#Bitcoin fixes this
The Roosevelts’ web of wealth and power in New York’s elite circles is wild. Isaac Roosevelt co-founded the Bank of New York with Alexander Hamilton in 1784, tying him to the Schuylers (think Philip’s daughter, Elizabeth, married to Hamilton). Roosevelt's and Schuyler's Federalist and mercantile worlds collided at clubs and in intricate connections with aristocrats and European royalty including long time mutual business partners, friendships and marriages.
Philip Schuyler was a powerhouse in Revolutionary America, wielding immense wealth and influence as a major New York landowner from a prominent Dutch family.
Schuyler, a wealthy Dutch-American landowner, and Hamilton, his ambitious son-in-law, were steeped in New York’s pre-Revolutionary mercantile world, which was deeply tied to British trade.
Schuyler’s family, with their vast estates and trade in goods like furs and sugar, relied on British markets and merchants before the war. There connections only became strong as Schuyler's family grew in wealth and power post war.
This wasn’t unique—most colonial elites did business with the British (not all those living in America were supporters of independence or the revolution).
Schuyler’s aristocratic lifestyle and Federalist ideals, deep connections to Europe's royalty and his consistent pro-British stance was appalling to Americans in favor of independence like Horatio Gates.
His role as a general in the Revolution, especially the Fort Ticonderoga loss in 1777, fueled whispers of incompetence or worse, sabotage and outright loyalty to Britain.
Horatio Gates’ faction pointed to his divided loyalties, Schuyler’s elite status and pre-war British ties. The Americans removed Schuyler before the pivotal battle at Saratoga.
Schuyler's ties to Britain—through trade networks and social circles—display his comfort with and support for British systems, even if he fought against them (see Benedict Arnold).
Hamilton’s support for the British was even stronger. Before the war, he worked for a trading firm in St. Croix with British connections and later championed Federalist policies that was called pro-British by passionate critics like Jefferson.
His push for a strong central government, modeled partly on British institutions, and his admiration for their banking system (think the Bank of New York he co-founded with Schuyler’s ally Isaac Roosevelt in 1784) raised eyebrows.
Hamilton’s marriage to Schuyler’s daughter Elizabeth in 1780 tied him to a family whose wealth came from pre-war British trade networks.
His post-war trade policies, favoring British commerce, sparked outrage from Anti-Federalists for favoring Britain, with claims he was obviously influenced by old British loyalties.
Even though they claimed to be patriots, their elite status and transatlantic business ties made it easy to see their british loyalties.
The Roosevelts, Schuylers, and other Dutch-American families had decades of trade with British merchants, and those relationships didn’t vanish overnight when the Revolution began.
Americans wary of aristocrats and those living in America with deep financial ties to European royalty, were well aware of Schuyler’s wealth and Hamilton’s Anglophile ideas showing through their actions. They obviously weren’t fully committed to breaking from Britain and even favored systems to perpetuate Britain's power and influence.
Their private dinners and quiet deals with the British continued. Their world was one where money and power crossed oceans, consistently doing business and intermingling with those directly tied to British and other European royalty. That alone displayed their incentive to perpetuate monarch power.
Then there’s the Astors—Laura Astor wed Franklin Delano (FDR’s uncle) in 1844, merging Roosevelt and Astor fortunes. This wasn’t just love; it was a Dutch-American dynasty play, boosting their real estate and trade clout.
The Astors were powerhouse New York elites, amassing real estate dominance by the early 1800s. John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant invested heavily in Manhattan land, creating a real estate empire that shaped the city.
Their wealth, social ties and influence in banking and politics made them American aristocracy, with transatlantic connections to European elites, rivaling royal clout, deeply affiliated the European crowns and their benefactors abroad.
The Delanos, via FDR’s mom Sara, added shipping wealth. Roosevelts also bankrolled Chemical Bank, rubbing shoulders with proto-Morgan types in railroads and elite clubs like the Union League.
Their strategic marriages to Astors, Livingstons, and Van Rensselaers mirrored European aristocrats consolidating power while deeply connected to royalty. These ties wove a financial and social empire—proof the Roosevelts were American “royalty” in all but name.
The Panic of 1837 exposed how deeply interconnected New York elites, like the Roosevelts and Astors, were with speculative banking tied to British capital.
This financial crisis, triggered by reckless lending and land speculation, hit everyday Americans hard while the elite, including John Jacob Astor, profited by snapping up devalued property.
It showed how their wealth and transatlantic ties shielded them, while regular folks suffered—a pattern some see repeating in modern banking crises. Also, the Second Bank of the United States, which Hamilton’s allies like Schuyler supported, was despised by Andrew Jackson and many Americans for centralizing power in ways that echoed British control, fueling populist distrust of banker elites.
As President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, whose family grew rich through the Bank of New York, tied to J.P. Morgan’s empire, appointed Charles Bonaparte, Napoleon’s grandnephew to several powerful positions in his administration.
With Napoleon III ruling France until 1870, just years before Charles’s rise, this Harvard-educated insider knew his family’s wealth sat in French and English banks, linked to Morgan’s network.
Charles founded the FBI’s predecessor in 1908. His trust-busting stabilized European royalty and aristocracy connected industries, boosting centralized finance for elites like Morgan—a clear play to entrench transatlantic power.
Among other deep elite ties, Teddy Rosevelt's great grandfather founded the bank of New York with Hamilton.
Teddy's cousin started the chemical bank and his grandfather further built their wealth through that bank. The chemical bank merged with jp morgan.
Morgan had direct ties to royalty/banking elites in europe and their proxies.
This gave J.P. Morgan early access to royal and aristocratic networks, which he leveraged to dominate American finance. These ties made Morgan a linchpin between American industry and European royalty/banking dynasties.
He also used his influence to destabilize the banking system. He caused systemic pressure and chaos leading to the implementation of the federal reserve. Read the creature from Jekyll Island.
The media portrayed Teddy as a trust buster cracking down on banks and big business. His actions strengthened the most powerful and those connected to European royalty.
As mentioned at the top of this note, Theodore Roosevelt appointed a grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's brother to several powerful positions in his administration, Charles Joseph Bonaparte, who had deep connections to European royalty and banking.
In 1905, Roosevelt appointed Bonaparte as Secretary of the Navy, and in 1906, he appointed him Attorney General.
In 1908 Bonaparte established and played a key role in the Bureau of Investigation, later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1924.
In nineteen thirteen, the Federal Reserve was covertly crafted on Jekyll Island, pushed through U.S. government channels by J.P. Morgan, linked to British and European banking elites, and Paul Warburg, tied to German banking dynasties like the Warburgs and Rothschilds.
This secretive deal, driven by elite financiers with deep transatlantic ties, centralized control of America’s money supply, raising troubling concerns about unchecked power and foreign influence in the nation’s economy.
Morgan’s London connections through J.S. Morgan & Company and Warburg’s European banking roots tied to the Federal Reserve’s origins hints at the controversial secrecy and elite control detailed in the book *The Creature from Jekyll Island*.