America is no longer the land of the free. In Senate Report 93-549, the United States Congress made the astonishing admission that, since at least 9 March 1933, the American people have lived under a state of national emergency. Instead of a federal Government of delegated and limited powers, what now operates from Washington, D.C. is a centralized military despotism which claims ultimate sovereignty over its citizens and rules them by statute in all cases whatsoever.

Beginning with the usurpations of Abraham Lincoln, this book explains how the so-called emergency powers of the President of the United States developed over a period of seven decades and finally culminated in the virtual supplanting of the Constitution by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal democracy. The author draws heavily from a wealth of rare political literature from the past two centuries, as well as long-forgotten Government documents to paint an unsettling picture of American history and to show why nothing ever seems to change in Washington, no matter which political party is currently in power.

This abridged edition does not contain the additional supporting documents, supplementary essays, and appendices that are included in the EXPANDED EDITION.