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Conspiracy Nation Vol. 12 Num. 44
Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 12 Num. 44
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED
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"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.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
For related stories, visit:
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
