THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR OPIUM TRADE IN AMERICA

East India Company: From Traders to Rulers
The evolution of – what perhaps became – the world's first joint stock company, its emergence as a global business and its transformation from a commercial organization to a military establishment, which was the main force behind the colonization. It is not so common that one comes across a company that prospered for over 250 years and ruled a subcontinent. The East India Company (EIC) stands apart as the world's first major shareholder company, which ruled a fifth of the world's population, with a quarter million private army and generated revenues much greater than the whole of Britain. It played a key role in the triggering of globalization, long before it became a buzzword. Though, it looked like a multinational company, in action, it was an expansionist nation state. In fact, there is no other powerful company in the history that can be compared with the EIC in terms of longevity and wide-ranging economic, political and cultural influence. The EIC established a distant empire and then set about governing, controlling and exploiting it from a great distance in London. It ruled India with a private army of 26,000 native troops, twice the size of the British Army. 

Compare Flags between the EIC and the US

The seeds of the world's first multinational company were sown on September 24, 1599, when a group of eighty merchants met at the Founders' Hall in the City of London. Under the Chairmanship of the Lord Mayor, Sir Stephen Soane, agreed to petition Elizabeth I, to set up a company to trade with the East Indies. After a series of political negotiations and finance raising, finally the EIC was incorporated on December 31, 1600. Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the Governor and Company of Merchants of London for fifteen years. Henry Soane (1622-1661) also the great-great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson.​

1813: the English Queen (government) abolished the British East India Company monopoly of trade.

In 1833, the British East India Company was deprived of its rights to trade altogether. But in the decades following the war of 1812, increasing demands for opium in China caught the interest of the US.

The grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Warren Delano II) prospered immensely as head of the American firm Russell & Company who bought up opium crops in Turkey meant for sale in China. The Chinese never stopped viewing people like Matheson and W. Delano as criminals, and the conflict eventually escalated into war. The First Opium War ended in British victory in 1842, as did the second in 1858. This finally resulted in the legalization of the sale of opium in China, ending a nearly 100 year struggle over Britain's supposed right to sell opium to China. These wars paved the way for Americans like Delano to sell Opium in China, thus paving the way for the Boston Brahmins and the American .1% Drug Smuggling Pirate Fortune.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's fortune was inherited from his maternal grandfather Warren Delano. In 1830 he was a senior partner of Russell & Company. It was their merchant fleet which carried Sassoon's opium to China and returned with tea. Warren Delano moved to Newburgh, NY. In 1851 his daughter Sara Married a well born neighbor, James Roosevelt - the father of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

John Kerry's maternal grandfather, James Grant Forbes, was born in Shanghai, China, where the Forbes family of China and Boston accumulated a fortune in the opium and China trade. Forbes married Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, who came from a family with deep roots in New England history. Through her, John Kerry is related to four Presidents, including, ironically, George W. Bush (9th cousin, twice removed).

The genealogical relationships between George Walker Bush and John Forbes Kerry through their shared descent from John Dwight of Dedham, Massachusetts, Pres. Bush is a 10th cousin twice removed of Sen. Kerry.

ORIGINAL CHARTERS IN AMERICA LINKING BRITISH ROYALTY TO AMERICAN LAND

        Despite America's seeming "independence" from Great Britain, Great Britain still had discrete but powerful ties to America's land as well as its laws.

So, republics are based on the sanctity of the person.

That is to say, the government is no better than an individual, and no government can vote to remove a right, that some other individual could. By extension of the sanctity of the person, comes a person's property, which is the result of the person's efforts. So, a republic would generally have taxes on consumption and use, but not production.

Those original European Kings and Queens who owned America also owned the bank accounts of their "representatives" AKA the ones who were given the charters.

The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in British America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II. The colony's charter remained in the hands of the Penn family until the American Revolution, when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was created and became one of the original thirteen states. Thomas Paine emigrated to Philadelphia in 1774 at Benjamin Franklin's urging. His tract, Common Sense, published in 1776, was arguably the most famous and influential argument for the Revolution. He was also the first to publicly champion the phrase "United States of America." The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, first used in 1795, is the first long-distance paved road built in the United States.

1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery
Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections
In payment of a debt to Penn's father, Penn had received from King Charles II of England a large land grant west of New Jersey which King Charles II of England named Pennsylvania after William's father, Admiral Penn.Germantown was thus founded along a Lenni Lenape trail four miles (6 km) north of Philadelphia, between the Wissahickon and Wingohocking creeks. The king allowed Penn to establish a proprietary colony where Penn appointed the governor and judges but established an otherwise democratic system of government with freedom of religion, fair trials, elected representatives, and separation of church and state.
Penn had converted to Quakerism. In the 1670 "Hay-market case", William Penn was accused of the crime of 'preaching Quakerism to an unlawful assembly' and while he freely admitted his guilt, he challenged the righteousness of such a law. He had been imprisoned several times for his beliefs.

Right from the start, there was a conflict: are we supposed to be following our own American laws or British inherited laws.

Common Law

Jury nullification
is a de facto power of juries. Judges rarely inform juries of their nullification power. Jury nullification occurs in a trial when a jury reaches a verdict contrary to the judge's instructions as to the law. A jury verdict contrary to the letter of the law pertains only to the particular case before it; however, if a pattern of acquittals develops in response to repeated attempts to prosecute a statutory offence, it can have the de facto effect of invalidating the statute. A pattern of jury nullification may indicate public opposition to an unwanted legislative enactment. Some commonly cited historical examples of jury nullification involve the refusal of American colonial juries to convict a defendant under English law.[2] Juries have also refused to convict due to the perceived injustice of a law in general,[3] or the perceived injustice of the way the law is applied in particular cases.[4] The general power of juries to decide on verdicts was recognised in the English Magna Carta ^[14]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

So jury nullification originated from colonists' desire to resist British law on American land. Importantly, jury nullification STILL EXISTS. The jury has the right to refuse a law it deems unfit (when it comes from the Federal Government). However, often times, the court finds ways of making sure that the jury can't implement this right. 

Berkeley County West Virginia

Despite America's seeming "independence" from Great Britain, Great Britain still had discrete but powerful ties to America's land as well as its laws. This can be observed in the following case.

Berkeley County was created by an act of the House of Burgesses in February 1772 from the northern third of Frederick County (Virginia). At the time of the county's formation it also consisted of the areas that make up the present day Jefferson and Morgan counties. Berkeley County is the state's second oldest county.

Most historians believe that the county was named for Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt (1718-1770), Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1768 to 1770. In 1769, he dissolved the Virginia General Assembly after it adopted two resolutions that he felt bordered on treason (the Assembly declared that Virginia should no longer submit to taxation by England and that Virginia would no longer send its criminals to England for trial). Despite his differences with the General Assembly, Norborne Berkeley was well respected by the colonists. He was referred to as the "good governor of Virginia." There is a monument to his memory in Williamsburg, and two counties were named in his honor, Berkeley (in present day West Virginia) and Botetourt in Virginia.

Other historians claim that the county may have been named in honor of Sir William Berkeley (1610-1677). He was born near London, graduated from Oxford University in 1629, and was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1642. He served as Governor until 1652 and was later reappointed Governor in 1660. He continued to serve as Virginia's Governor until 1677 when he was called back to England. He died later that year, on July 9, 1677. Advocates of Norborne Berkeley note that the other Governor Berkeley (William) was known by some as the "Tyrannical Governor of Virginia" because he ordered the hanging of Nathaniel Bacon's followers for resisting his authority.

Examples of Royalty from the Virginia Historical Society

• Culpeper, Cathrine See: Fairfax, Cathrine (Culpeper), baroness, 1670-1719
• Culpeper, Frances See: Berkeley, Lady Frances (Culpeper), 1634?-1690
• Culpeper, Margaretta (Van Hesse) Lady, 1635-1710
• Culpeper, Thomas 1635-1689 Lord, second baron
• Cumberland, Margaret Russell 1560-1616 Countess, named in third Virginia charter, 4-7-60 Caldwell 3/16
• Cumberland, William Augustus 1721-1765 Duke of
• Cunningham, Elizabeth (McGuire) See: Glencairn, Elizabeth (McGuire) Cunningham, countess, 1724-1801
• Campbell, John 1678-1743 See: Argyle, John 2nd duke of,
• Campbell, John 1705-1782 See: Loudon,John Campbell 4th earl of
• Cavendish, William 1720-1764 See: Devonshire, William Cavendish , 4th duke.

ARISTOCRATIC INFLUENCE IN SUPPOSEDLY DEMOCRATIC AMERICA

The people first sent to America represented the English Royalty and England's financial interests. These same people were also here for their own personal financial gain.

Europeans first settled New Bedford in 1652. Plymouth Colony settlers purchased the land from chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe. Whether the transfer of the land was legitimately done has been the subject of intense controversy. Like other native tribes, the Wampanoags did not share the settlers' concepts of private property. The tribe believed they were granting usage rights to the land, not giving it up permanently.

The settlers used the land to build the colonial town of Old Dartmouth (which encompassed not only present-day Dartmouth, but also present-day New Bedford, Acushnet, Fairhaven, and Westport). A section of Old Dartmouth near the west bank of the Acushnet River, originally called Bedford Village, was officially incorporated as the town of New Bedford in 1787. The name was suggested by the Russell family who were prominent citizens of the community. It comes from the fact that the Dukes of Bedford, a leading English aristocratic house, also bore the surname Russell. (Bedford, Massachusetts had already been incorporated by 1787; hence "New" Bedford.)