RULE BY SECRECY, JIM MARRS

COMMENTARY As with the wars and conflicts of the twentieth century, the traces of secret society agitation and manipulation are found in earlier rebellions and revolutions, including the War Between the States and the French and American Revolutions.

In the case of America's sectional conflict, it becomes clear that European agents incited violence in both the North and the South. This agitation found fertile ground in homegrown fanatics such as John Wilkes Booth, a member of the secret Knights of the Golden Circle.

The bankers and lenders of Europe, led by the ubiquitous Rothschilds, financed both sides. Essentially, the War Between the States was a struggle for control between the European bankers and Abraham Lincoln—the one man in the United States who appeared to comprehend the forces at play.

Once open warfare broke out, Britain and France concentrated troops in Canada and Mexico awaiting the right opportunity to exploit the situation. Only President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation elevating slavery as the cause celebre of the conflict and the quiet intervention of the Russian navy prevented this plan to break up the United States from succeeding.

It was a setback for the European secret societies, who had been so successful in destroying both the church and the monarchy in France between 1789 and 1799. First with agitation by the Jacobin societies and later using paid agents who led the mobs against the Bastille and aristocrats' homes, society members instigated tbe Revolution and subsequent Reign of Terror.

The role of the Freemasons, and particularly the newly "Illuminized" Lodges, was blatant in this French tragedy. Some Masonic publications proudly admit Freemason involvement. Many Masons, including President Thomas Jefferson, were supportive of the French Revolution as well as early rebellions in the young United States.

There was even documented involvement of Freemasons in the American Revolution, with many colonists recruited into the British "field lodges" prior to the break with Britain. It may well have been the brother-against-brother nature of the revolt that prevented the vastly superior English military from vigorously prosecuting the war against