frame in this issue of Conspiracy Nation is that your past (the 20th century) is General Weaver's future.
Joining the two perspectives, Weaver's and our own, we get a panorama of "How The Game Is Played":
-- In Saxon England, money is given in exchange for power.
-- During the Civil War, money controls power, which is used to gobble up even more money.
-- After the Civil War, individual power is hidden behind the facade of the corporation. Enormous, concentrated wealth is the puppet-master, controlling the "laws."
-- And now, it's all still the same. After almost 1000 years, the game (even though with added trappings) has not changed.
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