By Anna Von Reitz
It was a sunny day in summer, and unusually quiet. The constant hum of traffic on the nearby road was still. James Clinton Belcher sat down at the old maple table and his hands rested for a moment on its gleaming surface. The late sun slanted through the high windows and cast a warm golden glow over the scene. It was a historic moment: the official end of The American Civil War.
In factual terms, the last shot of The Civil War came in a strange place -- the Bering Sea. It was fired by the CSS Shenandoah, the last Confederate war ship over a year after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
Officially, however, there was no end to the war, both because of British subterfuge and public chaos. The States of the Federation were not in Session after four years of constant disruption and public hazards, and the remaining Federation Officers, a handful of men scattered from Maine to Mississippi, faced a daunting task.
Their mission was to reinstate the civilian government of this country.
There were never a large number of Federation Officers to begin with, and after The Civil War, their numbers were decimated further by age, by deaths, and by diseases that crippled their ability to travel and communicate. The situation was further complicated by wrong-headed assumptions about them and their role.
Average Americans either never had or had forgotten the role of the Federation of States in the welter of semantic confusion about "the Federal Government" and the common description of the Union Army as the "Federal Army" and their troops being characterized as "Federal Troops".
In truth and in fact, the Federation of States wasn't involved in either side of The Civil War, and the handful of beleaguered Federation Officers left to conduct business were largely assumed to be bureaucrats associated with the Lincoln - Johnson Administration.
Nothing could be further from the truth. These Federation Officers were at odds with Lincoln --- not because they favored slavery, not because they fought for the Confederacy --- but because Lincoln was a Bar Attorney who used semantic deceit to obtain a position of power over this country and the American people.
For this reason, the Federation and its Officers were on guard and did not consider the Union victory any certain cause for celebration. Lincoln's death and the Lieber Code established by his Executive Order as Commander-in-Chief, left the Union Army in control of the country. They feared a military junta, both because they expected draconian retribution against average people throughout the South, and because a military takeover could easily subvert the lawful civilian government that they were responsible for restoring.
Their fears were fully justified.
In the spring of 1865, immediately upon hearing about the Armistice, two Federation Officers, an elderly man named Benjamin Belcher, and his son, also named Benjamin, made their way from their home in the newly declared State of West Virginia to the District of Columbia, where they met with President Andrew Johnson. They shared their fears for the country. Johnson agreed and promised to do what he could do.
Johnson did what he could do by declaring "peace upon the land" via three public proclamations issued May 10, 1865, April 2, 1865, and August 20, 1865. This established a public contract promising peace, but it did not actually establish a peace treaty ending the war; Johnson had no ability or authority to accomplish that, and neither did his Administration.
That would have to wait for the actual State Assemblies to act upon. The remaining Federation Officers began preparations to call the actual States of the Union back into Session. In the autumn of 1866, Benjamin Belcher sent two of his younger sons to Washington, DC, to collect the Great Seals belonging to the Federation of States.
They traveled light and on horseback, and accomplished their mission without disturbance, until they were on their way home. A troop of thinly disguised Union Army thugs attacked them, stole the Great Seals, and left the elder son for dead, and the younger one fleeing westward for his life on a horse he captured in the melee.
It is from this younger son that we know how these events transpired.
The Federation Officers who remained were picked off one by one, and so, the actual States were never called back into Session, and America slipped into a stupor of confusion and deceit and armed occupation by her own bought-and-paid-for Armed Forces.
She was also consigned to a condition of perpetual, never-ending war, because those who had the standing and authority to end the conflict "could not be found".
The disloyal and often ignorant officers of the Union Army and their British Allies went on to rule the world, all under color of law, set to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy. They incorporated their version of "the" United States of America to form a Scottish commercial corporation calling itself "The United States of America" in 1868, and they promptly enfranchised Americans as British Territorial U.S. Citizens-- subjects and property belonging to the Queen.
This allowed them to import the King's Bench to this country and to practice their foreign brand of Equity Law on our shores, and otherwise to apply "Special Admiralty" provisions, that allowed them to pillage and plunder the civilian populace at will.
They substituted their corporate elections for our Public Elections in many venues, they substituted their foreign territorial business organizations operating as "States of States" for the original American organizations, and they settled in to glut upon their victims in Gross Breach of Trust and violation of their Commercial Contracts.
Via semantic deceits and all under color of law, they imposed their Raj-like regime on the American States and People, without firing a shot. In time, only a few counties and one State would prevent them from gaining exclusive legislative control of this country.
In time, most Americans would forget about the Federation and the actual American Government --- but not all.
It was uniquely right and fitting that Benjamin Belcher's great-great-Grandson sat down at his kitchen table and signed the International Peace Proclamation officially ending The American Civil War, 160 years after it began.
All over this country sons and daughters of America have awakened and remembered who they are. They have declared their birthright political standing as Americans, made public record of their standing, and gathered together to bring their State Assemblies back into Session.
By roll call vote, these State Assemblies have adopted a formal Peace Treaty ending The American Civil War and they have abolished slavery once and for all, in all jurisdictions.
The International Peace Proclamation serves as Official Notice to all nations, all subcontractors, Agents and Principals, all elected officials and officers, both foreign and domestic. The American People have spoken at last, and their remaining Federation Officers have accomplished their duty: the restoration of the civilian government of this country, six generations and 160 years after the effort began.
FB Friends go to either: www.annavonreitz.com or www.TheAmericanStatesAssembly.net to see a copy of the International Peace Proclamation.
