Fast Track to Tyranny 11.21.07: In Addendum Part 1

Posted by Brian McLain on 11.21.2007

The Angry Scotsman is back with even more articles to add to the Fast Track to Tyranny series. This week is the first part of a mini-series look at legislation that grossly undermined the Constitution of the United States and has proven to be some of the most dangerous that had ever been signed into law. The new twist, though, is the government action did not take place over the past seven years under the Bush regime, but almost a century ago in 1913.

Good day to every one of my loyal readers…that's right…all three of you. I bet many of you are wondering what happened to the "Enemies of the Republic" mock impeachment trial of George W Bush I had been promising. This series has been put on temporary hold for the time being with the introduction of possible Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Richard Cheney. While in all an impeachment of the Vice President would prove to be a little less than worthless in the fight against tyrannical executive forces and simply neuter the Vice Presidency back to its original status, I felt it would be inappropriate and inaccurate to portray impeachment proceedings against executive officials in a mock fashion while the very real possibility looms. Considering part of my opening statement includes the phrase "to undertake necessary actions that congress feels unnecessary to address", this would be a grave misjudgment if the articles are taken off the table on sent to the floor. For now, however, I wish to expand upon my Fast Track to Tyranny series with a new direction. This first article I will be taking a look at legislation that grossly undermined the Constitution of the United States and proves to be some of the most dangerous that had ever been signed into law. The new twist, however, is the government action did not take place over the past seven years under the Bush regime, but almost a century ago in 1913.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is perhaps one of the most fallible actions ever taken by our federal government in response to head off further crisis made apparent by possible weaknesses in the United States economic system. Driven by a select few in an attempt to overtake the money system, and thus, the future and well being of the United States, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 took the Constitutional duty and responsibility of regulating and influencing the money supply from the federal government and installed it in a central bank without Constitutional amendment, little deliberation, and clearly without citation of the warnings given by the Framers and Founders of this nation. While the necessity of the Fed is constantly defended in a quagmire of doomsday prophecies and fear if it was ever abolished, there is a great deal of evidence that shows the Fed as being a ruthless, corrupt, and private organization acting in the best interest of some of the more powerful men tied to the banking industry. By steering the American public's access to real hard assets to a fiat currency backed only by debt and supply, it has created a ball and chain around the ankle of every industry, government function, and American Citizen and resident that is nearly impossible to break away from. Have I caught your interest yet? Let's take a look at some of the events that preceded this Constitutional abomination.

The Panic of 1907

Also known as the banker's panic of 1907, this particular financial crisis in United States history was marked by a massive run on banks which lead to a domino effect eventually collapsing the economy of the United States for a short time and was used as a perfect excuse to introduce legislation that would create a national bank that would seize control of the American monetary system. One of the primary factors in this panic involved F. Augustine Heinze and the Knickerbocker Trust Company. In 1906, Heinez sold off his vast fortune of securities in Montana Copper mines and moved to New York, purchased Knickerbocker Trust Company and became the director of a national financial chain. Feeling threatened by the attempted expansion of the developing Trust, industrial bankers across the country launched an all out attack on Knickerbocker Trust, seeking to show congress and the public that such trusts cannot be…well…trusted. In March of 1907, the stock market crashed as it corrected itself from over expansion and poor speculation, and in October 1907, the market crashed a second time, losing 50% of its value between the two crashes, precipitated by Heinez's attempt to corner the copper market using money borrowed, not yet termed ‘margin loans', from Knickerbocker Trust. Heinze was forced to resign as president of the bank and soon thereafter the National Bank of Commerce refused to honor checks from Knickerbocker. This sparked massive runs throughout the country, draining banks of their money supply and forcing a call in of loans which left many Americans homeless and penniless. As the story goes, JP Morgan and a team of bankers helped to heroically pull the country out of the nosedive by securing loans from international sources to bail out failing companies that showed enough potential to be worth rescuing. Disaster of a depression was averted and JP Morgan was forever heralded as a hero and savior of the time. What many stories don't tell you, however, is that JP Morgan was perhaps one of the more ruthless aggressors in the fight against the developing trust, and had a large hand in its failing, and thus, the panic itself. In 1907, shortly after the March correction, JP Morgan took advantage of the public's financial jitters and published a number of articles declaring the bank headed by Heinze as insolvent and in danger of bankruptcy, knowing full well that this would create a huge run on the national chain's bank, and could likely have the same effect on small banks across the country.

"The Morgan interests took advantage… to precipitate the panic guiding it shrewdly as it progressed." - Fredrick Allen, Life Magazine

Not long after the crisis, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, a man who was intimately connected to the industrial bankers of the country and even married into the Rockefeller family at a later date, headed up an investigation into the causes of the panic. The ultimate solution presented to avoid such a situation further down the line would be the establishment of a central bank, providing the catalyst to launch a central banking system that had been alluding proponents for decades, and this time, actually make it stick. In 1910 on Jekyll Island, a meeting chaired by Senator Aldrich and featuring Henry Davidson of JP Morgan Company, Charles Norton of JP Morgan's First National Bank, Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Lobe and Co., Benjamin Strong, also representing the Morgan firms, and Frank Vanderlip of National City Bank of New York, drew up legislation that would be introduced to the congress as the Federal Reserve Act. Mind you this legislation was drawn up, not by congressional representatives, but by the who's who in the banking industry, making the legislation suspect of favoring these wealthy entities and not the interests of the American public. No indication or statement was ever given for the reason why men holding 1/6 of the countries wealth were entering and leaving the island at the same time on a regular basis, and reasons were not found until long after the Federal Reserve Act was passed. The act was passed without so much as a whimper in 1913 on Christmas Eve, when most of the congressional representatives were home with their families. With the Congress no longer an issue, the only other obstacle left in implementation was the man with the pen, the President of the United States. With heavy backing from the nation's wealthy, Woodrow Wilson was catapulted into office under the condition that he would sign the Federal Reserve Act, which he did shortly after taking office. It was later that Wilson publicly lamented his decision to sign the bill into law with these words:

"[Our] great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men…who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."

This is part one of my in addendum series to the Fast Track to Tyranny. My plan is to spread this analysis of the Federal Reserve Act and the Fed over the course of two more articles, however I might be able to condense it down to two. Should anyone wish to contact me with any complaints, questions, or other please feel free. I hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving and I will see everyone next week