The quote above is from a book written early in the 19th century. Taylor was commenting on the fact that the government of the United States and, indeed, the whole of the American society was rapidly being converted to a mirror image of English government and society. Taylor believed that the earlier generation of Americans who had sacrificed so much to win their independence from Britain wanted to create a government dedicated to the principles of classical liberalism. In other words they wanted for themselves and for posterity a government dedicated to protecting equally the life, liberty, and property of each of its citizens.
        When the colonies became independent each of them formed their own government. Each of these 13 states considered themselves to be, and actually were, sovereign states joined together as a federation under the Articles of Confederation. The governing body of this federation was the Continental Congress, an entity that possessed almost no power over the individual states.
        Old disputes between the colonies continued after they became free states and new disputes arose, especially in matters of trade and taxation.
        In 1787 twelve of the thirteen states sent representatives to a convention convened for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. This was done largely at the instigation of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Both of these men wanted to join the thirteen colonies into a single sovereign nation. Hamilton wanted such a nation because he wanted the U.S. to become a great and powerful nation on the English model. Madison wanted it because he felt that it was necessary to prevent wars between the individual states and because he felt that the thirteen individual states would be vulnerable to foreign intervention and conquest.
        Most of the delegates to the convention promptly agreed with the goal of creating a sovereign nation although a few left the convention and returned home because they felt that this objective exceeded the authority vested in them by their state legislatures. Hamilton submitted to the convention a constitution that would have created a single nation, abolished all state governments, and formally vested control of this nation in an elite class, distinguished primarily by the wealth they possessed. His proposal was immediately rejected. It is probable that many of the delegates personally liked Hamilton's constitution but all were aware that the people simply would not accept it.
        The convention then worked for several months to write what became the Constitution of the United States. There were many differences between the states that had to be taken into account and superimposed on these differences there was also a difference between those who believed that the people should ultimately control the government and those who feared giving the people this responsibility. The latter were probably in the majority but the Constitution they wrote was essentially a blueprint for a democratic republic. Practically every provision of the Constitution was debated at great length and in each of these debates a major concern was the willingness of the people to accept each specific provision.
        The convention conducted its deliberations in absolute secrecy and when they had written a constitution that was acceptable to almost all of them it was presented to the Continental Congress which subsequently referred it to the thirteen states for ratification. In each state the people elected representatives to a ratifying convention which was charged with either ratifying or rejecting it. Some states ratified it promptly without reservations. Massachusetts ratified it but suggested that it should be amended to include a bill of rights. The Constitution would become effective when ratified by nine states but most of those concerned felt that the new nation would not survive if it did not include the state of New York. In order to secure ratification in New York the Federalists (those who favored ratification) agreed to work for the inclusion of a bill of rights if the Constitution was adopted.
        With this promise New York ratified and Madison lived up to his word by pushing for the adoption of the first ten amendments which we refer to today as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights basically denies to the federal government the right to take certain actions and reserves to the states and to the people all powers not specifically granted to the federal government.
        George Washington was, of course, unanimously elected as the first President of the United States in 1788 and the United States of America became a reality. At this time political parties did not exist in the United States. Washington chose for his cabinet some liberals and some elitists. Hamilton was the foremost of the elitists and he became the Secretary of the
Treasury. In this position Hamilton immediately set about to create in actuality the type of government that he was unable to establish by a constitution.
        He proposed a central bank, protective tariffs on manufactured goods, bounties to be paid by the government to domestic manufacturers, the establishment of a federal debt, and a tax on whiskey that created economic hardship for farmers on the frontier. Jefferson eventually resigned his position as Secretary of State and, with the help of James Madison and James Monroe, formed the Republican party. The opposition became the Federalist party. In 1800 the Republicans won the presidency and control of Congress. After his election Jefferson successfully sought to destroy the Federalist party by wooing those Federalists he considered to be men of integrity into the Republican party.
        Jefferson succeeded in destroying the Federalist party but many of the elitists gained power within the Republican party. The Republican party controlled the government till 1840, although in the 1830s its name was changed to the Democratic party. The elitists were usually known during that time as Hamiltonians and they were very active in the Republican party especially after Jefferson was succeeded as president by Madison.
        Throughout the whole of the 19th century the Hamiltonians very successfully manipulated not only the federal government but also the state and local governments to their advantage. One of the ways they did this was by proposing legislation that would result in immediate benefits to themselves and promised some benefit for the nation as a whole, often sometime in the future. They usually won the passage of such legislation by outright bribery. Of all of their efforts the most profitable to them and the most injurious to the nation was the establishment of fractional reserve banking. This will be explained in a chapter devoted to banking. They were also granted legal monopolies for the construction of toll roads and bridges and for the operation of steamships and railroads. They received huge grants of money and land for the construction of railroads and sometimes for railroads that were never constructed.
        In addition to favorable legislation they also profited in dozens of ways from court decisions. In the first half of the 19th century the number of fraudulent land claims by Hamiltonians that were validated by the courts were probably in the hundreds. A typical, though small, example of such fraud was John C. Fremont's claim to 4,400 acres in California. He bought this claim from a Mexican citizen after California became a part of the U.S. This claim, which was for 4,400 acres of the claimant's choice, had never been validated by the Mexican legislature and was therefore invalid under Mexican law. The U.S. Supreme Court validated his claim in a majority decision. Two Justices filed a dissenting opinion stating that his claim was without merit in law or equity. A couple of years later Fremont became the first presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican party.This Republican party, incidentally, is the same Republican party we have today. Our present Democratic party is the lineal descendant of Jefferson's Republican party, although its political philosophy is the exact opposite of the original Republican party.
        In the second half of the 19th century the bulk of the Hamiltonians' manipulation of the government involved railroads. During this time they also began to manipulate publicly-held corporations on a large scale and, of course, many of these corporations were also railroads. By means of these activities some Hamiltonians became incredibly wealthy. This great wealth enabled them to virtually control the government of the U.S. before the end of the 19th century.
        Somewhere around the end of the 19th century a few of these super-wealthy individuals raised their sights and embarked on a program to gain economic and political control of the entire world. They joined forces in this effort with a group of Englishmen who also had this goal in mind. The English program resulted from the efforts of Cecil Rhodes. As a student at Oxford Rhodes was influenced by John Ruskin. Ruskin told his students, most of whom were from families who represented the English ruling class, that they were the heirs of a tradition of the rule of law, beauty, etc. that could not be perpetuated, and did not deserve to be perpetuated, if it was not extended to the masses in England and in the entire world.
        Rhodes, as a young man, went to Africa and became fabulously wealthy by monopolizing the gold and diamond mines of southern Africa. He used his wealth to create an organization committed to gaining political control of the entire English-speaking world. In pursuing this goal he not only flouted the rule of law but even wiped out a tribe of African blacks. His private army, equipped with the latest weapons, invaded the land of the Mattabelle tribe, equipped only with spears, and slaughtered them.
        Rhodes established a secret organization, the circle of initiates, composed of people who shared his ambition. After his death these people established what they called Round Table Groups. The Round Table groups were less secretive than the inner circle but most people in the early 20th century were unaware of their existence and even today most Americans have never heard of them. Later they created more visible groups that were intended to do the actual work of achieving their objectives. In the nations of the British Commonwealth these organizations were known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. This group in the United States was named the Council on Foreign Relations.
      The original Round Table group in the U.S. was composed of people within the sphere of J.P. Morgan. Professor Carroll Quigley, of Georgetown University was a supporter of these people and he was permitted to examine the papers of both the English and American branches of the movement for a period of two years. Quigley wrote a history of the world in modern times, entitled Tragedy and Hope, in which he revealed the story of the Round Table groups and the people behind them. Quigley stated flatly that the CFR was established as a front for the Morgan interests. He made it clear that he agreed with the policies of the masters in almost every respect but disagreed with their desire to keep their activities secret. He explained in Tragedy and Hope that he felt their role in history was significant and should be made known.
        In the late 1940s and in the 1950s many Communist agents were revealed to be working in government posts, and also in non-governmental organizations that influenced government policies. Quigley stated very explicitly that most of these Communist agents had achieved their positions, and retained them, only through the active assistance of the Eastern Establishment. He had previously explained that the Eastern Establishment was the product of and the tool of, the people I refer to as the planners. Since Quigley was a liberal's liberal there is no reason to doubt the truth of his explanation of the Eastern Establishment. As a liberal he would have no reason to fabricate such a story.
        In his book, Saviors of the Earth?, Michael S. Coffman says that after Tragedy and Hope was released in 1966 it was recalled almost immediately by the publisher, The Macmillan Company, and some copies were even removed from library shelves. Quigley had worked on this book for twenty years and the only possible reason why it would be recalled is the revelation of the existence and activities of the Round Table groups. Tragedy and Hope has since been republished. It may be in your local library or you can order it from,

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        In addition to political affairs the masters have exerted a great deal of influence on education, the media, and environmental affairs and their activities in all of these areas will be examined at some length in later chapters.