Chapter 3
Life The First Ninety Years In A Nutshell
The most important part of the nation's beginning in-fact, was not the incident of the revolution, although I should stress that without the physical break from the union of Britain, our sovereign nation would have never been born....until maybe many years later in easy living memory {148}. The debates that then issued when the real labor of building a new nation initiated, would bear a very detrimental impact upon the succeeding generations of liberated Americans.
Most Americans simply do not realize that the issue of Constitution, with deductively presumed checks and balances, did not come instantly, but were hotly debated, even to the point that some among the delegates during that time, suggested that a need for war among the differing factions might be necessary to settle the dispute as to just how the new nation of America would be governed! One half actually wanted to reimpose a monarchist/ highly centralized federalist government, while the other half wanted what we would label today as liaise-fare government, or as little government as it is possible to have, and solid checks on the value of currency and the mechanics of government, to prevent any corrupted collusion that might endeavor to purloin the hard earned wealth of the plebeians, eventually only designing to reduce plebeian masses into a level of complete servitude.
Most of those who favored the centralized absolutist Federal government, which would rule in basically the same fashion as the old monarchy, where also in the employ of corporate interests and those among the extremely privileged, corporate industrialist aristocratic class {149} {150}. Those who were most in favor of a liberated, individual enterprise society favored greatly a system governed by the people at large, with solid checks and balances to hold back the tendency for power and wealth to corrupt {151}. As a result of these often times heated intellectual debates, a compromise developed, which was the conclusion of these tense, but most interesting philosophical debates {152}.
A Travel Assignment
On a number of occasions this author has traveled to Philadelphia, and made a special effort to visit old Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Every time that I visit, I am always amazed by something new that I learn, especially concerning the occurrences at Independence Hall. Upon walking inside, I behold what amounts to a courtroom, if one might conceive the picture. Since very accurate minutes were recorded with clear notations, we not only know the exact chairs in which the delegates sat, we even know what the weather was like and the very expressions and demeanor of each person present! We know where the chairs were positioned at the time in relation to the room, the clothes that the delegates wore as well as the specific details of the presentation made by each person.
In honor of that moment, most of the original chairs have been placed in the exact position held during the time of the delegation. One may view reenactments of the delegation made with the expressions described in the minutes and the dress that the delegates were notated as wearing. For any one interested in knowing the real truth of the matter, to initiate this odyssey to learn the real truth, I highly recommend making a trip there to view these reenacted proceeding. These people tell all as it was described and do not attend to any notions of “political correctness” or later government intent to keep the public from knowing the truth by twisting the facts, unless this event has been perverted within the last five years or so from the time of this writing. Every specific is all right there just as it was described, with a clear in-your-face strait forwardness that I have always both liked and admired.
The Concerns And Corruption
In the end, even those who were rigid in their belief that centralized rule of government, with the States and the people subordinate, were convinced that withholding that belief would be the best for the nation at large in the end; but even so, with the checks and balances developed and written into law, came a sly catch. Most of the delegates who favored rule of the people, also favored true democratic rule by the people. The catch that came about in this rule was that the nation would be divided up into voting districts, and that specific districts were to be represented by a single publicly elected official, verses a direct plebiscite of any sort. In fact, this was part of the compromise {153}for the checks and balances existing in the first place, since half of the delegates did not want any form of hard impartial check to be placed on the arm of government authority {154}, as it relates back to the American people. From the very beginning it was well known that this “representative” could be bribed, since high level government officials and upper management in the corporations, who also were alined with the wealthy business gentry 163, could easily afford to simply pay the officially endorsed “people's representative” off to pass laws that would favor corporate endeavor at the expense of the same people who voted them into office!
These bribes, of course, were never publicly known as such, but were known by a number of political euphemism such as campaign loans, campaign contributions, miscellaneous appropriation funds, rainy day funds, even public education funds at the state level, public works funds, and the list could go on and on. In our own modern day and age, we could also throw in the social security fund, the medicare and Medicaid funds into which money is appropriated from anonymous sources, and so on, since so much has been extracted from these funds to support high end corporate and government self serving intentions that the people on the ground will never know about. Then even if one did have a lifetime to invest in researching to find out the exact specifics, in a majority of instances what could he do about the situation upon the discovery?
The IRS hit my wife with an automatic out-of-the-blue extortion of $400.00. a month, directly from her pay check for over two years with no precedence what-so-ever to justify it. We traced it all back after skipping work, going to their office and waiting hours just to speak with a rigid inflexible official who treated us both like we were criminals; and finally after weeks of trying, we discovered the real truth. The IRS had made a mistake! They said we did not owe the money and were kind enough to even give us an official letterhead stating so…; so that meant that they or her State government agency of employment, owed us $10,000.00! Needless to say, this incident occurred several years ago now and we are still in limbo about our money, even though we have an official letter head from their main office stating that we did not owe and that the money had been taken unjustly. So just what is the reality that we all are dealing with here in government and our own hard earned, personal resources, which is the main point in why it is that I make this personal notation?
In short, what this author is saying here is that the US does not have a democratic government, to everyone's shock and surprise. Every school history text has told us that we have a deity ordained democratic government from the very beginning, but the shocking truth is that we don't! We actually have a representative republican government, but few anywhere dare to mention the fact of it. Further more, if it has been deemed by the legislative branch of government, {155} that certain States or communities did not have enough delegates to give thorough representation in any presidential election, then the vote goes to the Electoral College, a specially selected group of delegates who hold the final say in any bid for presidential election. Keep in mind that when enough money is passed, anything that can be imagined is possible, regardless of the reality that the show masquerades as being. In other words, it is very possible that Presidential candidates may be literally “purchased” by corporate interests via the Electoral College; hence the open door for corruption in the system. There have been cases where the plebeian citizens nationwide literally voted by more than a hundred thousand votes, and the candidate who officially lost wound up winning when the issue was put to vote of the Electoral College. While finding conclusive proof may call for a person who possess a high security clearance and exclusive personal government contacts, common sense logic betrays the obvious that millions paid (euphemism “donated”) must have played a huge part in at least one presidential election {156}, just to make a modern day point in example. The person who actually made the seat of president was most definitely the champion of the huge oil and power corporations and with deep high dollar family connections {157}, as were other huge corporate conglomerates {158}.
Again the point here is that money gets what money wants, since we live in a system designed from the very beginning to allow such to be so, as such was part of the original Constitutional delegate compromise. I make these modern day examples just to demonstrate how the public and historical direction is still effected by the decisions made over 200 years ago. Who among the masses now still dares to say that history has no present day relevance? On the contrary, history is everything, it has brought us into where it is that we now stand, which as this work is intended to show, presently stands as a very victimizing position, the worst of which potentially lies just ahead in the mist.
Because of the power found in collective funding, the public should always question times when the people demand one move, and the government literally forces another in spite of those majority demands {159} {160}. Does not the original tenth amendment and the preamble in The Declaration Of Independence read that the Federal government is delegated it's authority by the States and consent of the governed, not the other way around? The suggestions born in the imposition shall always bear the truth, when the proper questions are asked and the answers are sought out in lieu of those deductive questions. Who does the authority in question represent? Who is it that stands to benefit from the public majority believing the inflicted message? Whose payroll are their spokes-people on who are entrusted with the task of justifying the promulgated conclusion?
According to the laws of basic psychology, virtually all initial motivations are self serving, on one level or another. Everything given extracts it's own price. When we attempt to analyze, these questions will virtually always lead those who possess the fortitude to seek, back to the truth. Simply just follow the money trail/the yellow brick road, to know from where it is that the great OZ sits to manipulate, and the question of how soon reveals the self serving gain that the corporate majesty stands to make.
Life On The Home front
In the beginning, life simply just carried on as it always had back during the colonial era, except Great Britain had ceased to ship goods into the colony, obviously hoping to punish the colonists via collective economics, and the colonists were forced by necessity to make do with alternatives or simply make do without. In many cases, with the exception of the established port towns and cities, such had always been the rule anyway. This experience is where the term “Yankee” was born, or “Yankee Doodle” as he was known in many jurisdictions. Both terms actually mean a country bumpkin who is very resourceful.
Later on the term assumed various other meanings, including that of small independent shopkeeper, but such terms arise from a near indoctrination in the virtue of self reliance and resourcefulness. I will venture to say that these same virtues were also those of the Puritans, who may hold the reward for being where the ideal of “make do” originated. The American virtue of rags to riches was born during this time, although we could find dozens of examples dating much earlier back, if only we would just look.
Basically life assumed the picture of late seventeenth and early nineteenth century farm life over the wide panoramic spectrum of the nation, but in other areas, some different developments were occurring. In the South Eastern states, specifically, people had been acquiring huge landed estates and many were building themselves up into true hard, elegant wealth. Slavery unfortunately, was universal all throughout the United States, but in the South East primarily, was where it had become really profitable to engage in. In the North Eastern half of the nation, the weather was cold, the growing season limited and the large farms very few and far between. However, slave labor was used to more of a degree than Americans are allowed to know in the factories, lumber yards and steel mills and iron yards, but still nowhere near to the degree that they were used on sunny Southern plantations. In every instance, however, keep in mind that slavery was only a part of life for less than ten percent of the population at large, in any given part of the nation.
In the South East, a person with nothing but the clothes on his back, could simply work and live in a camp situation, save his money since his taxes were few and his food could found all around him in many instances, invest in land, then begin working his way up into outstanding profit by farming a few acres himself. He would then repeat this way of living, investing in more farm land and then finally, in slaves once his estate became too much for him to handle alone. By simply repeating the process mentioned, huge landed estates were constructed from “out of nothing,” or “thin air” as was the saying then.
Children were raised with the virtue of improving upon what the generation before them left. Most married and moved back into the estate, if they were male. The females married and moved off with their new husband, which was why it was so important not to marry beneath one's economic self. Usually the man added an additional room onto the house to accommodate his new family, especially the children, as they grew older. Such was the way that huge mansion country estates were developed beginning with nothing but a great idea, a willingness to work and raw determination to succeed. Keep in mind that back in those days there existed no income tax at all and the real-estate tax was in no way on par with anything that we know of today. In short, there were very few repressions on the natural desire for one to excel financially. One's only limitations were those of nature, as the original Constitution had intended from the very day of it's conception. That being said, however, the pervasive corrupting hunger for power and a regular eternal source of revenue did not hesitate for very long before rearing it's ugly head.
The First Transgression
The first real instance of growing corrupting power being imposed upon a free born people from the American government via big business interests, was in an incident known to history as The Whiskey Rebellion. Basically this resistance was against what amounted to large corporate distilleries in the east desiring to dominate the whiskey market at the expense of the smaller distilleries, beginning in the east and moving westward. The way that this determination is deduced and concluded is via the fact that the tax was paid out either in coin or by the gallon. The large distilleries recognized that they could pay out less by handing over the coin, since their volume production level was so much greater than any small backwoods distillery {161}. Many farmers in the back country had very little coin to exchange in to begin with, so whiskey effectively became a medium of exchange for them. In their eyes, this imposed tax for what they saw as being aimed at paying off other people's debts, amounted to an income tax, which it in-fact was.
As has been clearly stated prior, at least part of the resistance to this tax, as others before it, came with the way that that tax collection was enforced. One official who was charged with enforcing this tax was George Clymer. Clymer basically played the locals for fools, attempting to haphazardly disguise himself and threatening the locals in an effort to intimidate them into compliance {162}, some of the same fallacies attributable to the British in their tax collection methodology. Of course, his ruse failed to work well for him, nearly landing him head first in some really deep kimchi at the conclusion of events.
Another individual named General John Neville had vowed to enforce the tax at all costs, no matter what the plebeian response. What is really interesting to note is that he was owner of a substantial enterprise distillery, more than likely having political connections reaching high up as well. In the beginning, he had opposed the tax, but when he saw the advantage to be gained in eliminating the competition, he quickly changed his mind as would be expected of him. In August 1792 he rented a room in Pittsburgh for his tax office, but the landlord turned him out after being threatened with violence by the Mingo Creek Association {163}. So it seems, that the tactics for resistance had now changed, from only targeting the tax collectors to targeting anyone associated with them for any reason; all observances being splendid analogies to make note of here, as far as this author is concerned. The main targeted individual was the man named John Neville, a prominent politician and large scale distiller who was in charge of collecting revenue for the newly formed American government. Another very interesting notation that this author made was that this individual was about as close to being a member of aristocracy as any person could get in the new nation of America {164}. Without a doubt as we have already notated, he favored the big time distilleries endeavoring at the expense of their much smaller competitors. He arrived in the area of Pittsburgh with a US marshal, bearing the intent of forcing the locals to comply with the order to pay and intending to round up those who refused to do so, forcefully taking them to the nearest court house, only to callously throw them into a cold stone dungeon underneath. This association with the large distilleries is what led Neville to become a target, whereupon not only was he shot at, but some five hundred protesters assailed upon his estate, Bower Hill, burning it to the ground; and there were other nearly identical incidences, such as the experiences of a collector named Wells {165}.
The end result was that 13000 militiamen were sent out by Washington to quell the rebellion. All of the insurgents prudently went back home for good, giving up the fight for the most part, with the exception of minor resistance pockets . After all, avoiding the tax outright was much easier and made much more sense than fighting about it on a field of battle against well organized Federal troops. In course of the next six years, 175 small distillery owners in Kentucky were indicted for not paying the tax, according to the court records {166}, and there were numerous court records of resistance in other places.
No one really knows how many small distillers refused to pay the tax and got away with it, but in this author's opinion probably the numbers indicted only represent about 5% of the actual number refusing to pay up. My own conclusion in this matter agrees with the tax protesters, that being by far and away, going home and simply avoiding the tax all together was the wisest move to make in the end. The point in making mention of this pivotal event in US history is to demonstrate that the young republic had barely began when the forces of wealth and corporation commenced to hungrily impose itself upon specific isolated, relatively politically powerless masses of people, yet still the citizens of the new nation. Here we can read the message loud and clear radiating outward from the choices taken of big business, wealth and privilege... all in league with colluding government via their direct actions taken...; you little people labor to pay our bills, bemusing yourselves simply just being contented to labor in our enterprises, and let us sit back to reap the golden rewards from your labor. We demand the playing field all to ourselves, you living only to serve us and us alone. This is our land and you plebeians just be contented to exist in it!
The Transgression Continues
At nearly the same time, the US government had begun to impose it's authority on certain independent groups of people inside it's own territory, which is a trait of the US corporate backed government all the way through it's history, even unto this very day {167} {168}. This first incident was called the North West Indian War.
According to the official history, the French, other Indian tribes along with the British, had already fought over this territory for a number of centuries. In the end, the British held claim along with the tribes, who were virtually granted autonomy under British rule. A notation made by this author is that by the time of this conflict, the area was not officially under American rule already. There were a series of conflicts that came out of this incident in which the Americans did not fare well at all, since the natives won huge victories in the beginning. In the conclusion however, the natives were forced to sign a treaty that ceded the area of entire states to the US government {169}. The question that plays on this authors mind is why...Why did this imposing force have to be so? Why the use of force when negotiation could have secured a much better deal, possibly {170}? The real answers to these questions we shall learn in future events of a strikingly similar nature.
My contention is that these natives were a free and independent people who lived according to their own traditions and laws, but doing so outside of US government control. Many of these tribesmen had personal trade relations outside of government control with both the British and other native tribes, on US soil and Canadian soil as well. Not only did the US government wish to own the land of these native people, they wanted to manage any trade relations that individual tribal members assumed, which at that time was primarily in furs amounting to big money for the purchaser, who could buy in quantity at vastly deflated prices in trade. By isolating the natives onto specific areas of land, controlling their food sources, giving them cloth, trading highly coveted goods to them that they could not produce themselves purchased by US government traders working for large corporations, a new market was established that benefited both the government and the large corporations by eliminating competition from outside agents, such as the British, for example.
Not only that, as was eluded to before, the land of these tribes had not been officially surveyed out, making acquisition perfectly legal for whom the first people were to conduct the survey, even if done so inside a gray legal margin. We will go on to say that once the goods traded, {such as iron pots, ax blades, fire arms, cloth, etc }, were acquired by the natives, they soon came to view them as absolute necessities, eventually even forgetting the skills of producing goods outside of the trading system. These Federal intrusions virtually made the natives enslaved consumers living at the compete mercy of the corporation and government, a great lesson for modern day Americans to keep in mind. The final lesson to be learned here is that what is pushed as progress, may be secretly designed to enslave {171} {172}{173}
182.
This identical intent to control at the expense of the citizenry soon becomes self evident in the economic policies of the Federal government. Alexander Hamilton, who backed the interests of big business as we have already shown, designed to create a central bank that haled a centralized/unchecked currency. This would be a bank owned by the Federal government which would issue loans, manage currency and do the general things that banks do. In honor of the Federalist agenda, this bank would operate without checks and balances, primarily for the purpose of allowing government to rule financially and without contention advocating plebeian concerns. The intent for government raising taxes would be through taxes on imported goods and liquor.
The First True Citizen Hero
Thomas Jefferson did not relish the idea of a national or central bank/centralized currency, fearing that the intent would lead to corruption. In other words, Thomas Jefferson believed in the idea of any central bank having checks and balances to prevent corruption that would lead to outright usury of the citizenry. The idea of a central bank was not mentioned in the Constitution in any way. He also feared that large well organized foreign cities would eventually dominate the bank to control all business enterprise on American soil. He idealized independent free thinkers supported by their own economy above what amounted to servants, who were bound lifelong in obligation to the company store. Washington intended to remain neutral so the official account goes, but he wound up giving most of his support to Federalist policy in the end. To put it another way, George Washington worked in the name of big money and the corporation's desires to dominate. Washington's actions during the Whiskey Rebellion more than revealed with whom it was that his heart laid {174}, as was covered in the earlier pages.
Federalist aims continued to reign supreme until the election of Jefferson, but the point here being made is that these intentions of dominating domestic policy, backed and supported by the corporations via those who endorsed Federalist policy, had been going on now for three presidential terms, with Adam's term coming into completion. When Jefferson stepped into the White House, the largest portion of the opposing forces were already aimed against him, although we must admire Jefferson's genius in navigating to push the virtues of individualism in spite of Federalist/corporate domination of the governing house. All positive being said, however, this author cannot distract from the fact that there still existed corporate undertones even in the actions of Jefferson, whom this author greatly admires and reveres for his rigid attempts at individualist preservation; but even the most determined intellectuals are forced to concede in the face of rising power, no matter what the nature of it's intent. The only exception would be one of a perfect altruistic self-sacrifice on the alter of Liberty, a splendid exemplification of the patriotic call to live free or die, forever free!
Examine Jefferson’s policy of exploring the territory of what amounted to the Louisiana purchase, in search of a Northwest passage to the pacific ocean, as a first example. If such had been discovered, trade and commerce would have been greatly