Part 4:Secret Societies of America's Elite...Franklin and the Masonic Underground & The Merchants of War

The more you surround yourself with honesty,the more you are able to see the charade they have painted as the nation's history.Time and time again you come up upon the hard truth of reality.It appears this country had a habit of naming it's prestigious schools after shall we say nefarious characters,with very sketchy backgrounds like John Hopkins.Today we will add the Brown clan from Rhode Island,to the hall of shame,as they were one of the biggest profiteers from the slave trade.The last 10 years has seen a big push by those who want to see part of the countries history erased via,making teams and schools lose their mascots and names etc because they might offend people.Well if that is the case I am all in for changing the name of this so called institution of Higher learning.Call it whatever you like but lets stop honoring a family of slave traders. 

Chapter 6 

FRANKLIN AND THE 

MASONIC UNDERGROUND
 

One of the greatest untold stories of the American Revolution involves the behind-the-scenes intrigues of Benjamin Franklin and his European cohorts. Had it not been for Franklin's efforts to keep the colonials supplied and funded and to bring French and Spanish allies aboard, the war might not have turned out the same. Franklin operated through Masonic groups in England and France, and his partners in the pro-American war effort were more often than not hedonists, occultists, Rosicrucians, slave traders, and spies. 

Franklin had made his fortune by a young age, mostly through his ownership of newspapers and Poor Richard's Almanack. He was a Quaker but also had occult tendencies. Franklin could be called a pioneer of the New Age, as he meditated every morning and evening, occasionally practiced vegetarianism, and was concerned with life after death and the possibility of reincarnation. He was a self-assured, happy extrovert who popularized hard work and frugality while enjoying the high life and a liberal sexual code. He enjoyed the company of women and wrote about the joy of sex with older women.1 

Franklin was a joiner and a founder who would start his own political club, the Junto, as well as the Philosophical Society. He planned to create the United Party for Virtue when he was introduced to Masonry. The craft employed the ideals that Franklin valued, and it also attracted him because of its esoteric roots. And being a Freemason had a practical side; Franklin was able to observe how jobs and contracts were awarded to other Masons in Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey. While it had no social barriers, the craft did place an emphasis on assisting the already elite gentlemen of the city. How else could a printer's apprentice meet the Penns and Shippens of Philadelphia? 

Franklin became a Freemason in the Lodge of Saint John in Philadelphia in 1731. The lodge was made up of the leading merchants of the city; in fact, 75 percent of its members were merchants or sea captain's.2 Franklin jumped in with two feet, using his intellect and his printing presses to promote Masonry, writing pro-Masonry articles, drafting the lodge's bylaws, and printing the first Masonic book in America. Masonry brought him contacts and contracts, and he attributed his being awarded the contract as assembly printer to his "friends in the House."3 His fortunes soared in the ten years after his initiation. 

As an independently wealthy publisher, Franklin was ever the student, "majoring" in philosophy and "minoring" in politics. He rose to master of his lodge and shortly afterward to grand master of the province. He was among the first to speak out against taxation without representation and went to England in 1754 for that purpose. It was Franklin who drew up a plan of union that included a large house of representatives.4 

Franklin established firehouses, hospitals, libraries, and street lighting. He was occasionally self-serving, and his post office was started in part so his newspapers could be delivered for free. He owned eight newspapers in places from New York to Antigua, including a German language newspaper in Pennsylvania. In 1748, at age forty-two, he retired from the newspaper business to devote his life to his science and politics, although he never stopped writing.5 

While Franklin is remembered for his public works and practical proverbs, another side of him is generally ignored. His world straddled both the practical day-to-day existence among the new colonies and the esoteric secrets of science. His connections to philosophers, Rosicrucians, occultists, and especially Masons allowed Franklin to move freely around all sides of the conflict.

THE HELLFIRE CLUB

Among the men Franklin met on his pre-Revolution travels to England was Sir Francis Dashwood. Dashwood was the chancellor of the exchequer and also the founder of his own society, the Dilettanti, and later another semisecret group called the Friars of Saint Francis or the Monks of Medmenham. Neither group bore any resemblance to a religious order. Dashwood s parties were infamous and were said to have included prostitutes dressed as nuns, satanic rites, goddess worship, and orgies. 

Dashwood was the son of a wealthy businessman, a Mason who was initiated in Italy at a very early age and who married into aristocracy. Dashwood sat in the House of Commons for more than twenty years and held numerous posts, including chancellor of the exchequer, treasurer to King George III, and postmaster general. This Mason's money allowed him to rebuild his family's ancestral home in West Wycombe in a way that would make Caligula proud—complete with statues of Greek and Roman deities, ceiling murals inspired by ancient Rome, and even a lake created to stage mock naval battles. The west wing of the building was a re-creation of a classical temple to Bacchus, with Dionysus and Ariadne in leopard-drawn chariots. Another room in Dashwood's mansion was designed like a Masonic temple. His pagan theme extended to the garden, with erotic depictions of classical gods and goddesses in stone. 

Nearby was the Abbey of Medmenham, which Dashwood also modified into a pagan monument, with a carving over the front entrance advising, "Do as thou will." The dining room, however, with its statues of the Egyptian and Roman gods of silence, advised visitors not to speak about their adventures. His strangest conversion was in excavating a network of caves under West Wycombe Hill, where it is said that his fellow "monks" could pair off with female guests. An underground inner sanctum it is believed to have served as the setting for Black Masses that were part of the entertainment. 

Having been initiated in Masonry and dabbled in the black arts while founding one society after another, Dashwood moved within the highest circles in England, which became known as the Hellfire Club.6 He was, however, too strange for some. Once a member of a druidic order founded in 1717 to revive the Celtic religion (members also included the poet William Blake, a druid and the grand master of a Rosicrucian order), Dashwood was expelled as the stories of the West Wycombe activities spread. 

In 1758 Franklin was in England and West Wycombe, and he and Dashwood met to discuss their vision for the colonies. Franklin was admitted into the Hellfire Club, where he mingled with luminaries such as John Stuart, the Earl of Bute; John Wilkes, a radical politician, member of Parliament, and later Lord Mayor of London; John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich; the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the Prince of Wales. 

John Stuart, the third Earl of Bute, was born in Edinburgh and was the first Scottish-born British prime minister. Educated at Eton and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Stuart married Mary Wortley Montagu. His status was elevated further when he met the Prince of Wales at the races and became a member of his card-playing clique. 

Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales, was the son of King George II, who was then the ruler of England. George II detested his son, as did the queen, and neither wanted anything to do with him, despite the fact that he was heir to the throne.Young Frederick was small, frail, and ugly, with a low receding forehead, bulging eyes, baggy eyelids, and a flabby double chin. In effect, he was a Hanoverian.7 Frederick and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, were evicted from Kensington. Frederick found refuge in the weeklong orgies at West Wycombe, and Princess Augusta would give birth to George III, the boy who would be king during the revolution in the colonies. 

John Wilkes, the young Parliament member, was, like Sam Adams, the son of a malt distiller. He married a much older woman, the heiress Mary Meade, for the convenience her money offered. She owned a large estate at Aylesbury, although Wilkes spent little time there. Instead he lived the lifestyle of many English aristocrats: as a rake and a gambler.  

Wilkes soon lost his wife's fortune and then separated from her and turned to politics. Despite his active participation in the Hellfire orgies, he came to hate the English king and the Earl of Bute. When the earl was made prime minister, a large number of members of Parliament were unhappy, as Bute was considered incompetent. Wilkes in particular turned on his old friends at the Hellfire Club and went public, speaking out in Parliament against the monarchy and for a constitutional government. 

In his most famous speech, published in issue 45 of the North Briton, a journal he distributed, Wilkes declared: "The prerogative of the crown is to exert the constitutional powers entrusted to it in a way, not of blind favor and partiality, but of wisdom and judgment. . . . The people too have their prerogative." Interpreting the last line as an invitation to revolution, the king had Wilkes imprisoned in the Tower, although his Parliamentary immunity soon earned his freedom. After returning to Parliament, Wilkes continued to write, and his later writings, which mixed obscenity and power, earned him expulsion. In England and America, however, Wilkes was viewed as a hero.8 In 1774 he was elected Lord Mayor of London. The active Freemason served as a secret British representative of the American Sons of Liberty and raised money for the Continental Army, which would be passed through Franklin. 

Another member of the Hellfire Club was the Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, well traveled, and an active member of the Royal Society, Montagu was also a rake and a gambler. He is rumored to have refused to leave the gaming tables even to eat, instead placing meat between slices of bread and thus inventing the sandwich. His personal life was as tragic as his public life was full of accomplishments. His wife, Dorothy, left him while she was suffering from progressive mental illness. His mistress, Martha Ray, was a popular seventeen-year-old singer when they met. Montagu shared his home with Ray for seventeen years, until the singer was murdered by a deranged clergyman who wanted to marry her. 

Montagu had several military appointments including Lord Admiralty of the English navy. He was responsible for modernizing the navy, but his navy still lost the Revolution to upstart American fighters and their French allies. Montagu was almost immortalized when he sponsored the expedition of Captain Cook, who discovered the "Sandwich Islands" in the middle of the Pacific. The islands would later undergo a name change, however, to Hawaii. 

Sandwich met Dashwood in 1740 and became a member of the Dilettanti and the Order of Saint Francis. Sandwich met Benjamin Franklin when he headed the navy, and they became fast friends, as both enjoyed the parties at their mutual friends West Wycombe home. With Montagu in charge of the navy, Dashwood in charge of the English mail system, and Franklin heading the Committee of Secret Correspondence, the men were an odd threesome. 

At such an early period of the mail system, postmaster would also mean "spymaster," as the chief postman had access to all the mail. Franklin had been in England for years as an agent of Pennsylvania and later as spokesman for America, and he was brought up on charges and ordered before the Privy Council at the time England was receiving news of the Boston Tea Party. Franklin was charged with attempting to create an American republic, but he suffered only the loss of his office as postmaster for the colonies. The spy was also being spied on, his own mail being opened and read. 

FRANKLIN IN FRANCE 

The contributions of Franklin and the anti-Tory support in England cannot be overestimated. From behind the scenes a propaganda war was launched to keep English public opinion divided. When American intelligence got wind of the hiring of Hessian mercenaries, Franklin went into action. He worked with Jefferson to fight the Hessians on two fronts. In Europe Franklin penned a letter allegedly written by a German prince to his American commander, arguing that the British figures for the Hessian dead were too low, and that he was being cheated out of his payment for each of the dead soldiers. He encouraged the officer to allow the wounded to die, rather than send home  crippled and thus burdensome wounded. In America Jefferson distributed notices offering Hessian deserters land grants in the colonies. In the end, more than five thousand Hessians deserted.

It is possible that friends in high places—and in low ones—helped Franklin avoid being hanged as a traitor. He soon established his Revolutionary War headquarters in Paris. Franklin and family did not traffic with the common French people; instead they were wined and dined, entertained, and boarded by the aristocracy. The high-born of France and England were well acquainted with each other and the backstage intrigues would frequently cause embarrassment to those involved. One of Franklin's acquaintances, Caroline Howe, was the sister of General Sir William Howe, who had fought at Quebec and was rumored to be getting a command in America.9 Another brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe, was already the commander of the British navy's efforts in the colonies. General Howe's sister brought Howe and Franklin together, a move that led later to accusations against General Howe. 

Franklin understood the value of the people who plied the seas in trade. They were an all-important means of supply and communication, they were generally supportive of the cause of liberty, and because almost all of them routinely broke the ever-changing series of trade laws, they operated in secretive brotherhoods. Masonry ruled the seas, and even Franklin needed an entry to gain the trust of the merchants. 

In France such connections were made through Sieur Montaudouin of Nantes and Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg of Paris. When Franklin reached France, he headed straight for the Masonic stronghold of Nantes. The busy port was controlled by merchants, and few had any intention of following the rules that hindered trade. They communicated through a series of codes that kept outsiders from penetrating their cabal. Nantes was also a slave-trading port—France's largest—and the triangular trade that brought slaves and munitions to America depended on the Caribbean merchants, who were often Americans. 

The relations between French and American smugglers would be very important in the fight for independence. The French slave traders were heavily armed and often carried letters of marque that allowed them to take a British ship. Franklin's new friends were valuable assets to the American cause; Dubourg bought the badly needed supplies, which were carried on Montaudouin ships. 

In Paris, Franklin's wartime acquaintances were all Masons, and they helped gain him membership in three Masonic lodges. The most prestigious was the Lodge of the Nine Sisters. Franklin was rapidly admitted into the lodge, which was a nest of political activity. The lodge had committed itself to the politics of the reform of French society. One of its goals was to provide an alternative education system, which would take control from the Catholic Church. Public lectures were given on history, religion, and science at the lodge-sponsored College of Apollo. One Masonic writer even credits Franklin with creating the Apollonian Society to further his goal of uniting science and religion. Later revolutionary zeal caused the college to rename itself the Lycee Republicain. Members included the duc de La Rochefoucauld, who translated the American Constitution into French,10 Captain John Reinhold Forster, who would sail with Cook, and the philosopher Voltaire. Franklin, in fact, would be present at the initiation of Voltaire into the lodge in April 1778. Dr. Edward Bancroft, a friend of Franklin's as well as an agent for Lord Auckland, the head of the British spy network, was another member. After the war, John Paul Jones was admitted into the order. 

The intrigue that assisted Franklin in building his support network in France defies full understanding. At once the high-ranking Masons of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters appeared to be both pro-Church and anti Church. Many of the members met at the salon of the wealthy and eccentric Anne-Catherine de Ligniville d'Autricourt Helvetius, who was despised by John Adams and was also the target of Franklin's amorous interests. Her salon was regularly attended by members of Catholic religious orders and by men of business and science. Such an ambiguous circle would have similar government and religious leanings. 

Franklin, ostensibly a deist (a non allied believer in God), was active with the aristocracy in France who had desired a gradual move from the monarchy. The most suitable form of government, they believed, was a constitutional monarchy that maintained a king, as well as a strong relationship with the Catholic Church. 

The headquarters for this intrigue was at Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Here met the priests who would later be ostracized because they refused allegiance to the Revolutionary (anti-Catholic) state. Instead, they allied themselves with the Knights of Malta, who also found themselves threatened by the mob state and later by Napoleon. A cure of Saint-Sulpice would one day be the confessor to the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, Marie Adrienne d'Ayen de Noailles. Lafayette had fought for freedom from the tyrannical monarchy in England but found new problems at home after the war. His refusal to take the oath of the new government became a dividing line that forced the Lafayette family to take a stance. They sided with the Catholic Church and paid the price. 

Many aristocrats and Church leaders literally lost their heads as a result of the Revolution, which was as much against the Church as the monarchy. But Saint-Sulpice and its secret Company of the Sacred Sacrament survived. After the French Revolution, an order of the company called the Ladies of the Sacred Heart enjoyed the support of the d'Ayen family. Their duty was a constant devotion to the sacred sacrament, an unveiled host. Every hour a sister would replace the last sister in the perpetual vigil. Even this order of sisters was forced to operate in secrecy. 

Such steadfast devotion to the mysteries of faith contrasted with the practical realism of men of science, but this was not an issue to Masonic cabals like the Nine Sisters and religious centers of influence such as Saint-Sulpice. Whatever Franklin's opinions might have been, he kept them to himself. He had a role to play, namely the securing of supplies for the struggling colonies. For this reason Franklin also joined the Lodge of Saint Jean of Jerusalem, the Loge des Bons Amis," and a mysterious conclave called the Royal Lodge of the Commanders of the Temple West of Carcassonne. Such connections were invaluable, and helped procure badly needed supplies that were then shipped on Mason-owned ships such as the Jean Baptiste, which was named for Masonry's greatest saint. Ninety percent of the gunpowder used by Washington's army originated in France. 

Through the efforts of Franklin and his Masonic collaborators in Europe, other traders and even pirates joined the American war effort. When the participation of the French merchants became known among the merchant underground, the Dutch were quick to follow. As a nation they had lost their command of the seas and their colonies to the English. The Crommelin House of Amsterdam was more than happy to tweak the nose of the English king and make a profit securing gunpowder for the Americans.12 To maintain the appearance of neutrality, Dutch ships sailed directly to the tiny island of Saint Eustatius, where they would unload their cargoes of ammunition and tea for the American ships. When British ships posted themselves in the Netherlands' waters and British spies uncovered their mercantile plots, the Dutch used Portugal as a go-between. Goods were shipped to Portugal and then reshipped to the Caribbean. The British soon understood the problem, but they had no solution. Rather than risk a further breach in relations and face a war at home, they sat back and watched as Dutch ships were repainted, changed flags, and transported their cargoes to the Americans. 

The British had larger problems than stopping the trade; the country was concerned about the revolution and the war spreading to other colonies. It may have been only the relative distance from the original American colonies to some of England's other colonies that kept the revolution from spreading. The West Indies, Canada, and the isolated outpost of Bermuda all had their own interests, and their loyalty was never a sure thing. 

The Masonic underground that united one smuggler with another bound Americans to their English cousins on Bermuda. Men like John Hancock needed to maintain a certain amount of secrecy in order to maneuver around the customs ships of the English, as well as the series of constricting laws. Masonry provided the protection of a wide-ranging brotherhood. To be able to make connections in the far-flung islands from Bermuda to Barbados, a ship's captain or merchant needed to connect to those he could trust. The Masonic brotherhood that existed on the high seas allowed many to straddle religious and political conflicts and survive. The Tuckers of Virginia and Bermuda are one example of how duplicity, questionable loyalties, and blatant crimes didn't impede prosperity—providing the right connections were in place. 

THE TUCKER CLAN 

The history of Bermuda is very much linked with American history. Discovered first by the Spanish in 1503, the Isles of the Devil, as they were called by Juan de Bermudez, remained unsettled for a hundred years. King James I awarded a land grant to the islands to the Virginia Company. In 1612 a group of sixty Englishmen became the first settlers. From the earliest days of settlement the economy was based on smuggling and piracy, tobacco trading and whaling. Freemason lodges on Bermuda recently celebrated their two-hundred-year anniversary, but the craft was established on the island for at least fifty years before the Lodge Saint George officially received its warrant in August 1797. The Earl of Strathmore, the grand master of the English lodges, had appointed a provincial grand master for the islands around 1544. Lodge Saint George is, however, the oldest continually working Scottish lodge operating outside of Scotland. The prevalence of Masonry is visible even today where the Customs House at Saint George resembles a Masonic temple more than an official government building. 

With an estimated one third of all trade in colonial Bermuda considered smuggling, it was no small wonder that very strong connections existed between the American colonies and Bermuda. In 1775 a small delegation from Bermuda attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Bermuda remained loyal to the crown, but that did not stop the residents from providing assistance. 

The Tucker family of Bermuda and Virginia represented the leadership of the resistance movement. The Tucker dynasty traces its history from the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror. Seven hundred years later, as Britain expanded its role in the New World, the clan again played a role in the invasion. The Tuckers landed in Charleston, South Carolina,Virginia, and Bermuda, where they rose to power and privilege. 

Colonel Henry Tucker was the agent for Bermuda during the American Revolution. In July 1775 the Continental Congress gave permission to trade foodstuffs for gunpowder. Washington told the congress that his army would desperately need the gunpowder, while residents of Bermuda desperately needed food. In August of the same year two patriot ships rendezvoused with Colonel Tucker's men. The Bermudians helped the Americans break into their own Fort William to steal one hundred barrels of gunpowder, which were quickly loaded on Bermuda whale ships and then transferred to American ships. The gunpowder thieves were never apprehended, as England was afraid the populace was looking for an excuse to join the American cause. It also helped that Colonel Tucker's son was the governor of Bermuda, and despite his potentially treasonous actions, he remained governor well after Britain lost her colonies. In addition, the grandson of Colonel Tucker, Henry St. George, became the chairman of the British East India Company. 

During the Revolution, American diplomat Silas Deane had recommended that the island of Bermuda be used as a supply port and a harbor that could keep America's very small navy provisioned and protected. In exchange, the Bermudians would receive food. The island provided the Americans with fast ships made of Bermuda cedar. St. George Tucker was a Virginia relative of the Tucker clan with strong business ties to the island, and he suggested a takeover of Bermuda to George Washington in 1780.13 St. George would serve at Yorktown as interpreter for Rochambeau; his help was apparently more valuable off the battlefield, however, where the French commander needed help in meeting women. 

The combined efforts of the Tucker family in the Revolution, which may have been considered treasonous from a British standpoint, did little to tarnish Tucker's prestige. The Tucker House in Saint George, which was named for Henry Tucker, the colonial treasurer and Governor's Council president who purchased it in 1775, is a part of the Bermuda National Trust and a current tourist attraction. The Tuckers' prestige and connections helped them to survive almost any scandal. "India Henry," as Henry St. George Tucker was known, spent six months in jail for an "attempted rape" committed while he was chairman of the British East India Company.14 

John Randolph, the son of the prominent Virginia statesman (also named John), and his wife, Nancy, were charged with the murder of their infant child. Related to the Tucker clan, they too had the charm of surviving any scandal. The Randolph "dream team" of lawyers included Patrick Henry, Alexander Campbell, and John Marshall.15 The Randolphs were acquitted of the murder.

In America the Tuckers married well. In 1778 St. George Tucker married the widow of John Randolph (of the Jefferson-Randolph clan). He received 1,300 acres on the Appomattox River. Ann Tucker married Lyon Gardiner Tyler, son of the president and heir to the owners of the pirate refuge at Gardiner's Island. 

Wherever the Tucker family was prominent, it imported Scottish Rite Masonry. In Bermuda the Tucker clan was instrumental in bringing the Scottish Rite Freemasonry to prominence over the Grand Lodge Masons. In Charleston, where belonging to the right lodges was the ticket to mercantile wealth, Scottish Rite ruled. And in Virginia, where the secessionist movement orbited around the College of William and Mary, the Tuckers, the Tylers, and others who played key roles in the Confederate side of the Civil War were prominent Masons. 

It may have been Scottish Rite Masonry that allowed the individual Tuckers to avoid the ultimate penalty for treason against the British from their Bermuda base during the Revolution and again in the Civil War. For example, Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, serving as the U.S. consul in Liverpool, used his office to start constructing Confederate ships for use against the government that paid him. During the war he was part of the "Canadian cabinet" that instigated draft riots in U.S. cities. Tucker would even be indicted for playing a role in the Lincoln assassination.16 But somehow the charges were dropped, and when Tucker returned to the United States, he served with the Pennsylvania Railroad as a lobbyist. 

From Medmenham to Nantes and from Bermuda to Boston, the men who were the forces behind the Revolution were not always motivated by pure or singular interests. Of questionable morals and unquestionably law breakers, many of these men were at least as corrupt as those they fought against. The power of elite groups as well as rank-and-file Masons, however justified, served to forever change the political landscape of the eighteenth century. 

Chapter 7 

THE MERCHANTS OF WAR 

While it is surprising that those who played major roles in the war abroad had to turn to Masons, occultists, slave traders, and smugglers for support, it was hardly different back in the colonies. Men like Sam Adams, George Washington, and Patrick Henry would risk life, liberty, and property for the cause, but the motivations of others were not as pure. When war with England became a reality, many American merchants lined up to make their fortunes. People who built fortunes from the importation of arms and supplies included New York's Livingston clan, Marblehead's Elbridge Gerry, Philadelphia's Stephen Girard, Boston's Thomas Cushing, and Virginia's Benjamin Harrison.1 

Benjamin Franklin put together what became known as the Secret Committee. Gaining an appointment to it was getting a license to steal, or at least to overcharge. The Secret Committee was supplied with an immense amount of funds from the newly formed Congress, and it was made up of merchants who knew the ropes and were not above breaking the laws for their own gain. These men were responsible for keeping the colonies supplied. The first chairman of the Secret Committee was the business partner of Robert Morris, Thomas Willing. The first contract went to his own firm, which raised an outcry from the other merchants and members of the new Congress. 

Despite the criticism Morris, at age forty-one, became the greatest supplier of military goods in the war. He was born in Liverpool, the son of a Chesapeake merchant. After his father's death he joined the firm of Willing and Company; he later became a partner. The firm of Willing and Morris had a fleet of merchant ships in the West Indies, which meant they participated in the underground economy that thrived under a mass of complex and ever-changing rules and regulations. The partners both had reputations for being clever and honest, as smuggling was not considered a dishonest act. While Franklin realized that the combination of the firm's experience in the Caribbean trade and their network of agents around the world made Willing and Morris capable of transacting the business, Congress estimated that the firm would be making an exorbitant gain at the same time. Morris, in fact, wrote to an associate remarking that he stored powder until prices improved before delivering it to Congress.2 Merchants did not see any moral dilemma in making a profit while defending the country. 

It did not help that the very first assignment went badly. The commissioned ship, the Lion, reportedly could not find any goods to be bought in Europe and returned empty It was highly suspicious that a seasoned captain would return with an empty hold from such a long voyage. Morris offered to return the thirty thousand pounds sterling (eighty thousand American dollars) advanced by the Congress, but instead a new assignment was given.3 

The second assignment went better. Ammunition and powder were bought in England, shipped to Saint Eustatius, and then sent to the colonies. The firms taking the contracts were entitled to 2 1/2 percent on both the exported goods and the imported supplies. It was actually a very small commission considering the risk that the ship's owners were taking. This did not stop the committee from handing the contracts to their own firms, to friends, and to family. Robert Morris was quick to learn which angles could maximize profits and minimize losses—such as shipping the firm's goods alongside goods that Congress was paying for aboard American warships. Morris and Willing are not on record as ever having paid the freight for their company's exports of indigo and rice to France. Having Congress pay the insurance for the entire cargo of the ships was an opportunity Morris could not pass up. 

Franklin, with his great experience as a Philadelphia business leader and his connections with English and American merchants, was quick to recognize the talent and administrative abilities of Morris. Congress would soon come around to accept Morris as the best man it had. 

It comes as no surprise that other members of the committee, which included Silas Deane of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston, John Alsop, John Dickinson, and Francis Lewis of New York, gave the assignments to themselves or to friends. The Browns of Providence increased their slave-trading fortune by war profiteering. Samuel Otis, Thomas Cushing, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts also participated in profiteering. Arthur Lee, a Virginia planter, was the biggest critic of the commercial side of arms procurement, in part because he mistrusted merchants. His brother William, however, took part in the double-dealing with speculations of his own. But the greatest amount of mud being slung at the profiteers was directed at Silas Deane. 

DEANE AND LAFAYETTE 

Silas Deane was born in 1737 in Groton, an early seaport town on Long Island Sound. His father was a blacksmith. Deane, however, managed to put himself through Yale and was admitted to the bar. Teaching school in Hartford while also practicing law, Deane's career path took a dramatic turn when he settled the estate of Joseph Webb. Whether it was opportunity or love, the young lawyer met and married Webb's wealthy widow, Mehitabel. Her family was active in the West Indies trade, and Deane gave up teaching and the law. Instead he began making voyages to the West Indies and learning the trade. After his first wife died, he married Elizabeth Saltonstall, the granddaughter of a governor and daughter of a general. While her family had also been active merchants, their political influence was greater and the opportunist Deane went into politics. A member of the new Congress and a merchant, Deane was in the right place at the right time to get assignments as a munitions supplier. 

When Deane lost his congressional seat because of a dispute with fellow Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, Deane's close friend Morris found a better assignment for him: He went to Europe as an  envoy to the French and a merchant, and his mission was to enlist the French in the American cause, or at least to procure supplies for the war. By some accounts Deane exaggerated his accomplishments with the French, but he did well in the war supplies department, where he was entitled to a 5 percent commission. At home his enemies grew and Congress not only failed to pay his commissions but also charged him with misappropriating funds. His letters to a British correspondent suggesting a negotiated settlement of the war earned him the accusation of treason. When Deane finally left Europe to return home, he was gripped with a violent abdominal attack that led to his death within hours. It was believed that he was poisoned by the British double agent Dr. Edward Bancroft. 

Whatever truth is in the accusations of Deane's detractors, he deserves credit as well. Early in the war Deane contracted for thirty thousand rifles, four thousand tents, thirty mortars, and clothing for the troops. He was responsible for the introduction of more than one young French aristocrat to the American cause. One of Congress's problems with Deane was his giving of contracts to French officers who desired high ranks and believed they were getting them by enlisting in the American cause. One such officer was Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette. Born in 1757, Lafayette's father was killed in the battle of Minden at the age of twenty-seven by a battery commanded by the English general Phillips. Lafayette was only two at the time, but he was destined to get revenge. Twenty-two years later he commanded a battery in Richmond, Virginia, and bombed a house where General Phillips reposed.4 

The future major general was raised by his mother and grandfather, but they too met an early demise when Lafayette was thirteen. He was, however, one of the wealthiest men in France and had advisers who looked after his numerous holdings. At fourteen he was committed to an arranged marriage with his 12 1/2-year-old cousin, Marie Adrienne d'Ayen de Noailles, and they soon set up home in Paris. 

De Noailles's family was equally noble and of ancient lineage. Her grandfather was the Marechal duc de Noailles, which gave him a hereditary right to maintain his own cavalry regiment. Lafayette and his brother-in-law, the Viscount of Noailles, met for dinner in August 1775 with the Duke of Gloucester, who was the brother of King George III. In a candid moment the duke announced that the insurgency in America could actually escalate and provoke France to start new hostilities against England. The marquis and the viscount called on a third relative, the comte of Segur, who married into the d'Ayen family, with their plan to join in the fray. The trio, dubbed the Three Musketeers by their family, quickly rushed to the home of Silas Deane to enlist. 

The young marquis had the rank of captain of the reserves when he sailed to America. Described as an overgrown boy stuffed into a handsome uniform, he was pudgy, red-haired, and already balding and had a long nose. He supposedly proclaimed, "The moment I heard of America, I loved her; the moment I heard she was fighting for freedom, I burned with desire of bleeding for her." Such sentiment, as well as a shipload of munitions and supplies, endeared him to Congress and especially to General Washington. Washington and Congress may have also been endeared to the family that Lafayette brought with him: His brother-in-law, Viscount Louis-Marie de Noailles, also came to the colonies and was second in command to one of France's legendary fighting units, the Soissonnais. Lafayette was commissioned a major general, one of the highest ranks in the Continental army. When he was wounded at Brandywine, Washington instructed the surgeon, "Treat him as if he was my son."5 

The meeting of Washington and Lafayette began a long friendship, and Washington lived to repay the favors. When the marquis's ideas on liberty and equality backfired in a faction-driven madness that is called the French Revolution, only funds from America bought Lafayette's release from prison. 

Although Lafayette served with distinction and earned the respect of the regiment he was given to command, not all such foreign volunteers were welcomed. Massachusetts was a closed society that admitted few to its cliques. While New York City was an open society at the close of the eighteenth century, Boston was always English. Prejudice against Irish and Italian immigrants would arise later, but in the colonial period simply being from Scotland was a barrier. Masonry would overcome that hurdle. 

JOHN PAUL JONES 

John Paul Jones is an odd hero. He was born John Paul in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1747, at a time when there was not a world of opportunity awaiting those who stayed home. His father was a gardener who was married to a housekeeper, and they were both employed on the estate of William Craik. Many believed John Paul's real father was James Craik, the son of William. Craik and John Paul's mother, Jean, got married a day apart to other people, and Craik provided Jean with a cottage to start her new family. Even biographer Samuel Eliot Morison points out that Craik's activities "suggested" Jean's relationship with him was as more than housekeeper.6 From birth a cloud hung over John Paul because of his unclear parentage. At age fourteen he started his career aboard a ship engaged in the Barbados trade of rum, sugar, and humans. By age seventeen he was a third mate on a blackbirder, the term for a slave ship, having proved himself able at sea. He would sail aboard slavers for another two years before quitting the "abominable" trade. It was not as much the morality that assaulted his sensibilities as it was the smell. A slave-trading ship that confined sometimes hundreds of men and women in its hold without sanitary facilities could be smelled for miles away. 

Upon sailing home from Kingston, Jamaica, the master and mate of Paul's ship died, so he brought back the ship on his own. In doing so he earned the appointment of master, a great achievement at the early age of twenty-one. Paul did all he could to live the part. He tried to drop his rural Scottish accent and he learned to read and write well— in fact, better than his peers. He dressed the part of an officer and sought out the company of other officers. He also enforced discipline. 

At five foot five inches tall, command did not always come easy for Paul. Over the course of his career, he would more than once  single-handedly quell a mutiny. Discipline, however, had its risks. On an early voyage as captain, Paul ordered the son of a wealthy merchant whipped three separate times. The man pressed charges, of which Paul was acquitted, but later died aboard another ship heading back to Scotland. The father then pressed further charges against Paul and had him arrested. Again Paul was cleared, but he came to understand the value of connections. 

Within days of his release from the Tolbooth jail, Paul applied and was accepted to the Saint Bernard Lodge of Freemasons in Kirkcudbright. As a member of that lodge, he was welcome to visit and sometimes find accommodations in other lodges around the world. He also made connections in the lodges that would advance his career and even save his life. 

Three years later, Paul was again charged with murder. His version was that the leader of a mutinous crew was about to hit him with a club when he ran the man through with his sword. The incident occurred on Tobago, where the small population of whites was mostly Scottish and the lieutenant governor was a friend. However, the young captain chose to flee. He disappeared for two years and then turned up in Virginia with the new surname Jones. Most likely he hid in Edenton, North Carolina, where he had a hometown friend, Robert Smith. He then moved to Virginia, where Robert's brother James, also from Kirkcudbright, was a shipowner and an officer in the local Masonic lodge. 

With a new name and a new life, Jones found safety and acceptance in Scotchtown, Virginia. Smith was a partner in a shipping firm with Joseph Hewes, who would become Jones's patron throughout the Revolution. Another friend was Dr. John K. Read, who was related to Ben Franklin's wife and was also active in Masonry. Jones knew Patrick Henry and would compete for the hand of Dorothea Dandridge in marriage. When war broke out, Jones called on Hewes and another Kirkcudbright Mason, David Sproat, for an appointment in the first American navy. 

Before meeting the enemy, Jones had many battles to fight. He encountered hostility from the New England blue bloods who resented a Scotsman; in fact, they resented anyone who was not a Saltonstall or a Winthrop who rose above his caste. Incompetents such as Dudley Saltonstall, brother-in-law of Silas Deane, who was descended from the Winthrops, received command instead of an upstart like Jones. It was only after others proved their incompetence that Jones received choice ships. Another battle was finding men. The American navy paid less than it did to sailors aboard the privateers. When a prize was taken, a privateer sailor could get twice the share. 

Jones overcame his first hurdle by lodging with Boston Masons such as Thomas Russell and Abraham Livingston and Portsmouth Masons like John Wendell. Wendell was a member of the very important Saint John's Lodge of Portsmouth and introduced Jones. Jones in return hired Wendell's son, David Wentworth Wendell, cousin to both John Hancock and John Adams, as a midshipman. Repaying Abraham Livingston would be tougher, as Livingston "ordered" twelve cases of claret, a Chinese tea set, tableware, decanters, glasses, almonds, anchovies, capers, and olives from Jones's voyage to Europe. 

The second hurdle was overcome by "impressing" sailors, forcing them into service at pirate hideouts like Tarpaulin Cove in the Elizabeth Islands. It didn't win him friends, and in fact almost caused his arrest in Providence until he pulled his sword on the local sheriff. 

Jones made his career in Europe, shocking England with attacks on her ports and ships. Timing is everything, and Jones's timing was excellent. France was beginning to question the American chance at independence when news of Jones's exploits hit. When Jones landed in France he was the toast of the town and was accepted in France's most prestigious Mason group, the Lodge of the Nine Sisters. Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire were also brothers of this mysterious group, which met at Saint-Sulpice. 

Jones spent his time in France accepting medals, dining with his new Mason brethren, and shopping for war supplies and tableware. After having denied Virginian Arthur Lee passage home because of his enormous baggage and retinue of servants, Jones made a new enemy. Once home he had to answer to charges of delaying the needed war supplies. His hero status allowed him to answer in an abbreviated style, avoiding mention of anything but the condition of his ship. 

The war was then being fought on several fronts. Washington's Continental army went from one defeat to another, retreating across the rebel country, while the British took advantage of the loyalist Scottish Tory factions in the south to demoralize the American forces. In Europe, American agents like Franklin and Deane labored behind the scenes to find America friends. And at home a handful of wealthy elite took advantage of their appointments to build fortunes. 

BENJAMIN HARRISON 

Benjamin Harrison was a Virginia aristocrat whose family had prospered most likely from both being politically connected and being one of the first families in Virginia. From 1632, when the first Harrison landed, the family was represented in Virginia's governmental body, the House of Burgesses, By the time of the Revolution the Harrisons' property, called the Berkeley Hundred, was a kingdom within the state. A one-and-a-half-mile road bisecting the property wound past tobacco fields and slave quarters before reaching the great Harrison mansion. Benjamin Harrison was by this time related to every aristocratic Virginia family, including the Lees, the Carters, and the Byrds. Besides being a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a governor of Virginia,7 he was also a secret partner in the Willing and Morris firm. 

In 1776, with the war just starting, Harrison the planter and Willing and Morris the merchant traders bought most of the American tobacco crops. The prices were low because everyone believed shipping the product to Britain for sale would be impossible at a time when a war was happening. But Morris and Harrison understood that at the same time that prices were falling in Virginia they were rising in England. Tobacco represented half the value of America's exports, and the stakes were huge. Morris hired ships from New England, Deane insured them, remarkably, in London, and they set sail. They did not have to go far; the free-trade market in Saint Eustatius was the market. This helped make Morris extremely rich during a time when he was competing against the Secret Committee, on which he served.8

Harrison fathered seven children, including William Henry Harrison, who became the ninth president. William's record in the War of 1812 and the family's patrician status helped him gain notice. The publicity surrounding his involvement in the small skirmish called Tippecanoe might have gotten him elected, but Harrison wasn't really a war hero. He had marched his thousand-man force against a Shawnee village half the size in a punitive measure. Despite his force being twice the size and his army losing more men in battle than did the Shawnee, Harrison claimed victory. The media took his word for it, and he was considered a hero. His campaign for the presidency was not going so well until he came to Richmond on a stop. There a pickpocket being hauled off to jail yelled "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," which became Harrison's campaign slogan. Harrison was soon elected America's shortest term president.9 

Harrison's administration lasted only one month, as he became the first of two presidents to cross the Cotton Whigs. Both Harrison and Zachary Taylor died of stomach distress after very public events. Harrison's death, first declared to be from a stomach ailment, was later blamed on his catching a cold during the inaugural address. Taylor's death was blamed on his eating cherries and drinking milk. Both deaths conveniently paved the way to significant policy changes in Washington. 

The family wealth and status remained, and the great-grandson of Declaration signer Benjamin Harrison, who was also named Benjamin, would become president. At the time, Harrison s party was divided. At its convention the party went through seven ballots without a leader. At the critical moment James Blaine, who has been credited with putting the previous president, Grover Cleveland, in the White House, sent a cable from Scotland that read, "Take Harrison." Because he was perceived as a man who could be manipulated, Blaine got the job of Secretary of State. Benjamin Harrison, like his grandfather, would deliver his long inaugural address in a March rain, but he survived. His accomplishments are few. His pet causes were high tariffs, banning Asian immigration, and overthrowing the government of Hawaii in order to annex the territory. 

ELBRIDGE GERRY 

Elbridge Gerry was one of the Marblehead aristocracy. In a time when and a place where merchant shipping paved the way to wealth, Gerry's father was a wealthy and politically active merchant shipper. His mother was the daughter of a British merchant. Marblehead was known more as a fishing port, and a great deal of the Gerry business was shipping codfish to Barbados to be used as food for the newly imported slaves. Before the war Marblehead rivaled Salem in importance, and Gerry was one of its richest citizens. 

As a man of wealth who was dependent on trade, legal or otherwise, Gerry did not agree with the growing anti-British feeling building in Boston. He was outraged by the Boston Tea Party and left his low-level political job as a result. Under the influence of Sam Adams, however, Gerry returned to politics. But like Hancock, his motives were often designed to increase his pocketbook. He served as the chairman of the Committee of Supply, a post that suited him perfectly. In addition, he sat on a congressional board that regulated finances. When Congress was stingy in doling out money to suppliers like Gerry, he walked out. He became considered the "soldier's friend" for his demands for better equipment and supplies, although he did nothing in the debate for soldiers' pensions. During the war Gerry could not have been luckier. The British closed the harbor of Boston, yet somehow they left Marblehead alone. Marblehead's importance soared as patriots around the colonies donated goods for Boston and Gerry shipped them. 

Haughty and aristocratic, Gerry was never popular among the Massachusetts voters. His interest had always been in his own wealth and property. The night of the British march against Lexington and Concord, Gerry hid in a cornfield in his nightclothes. Before the Battle of Bunker Hill he tried to persuade Dr. Joseph Warren, the president of the Provincial Congress, from joining the battle.10 Warren said to Gerry, "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori," meaning "it is a sweet and glorious day to die for one's country." Warren then went to his death. Gerry didn't. 

Although he was publicly for independence, Gerry had his doubts about signing the Declaration. Benjamin Harrison joked with Gerry about the danger of signing, saying his own weight would ensure a quicker death at the gallows than the slender Gerry's.11 Gerry may have taken this to heart, as he was absent when the Declaration was signed; he put his signature on the document months later. Gerry's strongest effort in the Provincial Congress was getting the Congress to issue letters of marque. This allowed shipowners like him to legally capture British ships and profit from the goods seized. 

To keep himself and his favorite politicians in office, Gerry redrew the lines of various districts to manipulate the effect of the vote. One district was drawn to resemble a salamander, and the term gerrymander entered the vocabulary. 

THE CUSHING FAMILY 

The Cushings represented the American aristocracy. Thomas Cushing was an active merchant and a political ally of Sam Adams's father. Cushing, whose nickname was Death's Head,12 saw no need to separate politics from profit. As a businessman he attempted to serve both "gods." He gathered intelligence information on the Tories but was sometimes reluctant to share it. He was equally reluctant to elevate the conflict, and checking the "violent designs of others" was his goal before the war. 

The men in charge of supplying the military might today be accused of allowing themselves excessive commissions and profits. In the eighteenth century it was almost expected that these men and their friends would use their posts for personal gain. While Cushing and Gerry made fortunes in the war effort, those who supplied them thought nothing of marking up goods 500 percent. The smaller merchants saw little wrong in selling to the British as well, and in overcharging the French, who had entered the war to save the colonists' efforts.13 

The Cushing clan raised self-interest to the most treasonous levels. After making profits during the war, the Cushings, led by Caleb Cushing, acted in a step-by-step method to defeat the interest of the United States and to enrich themselves. Caleb Cushings mentor was John Lowell, who served as an agent for many of the wealthy British forced out of Boston. He would go on to play a leading role in New England's Essex Junto, which attempted to incite the region to secede from the newly formed United States because the merchants did not like the policies of Jefferson. Shortly after going to work for Lowell, Cushing married the daughter of a leading member of the secessionist movement. 

Cushing became a power broker and apparently would stop at nothing to turn a profit. He was a one-man Masonic conspiracy. As a thirty-third-degree Mason of the Scottish Rite, he used his influence to enrich himself, bring his country to war against China and Mexico, and finally lead the United States to the breakup of the Union. Publicly Cushing was an abolitionist, yet at the same time he fought for the annexation of Texas, which most of the northern states feared would tip the balance in the conflict. Cushing, as a Cotton Whig, saw no problem in a divided Union if trade with England was secure. That trade depended on cheap cotton as a key export; cheap cotton depended on cheap labor. Soon after it became obvious that President Harrison had no intention of furthering the cause of annexation, he was dead. Not everyone believed it was from natural causes. 

A book titled The Adder's Den was published in 1864. The author, John Smith Dye, claimed that the agents of the pro-slavery South had poisoned Harrison to put Tyler in the White House. Harrison had been a farmer, had served in the army, had marched through wilderness for months at a time, and had fought as a soldier. It would seem unlikely that spending two hours in the rain could lead to his death. After the suspicious death of President Harrison, the accidental president John Tyler appointed Caleb Cushing to be Secretary of the Treasury. Cushing, however, was not liked or trusted, and the Senate rejected his nomination. Tyler then appointed him as a commissioner to China. 

Cushing's family was made wealthy by the opium trade in China. Shortly after the British began a war against China to impose its right to sell the country opium, Caleb Cushing ordered American ships to enter Canton with guns blazing to further humble China. His next act was to push for war against Mexico. Admitting Texas and other states to the Union as "slave states" helped slavery to continue. New England and the Brahmin families depended on the South s ability to provide cheap cotton. The cotton could then be spun into textiles in New England's mills, of which Lowell was the preeminent force. 

When support was needed to rally certain Southern states against the abolitionist movement, Cushing dispatched other New Englanders to the South. Albert Pike, from Cushing's home base in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was sent to Arkansas. He too would be raised to the thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite, and he played a key role in formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Another friend, John Quitman of New York, was sent to Mississippi, where he started Scottish Rite Freemasonry and a secessionist movement. 

After the war against Mexico, Cushing invited his Mexican war generals, including Jefferson Davis, to Massachusetts, where he informed them that he wanted Franklin Pierce to be president. Zachary Taylor had been the hero of the Mexican War but had alienated the Cotton Whigs by opposing the extension of slavery into California. Nevertheless, he was elected. After sixteen months in office, Taylor participated in the decidedly Masonic dedication of the obelisk known as the Washington Monument. He allegedly became sick after eating cherries and drinking milk and died shortly afterward. Again a war hero who had survived both the travail and the rigors of war was brought down by a simple problem. 

Cushing still played a strong behind-the-scenes role in the Buchanan White House, and once war became inevitable he supported Lincoln. Despite the fact that he had planted men in the South to lead the way to secession, Cushing's duplicity was never enough to keep him out of government. 

STEPHEN GIRARD 

Stephen Girard started his career as a pilot of a French ship in the Caribbean trade. His first voyage was aboard the Pelerin to Port-au Prince in Saint Domingue.This slave port was one of the capitals of the triangle trade. Slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. Sugar was the return cargo, having been produced there for almost two hundred years, when the Portuguese built many of the mills. The pilot was the man in charge of the trading, and he was often given carte blanche by the ship's owner to make a profit in any way he could. Selling the sugar to the American colonies brought higher prices because the trade had been outlawed by the British. 

Girard made six such voyages before being promoted to captain. On his last trading voyage from France he decided he had done poorly, as commodity prices had dropped. Instead of returning to France with a less-than-profitable stake for his backers, he simply sold the goods and kept the money. With the ill-gotten proceeds he took on a cargo of sugar and brought it to New York. There he joined Thomas Randall in the New Orleans trade, but it was the British blockade that would finally plant Girard in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love was especially warm toward its Masonic brothers, and Girard, who had become a Mason in Charleston, quickly joined his city's lodge. The lodge would serve as an old boys' club for merchants like John Wanamaker and ship captains like Girard. 

An ugly man with one bad eye, Girard married a penniless Irish maiden, Mary, at age twenty-seven. Five months into the marriage he caught her cheating with a British colonel. His brother visited and left him with a black concubine called Hannah, whom he would name in his will. His wife was committed.

During the Revolution the wealthy merchant and shipowner added to his fortune by acting as a privateer for the American side while also trading with the British. Girard had taken an oath of allegiance to the colonies, but his allegiance had been first and foremost to himself. His treasonous trade with the British, his participation in the slave trade, and his later role in the opium trade made him the fourth richest American ever.14 

After the war Girard hired a new eighteen-year-old mistress. His wife, who was still in the asylum, gave birth to a daughter he never would meet. 

Girard's fortune grew, as he was a pioneer in the China trade. Biographer George Wilson says, "He eventually derived more profits from the China trade than any of those who were in on the ground floor."15 When the British were banned by the Chinese government from smuggling opium into the country, American ships such as Girard's took up the trade. Girard raised capital through a British banking house, Baring Brothers, to finance his entry. From both legitimate trade and smuggling Girard became one of America's richest men. During the War of 1812 he put up half of the sixteen million dollars the country needed to get through the conflict, charging his country a 10 percent commission. 

At age seventy-seven Girard hired his fourth and last live-in maid and mistress. He lived four more years. His will provided generously for those who worked for him; housekeepers, servants, and sea captains all received lifetime incomes. Girard's Masonic lodge received twenty thousand dollars. The orphans of Philadelphia received a school to house and educate them that remains to this day. Today Girard's living will is still more than two hundred million dollars. 

The American army marched from one defeat to another and was forced to subsist on minimal rations and without proper uniforms or even shoes. At the same time the American procurement effort was in the hands of Cushing, Gerry, Girard, and other profiteers who thought nothing of cheating and overcharging their own side. The British side, however, had no shortage of self-serving and inept politicians and military leaders who managed to steal defeat out of the jaws of victory on several occasions. The responsibility was then left to the French, and in particular a small circle of French aristocrats and Masons, to tip the scales.

next
THE BRIBE THAT WON THE WAR  

notes 
Chapter 6 
1. Richard B. Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 11. 
2. Bullock, p. 60. 
3. Ibid., p. 118. 
4. Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes from the Life of Benjamin Franklin (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), p. 130. 
5. Morris, p. 23. 
6. Michael Howard, The Occult Conspiracy: Secret Societies, Their Influence and Power in World History (Rochester,Vt.: Destiny Books, 1989), p. 80. 
7. Leckie, p. 29. 
8. Ibid., p. 39. 
9. David Schoenbrum, Triumph in Paris: The Exploits of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), p. 10. 
10. Howard, p. 58. 
11. Hieronimus, p. 32. 
12. Helen Augur, The Secret War of Independence (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1955), p. 17. 
13. Kevin Phillips, The Cousins' War (New York: Basic Books, 1999), p. 147. 
14. Anton Chaitkin, Treason in America (Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence Review, 1984), p. 247. 
15. John Dos Passos, The Shackles of Power (New York: Doubleday, 1966), pp. 87—9. 
16. Hess, pp. 369-85. 

 Chapter 7 
1. Augur, pp. 70-1. 
2. Ibid., p. 37. 
3. Ibid., 66-9. 4. Andre Maurois, Adrienne: The Life of the Marquis de la Fayette (New York: McGrawHill, 1961), p. 23. 
5. Burke Davis, The Campaign That Won America: The Siege atYorktown (New York: Dial Press, 1970), p. 113. 
6. Morison, p. 7. 
7. Baigent and Leigh, p. 40. 
8. Augur, pp. 200-1. 
9. Hess, p. 227. 
10. Langguth.p. 279. 
11. Ibid., p. 342. 
12. Ibid., p. 32. 
13. Augur, pp. 70-1. 
14. Klepper and Gunther, p. 27. 
15. George Wilson, Stephen Girard: The Life and Times of America's First Tycoon (Philadelphia: Combined Books, 1995), p. 188.