The American Coup d'Etat of 1961

Now that a generation has passed since the disturbed time of which I write, and that most of the actors therein have died, it is possible to sketch the circumstances under which the present Imperial Dynasty mounted the throne of The Americas with an impartiality that would have been well - nigh impossible heretofore. Some men still regard the final acts of the drama as so many parricidal thrusts, whereas others heap praises on praises upon the great protagonist. My purpose is to give a brief account of the facts as accurately as I can, not extenuating, not exaggerating, not setting down anything with political bias.

In the ten years from 1950 to 1960 the social and political changes in the United States presaged great events. Scientific discovery was the apparent root of the good or evil. Mr. Phillips and Professor Czerny in their laboratory discovered the marvelous effects upon the chemical constituents of the soil produced by radioelectric discharges. Their most ingenious subsoil batteries in some method, not yet fully understood, affected the properties of sand and gravel to such a degree that they were converted into pseudo-vegetable mould, and with very slight expense land which had been a desert became productive to an extraordinary extent. The desert lands of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah brought forth crops that the banks of the Nile could not rival. The application of these wonderful scientific discoveries was due entirely to the will and energy of the man who at that time was plain Robert Campbell.

Campbell was born in Ohio, of ScotchIrish parentage. He was educated at the public schools, and when a lad of fourteen was employed by Mr. Phillips in his laboratory as an assistant. The boy learned far more quickly than his master the value of the discoveries. He left the laboratory, returned at the end of three years with a few thousand dollars, bought the apparently valueless patents, and put them to use in some land in Arizona bought at fifty cents an acre. The history of the next ten years of his life is the story of the development of the arid region in the southwestern parts of the country. The desert bloomed like a rose. Immigrants swarmed from every country in Europe. The population of Arizona increased a million a year; men who had earned twenty cents a day found themselves rich. Wheat, corn, rice, and potatoes grew as if by magic in an abundance sufficient to feed the world. Citizenship was granted within a month after declaration of an intention to renounce the old allegiance, and a vast number of immigrants were admitted to citizenship without any knowledge of republican institutions or any interest in them. Mr. Campbell acquired fabulous wealth. Wherever land was barren, there he was besought to bring his healing touch, and in payment of fruitfulness he always took a mortgage upon the land. In seven states his political power was despotic; he controlled conventions; he selected members of Congress; he named the Senators. He was the idol of the small proprietors, their savior from the oppression of the great eastern capitalists; he had found them degenerate and on the way to becoming peasants; he raised them to the most compact and important class in the country.

It was about this time that our war with England broke out. President Schmidt hated the English, and did all in his power to provoke war; he persuaded Congress to make discrimination in the tariff to the injury of England and in favor of Germany; and with no color of excuse he closed the Panama Canal to all vessels flying the British flag; he violated the rules of neutrality in the revolt of South Africa, known as the second Boer war, and insulted the British Ambassador at a reception in the White House. It is supposed that Schmidt provoked the war for the aggrandizement of himself and his family. Our ships, it was officially said, excelled the British in every particular, and outnumbered them three to two; but the successful termination of the war was due, not to our naval victories, for by some mischance we were vanquished in the two engagements off Long Island, but to the fact that England was put on starving rations the day war was declared. This country, with its marvelous development under the Campbell-Czerny patents, had become England’s butcher and greengrocer; and the moment supplies were stopped the prices of food there went up sixty-fold. The result of the war was that Great Britain ceded to us her Chinese provinces, while we, on our part, agreed once again not to discriminate against her either in tariff or in the Panama Canal. These Chinese provinces added to our own made an empire of four hundred millions of people, and as the President under decisions of the Supreme Court had, by virtue of the authority appertaining to him as Parens Patriae, complete control, he appointed Campbell, then believed to be in his interest, governor general. It seemed that China had always affected Campbell’s imagination, and he wished very much to go there. From his memoirs, however, we know that he believed that China would be the battlefield in the great international struggle for the domination of the world, and therefore he wished to study the country himself. He went there in 1958, and remained nearly two years. As usual the country where he went bourgeoned and bloomed. His administration was admirable, efficiency was established, dishonesty stopped; he ruled despotically, but with absolute justice. The Chinese revenues doubled in the first year; Campbell’s personal popularity was immense, and rumor accused him of an ambition to become Emperor of China.

At this time, however, matters were going ill in America. At the end of ten years the wonderful richness imparted to the soil by the radio-electric treatment departed as mysteriously as it had begun. The great fabric of prosperity fell with its foundation. Half the farmers in the country, and all those in the so-called Campbell states, became bankrupt. Distress spread from the farmers to the manufacturing interests. Railroads fell off in their dividends, factories closed, failure succeeded failure. Of the great cities San Francisco suffered most, as it was the port of shipment for all the grain exported to Asia; but Chicago and New York shared in the losses. The trouble was increased by the fact that, after the war with England, all Europe succeeded in making treaties establishing a common tariff against the United States. The respective European governments at last understood that it was a struggle between continents, their mutual jealousies were laid aside, and a commercial compact was made between them.

The financial crisis in the United States was reached in October, 1960, shortly before the presidential election. There was division in the ranks of the Republican party, because while President Schmidt, who had served two terms, desired to serve a third term or else have his son, Hugo Schmidt, nominated, several powerful Senators had their own ambitions, and were vigorously opposed, as they declared, to permitting the President’s office to become hereditary in the Schmidt family. The Democratic and Socialist parties, though small and broken into petty groups, having dwindled to almost nothing during the ten fat years, began to show their heads. New England had a party of its own, and hinted at secession. The House of Representatives, consisting of course solely of nominees of the Senators, divided in like manner as the Senate, but as the House had long ceased except in theory to be a coördinate branch of the legislature, its actions were of slight importance. The Republican Convention had been held in the beginning of October. In the last century it used to be held in June or July, but since the time when the election of the President became determined by the action of the Republican Convention, there had been no need for a long political campaign. There was a great struggle between the Schmidts and their adversaries; but the President had used his patronage lavishly, and Wall Street, fearing that a change in the government might add to the business difficulties, spent money with unexampled daring, and Hugo Schmidt was nominated by the convention.

The country had for some thirty years been governed by an oligarchy represented by the Senate. Almost every great combination of capital had its Senator; in fact, it had become the custom for a retiring president of a billionaire corporation to enter the Senate, and continue to watch over its interests. Had it not been for the singular concatenation of events that produced the great panic, the system might have lasted indefinitely. Property was gradually settling in strata; the capitalists coalesced into a natural aristocracy, the professions constituted an upper middle class, the trades - people a lower middle class, and as soon as the agricultural interests had been properly handled the actual farmers would gradually have developed into an American equivalent for a peasantry. But that was not to be. No sooner was Hugo Schmidt nominated than disaffection appeared. Senator Mason of Massachusetts refused to be bound by the action of the convention, and New England acted with him; Senators Brown of Washington, Petersen of Minnesota, and Elkinhorn of Alabama followed his example. The Campbell states held a convention by themselves and declared for Campbell. The Schmidts acted with their usual vigor, — they offered Campbell the office either of Secretary of State or of Vice-Suzerain of South America; they took all possible measures to secure election officers favorable to their interest, throughout the United States; they issued a proclamation depriving Chili of all legal rights, as punishment for its late revolt, and offered its land as public property to all loyal citizens who should receive the proper certificates from Washington. The President sent a mandate to the members of the Supreme Court, then away for the summer recess, to convene in Washington, and ordered various regiments to the chief cities of his opponents. His adversaries were not idle. In New England members of the Republican Convention who had supported Schmidt were indicted for high treason on the charge of attempting to make the office of President hereditary, and bills were filed in the United States Courts to restrain election officers from printing the name of Schmidt’s electors on the official ballots. Campbell sailed at once from Hong Kong, and arrived in San Francisco on October 9, after a voyage of four days. There he met his supporters and issued a proclamation to the effect that the action of the Republican Convention was illegal and void for bribery and corruption, that the convention which had nominated him was regular and valid, that he was the only legal candidate in the field, and that he would support and maintain the Constitution cost him what it might. Possession of the vast machinery of the government in all its parts, and the custom of the voters apathetically to vote the Republican ticket, were likely to give the Schmidts victory, but Campbell was fertile in resources. It so happened that on October 13 there was a panic in every stock exchange in the country, railroad bonds fell off twenty to forty points, industrial stocks went up and down like feathers in the wind, but the great blows fell upon government bonds. The issues for the extravagant undertakings of the administration in the years of prosperity, especially for the construction of automobile roads and for the maintenance of our garrisons in South America and in China, had been enormous. The country had played the prodigal, it was said that every tradesman had a country house, and every gentleman kept his yacht, and now the balloon had burst and everybody was bruised. Government bonds fell on October 13 from 130 to 110, on the 14th to 95, on the 15th to 60. People thought that the country was ruined forever; men lost their heads, and acted as if crazed. America, the envy of the world, seemed to fall like Lucifer. On the morning of the 16th, Robert Campbell entered the clubrooms of the New York Stock Exchange. He was dressed in his undress uniform as governor of the Chinese provinces, — loose white trousers with a purple sash, and a loose white silk shirt with a gold collar, and over it a light purple cloak with a border of peacock feathers. His rugged face, cold and calm, with bushy eyebrows, and deep wrinkles around the mouth, looked like bronze. It was one minute before eleven o’clock, the hour of opening the Exchange, and the brokers were all gathered together. Everybody was there, eleven Senators, and two hundred and forty Representatives, who were accustomed to make the New York Stock Exchange their headquarters when Congress was not in session, also many distinguished citizens. Campbell’s entrance was the signal for great excitement; reporters crowded about, hindering the Senators in their attempts to greet him. “What will he do, what will he do?” buzzed through the hall. Campbell, who always had a touch of the theatrical in his temperament, motioned the reporters aside, and bowing somewhat coldly to the Senators, asked for his broker. Sonnenschein rushed up, and began to whisper. “There is no need for whispers, Mr. Sonnenschein,” said Campbell in a voice loud enough to be heard through the hall, “Robert Campbell is ready to sacrifice his private fortune for his country. You will buy government bonds till my last dollar shall be spent.” A cheer went up; the reporters rushed off to telegraph the news over the world; the clock struck eleven, and Sonnenschein’s firm bought government bonds as fast as they could buy. The price rose to 70, to 90, to 110; Campbell bought and bought for immediate delivery; the great bank, known as the “Senate’s Own,” honored his checks for millions of dollars. The news spread abroad; crowds besieged the Exchange; everybody tried to buy government bonds, and the whole market rallied and rose; bonds and stocks got up like sick men from their beds; the scene outdoes description; merchants who were ready for bankruptcy became rich men again; savings banks which had closed the day before, opened their doors, paying and receiving thousands of deposits. At the close of business hours the whole country smiled, like a withered land after a rain. How Campbell was able to pay for the vast amounts of bonds which he had purchased, whether he had used the Chinese funds, as his enemies said, whether he bought and then sold again to himself as the market rose, or whether he and his friends had managed to put their money together for this great political stroke, are questions that everybody asked and Campbell never publicly answered. However it was, the panic had ended, and Robert Campbell had won the reputation of being the ablest and most patriotic man in the land.

The next day the public learned that he was closeted with the district attorney for New York County and the governor. These men belonged to the Schmidt faction, but rumor said that Campbell had saved them both from beggary, for they were speculators. The day after, a special court of Oyer and Terminer was held, a special grand jury summoned, and that same night the two Senators of New York, the two of Pennsylvania, and one of Connecticut, together with the president and half the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange (all of Schmidt’s party), were indicted for conspiracy with the intent fraudulently to injure and destroy certain railroad properties, largely affected by the late panic. Excitement was raised to fever point when the judge refused bail and the alleged conspirators were locked up in the city prison. The Schmidt partisans were very angry; they obtained a decree from the United States Circuit Court quashing the indictments, but the state courts refused to acknowledge its authority; then they applied to the governor, who answered that the law must take its course. The President instructed the United States Marshal to release the prisoners; the marshal took a posse, but the city police prevented them from approaching the jail; the marshal telegraphed to the President for soldiers, and the President ordered five regiments to the city. The governor called out the militia. There was every prospect of civil war; the country turned instinctively to Campbell. The next day news was radiographed from the Atlantic to the Pacific that Campbell had gone to the state court and offered himself as bail for the prisoners; his bail was accepted, and they were released.

Election day drew near, attended by excitement without parallel. Campbell went all over the country, showering money in gifts to persons whom he was pleased to call his “indigent fellow citizens,” as a slight endeavor on his part to repair the great wrongs done to them and the country by the “New York conspirators.” The election was at last held on November 6; there were riots in all the great cities; many voting machines were smashed, and thousands of voters deprived of their votes, but the automatic official count returned Schmidt first, Campbell second, and Elkinhorn of Alabama third. The newspapers resounded with cries of fraud, Elkinhorn mustered out the militia in the Gulf states to support his claim, but Campbell announced that, though he had been deprived of the high office by gross fraud, he would seek no redress, in the fear lest his country might suffer. To the general surprise he returned to China. Those friends who were not in his inner counsels could not understand his action except on the ground of true patriotism, and his popularity with them became almost a passion. Campbell’s course made Elkinhorn’s movement ridiculous; the militia disbanded, Elkinhorn was arrested on the charge of high treason, but was soon released, as the country plainly showed its desire to avoid internal troubles and return to business, for industry everywhere felt the disastrous effects of the panic.

Affairs remained in this condition till the end of February, when preparations for the inauguration of Hugo Schmidt (Schmidt the Second, as his enemies called him) were being made. Campbell was invited to be present, and accepted; he landed in San Francisco on February 24, and proceeded to Washington, His friends hailed him as a hero returned from exile, and he spoke at every town on the road, briefly alleging that the first duty of an American was to obey the law, that only in this way would the country be enabled to fulfill its great duties toward God and civilization in the manner in which it had so gloriously done theretofore. On the morning of the 2d of March, a beautiful sunny day, everything seemed as placid as a village Sabbath. That morning the newspapers announced decrees by the United States Circuit Courts in the first, second, fifth, seventh, and thirteenth districts, according to the redistricting of 1952, annulling the presidential election on the grounds of bribery and fraud. There was further news of equal importance: indictments had been found in some forty courts all over the country, state and national, against thirty-three Senators and three hundred and forty-seven Representatives, all of the Schmidt faction. Besides this the so-called “New York conspirators” had been rearrested, as their bail suddenly declined further responsibility, and had been carried forcibly and secretly to New York. The commotion was immense; the President tried to summon soldiers to the capital, but the railroad companies in most cases refused to let their cars be used, and ran their locomotives out of reach of seizure. On the next day it was announced that the United States Circuit Court in Arizona had tried and convicted Hugo Schmidt, President-elect, for a violation of the election laws. His notices of the charge and summons to attend his trial had come by radiograph at eight o’clock the night before, and of course he had not paid any heed to them. The Schmidts, on their side, hurried on preparations for the inauguration. They had provided for great ecclesiastical processions, as part of their strength lay in their religious pose, and they evidently relied on the presence of the clergy to help maintain order. Large forces of the President’s guard, as the National Constabulary was called, were under arms day and night. On the morning of the 4th of March Washington was crowded; never had the city worn such a gala aspect. Blue and red, the Schmidt colors, floated under the stars and stripes from every flagpole, and the troops of constables and the uniformed bands of employees of the great trusts, all displayed blue and red. Among the ladies, however, green and white, the Campbell colors, were as frequent as the blue and red, and the contrast made a very gay and splendid sight as the carriages moved slowly down the new boulevard. It was remarked that several regiments from Arizona had secured positions near the Capitol, and that the uniformed bands of the Copper Syndicate, of the Great Central Railroad, of the Farmers’ Union, of the Coal Trust, of the Compressed Air Trust, and of the Combined Radiograph Company, the most powerful corporations in the world, all largely owned by the capitalists of the Campbell faction, occupied the approaches to the Capitol; they, however, all showed the blue and red colors. Afterwards it was learned that they had taken their stations at midnight. By half-past eleven the Presidentelect and his party came to the steps of the Capitol amid tumultuous cheering. Campbell and a group of Senators were close behind him, so that it was difficult to say whether the cheers were all meant for the President or not. The great bells of the New Belfry rang out; the vast crowd became wonderfully still, it seemed to have fallen asleep. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in his robes, stepped out bare-headed into the vacant space at the top of the steps, and picking up a copy of the Constitution from the gold table, in a clear, ringing voice bade the Presidentelect step forward and take the official oath. Hugo Schmidt stepped forth, but one of the Campbell Senators pushed by, and, pressing to the Chief Justice, handed him a sealed document. The crowd was as still as death, the breaking of the seal was distinctly heard fifty yards away. The Chief Justice glanced at the document, read it over carefully, and then said deliberately in his most resonant tones: “The ceremony cannot proceed. I am enjoined by the Circuit Court of this district from administering the oath, on the ground that Hugo Schmidt, alleged President-elect, procured his alleged election by fraud and bribery.” The elder Schmidt, turning to Campbell, cried out; “This is your dirty trick! ” Then, facing the Chief Justice, he said: “As President of the United States I command you to administer the oath to my successor.” The Chief Justice replied: “In this country not even the President is above the law. I am enjoined. I cannot administer the oath.” A great cheer burst forth from every side, and green and white cockades suddenly replaced blue and red down all the lines of the uniformed bands and of the Arizona regiments. The elder Schmidt glanced over the multitude and whispered to his son: “If there is no election, the choice of President falls on Congress under the law of 1936.” “Ay,” answered Campbell, “Congress must elect.” Cries of “Congress!” and “To the House! To the Senate Chamber!” rose on all sides. There was great confusion. Senators and Representatives tried to force their way into the Capitol; slowly, one by one, pushing, shoving, shouting, and swearing, they reached the chambers, only to find them filled with armed men, who called themselves special constables, and would let no man enter without proof satisfactory to themselves that he was a duly authorized member of Congress. Outside the crowds knew nothing of what was going on; it was impossible to move, the crush was so dense; men talked and shouted and cheered; women chattered and giggled and fainted; the uniformed bands and the Arizona regiments stood firm under arms and let nobody pass except upon a countersign. Hours went by; the multitude became hungry; the crowding became more dangerous; many men were knocked down and injured by exploding automobiles; people flocked in from everywhere, lured by the extraordinary rumors. Accidents became frequent; the constables and soldiers tried to disperse the newcomers and relieve the pressure, but with no success. Five thousand and eighty people were killed or seriously injured. At four o’clock the great bells of the New Belfry rang out; under the stars and stripes on the Capitol a great green and white banner was displayed. The two Houses had chosen Campbell President. It appeared that there was a majority of the two Houses present, but owing to the previous arrests of some supporters of the administration, and the inability of others to prove their identity to the guardians of the two chambers, the Campbell men outnumbered their opponents more than two to one. The election was certified to the Chief Justice, who proceeded to administer the oath to Campbell. There was then a rush for the steps by the blue and red constabulary, but they were in a small minority, and after twenty minutes of a rough and tough fight, peace was sufficiently restored to allow the ceremony to proceed. The streets were then cleared by the Arizona regiments, the two Schmidts were arrested on the charge of levying war against their country, and a proclamation issued that the proceedings had of necessity been somewhat unusual, if not, strictly speaking, irregular, but that every question would be submitted to the courts, and that the newly elected President would spare not even his life in the preservation of the Constitution.

The next few weeks were comparatively calm, except in New York, where the only acts of violence were committed. Nothing has astonished foreigners more than that these great political events took place, not only without civil war, but practically without any bloodshed. The truth is that Americans have always had an immense love of law and order, and are immensely proud of their Constitution, which has been a guide and stay in all troublous times, and yet has proved itself sufficiently elastic to suit the empire as well as the republic. This elasticity of the Constitution is mainly due, not to the forefathers who framed it, but to those greater interpreters of the last century who have realized that law is founded upon policy, and that policy must keep watchful eye upon the material prosperity of the citizens of this noble country, the freest, the most just, the most spiritual, the most beautiful fabric of civilization ever known.

In New York the governor was shot from a window as he was driving down the street; the lieutenant governor who succeeded him was a Schmidt man, and immediately reversed his predecessor’s policy. He released the “New York conspirators,” ordered out the militia, refused to acknowledge Campbell’s election, attempted to draw Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania into a league for the recovery of state rights; but the country showed such plain signs of acquiescence in Campbell’s election that the revolt smouldered and died out. Business revived, everybody believed in the Midas touch of that remarkable man; he immediately made friendly overtures to the European nations, dispatched special envoys to every South American state, asking it to make known any grievances and promising immediate redress. He courted property owners by holding levees open to all whose incomes exceeded a million dollars a year; he offered state aid to multitudinous corporations; he repressed an extensive strike among the laborers of the Combined Radiograph Company on the ground that it interfered with the public utilities of transportation and light, and more and more strengthened the rights of property against the proletariat. He pardoned the Schmidts, who were found guilty of high treason, and rewarded his enemies as well as his friends with positions in high places; it was remarked afterwards that most of his enemies were not confirmed by the Senate, but the nominations helped to break down all immediate opposition.

The next steps were,— to reduce meetings of the House from a session every year to one every third year, then every fifth year, while the Senate sat permanently; to regulate the calendar of the Supreme Court in such a way that no causes should be heard except on permission received from the Secretary of the Interior; to limit by law the right of election to the Senate to persons who should produce a certificate signed by the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Each of these measures was approved by a judgment of the Supreme Court. The last step was begun by the Attorney General, who filed a bill in the Supreme Court temporarily to enjoin the meeting of both Houses; the case was elaborately argued and the President invited all Bar Associations throughout the country to file briefs on either side. The Court decided that the President’s obligation “to preserve, support and defend the Constitution of the United States” was, in the intention of the contracting states, paramount to all other provisions, and that if in his judgment it became necessary to act alone in order to fulfill that duty laid upon him, then it became his duty to certify that fact to his Attorney General, who in his turn should file a bill setting forth that fact, and thereupon the Court had no choice but to enforce the Constitution and enjoin the Senate and House, not only from meeting, but from taking any action.

Since then, however, both Senate and House have met regularly. They have authorized stock transactions in each chamber, and the principal business of the country is now transacted there. The President has assumed the titles of Lord Suzerain of South America, High Protector of China, Chief Ruler of the Pacific Archipelago, and has established the Orders of George, of Abraham, of Ulysses, of William the Good, in honor of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, and McKinley; the members are named by him after an examination and sworn inventory of their private fortunes. President Campbell was renominated and reelected every four years, and since his death his son has succeeded to the party nomination. It is thus, as some great lawyer says, “the Constitution is like the skin of a great animal, that stretches, expands and grows with its growth.”