 
              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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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 




