The United Commonwealth of America can be traced to an underground political philosophy of radical government transformations, eventually becoming known as the United Commonwealth Party some time in the late ‘seventies. The ideology’s founder, a Philadelphia newspaper columnist named Abraham Donald, described an isolationist state within the US, a utilitarian society, a Commonwealth of voluntary occupants, a political paradise, in a pamphlet entitled “The Best for the Most.”
Donald’s trouble with the existing United States government was natural enough: that the country had no business forcing itself upon the world, especially at the cost of its own residents’ global reputations, that the people for which it was ever constricted into a smaller class of the elite, that the huge voiceless majority was being herded into the pens disguised as multi-party elections while the only two parties that had any significance were for all intents and purposes identical, that the elections of the people were senselessly filtered through those of the electoral college, and so forth. The second portion of the pamphlet was the instructions for how a Commonwealth government could amend the issues. To anyone the explicit meaning was apparent: the existing circumstances would have to be halted.
Donald handed the pamphlets out on the street in the beginning, and authored them under no pseudonym, despite the actualized risks on his reputation. His being fired from the newspaper was for little time a serious problem for him, however. The pamphlet was compelling, to say the least, and followers sprung up wherever Donald spoke. In the mid-eighties, a married couple of teachers enamored with the cause, Carl and Emily Peele, under the supervision of Donald, became speakers themselves, and his sponsors, to better spread the initiative. The speeches shifted from the streets and from pittance-begging to the conference halls and to admission-charging. Throughout the ‘eighties, the talks gained prolificacy and, eventually, enough money to become a legitimate political party, labeled the United Commonwealth Party, or UCP. Immediately, in Pennsylvania, the only state at that point in which talks by the three had been given in person, an innumerable portion of the populace let their divergent affiliations make confluence at that of the Commonwealth.
One and a half million members in the first few months of the party’s existence was no shameful quantity. The Pamphlet was being produced en masse; it was, needless to say, a necessity for every member.
The foundation of the Party and its members only extended the idea outward, and it became known that sections of the population in every other state in the country, with equally increasing density as proximity to Philadelphia, described themselves as members of the Commonwealth Party. By the ‘nineties, Philadelphia, principally the capital of the ideology, was almost in unanimous allegiance.
Beneficially, Donald’s ideas hadn’t changed a whit throughout their existences, but this meant only that neither had the problems they promised to attend. The Party, though with hundreds of thousands of dollars at its disposal, ever-mounting millions of members (almost five million at the dawn of the ‘nineties), and a very capable intelligentsia, never could come close to a surmount of the two monopolistic parties; the members and finances of which numbered many tens of times more than the Commonwealth’s.
What seemed like another blow in ’91, but was in fact simply another footprint on the path that we see now as inevitable, was the death of Abraham Donald at eighty-five. This occurrence naturally achieved the Party some amount of publicity, especially Carl and Emily Peele, who, according to Donald’s will, had inherited the leadership of the Party.
For the days following Donald’s death, the media harried the Peele’s relentlessly. Talk about this ‘radical,’ party that wanted to change how the country’s very government functioned became popular, and for those who looked more closely, appealing. Donald’s pamphlet, no more than ten pages, became a veritable net for members, and on the one-year anniversary of Donald’s death, the membership had risen to six and a half million.
Despite that nearly a decade had passed since the Party’s foundation, the growing fortune from talks and products, and the growing membership due to these talks and products, not an inch of political progress had been made. Every issue the Commonwealth hoped to address were as rampant as they were when the Pamphlet was written. The Party’s goals would have to shift.
The odd habit of UCP campaigners to lose despite votes from a massive throng of electorate was a rather unsettling revelation that sparked foremost changes in the then-peaceful mindset of the Commonwealth populace. Carl and Emily Peele had a rough time keeping their members at bay due to the real injustices involved in the exposure.
An independent pro-Commonwealth writer, after a recent poll of party membership percentages in New Jersey, discovered there to be a vast majority of UCP members than any other party. She sent her findings to the Peele’s, who conducted their own studies, finding that in Pennsylvania as well there was a majority of Commonwealth members. The kick was, in the recent elections for governor of the states, the UCP’s campaigners hadn’t won. This concluded nothing else: that the elections had been fixed.
The Peele’s attempts to call attention to the wrong that had befallen their party were met, peculiarly, with swift, vague, and fervent declines for the story by pretty well every news source they asked. The few that ran the story, several independent and small-scale political newspapers in the Philadelphia and Baltimore areas, held an ineffectually small audience as well as a repute for embellishment, and thus made little headway in the line of the exposure of injustices.
Because of the US government’s then obvious and successful attempts at keeping the UCP from power, Carl and Emily encouraged a plan of political and financial isolation from the powers that be to all the Party’s members. Voting for campaigning representatives would never bear the fruit of office; always would there be a fictitious overflow of opposing votes ushering in a new few years of stasis. The process of voting at all was futile, and personal activism was promoted.
A good many of the militias of the United States, already to some extent followers of the plan, as well as later legitimate adherents to the UCP, moved closer to the hub (if they weren’t already there), mainly in western Pennsylvania, where large expanses of land could be bought and utilized, but also in the vast Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Emissaries from the divergent militant assemblages traveled clandestinely into the City to discuss with the Peele’s the UCP’s progress in an ultimate plan. That massive collections of munitions would be kept by the militias in areas closer to headquarters but still remote enough for safe-keeping against the United States government was agreed by the Peele’s and the militias in case of a need for force.
The members of the militias bought and used huge quantities of farmland in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware, all where were warmly welcomed members of the Commonwealth.
In the early nineties, the isolationist policy that the Peele’s and the Commonwealth hoped would bloodlessly encourage the US to consider smoothly allowing the Party a modest plot of territory was beginning to grate on the country’s nerves. Since the plan was initially proposed, several million inhabitants of the four states that held a disproportionate number of Commonwealth members quit their jobs and moved into the country where they could become fully independent of the US government. Philadelphia’s population had noticeably declined over the few years, and they all, and even those members of the Commonwealth that still remained within the city, had ceased any personal involvements with the current politics, the most obvious among which being their abstinence from voting.
The lack of votes from what had grown to nine million citizens of the country in one relative sector made difficult there the political process. Officials were elected, but only by a tiny minority of the population.
Carl and Emily Peele held a secret conference with the party leaders of the other three states, as well as any other members who wished to attend. During the meeting, the members out of office as well as in made it clear then that they desired further protest, that nonviolent resistance would be their next move.
Their decision was bold, though viable: that members of UCP cease paying taxes to the government for which they felt no favor. Such a decrease in government revenue would force the Party to be paid attention to, and nine million cases of tax evasion was, obviously, far, far too much for the country’s legal system to handle. For some it was easier than others; those whose employment was under the table could, for a time, more easily go undetected of their crime. These were the farmers in the country, who, in essence, became totally independent of the US government; bona fide isolationists.
The trouble came in ’95, when the US did decide to do something, seemingly more out of panic than to make an example of anyone. Oswald Harris, a Maryland farmer and incognito militia member, was ostensibly blindly victimized by the US government imminently preceding the rebellion. The occurrence made national news for a period and months of heated political debate (not in broadcast) ensued, but peculiarly, there was no legal retribution for those responsible. This was also, more importantly, the incident was the flash that set aflame the revolt.
Harris and his family had stopped paying any taxes at all, direct or indirect; growing all of their resources themselves or bartering with neighbors that evaded their dues as well. Surrounded by those with whom he communally broke the law, several police officers knocked one morning upon his front door. The authorities had found that, like so many thousands of others, Harris had cut off all financial and political association with the government upon whose soil he dwelt. When he answered his door, he was asked to step outside. He was told that he was under arrest for tax evasion, at which point he argued that, though not within any legal rights, he was not a citizen of the United States, and as such would not pay to it any kind of tax.
The argument had gotten somewhat loud, and a neighbor within earshot ran towards the Harris homestead to ascertain the situation. Harris’s argument was little constraint on the police, and they tried to make their arrest. He resisted, returning suddenly into his house and locking behind him the door. He called his family to lock and bar the windows and doors, which they completed at an almost inhuman rate, and the police officers, unable to enter, called in for reinforcements.
At this point, Harris’s neighbor anonymously called a local news station, telling them the story so far but keeping his own crimes and suspicions to himself. Helicopters were on the scene at about the same time that several police cars came to a screeching halt just outside the Harris home.
According to stories told by his family, Oswald felt that their victimization was just the beginning of a campaign of terror against all UCP members. He said that their insurgence would deter the authorities from coming after the rest of the isolationist Party members who may not even have committed any crimes, like he had, and help bring notice to the cause.
Of course, it did, and the national news covered the story. The standoff was only two hours from beginning to end, and towards the tail, the police blew open the door, though hesitantly, since the entire house could have toppled down upon them. Oswald, naturally hearing the explosion, made a dash for the back door, his family not far behind, but before he could kick down the barricade, the police invaded his house and absentmindedly opened fire and hit him in several places; the most lethal of which was the back of his neck.
None of the officers present explained, perhaps not even to themselves, why they’d murdered Oswald Harris: he was unarmed, he was making no offense against them, he was in his own home. Even thus, their next course of action was to take Harris’s family into custody. It was about at this point that the news stopped covering the story.
The Peele’s were livid, as were the teeming members of the UCP, who had increased to just over eleven million at the time. Their messages, as secretive as it could be, were ones of a legitimate Commonwealth State, to be taken by force from the United States. The country had seriously wronged the Commonwealth, and further treatment of that variety was doubtless inevitable.
To keep up good appearances, and to act as though they’d learned their lesson, the Commonwealth began again paying taxes and voting. They voted still, of course, for UCP campaigners, and despite the futilely rigged elections, it was necessary for suspicions to be assuaged. Meanwhile, those members of the Militias in the more remote areas discussed with the Peele’s their plan for conquest. The Militias were eager, but Carl and Emily decided that it would be best to wait for at least five years, as every detail of the plan would need to be in place for success to be even a possibility. The United States would surely laugh and crush within days, if not sooner, an uprising at that moment with the Commonwealth’s current martial status. However, that was the cause of the militia getting spurred into action, anyway.
The Militias were united as one, and Carl Peele was asked to be the head of their strategic actions. Emily focused on outward appearance; making sure the docility of the group following Oswald Harris’s murder seem legitimate. This included making sure that only a selection of the population knew about it. The selection included chiefly the Militia and the political leaders. Those common Party members could not be trusted to keep the secret quiet, due of course to sheer and ever-growing numbers.
The Militia had amassed incalculable firepower, legal and illegal, since even before they’d joined the UCP, so the weapons to be used needed no consideration. Furthermore, the actual members of the Militia was approximated to number at least one and a half million. Since a genuine war was completely out of the question, the size of the army as well was no difficulty.
The only problem, one that had more weight than any of the benefits, was that in a large-scale takeover of the entire government of the United States would involve its military no matter how much of it was out conquering other nations, and even if they succeeded, there were hundreds of millions of Americans who were happy the way things were. A counter-rebellion would be inevitable.
They decided that a full takeover of the United States would be both impossible and out of line. It was decided, then, that only the Commonwealth-majority states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania would do to enter the country.
The next problem was the US military, because even if only four states were desired and taken by force, the army would without question march in and make war upon the Party, perhaps even bombing strategic locations. This could not happen. Carl and his Militia ruminated on the problem, but no viable option ever left any of the countless lips.
Because of the seemingly insurmountable obstacle, the rebellion almost certainly would have been doomed to devastating failure perhaps immediately as it began had the Commonwealth not been informed of a liberating circumstance. In ‘96 or ’97, the first few years of the plans for revolution, a recent reader of the Pamphlet and subsequent recruit into the United Commonwealth Party, Harvey Brade, discovered to Carl and Emily a nuclear weapon site in active service in central Pennsylvania for which he himself worked. Brade, at great personal risk, made it clear to the Peele’s that his employment would be of some interest to the ultimate cause. Through personal and secret meetings with the Peele’s and other officials of the Party in their Philadelphia, Brade outlined every detail of the weapons site; its faults, the number and schedules of its armed guards, even strategies for gaining entrance and control of the facility. The decade of cautious planning proved effective enough to take it.
One and a half million soldiers with firearms that rivaled their enemy’s own was not enough. Access to nuclear weapons was. This was the final piece the UCP needed, and by the time the plan for the takeover of the maximum security compound was completed ten years after access from the inside to it was initiated, in ’07, the revolution began.
Little had to be done. A huge portion of the Militia moved into Philadelphia from wherever they were, ready to defend themselves but not at all planning to do so. There they heralded the foundation of the United Commonwealth of America. This was later dubbed the Siege of Philadelphia.
The ‘Siege’ was no more a siege than a national holiday, which the date would doubtless become. It was more accurately a citywide celebration and official pronouncement of the country’s freedom from the United States. The overpowering majority was pro-Commonwealth, even many police officers, and the still overpowering majority of those that remained, observing the non-violence and wide spread of it all, joined in freely and relievedly.
On the date of the first day of Philadelphia’s siege, a secondary force invaded the nuclear weapons site. The entire security systems and communication systems had been shut down by Brade immediately preceding the invasion. The human security, though considerable, were overwhelmed directly by the relentless Commonwealth force, and within no longer than an hour, the missile silo became the first conquest of the Party. Brade directly afterwards renewed the systems, again setting the site to active service.
The Siege of the Silo took place at 4:00 AM, minutes after began that of Philadelphia, with ninety-five Commonwealth soldiers. Alarms and locking systems were out of function when they breached the perimeter. All persons at the site had been unprepared for the simultaneous attack and systems malfunctions, and the security, as stated above, were wholly unready to deter the disproportional invasion. Those that made offense were immediately removed, but neutral personnel were asked to join in the cause. It was safe to assume that by the time of the attack, most of the personnel were either aligned with or aware of the power of the Commonwealth, as the staff complied to a man.
Brade and the other staff members explained the mechanism of the silo to the soldiers, who transmitted the information to the headquarters in Philadelphia. It had been previously confirmed by Brade that there numbered two nuclear weapons in the complex and that both of them were estimated to be capable of at least a megaton of energy upon detonation.
Meanwhile, the Peeles, from their safe headquarters within Philadelphia, announced on live feed to national television stations that the Party was in effect then a nuclear power, and asked to be treated as such. No doubt the couple would have relished the moment amid the joyous cries of the succeeding Party members had their building been closer thereto.
Transcript of the Peeles’ speech to the United States:
Carl and Emily Peele are present, sitting at a plain wooden table, occasional guards are seen meandering about.
Emily: We’re sure it’s widely known by now that the Army of the UCP has laid siege to the city of Philadelphia, and it is our objective to discuss the outcome. Philadelphia has already been secured by our forces, most of whom were residents of the city anyway. Carl: It may also be known that a detachment of our army has raided a missile silo for the Commonwealth, inside of which are ready two nuclear weapons, neither less than a megaton in magnitude, to be carried by ICBM’s. Let it be made perfectly clear that if any offense is taken by the United States government against our new founded nation, these weapons will be used against two undisclosed cities within the United States. Emily: As an attack upon our nation will yield unnecessary and resilient destruction and anguish, we strongly advise the United States government to leave us be. Carl: We want to expound now that the boundaries of the United Commonwealth of America are the outermost ones of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware, the four states most in favor of Commonwealth Governance. The transmission ends The feed was replayed so frequently on every network in the United States that its memorization rivaled the Lord’s Prayer’s. The government’s position, that this heralded a simple, unplanned, and effortlessly extinguishable uprising, was likened to that of the South’s, and the United Commonwealth Party was no more than a terrorist organization. The widely accepted policy that terrorist demands would not be given into were discounted for a parade of foundations: these terrorists were confirmed to have access to powerful nuclear weapons, made explicit threats of defense with the weapons if military action were taken, made their headquarters in a major United States city that, if attacked and reconquered, would damage solely their enemy’s territory, numbered in the many millions in one relative area, outnumbered the military personnel within the United States, most of which was otherwise engaged in occupation of other countries, were probably among the populations of the states that had not ceded, and had already established what seemed to be an effective economy. It was also extensively verified that no more than eighteen or nineteen casualties had been a direct result of the rebellion, and some, probably the majority, were those of the Commonwealth. The fact that Oswald Harris was killed and his family imprisoned, and that the incident sparked the Forceful Revolt, helped the cause of the Commonwealth more by drastically depopularizing the United States’ intentions, guaranteeing a number more members of the Party and, therefore, the country’s population. Those who hadn’t had their suspicions confirmed that the US was becoming a fascist martial state waltzed in. Of course, this unchained the idea among the citizens of the UC that spies were legion among them, and so was instilled what should have been at the foundation: formal citizenships. This decreased the population growth exponentially, but at that point, any change would make little difference.