Operation Gladio Meets Secret Societies Summary Part 4

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0:00 Welcome to another edition of Operation Gladio meets Secret Societies with Warhamster Brady, and we're going to focus today on Squirrel and Key. How are you doing, Brady? If I was doing any better, it would be a sin. I love that line. I stole that one from the movie. I don't remember the movie that was from, but it was good. Doing great. This is fun. We spent, what, the last 30 or so weeks going through the Secret Society skull and bones and pointed out that they are pretty darn nefarious.

0:30 And I guess the thesis is if you wanted to have a secret society that put its people in the corridors of power throughout commerce, diplomacy, espionage and business and politics, you would probably act exactly like Skull and Bones has acted for the last 190 years.

0:53 And we made a pretty good case that that's the case. There's two other real big, the oldest secret societies on Yale's campus. One of which is Wolf's Head, which we know very little about. There's a few alumni we know about and they're not really special. There's no printed lists, but we also have Scroll and Key. We've got a lot more information on Scroll and Key. It's the second oldest and some say the wealthiest of the secret societies at Yale. Interesting little factoid.

1:22 Both Harvard and Princeton pretty much banished secret societies from their campuses in the 1870s. And I think Harvard, for a while, didn't even allow Greek letter societies. And there's a difference between a secret society and the Greek fraternities and sororities. We're not going to go into that too deep. But scrolling key is interesting. My thesis, after really going through it, is that they've had a lot of very influential alumni.

1:52 But it is not the cloak and dagger system that skull and bones is. And I think when you juxtapose them next to each other, it even emphasizes how nefarious skull and bones is. Fair enough? Fair enough. All right. So what do we know about scroll and key? I am going to share my – oops, let me get it queued up here a little better. Okay. Scroll and key.

2:30 is founded in 1842. That's 10 years after Skull and Bones. And there we go. That is their symbol. Somebody made this. It's not actually their insignia. The scroll and the key. The reason they founded scroll and key is there was dispute over how the elections were done or selections for Skull and Bones. And so four guys in particular just sort of...

3:06 Said, okay, we're going to do it our way. And the whole thing was they want to challenge the status quo. The problem with Skull and Bones, of course, was that it favored people who came from prestigious families. Think we demonstrated that pretty well? Yes, we did. Well, these guys called it elitist and exclusionary. And in their own words, they yearn for society that valued merit and intellectual curiosity above all else.

3:37 Well, we definitely did not get that with skull and bones. No, it's very crystal clear that this is a contrast. Skull and bones is all about who you know. And scrolling key is making the case that it's what you know is more important. And that's really the contrast here. And, you know, it was a profound statement of their principle and their vision. So the core values, the scroll represents knowledge and learning.

4:07 And it's a testament to the society's dedication to academic excellence, not just who you went to high school with. Or boarding school. Exactly. You know, a lot of these, you're going to see some crossover down further down the years. And, you know, these are Ivy League. These boarding schools are all, you know, grooming schools for the Ivy League. So you're going to see some of these people did go to those private boarding schools. But it's not as bad as you saw with Skull and Bones. So the key.

4:39 signifies access and understanding. And they say it underscored the importance of unlocking new realms of thought and discovery. So that's a pretty good starting point for scroll and key, I would think. Now, whether they lived up to those ideals or not, we'll see. History will tell us. They did the same things. 15 juniors get tapped every spring to be the next year's class.

5:10 They had a different evaluation process. It was supposed to be rigorous and holistic. They looked for personal character, academic achievement, leadership, extracurricular activities, and a dedication to making a positive impact on their community. What's missing from that? Bloodlines. Interesting enough, and we'll get into this. Although they're founded in 1842, they really don't have a lot of prominent members for about 20 or 30 years. Until...

5:43 They built their tomb. And we're just going to take a look at that real quick because I think this kind of hammers home the point. This is the tomb. Wow. So what do we know about the tomb? Built in 1869 by architect Richard Morris Hunt. Are you familiar with that name? I've heard that name, yes. I know you have because you have visited Newport, Rhode Island, just like I have recently. Yeah.

6:20 So Hunt's one of the most famous architects in American history. He would be the co-founder of the American Institute of Architects and is the founding member of the National Sculpture Society. What else did he do? Well, let's take a look. There's Mr. Richard Morris Hunt, born in 1827, died in 1895. So he is. Do I have his history down here? Oh, yeah. OK, so he's actually a descendant of founding father.

7:00 Governor Morris, who's one of the two Morrises that are at the Philadelphia Convention. That's one of his ancestors. Hunt gets educated in Europe and becomes the first American to ever study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts. That is the finest architectural school in the world. Yeah. Some of his works. He did the base for the Statue of Liberty. And that is a very intricate building I think a lot of us have visited. Yes. That's this guy's work.

7:37 He did the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. And whose money paid for that? The Gilded Age. Yeah. The robber barons. Then, of course, he gets to Newport, Rhode Island, and he builds the Breakers. Now, this is done in, I just visited there two weeks ago. And it is gorgeous. And it is gaudy. And it is decadent. I have all kinds of interior pictures of the Breakers.

8:09 yeah so do i we'll we'll have to share those when we do our thing on the vanderbilt's um it is crazy oh yeah the ceilings are just like clouds and ceilings uh the ornate uh work on every everything it's just it's amazing it's very impressive not a small house now that was built in 1895 for cornelius vanderbilt ii also on newport rhode island is marble house finished in 1892

8:42 For William K. Vanderbilt. If you're going to Newport, those are the first. Go ahead. I was going to say, those are the first two houses you have to see in Newport, Rhode Island. I just got back from there. I hit the both of those. They're beautiful. And what was the marble house designed to replicate? Oh, it's a building. Shoot, I didn't take them down to my notes. Go ahead. The Palace of Versailles in France. Yeah. Because.

9:12 I had visited the Palace of Versailles in France a couple of times. And when I walked in those doors with my daughter and my husband, the very first thing out of my mouth and the lady that you get your tour tickets from was sitting over to the right-hand side was, holy crap, this looks like the Palace of Versailles in miniature. And her mouth dropped open and she goes, how did you know that? And I said, because I've been there. And she said, that's what this is modeled after.

9:42 And it does look like a mini version of the Palace of Versailles. I got in trouble at the Marble House for correcting the tour guide on some of the history on the Vanderbilts. My wife punched me. Of course you did. You got to get it right, especially when you do it for a living. But they didn't get too mad at me. All right. So that's another Vanderbilt house. This one here is called Ochre Court.

10:13 And the same architect. He's a busy guy. This is built in 1892 for a guy by the name of Ogden Golay. Not a household name, but he should have been. He inherited his father's wealth and just ran his real estate empire. He was a businessman. He was a socialite. He's a yachtsman. He's a member of the elite status of the Club of 400. And, of course, his wife marries Cornelius Vanderbilt III. Next building we have is Belcourt Castle.

10:50 This is built in 1894 for Oliver Belmont. This guy's father came to America a few decades earlier as an agent of the Rothschild banking family. And if you've heard of the Belmont Stakes, one of the Triple Crown races, that's named after Oliver's father, August. So another high society, which is what you'd expect when you build a house like this. And these houses are just built to show off their status. We've got the Chateau Surmer.

11:23 which is he did the 1870s remodel. This is built for the Wetmore family. And we discussed the Wetmores because they've had several bonesmen, a lot of more senators and house members from Rhode Island. That's the Wetmore family's home. And of course, we can't forget the Biltmore estate, the largest house, private house in American history in North Carolina, also built by Hunt. And if you go through this house.

11:56 which I did on the same trip we went through the Vanderbilt's house up in Rhode Island. This house, and I have a lot of pictures of this house too, both inside and out. There's all kinds of little ghoul and goblin things. It is very freaky on the outside. There's a big stable over to the right-hand side in that picture.

12:25 And off to the left-hand side and down a little hill is this ginormous garden and greenhouse with all kinds of crazy plants. And I have pictures of all of that. So we'll go through that when we get to it. But that is an amazing place. Yeah, it is impressive. And obviously, nobody lives there anymore. Most of these houses, nobody lives there anymore.

12:52 now been donated to historical preservation societies so the public can uh go visit them anytime i got the season pass the yearly pass for uh newport because there's so many more houses i want to see so we're going to go back several more times in the next year this of course was built for george washington vanderbilt the third or second where's he george washington vanderbilt the second so a lot of vanderbilt um there's one more worth looking at

13:21 Oops, I didn't grab it. The Elbridge T. Gary Mansion. All the talk about gerrymandering. This is the guy who started it was Elbridge Gary. It's not gerrymandering people. It's Gary. It's hard G. He's one of the founding fathers was at the Philadelphia Convention. When they looked at the map of Massachusetts, they said this thing looks like a darn salamander. There's such a winding district. And that's where the term gerrymandering came from. So I bring all this up. Why are we talking about architecture? Well.

13:53 Give me one second, see if I can get back to where I'm trying to be. Follow your little line back there. There we go. We went through that little architectural journey to point something out. This is a relatively young secret society on Yale's campus. And we start going through the people who were involved in the early decades. None of them are very prominent, nor are they extremely wealthy. Yet they're able to hire the most expensive architect in the world.

14:36 to build their tomb. And that's a big mystery. So let's talk about the tomb itself. It's located on High Street on the Yale campus. It's designed in the Egyptian revival style, which contrasts with the Gothic architecture of the whole university. It's got a windowless exterior, which they say exudes a sense of secrecy. You've got the bronze entry doors with geometric designs, suggestions of Masonic origins.

15:12 although we don't see a whole lot of that later on. They've got hieroglyphics, which add to the mystery. And here's a quote, a guy by the name of Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg. He writes that up until as recent a date as 1860, Keyes had a great difficulty in making up its crowd, rarely being able to secure the full 15 upon the night of giving out its elections. That changed when they built the tomb, and it became a legitimate rival to Skull and Bones.

15:44 So the question I ask again is where did the money come from? Okay. There are last count about 41 secret societies on the Yale's campus. Interestingly enough, they are all registered with the IRS as charitable organizations, 501c3s. Why does that matter? Well, because they got to file taxes and we get some information on them. You've probably read and other people who've looked at Skoll and Key have said that

16:21 It's the wealthiest of the secret societies. Okay. Nobody ever asked what's that based on? Well, I found it. I tracked it down. Follow the money. Somewhat. Okay, here it is. Business Insider. Let me blow this up a little bit. Track down some of the, it says Yale secret societies often seem shrouded in mystery. They are bastions of influence and intrigue that hold among their members some of the world's most powerful people.

17:09 And then they talked about 501c3 and how they tracked down the seven biggest of these secret societies, what their endowments or their trusts, how much they had in there. And that's how they're measuring the wealth of the secret society, which is absolutely a ridiculous criteria. There's many other ways to determine the wealth of it. But the amount of money they have in their bank accounts, there's something called St. Elmo, got $90,000.

17:36 Founded in 1889, its notable alumni include HBO's girls actress Alison Williams and former U.S. attorney John Ashcroft. So that's it. That's not a rival to Skull and Bones. Agreed? Yes. Another one with about $2 million is something called Berzelius. And it files its taxes under something called the Colony Foundation. Berzelius, founded in 1848. Notable alumni is Bill DeWitt III, the president of the St. Louis Cardinals. Okay.

18:07 Not quite Skull and Bones, is it? No. Skull and Bones only has $4 million in the Russell Trust. RTA Inc. is the Russell Trust Association. Russell was one of the founders of Skull and Bones back in the 1830s. He used to put all the business inside the Russell Trust. And, of course, we know the dozens and dozens of very famous, prominent alumni of Skull and Bones. But apparently they only have $4 million in the trust. Something called the Elizabethan Club, $4.2 million.

18:40 It's founded in 1911, describes itself as a social club, and members dedicate their time to the discussion of arts and literature of Elizabethan era. Notable members include Cole Porter, the famed composer and songwriter. Now, if you're at Yale University and Skull and Bones taps you on the shoulder, and these Elizabethan club people tap you on the shoulder, which one are you going to go to? All right, here's another prominent one known as Book and Snake. Founded in 1863.

19:11 Doesn't really give us what it's for, but their alumni include Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, and a Charles Rivkin, the current assistant secretary of state. So, again, not too exciting. Wolf said, one of the big three, it has a reputation primarily of tapping the prep school type and was the last all-male society. Most notable alumni was hedge fund magnate Tom Steyer.

19:43 Again, we don't know too much more about Wolf's Head. We don't have a roster of its members. And then, of course, the scrolling key that has the most money in our bank accounts, so they're called the wealthiest. But I would say that's probably a misnomer. Would you not agree? Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, yeah. There's no real explanation for it. And I haven't dug through the taxes myself, whether that's always been the case, whether that was just a snapshot for one year. But I still want to ask a mystery. Who came up with all the money to build?

20:18 The scrolling key tomb. Well, let's take a look at their founders. Okay. Let's go a little bit more before we go into the founders. They have some traditions. At the close of Thursday and Sunday sessions, the members go out in the front steps of the tomb and they sing a song called Troubadour. Well, I made a mistake of looking up the Troubadour. And I'm going to play it. Okay.

20:52 And you are going to stop me as soon as you can't take it anymore because this thing is bloody awful. This is awful to my ears. Make sure you can hear it. You can hear it? Yes. All right. I'm going to go to full screen. Gay the troubadour touched his guitar when he was hastening home from the war. Singing from Palestine.

21:39 All right, that's all I can take. Okay, now the difference between you and I, Brady, is I grew up listening to that music. So I could listen to that song the whole time. That's the music my parents played at home. So obviously you did not grow up with that.

21:59 But even just that little bit that you played, they're talking about coming home from war. Yeah, I read through the lyrics. I couldn't really detect any real meaning to it. I mean, there's got to be something in there. I mean, I could repost the lyrics. I have them somewhere around here. I find that interesting. Here, hang on a second. Let me see if I can find it. That's okay. We can do it later. No, I should have really quickly. It is weird that the people that...

22:32 promote us going to war would adopt a song about coming home from war as basically heroes okay gailey the troubadour touched his guitar when he was hastening home from the war sing from palestine hither i come lady love lady love welcome me home she for the troubadour hopelessly wept sadly she thought of him while others slept singing in search of the would i might roam

23:03 troubadour trooper come to thy home heart was a troubadour breathing her name under the battlements softly he came singing from palestine there i come lady love lady love welcome me home palestine i thought that place didn't exist but my whole point about this is can you imagine you're a college kid 21 years old and you got to do this twice a week with with for 15 14 year brothers go out in their front steps and sing this song week after week after week gotta have some meaning i couldn't decipher it

23:37 All right. They signed their letters with the symbols C.S.P. and CCJ. We don't officially know what that means. The speculation out there is that CSP stands for Collegium Sanctum Petrae in Latin, which would be the College of the Sacred Rock. And CCI would be Collegium Custodium Justitiae, which would be College of the Keepers of Justice.

24:09 That's part of their symbolism. They hold biannual events called a Z session. Not too much is known of those. Here's a fun one. The members sign letters to each other, YIT, which we believe stands for yours in the tomb. Skull and Bones signs their letters yours in 322, which is, of course, the Skull and Bones Masonic symbol. In my fraternity, we had something similar. I'm not going to give away the secrets.

24:41 you were sworn to secrecy but i think that's very common to have special letters to identify your brothers in the fraternal organization so do you know what the date of that song is from yeah i do um 1951 was when it was released uh the song's written in 1820s and but the tennessee ernie uh ford version of it i did have that i don't have it handy but he made it it's uh 1956. oh i

25:16 Okay. This says 1951, but okay. That's where he may have done it more than once, but the recording we just played was from his album from 1956. Okay. Oh, I guess it was released as a single in 51. There you go. And I never have to hear that song again for the rest of my life. All right. So let's get into the founders. Shall we? Okay. Back to our screen share. Say back to our Miro board. Scrolling Keys founders. We're going to feature four of these guys.

26:04 They pretty much did most of the heavy lifting. And again, the story was they didn't like the way Skull and Bones was doing things. So they decided to start their own and base it on merit. The first guy we have is a John Addison Porter, class of 1842. What's great about him? Let's talk about him a little bit. Born in Catskill, New York. Graduated Yale 1842. Becomes a professor at Delaware College until 1847. Moves to Germany and studies at University of Geisen.

26:41 Comes back in 1850, becomes a professor at Brown University, and then in 1852 becomes a professor of chemistry at Yale. The Yale Scientific School would later be called the Sheffield Scientific School, which is named after his wife's maiden name. He's the namesake for what's called the John Addison Porter Prize. And that is a literary award given to Yale, given by Yale to the best work of scholarship in any field.

27:15 where it is possible, this is a quote, where it's possible through original effort to gather and relate facts or principles or both and to present the results in such a literary form as to make the product of general human interest. That sounds like a pretty holistic academic career and award. There has nothing to do with all the SPI stuff we usually talk about. Would you agree? Yes. I read through the list of all the people that have won that John Addison Porter Prize.

27:47 Nobody really notable that shows up in our cloak and dagger stories, but there were two people from the Thatcher family, Thacker, T-H-A-C-H-E-R, which we've run into multiple times, including skull and bones. John would die in 1866 at the age of 44. So, yeah, this is the guy who came up with scroll and key, came up with those lofty ideals, and apparently lived a life that shows it that he actually meant it, purely scholarly.

28:22 And he was a professor of chemistry? Yeah. But again, that's not the normal people we feature. We look for people that are, oh, I don't know, a little bit more insidious. Nothing on his records indicates that he had anything to do with politics or intrigue at all. Okay. Our next guy is going to be Leonard Case Jr., a co-founder. Sporn in nice mutton chops, huh? Born in 1820 in Cleveland, Ohio.

29:02 I just visited the infantry museum here at Fort Benning. And one of the things that you notice about people from this air is the hair and the, the long sideburns. It was just interesting to note the, they all look like that. It was an interesting fashion statement. Okay. This guy comes from, born in Cleveland, Ohio. His father is a prominent lawyer in Ohio. Who else do we know from Ohio?

29:33 People like, I don't know, the Rockefellers and all these people out of Cincinnati, the Tafts, etc. Don't see any connection to them with the cases. His brother, William Case, was once the mayor of Cleveland. Leonard Case Jr. Go ahead. Yeah, well, ties to Cleveland is very interesting, just as a note. Yeah. So he graduates from Yale with honors in mathematics and languages.

30:10 Then he goes back to Ohio and goes to Cincinnati Law School in 1844. Goes and works for his father's law firm. And a lot of what they were doing was they owned property down in Cleveland. And there were some lawsuits. They were involved in a big settlement. And he was involved in that. That was most of his legal work. Stays out of political life altogether for the most part. Then he goes and builds and finances where it is now the Cleveland City Hall. He would lease it to the city.

30:46 And one of the things he had in his will says, how to dispose of this property so that it shall most benefit the city has given me much concern. But on one thing I am determined, not a dollar of it shall, so far as I can help, go into the hands of politicians to be mismanaged and wasted. Let's make that a banner. So is this guy like a sort of anti-Skull and Bones at this point? Yeah. Leonard would never marry.

31:20 He was absolutely devoted to academic affairs. That was his life. He would then, on his death, would endow what's called the Case School of Applied Science with a $1.25 million endowment. And that case school later merges. It's now what we know as the Case Western Reserve University, which has a pretty good reputation. Again, nothing nefarious, right? Right. All right, let's go to our next founder.

31:58 Got to be somebody interesting in this founding class, right? Well, I'm going to come back to one of them, but keep going. All right. This is Theodore Runyon, class of 1842. He's born in 1822 in Somerville, New Jersey, a descendant from Huguenots. He'd get admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1846 and practice law and new work until the Civil War. He then becomes a brigadier general in the New Jersey Militia. How does that work?

32:37 Probably haven't fired a gun in 20 years, get to be officers. Yeah. I mean, that's consistently what we saw with these state militias in the Civil War. I don't know if it's the wealthier families protecting their sons to make sure they're officers as opposed to grunts, but apparently this guy becomes a brigadier general pretty quick. He commanded the 4th Division of the Northeastern Virginia in 1861, but he was held in reserve during the Battle of Bull Run and never really saw much combat.

33:14 1864, he goes back to Newark and is the mayor for a few years, becomes the president of the Manufacturers National Bank of Newark, and then the chancellor of the state of New Jersey for 14 years. Without any explanation, in 1893, Grover Cleveland appoints him the U.S. ambassador to the newly formed country of Germany. Now, what about his background?

33:48 leads you to believe he's qualified to be an ambassador to Germany. That's interesting. Yeah, I couldn't come up with an answer. I tried like four different search engines and AIs. Nobody really knows. So if someone finds it, let me know. He dies in Germany three years later, and that's the end of his story. I mean, I'm sure he has some academic connections, but there you go. All right, the last of our four founders, this guy by the name of William.

34:25 Lathrop Kingsley. He's so famous, there's no pictures of him exist on the internet. So I pulled up the guide to the Kingsley Memorial Collection, which is named after him. He's born in 1824 in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a Yale professor. He's the namesake for the Kingsley Trust Association, which is the trust that runs the money for Skrull and Key. I have no idea why he got that honor.

35:00 It didn't seem like he had a ton of money. His dad was just a professor. But there you go. After Yale, he goes to Yale Law School and then spends three years at Divinity School. Spends time in Europe and in ministry roles in Ohio. Then from 1857 to 1892, he becomes the editor and the proprietor of a periodical called The New Englander. And this is a prominent literary and theological periodical.

35:38 He didn't get much monetary reward for it. Basically, his life's work is putting out papers about life in New England. He would go on to author a comprehensive history of Yale College in 1879. I bet that's probably worth reading. This Kingsley Memorial Collection you're seeing on the screen is basically all of his writings put into one collection. And where is it held at? It's at Yale University.

36:14 Apparently he was a very notorious writer. I guess his epitaph says his legacy reflects a deep devotion to scholarship, faith and Yale's intellectual life. So those are the four main founders. A lot of the other people, the other group of that 11 don't even have a Wikipedia bio. They just weren't that prominent. So you wanted to go back to one. What do you have? John Addison Porter. So let me tell you what my takeaway of what you just presented.

36:49 This appears to be, you know how kind of the takeaway from Skull and Bones is the string pullers up here. And this seems to be the technocrat level of this that maybe didn't warrant the top 15 slots.

37:18 If you go back to John Addison Porter, he built the original Sheffield Scientific School Laboratory. And did you come across this Sheffield Scientific School? I did. Okay. And if you look at that, he also wrote a manual called First Steps in Chemical Analysis.

37:48 And if you look into that school in New Haven, Connecticut, it basically dealt with what we would call today modern day engineering. It was financed by a railroad magnate, Joseph Sheffield. And it goes on and talks about civil and mechanical engineering, military drawing and experimental.

38:17 physics and some of the the people that were involved in um like precious metal um like how you find it the technology for that um and physiological chemistry were involved in that and i noticed that a couple of the others here had ties to sheffield too

38:47 So I find it interesting, like William Wrigley Jr. of the Wrigley family was a graduate of Sheffield. And that school produced a lot of the technocrats that worked for the railroad magnets. So they also created the mining engineers that worked for the...

39:17 uh carnegies and the the kaisers and those types of people so this almost seems to me to be like the next level down of people that are more the hands-on if you will the applied science version of them that's just my takeaway yeah again i think it has to do with you know how they initiate people you know the skull and bone is always about connections these guys are very academic um academically focused

39:47 now as we go on through the years and scrolling key gets a little bit more prominent you're going to see some names uh that interact with some of our skull and bonesmen and you'll know some of the names we'll have a couple big ones coming in a little bit but uh these early years there's really nothing um the 1850s 40s and 50s there's almost no mention of anybody with a wiki page worth talking about you have one mayor of chicago who was a u.s rep and another guy

40:15 Homer Sprague was the president of the University of North Dakota. That doesn't excite anybody. I do have a couple of interesting ones from the 1850s. Yeah, let's do that. So the 1850s, we've got a couple guys. One, Randall Lee Gibson, and I spelled it wrong. My apologies. Just caught that. He's class of 1853. This is a fun story. Born in 1832 in Kentucky. His great-great-grandfather.

40:57 was a guy by the name of Gideon Gibson. Gideon Gibson was a free man of color who married a white woman and owned land and owned slaves. That's his ancestor. His family moves to Louisiana when he's a kid, and he would, after Yale, end up going to law school at the University of Louisiana, which is now Tulane University. Civil War breaks out. He's in the South, so guess who he fights for? The South. He's a colonel in the 13th Louisiana Infantry.

41:31 By 1864, he becomes a brigadier general. He fought in the Atlanta campaign. Why is that a big deal? What's the Atlanta campaign? Yeah, they burned it to the ground. Yeah, that's Sherman's March. They just got fighting against that. And I don't care if you're a pro-North or what have you. Sherman was a butcher because they're burning women and children to the ground. And that really set the stage for Reconstruction.

41:58 You know, this is a military occupation for the next 12 years, what the North did to the South, and was it by imperial powers. Doesn't matter how you feel about Civil War, that is an absolute fact that the North was brutal on that march. He would also, okay, he gets assigned to the defense of Mobile, Alabama, and there's something called the Spanish Fort Siege, where he actually pretty brilliantly held his men in the fort to the very last second when the North got there, and he got everyone out at the last minute. So he was...

42:33 given a lot of military accolades for that he'd get captured at cuba station alabama in may 1865 and was pardoned in 1866. what was he pardoned for well they didn't say because he can't say he was pardoned for sedition because they couldn't legally prove that secession was illegal so it's interesting but i'm not going to relitigate the civil war on this show so then

43:09 In 1874, he gets elected to the House of Representatives. And he had a famous bill which sponsored the levies and improvements of the Mississippi River Bill, which actually did a lot for building our infrastructure up and down the Mississippi. Became a U.S. Senator in 1883 and died in office in 1892. So interesting life, huh? It also says that while he was in Congress, he served on the Committee for Armed Forces and framed the early plans for the modern day U.S. Navy.

43:42 That would be the right time for that, huh? Oh, yeah. Hey, he's in there right when the Office of Naval Intelligence is invented. Yeah. Just to bring up a fun subject. Yes. Do you want to tell the audience what that's all about? No. I talked about it yesterday on the show. We all know the distinction between military intelligence and the CIA. We know the difference. Apparently this guy does, too. So that's Randall Gibson.

44:13 Again, a guy with a bio like this when we're doing Skull and Bones, I wouldn't have even mentioned him. There's just nothing nefarious there, besides being a politician, I guess. Our next guy is a guy by the name of George Shiraz Jr., 1853. Got the mutton chops going again. This guy's interesting. Born in 1832 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Starts out at Ohio University and then transfers to Yale.

44:50 where he gets tapped for scrolling key yeah you don't see that very often but again this is not a guy who comes from it's more of a blue collar guy right right and that's kind of the theme here that i'm seeing this is like the the competent technocrat um class but go ahead yeah the problem with that description is i always use technocrat in a negative terminology and you're using you're giving it more benign meaning than i like to do so i agree with your idea we just need to find another term that

45:20 reconciles with my bias against technocrats. Well, we could call them the blue collar version of Skull and Bones. But you also don't see a whole lot of networking like you do in Skull and Bones. It's like the scrolling key is just really just sort of an academic credential, less than a network. You don't see that early on at all. Yeah. Or Skull and Bones, you saw the intermarriage of the family from day one. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So it's a totally different culture here. There's the old money and...

45:48 The bright guys are smart enough to get into school on their own merit without having that. But again, without the smart people below them, they have no power. Of course, that's the Praetorian Guard. It's always been that way. Yeah. Yeah. And I think this maybe we should call them the Praetorian Guard that the academic version of the Praetorian Guard, because these are the smart people, the chemists, the. Yeah. So.

46:15 the military guy who designs the modern day navy these are the the worker bee versions of but go ahead okay so starts at ohio u gets to yale gets tapped he starts law school at yale and then leaves and finishes his law training under a law office you could do that apprenticeship he would practice law in a place called dubuque iowa from 1855 to 58.

46:44 And then we moved to Pittsburgh and practiced from 1858 to 92. So nice little 34-year career in Pittsburgh. 1992, he gets nominated by President Harrison to be a Supreme Court justice. Now, how does a Pittsburgh lawyer get that? It kind of helps when your third cousin is the Secretary of State, Joseph B. Bradley. That's who recommended him to Harrison, and he becomes a Supreme Court justice.

47:20 So here's where it gets. Well, you got to go into him on the Supreme Court because this is fun stuff. And I can't skip over this part of history. There are two major decisions that he was part of. And he was on the right side of one of them. And I would say the wrong side of the other. First one is a case called Pollock versus Farmers Loan and Trust Company in 1895. Why is that important? Well, this is all about the income tax. And I'm going to get a little wonky here. So Congress, the Constitution does not allow for.

47:53 an income tax and the language is very specific it has to do with apportionment it has to be all taxes the congress levies has to be levied paid by the state in a portion with their representation in congress so the more congress people you get the more you pay in taxes the fewer congressmen you get the less your taxes are this was the balance they did at the philadelphia convention in 1787 a balance between the big states and the small states it had to find you get more representation you pay more fair enough yes

48:24 They debated that ad nauseum in Philadelphia. But the key is that it was apportioned to the state for them to pay. There was no direct income tax allowed. Correct. Under the Constitution. Civil War comes up and Congress passes the Revenue Act of 1861, which was basically 3% tax on income of anyone making over $800 a year. That's about 28 grand today. I'd be okay with a 3% tax.

48:56 I probably would not throw tea into the harbor with a 3% tax, although the founding fathers would have. So that's our first direct income tax in the Civil War, and that pays about one-fifth of the government's revenue for the war. Because it was an emergency measure, that income tax got repealed in 1872. This is Reconstruction period. This is the Gilded Age. This is everything going on in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s. We pretty much have single-party rule in D.C. Those are the Republicans. The robber barons are...

49:26 making a lot of money, a lot of it on what we call federally funded internal improvements, which requires federal funds. So they decided to come up with another tax in 1894. This is called the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which created decreased tariffs, which was great for the businesses, and increased, created a direct tax on everyone else. This is our big multinational corporations shifting their taxes onto us.

49:56 This creates an unapportioned direct tax. This goes to the Supreme Court pretty quickly. And Mr. Shiras Jr. votes with majority in a 5-4 opinion that overturns the act. No income tax. It is unconstitutional. The chief justice writes the opinion. It's got the name of Melville Fuller. And he writes, the federal tax on income derived from property is unconstitutional when not apportioned among the states according to representation in the House, as we just said.

50:27 Yes, that's the Constitution. Yeah, who wants the income tax? People that want to suck at the government's teat. And also socialists. So much so that the Socialist Labor Party has been advocating for a graduated income tax since 1887. All of that gets overturned with the 16th Amendment in 1913, which gives us the direct tax. And I think I should probably read the 16th Amendment real quick because I got it up here. There it is.

51:10 Somehow we got three quarters of the states to agree to this. The Congress shall have the power to lay and hold and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived without apportionment among several states and without any regard to any census or enumeration. And that ladies and gentlemen is how we stopped being free people. Yeah. And we've been at war ever since. Yes, we have because the government now has almost unlimited funds.

51:44 And the people who suck at the teeth of the government, who we like to, you know, the Hamiltonians, the Lincolnians, the robber barons who've made all their fortunes, a lot of it with taxpayer out of tax dollars now have more dollars to go to. And now they're sitting at the foundations and the think tanks and in the political purposes that direct where this new tax dollar is going to go, because now they've already cemented their position. And that's how our country was stolen is right there. So I think that's kind of important case to do is on. And he voted the right way.

52:15 He did. You got it right. The court's holding regarding taxation of interest income was later overruled in 1988. South Carolina versus Bakers. Now you get taxed on interest. Unless it's municipal bonds. Something we need to fix. All right. Another really famous case was Plessy versus Ferguson. 1896. The Supreme Court rules.

52:45 The legal segregation laws do not violate the Constitution. This creates the, quote, separate but equal doctrine and legitimized the Jim Crow laws. The Supreme Court ruled seven to one against Plessy. That's the creator of this ruling. And Saras is one of the people that voted for Plessy or voted for the judgment. He's in the majority. So who's Plessy? This is a fun story. The mixed race man.

53:17 And he boarded a whites-only train car in New Orleans. They had white cars and colored cars. That violates Louisiana. It's called the Separate Car Act of 1890, which dictated equal but separate railroad accommodations. Plessy gets charged for the crime and appeals it. Governor John Howard Ferguson, that's the Ferguson in there, denies his request to dismiss the charges as unconstitutional.

53:54 So it gets to the Supreme Court. They issue a 7-1 decision. And in the quote, they say the 14th Amendment established legal equality. It did not and could not require elimination of all distinctions based upon color. That would not be very popular today. Interestingly, that decision in Plessy v. Ferguson has never been overturned.

54:26 Brown versus Board of Education of 1954 weakened Plessy, but it did not overturn it. So legally, the Plessy versus Ferguson ruling is in some way still on the books to this very day. Yeah. So a little fascinating career. But again, getting to the Supreme Court is a big deal. But is there anything you see there that's a little bit skull and bonesy at all? No. Really don't. Sears dies in 1903 in Pittsburgh. He retired from SCOTUS right before dying.

55:01 Interestingly enough, he's got a son named George Shuras III, who served in Congress from Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1905. His son came from the Phillips Academy in Andover, grooming school, went to Cornell undergrad and then Yale Law. And George Shuras III was an avid photographer and naturalist. And National Geographic calls him the father of wildlife photography.

55:33 Well, that's interesting. Yeah. So, well, I think we went a little quicker than I thought. You know, really, that's just to set the baseline for who Scroll and Keys is. And again, I think that may change as time goes on and to get more notoriety. But it appears to me that they were founded for pretty holistic reasons to be the antithesis of Skull and Bones. Yeah, you've not convinced me that they're the antithesis, but they are definitely not as nefarious.

56:10 It's still a club. It just does not appear to be as inbred. Correct. There's really nothing exciting in the 1860s. They really don't start taking off until that tomb is built. Then you start getting some fun names. We'll get to those next week. I don't want to jump ahead yet, but the 1860s, I'm not even going to bother with an entry. One congressman is listed. Again, we don't have a full roster.

56:39 of Skrull and Key like we did for a bunch of decades of Skull and Bones. Most of what we know is people that wrote their own memoirs. I was in Skrull and Key and some other observations. It's been gathered by historians through a lot of years. Skrull and Bones, we got lucky because of Charlotte Izzard. So that's all I really had prepared for today. That's awesome. It's a perfect one hour show and you finished within three minutes of it.

57:12 Okay, so we're going to continue on, obviously, with this series. And we anticipate another two shows on Skull and Key. Yeah, Skull and Key. Skull and Key. Skull and Key. Yeah, now you've got me doing it. I think it might be two. It's almost a tongue twister. Yeah. Maybe two or three shows.

57:38 Depends on how much depth we want to go into, because we're going to be sort of repeating a few things on some of the people. But we're definitely going to have an entire show dedicated to the Vanderbilts. I can't wait for that one. Yeah, it's a little bit off our normal theme, but it's not. And we'll tie it together. The way the Vanderbilts actually, the rise and fall, all that good stuff. Yes. But again, there's some other great names. And, you know, our good friend Dr. DeProgram has done a lot of homework on the Auchincloss family. And I have told her.

58:09 we're going to do a high level view of them because they're involved with scrolling key later on, but I'm not going to do the deep dive in the Austrian class because she's done the homework and I don't want to steal her thunder, but we will point you in that direction. Yeah. So that's my caveat. I'm not going to go as deep as we would normally into that family because it's a fun one. And again, that's, I just don't think it's right. Her video is not ready and I don't want to steal someone else's homework. When she does her video, it's her prerogative. Fair enough. Yes, absolutely. She's an amazing researcher.

58:38 Yeah, I got to watch the five minute preview of the video she's putting together. And my wife watched it as well. We absolutely we can't wait for her to get done. I mean, it's it's a she starts out telling some of her story and I'll leave it at that. Yeah. And and you guys need to keep her in your prayers. She is going through some very interesting things right now. So please keep Dr. DeProgram in your prayers.

59:06 And we should tell everyone how to find her channel. I have that real handy. So give me one second. Bear with me. Yeah. She's on X as well. She interfaces with Warhamster and I quite often. But she is extremely busy right now. Yeah. It's Rebooted America is the Rumble channel. Rumble channel. Rebooted America. And she's good. It's really good stuff. But I can't do the work. I can't do the stuff she does.

59:37 No, she is very, very talented. So please go subscribe to her channel and like her videos and follow her on X. You will not be disappointed. She's amazing. Indeed. I agree 100 percent. And she's at her Twitter is at Rebooted America. All one word. Yeah. OK. All right. So we will see you next week. And.

1:00:07 It's going to be a very interesting week next week because, as all of the regulars know, Bridget and I are going to, for the first time, get to be able to do a show together because we're actually going to get to meet each other in Nashville. So we're looking forward to that.

1:00:28 I will see everybody at our normal show at four o'clock this afternoon. You guys have a nice weekend. And thanks for being here, Brady, and bringing all the interesting facts about our history. And we had an architectural lesson today. No one expected that one.

1:00:47 And I'm really excited about the Vanderbilt so that we can show off the pictures for the people in the audience that have not had the opportunity to go through them. There is official photos, but in my opinion, they don't do a lot of the interior justice. And some of the real, and obviously I have a completely different perspective on what I find interesting that I take pictures of.

1:01:17 the breakers or is it the marble one that has the weird little Chinese thing out in the back? Was that the marble? That's marble house. Yeah. Completely out of character. You walk out the back veranda of the marble mansion and tucked over on the right hand corner is this big gaudy Oriental garden looking thing. And I was like, what the heck is that? But.

1:01:47 It was like where they went and had tea. It's right off by where the cliff is that goes down to the water. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, Chinese tea house. It's overlooking the water. So my wife and I stopped there and had a drink. There's a restaurant in there. And apparently when we build our dream house in Florida, I've got to build her a tea house smaller than that. But that's on our agenda now, thanks to that trip. And hopefully not that green color. Do you think I have a say in this?

1:02:16 Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a tea house, but my tea house would look like the tea house on the island at Lake Tahoe. Have you been to Lake Tahoe? I lived there for two years. Okay, so you know the little tea house that I'm talking about on the little island at the south of the lake? That's my kind of tea house. That was beautiful. It was relaxing. It was calm and looking. That thing right there is, to me, hideous.

1:02:47 that's just me very good well until next until next time everybody cheers see you guys later

Entities here

Claims made here

Scroll and Key Society split_off_from Skull and Bones host_asserted ▶ 2:30

“is founded in 1842. That's 10 years after Skull and Bones. And there we go. That is their symbol. Somebody made this. It's not actually their insignia. The scroll and the key. The reason they founded …”

Richard Morris Hunt built Scroll and Key Tomb host_asserted ▶ 5:43

“They built their tomb. And we're just going to take a look at that real quick because I think this kind of hammers home the point. This is the tomb. Wow. So what do we know about the tomb? Built in 18…”

Richard Morris Hunt member_of National Secular Society host_asserted ▶ 6:20

“So Hunt's one of the most famous architects in American history. He would be the co-founder of the American Institute of Architects and is the founding member of the National Sculpture Society. What e…”

Richard Morris Hunt founded American Institute of Architects host_asserted ▶ 6:20

Richard Morris Hunt studied_at École des Beaux-Arts host_asserted ▶ 7:00

“Governor Morris, who's one of the two Morrises that are at the Philadelphia Convention. That's one of his ancestors. Hunt gets educated in Europe and becomes the first American to ever study architect…”

Richard Morris Hunt built The Breakers host_asserted ▶ 7:37

“He did the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. And whose money paid for that? The Gilded Age. Yeah. The robber barons. Then, of course, he gets to Newport, Rhode Island, and he builds the Breakers…”

The Breakers built_for Cornelius Vanderbilt Starr host_asserted ▶ 8:09

“yeah so do i we'll we'll have to share those when we do our thing on the vanderbilt's um it is crazy oh yeah the ceilings are just like clouds and ceilings uh the ornate uh work on every everything it…”

Richard Morris Hunt built Marble House host_asserted ▶ 8:09

Marble House modeled_after Palace of Versailles host_asserted ▶ 8:42

“For William K. Vanderbilt. If you're going to Newport, those are the first. Go ahead. I was going to say, those are the first two houses you have to see in Newport, Rhode Island. I just got back from …”

Richard Morris Hunt built Ochre Court host_asserted ▶ 10:13

“And the same architect. He's a busy guy. This is built in 1892 for a guy by the name of Ogden Golay. Not a household name, but he should have been. He inherited his father's wealth and just ran his re…”

Richard Morris Hunt built Belcourt Castle host_asserted ▶ 10:13

Ogden Goelet married Cornelius Vanderbilt Starr host_asserted ▶ 10:13

Richard Morris Hunt built Chateau-sur-Mer host_asserted ▶ 10:50

“This is built in 1894 for Oliver Belmont. This guy's father came to America a few decades earlier as an agent of the Rothschild banking family. And if you've heard of the Belmont Stakes, one of the Tr…”

Oliver Belmont member_of Rothschild family host_asserted ▶ 10:50

Richard Morris Hunt built Biltmore Estate host_asserted ▶ 11:23

“which is he did the 1870s remodel. This is built for the Wetmore family. And we discussed the Wetmores because they've had several bonesmen, a lot of more senators and house members from Rhode Island.…”

Biltmore Estate built_for George Washington host_asserted ▶ 12:52

“now been donated to historical preservation societies so the public can uh go visit them anytime i got the season pass the yearly pass for uh newport because there's so many more houses i want to see …”

Elbridge Gerry born_in Salem, Massachusetts host_asserted ▶ 13:21

“Oops, I didn't grab it. The Elbridge T. Gary Mansion. All the talk about gerrymandering. This is the guy who started it was Elbridge Gary. It's not gerrymandering people. It's Gary. It's hard G. He's …”

Scroll and Key Tomb located_in High Street host_asserted ▶ 14:36

“to build their tomb. And that's a big mystery. So let's talk about the tomb itself. It's located on High Street on the Yale campus. It's designed in the Egyptian revival style, which contrasts with th…”

Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg wrote_about Scroll and Key Society book_quoted ▶ 15:12

“although we don't see a whole lot of that later on. They've got hieroglyphics, which add to the mystery. And here's a quote, a guy by the name of Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg. He writes that up until as recen…”

Bill DeWitt III member_of Berzelius host_asserted ▶ 17:36

“Founded in 1889, its notable alumni include HBO's girls actress Alison Williams and former U.S. attorney John Ashcroft. So that's it. That's not a rival to Skull and Bones. Agreed? Yes. Another one wi…”

John Ashcroft member_of St. Elmo host_asserted ▶ 17:36

Alison Williams member_of St. Elmo host_asserted ▶ 17:36

Cole Porter member_of Elizabethan Club host_asserted ▶ 18:40

“It's founded in 1911, describes itself as a social club, and members dedicate their time to the discussion of arts and literature of Elizabethan era. Notable members include Cole Porter, the famed com…”

Henry Louis Gates Jr. member_of Book and Snake host_asserted ▶ 19:11

“Doesn't really give us what it's for, but their alumni include Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, and a Charles Rivkin, the current assistant secretary of state. So, again, not too exciting.…”

Tom Steyer member_of Wolf's Head Society host_asserted ▶ 19:11

Charles Rivkin member_of Book and Snake host_asserted ▶ 19:11

John Addison Porter member_of Scroll and Key Society host_asserted ▶ 26:04

“They pretty much did most of the heavy lifting. And again, the story was they didn't like the way Skull and Bones was doing things. So they decided to start their own and base it on merit. The first g…”

John Addison Porter studied_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 26:04

John Addison Porter taught_at Delaware College host_asserted ▶ 26:04

John Addison Porter studied_at University of Giessen host_asserted ▶ 26:04

John Addison Porter taught_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 26:41

“Comes back in 1850, becomes a professor at Brown University, and then in 1852 becomes a professor of chemistry at Yale. The Yale Scientific School would later be called the Sheffield Scientific School…”

Sheffield Scientific School named_after John Addison Porter host_asserted ▶ 26:41

John Addison Porter taught_at Providence, Rhode Island host_asserted ▶ 26:41

Leonard Case Jr. member_of Scroll and Key Society host_asserted ▶ 28:22

“And he was a professor of chemistry? Yeah. But again, that's not the normal people we feature. We look for people that are, oh, I don't know, a little bit more insidious. Nothing on his records indica…”

Leonard Case Jr. studied_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 29:33

“People like, I don't know, the Rockefellers and all these people out of Cincinnati, the Tafts, etc. Don't see any connection to them with the cases. His brother, William Case, was once the mayor of Cl…”

Leonard Case Jr. built Cleveland City Hall host_asserted ▶ 30:10

“Then he goes back to Ohio and goes to Cincinnati Law School in 1844. Goes and works for his father's law firm. And a lot of what they were doing was they owned property down in Cleveland. And there we…”

Leonard Case Jr. studied_at Cincinnati Law School host_asserted ▶ 30:10

Case School of Applied Science merged_with Case Western Reserve University host_asserted ▶ 31:20

“He was absolutely devoted to academic affairs. That was his life. He would then, on his death, would endow what's called the Case School of Applied Science with a $1.25 million endowment. And that cas…”

Leonard Case Jr. funded Case School of Applied Science host_asserted ▶ 31:20

Theodore Runyon member_of New Jersey Militia host_asserted ▶ 31:58

“Got to be somebody interesting in this founding class, right? Well, I'm going to come back to one of them, but keep going. All right. This is Theodore Runyon, class of 1842. He's born in 1822 in Somer…”

Theodore Runyon born_in Somerville, New Jersey host_asserted ▶ 31:58

Theodore Runyon operated_in Battle of Bull Run host_asserted ▶ 32:37

“Probably haven't fired a gun in 20 years, get to be officers. Yeah. I mean, that's consistently what we saw with these state militias in the Civil War. I don't know if it's the wealthier families prot…”

Theodore Runyon headed National Association of Manufacturers host_asserted ▶ 33:14

“1864, he goes back to Newark and is the mayor for a few years, becomes the president of the Manufacturers National Bank of Newark, and then the chancellor of the state of New Jersey for 14 years. With…”

Theodore Runyon lived_in Newark host_asserted ▶ 33:14

Grover Cleveland appointed Theodore Runyon host_asserted ▶ 33:14

Theodore Runyon died_in Germany host_asserted ▶ 33:48

“leads you to believe he's qualified to be an ambassador to Germany. That's interesting. Yeah, I couldn't come up with an answer. I tried like four different search engines and AIs. Nobody really knows…”

William Laffan Kingsley born_in New Haven, Connecticut host_asserted ▶ 34:25

“Lathrop Kingsley. He's so famous, there's no pictures of him exist on the internet. So I pulled up the guide to the Kingsley Memorial Collection, which is named after him. He's born in 1824 in New Hav…”

William Laffan Kingsley founded Kingsley Trust Association host_asserted ▶ 34:25

William Laffan Kingsley headed The New Englander host_asserted ▶ 35:00

“It didn't seem like he had a ton of money. His dad was just a professor. But there you go. After Yale, he goes to Yale Law School and then spends three years at Divinity School. Spends time in Europe …”

William Laffan Kingsley studied_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 35:00

William Laffan Kingsley authored History of Yale College host_asserted ▶ 35:38

“He didn't get much monetary reward for it. Basically, his life's work is putting out papers about life in New England. He would go on to author a comprehensive history of Yale College in 1879. I bet t…”

John Addison Porter authored First Steps in Chemical Analysis host_asserted ▶ 37:18

“If you go back to John Addison Porter, he built the original Sheffield Scientific School Laboratory. And did you come across this Sheffield Scientific School? I did. Okay. And if you look at that, he …”

John Addison Porter built Sheffield Scientific School host_asserted ▶ 37:18

Sheffield Scientific School funded Joseph Sheffield host_asserted ▶ 37:48

“And if you look into that school in New Haven, Connecticut, it basically dealt with what we would call today modern day engineering. It was financed by a railroad magnate, Joseph Sheffield. And it goe…”

William Wrigley Jr. studied_at Sheffield Scientific School host_asserted ▶ 38:47

“So I find it interesting, like William Wrigley Jr. of the Wrigley family was a graduate of Sheffield. And that school produced a lot of the technocrats that worked for the railroad magnets. So they al…”

Randall Lee Gibson born_in Kentucky host_asserted ▶ 40:15

“Homer Sprague was the president of the University of North Dakota. That doesn't excite anybody. I do have a couple of interesting ones from the 1850s. Yeah, let's do that. So the 1850s, we've got a co…”

Randall Lee Gibson member_of 13th Louisiana Infantry host_asserted ▶ 40:57

“was a guy by the name of Gideon Gibson. Gideon Gibson was a free man of color who married a white woman and owned land and owned slaves. That's his ancestor. His family moves to Louisiana when he's a …”

Gideon Gibson member_of Randall Lee Gibson host_asserted ▶ 40:57

Randall Lee Gibson studied_at Tulane University host_asserted ▶ 40:57

Randall Lee Gibson operated_in Atlanta Campaign host_asserted ▶ 41:31

“By 1864, he becomes a brigadier general. He fought in the Atlanta campaign. Why is that a big deal? What's the Atlanta campaign? Yeah, they burned it to the ground. Yeah, that's Sherman's March. They …”

Randall Lee Gibson operated_in Siege of Spanish Fort host_asserted ▶ 41:58

“You know, this is a military occupation for the next 12 years, what the North did to the South, and was it by imperial powers. Doesn't matter how you feel about Civil War, that is an absolute fact tha…”

Randall Lee Gibson died_in Cuba Station, Alabama host_asserted ▶ 42:33

“given a lot of military accolades for that he'd get captured at cuba station alabama in may 1865 and was pardoned in 1866. what was he pardoned for well they didn't say because he can't say he was par…”

Randall Lee Gibson member_of U.S. Senate host_asserted ▶ 43:09

“In 1874, he gets elected to the House of Representatives. And he had a famous bill which sponsored the levies and improvements of the Mississippi River Bill, which actually did a lot for building our …”

Randall Lee Gibson proposed Levies and Improvements of the Mississippi River Bill host_asserted ▶ 43:09

Randall Lee Gibson founded U.S. Navy host_asserted ▶ 43:09

Randall Lee Gibson member_of Committee for Armed Forces host_asserted ▶ 43:09

Randall Lee Gibson member_of United States House of Representatives host_asserted ▶ 43:09

George Shiras Jr. studied_at Ohio State University host_asserted ▶ 44:13

“Again, a guy with a bio like this when we're doing Skull and Bones, I wouldn't have even mentioned him. There's just nothing nefarious there, besides being a politician, I guess. Our next guy is a guy…”

George Shiras Jr. studied_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 44:13

George Shiras Jr. born_in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania host_asserted ▶ 44:13

George Shiras Jr. lived_in Dubuque, Iowa host_asserted ▶ 46:15

“the military guy who designs the modern day navy these are the the worker bee versions of but go ahead okay so starts at ohio u gets to yale gets tapped he starts law school at yale and then leaves an…”

George Shiras Jr. lived_in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania host_asserted ▶ 46:44

“And then we moved to Pittsburgh and practiced from 1858 to 92. So nice little 34-year career in Pittsburgh. 1992, he gets nominated by President Harrison to be a Supreme Court justice. Now, how does a…”

Benjamin Harrison appointed George Shiras Jr. host_asserted ▶ 46:44

Joseph B. Bradley relationship_with George Shiras Jr. host_asserted ▶ 46:44

George Shiras Jr. member_of Supreme Court of the United States host_asserted ▶ 46:44

George Shiras Jr. participated_in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. host_asserted ▶ 47:20

“So here's where it gets. Well, you got to go into him on the Supreme Court because this is fun stuff. And I can't skip over this part of history. There are two major decisions that he was part of. And…”

Melville Fuller authored Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. host_asserted ▶ 49:56

“This creates an unapportioned direct tax. This goes to the Supreme Court pretty quickly. And Mr. Shiras Jr. votes with majority in a 5-4 opinion that overturns the act. No income tax. It is unconstitu…”

George Shiras Jr. participated_in Plessy v. Ferguson host_asserted ▶ 52:15

“He did. You got it right. The court's holding regarding taxation of interest income was later overruled in 1988. South Carolina versus Bakers. Now you get taxed on interest. Unless it's municipal bond…”

John Howard Ferguson denied Homer Plessy host_asserted ▶ 53:17

“And he boarded a whites-only train car in New Orleans. They had white cars and colored cars. That violates Louisiana. It's called the Separate Car Act of 1890, which dictated equal but separate railro…”

Homer Plessy operated_in New Orleans host_asserted ▶ 53:17

George Shiras Jr. died_in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania host_asserted ▶ 54:26

“Brown versus Board of Education of 1954 weakened Plessy, but it did not overturn it. So legally, the Plessy versus Ferguson ruling is in some way still on the books to this very day. Yeah. So a little…”

George Shiras studied_at Phillips Academy host_asserted ▶ 55:01

“Interestingly enough, he's got a son named George Shuras III, who served in Congress from Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1905. His son came from the Phillips Academy in Andover, grooming school, went to Co…”

George Shiras studied_at Yale University host_asserted ▶ 55:01

George Shiras studied_at Cornell University host_asserted ▶ 55:01

George Shiras member_of George Shiras Jr. host_asserted ▶ 55:01

George Shiras member_of National Geographic Society host_asserted ▶ 55:01