The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

Senator Nelson Aldrich represented Rhode Island from 1881 to 1911. During that time, he specialized in issues of finance, banking, and the economy. He created the National Monetary Commission to study the causes of the Panic of 1907. His interest in making the US economy more stable led him to participate in organizing the Jekyll Island meeting, which produced the plan for a central bank colloquially called the Aldrich Plan. Though the Aldrich Plan was rejected by Congress, elements of it influenced the plan that would ultimately become the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Griffin describes Aldrich as a man of significant means who dressed expensively and had a private rail car. He also characterizes Aldrich as an egotist whose insistence on naming the first iteration of the Federal Reserve Act after himself was largely why the first two bills failed. Aldrich was an associate of prominent bankers including J.P. Morgan, and his daughter married a Rockefeller, a fact that Griffin implies indicates his corrupt motives in pursuing the plan for a central bank.

Benjamin Strong (1872-1928) was an American banker and the first Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most influential of the Fed’s branches. Strong worked closely with J.P. Morgan to mitigate the Panic of 1907, after which he became a staunch advocate of banking reform. He helped draft the Aldrich Plan on Jekyll Island and later helped craft the final form of the Federal Reserve Act. Griffin characterizes Strong as having questionable loyalties given his relationship with Bank of England head Norman Montagu and executives of J.P. Morgan, with whom he worked closely. Griffin claims that Strong was supplied with an office and secretary at the Bank of England and had numerous secret meetings with Montagu. After WWI, Strong believed that to stabilize the US economy, the currencies and economies of Europe also needed to be stabilized and international trade re-established. Because of these interests, he is characterized in the book as being more concerned for the well-being of the world economy than the US economy and pushing policies that benefitted England at the expense of the United States.

Paul Warburg (1868-1932) was a German-born naturalized American citizen. Prior to the Jekyll Island meeting, he worked for Kuhn, Loeb & Company as an investment banker. He was a vocal advocate for central banking his entire career. In addition to serving as director of the Council on Foreign Relations, Warburg was the second vice-chair of the Fed and a trustee of the Brookings Institution, a major economic think-tank. Warburg authored The Federal Reserve: Its Origin and Growth, which confirmed the existence and the goal of the Jekyll Island meeting. Griffin characterizes Warburg as the public face of the Federal Reserve Act and its theoretician given his experience with European central banking. Griffin uses Warburg’s origins as the son of a German Jewish banking family to claim that his actions prove that international interests trump American interests in the Federal Reserve’s actions. Griffin’s allegations repeat debunked antisemitic conspiracy theories that place figures like Warburg and the Rothschilds at the center of an international cabal (“Jewish ‘Control’ of the Federal Reserve: A Classic Antisemitic Myth.” Anti-Defamation League, 30 Jan 2017).

John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was an American financier and banker, and one of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the 19th century. After rising to prominence through his father’s banking business, Morgan went on to found the firm J.P. Morgan and Company, as well as hold controlling interests in major American companies including US Steel, General Electric, and the Pullman Company. Morgan’s wealth and sway was such that he personally helped rescue the US government during the Panic of 1907, and he and his firms provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financing to England, France, the US, and other countries in the First World War. After his death, the J.P. Morgan companies continued to play a central role in US finance. The Jekyll Island meeting took place at the Jekyll Island Club, the use of which was arranged by a club member, most likely J.P. Morgan (Richardson, Gary and Jessie Romero. “The Meeting at Jekyll Island,” Federal Reserve History, 4 Dec 2015).

Because of the degree of power and influence Morgan exerted over US finance and politics, he and his firms have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. Morgan and his firms had personal or professional connections to many of the other figures in Griffin’s narrative, including Aldrich, Strong, Warburg, House, and the Rothschilds. Griffin characterizes Morgan as a war profiteer who encouraged America to enter WWI and shadow-funded Bolshevik revolutionaries while publicly denouncing the Bolsheviks at home. There is little evidence that Morgan or other Wall Street firms financed the Russian Revolution, however, with most historians of the Bolsheviks rejecting such claims as oversimplified or conspiratorial.

Edward Mandell House, commonly known as “Colonel” House though he never served in the military, was a close friend and advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. Though he refused any official political title, House worked on Wilson’s behalf throughout WWI to broker peace, both before and after the US joined the war. His efforts were unsuccessful and in 1919, after House negotiated concessions in the post-War peace talks that were unacceptable to Wilson, Wilson dismissed him and never spoke to him again. In Jekyll Island, Griffin argues that House and Wilson shared a dream of an international government and that their alleged plan to enter the War was a step toward that goal. House is largely characterized in the book as a Machiavellian manipulator, working behind the scenes to create the foundations of a world socialist government.

The Rothschild banking dynasty was founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) in Frankfurt, Germany. Son of a Jewish merchant and currency-trader, Mayer Rothschild parlayed his father’s business in collectible coins into a position as the finance manager for his region’s ruler (“Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812).” The Rothschild Archive). His sons went on to establish banks in Naples, Vienna, Paris, and London (Cook, Jennifer. “Rothschild Family: History, Net Worth, and Facts,” Investopedia, 9 May 2024). In the 19th century, the family would become the most powerful financiers in Europe as well as the richest family in the world.

Griffin’s portrayal of the Rothschilds in Jekyll Island combines accurate facts about the family with debunked antisemitic conspiracy theories. It is true, for instance, that Mayer Rothschild made a profit evading Napoleon’s blockade to bring goods into Germany after Napoleon’s 1806 invasion (“Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812),” The Rothschild Archive). It’s also true that Nathan Rothschild was Britain’s main financier during the Napoleonic wars, and that his bank maintained strong ties to the British government for decades afterward (Cook). However, Griffin’s main thesis about the family, the “Rothschilds Formula,” which contends that they systematically profiteered off and even fomented armed conflict after having learned to exploit war for profit in the Napoleonic Wars, is based on a conspiracy theory first circulated in France in a virulently antisemitic pamphlet in the 1840s. Many versions of the conspiracy theory exist, and it became so pervasive that elements of it have appeared even in otherwise reliable sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The conspiracy about the Rothschilds and Waterloo has become part of the root of other antisemitic conspiracies about Jewish control of global banking and government systems, such as the New World Order conspiracy.

However, historical evidence shows that contrary to Griffin’s and others’ assertions, Nathan Rothschild (1777-1836) had no advance knowledge of Britain’s triumph at Waterloo, nor did he manipulate the stock market for his benefit, though he did make some investments that proved to pay off (Cathcart, Brian. “The Rothschild Libel: Why has it taken 200 years for an anti-Semitic slur that emerged from the Battle of Waterloo to be dismissed?” The Independent, 3 May 2015). Though the Rothschilds did enjoy immense wealth and power, claims about their secret control over governments or international conflicts should be placed in the context of this foundational, antisemitic fabrication.