America is at war. The year is 1777. Foreign troops had landed at the head of Delaware Bay and were marching towards the capital of the United States of America. They advanced to Brandywine Creek where they were met early in the morning of September 11 by the American army. The strategy of the invading general was to make a strong surprise flanking movement to destroy the rebel forces by a pincer attack. The plan came perilously close to success. 7500 troops closed in on the rear of the Americans after a circuitous 75-mile march through the surrounding hills.

Surprised, the Commander-in-Chief of the American army ordered the retreat, encountering heavy fire. More than 1000 American soldiers were killed or wounded, and 400 were taken prisoner. The Americans might well have been annihilated had it not been for the entanglement and delay of four battalions of Hessian Mercenaries in thick woodland and the decision not to order exhausted men to pursue the enemy after nightfall.

In the capital America’s new Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs was working in his office preparing dispatches to the American Ambassador in Paris ‘when the report of cannon at Brandywine interrupted my proceedings’. That evening he heard of the American rout and was quick to see the disastrous implications. The capital was now vulnerable to foreign occupation. Many citizens were in a state of fear and dread.

Working feverishly through the night, he drafted a fourth number of The American Crisis, revised it, and by noon the following day had rushed the final version to the printer. He ‘ordered 4000 to be printed at my own private charge and given away’. The 4-page pamphlet circulated widely but had little influence on the terrified populace of the capital who refused to be calmed or inspired to stand up to the advancing army. Each day hundreds left the city. The State Government fled to Lancaster. Members of Congress also packed their trunks and headed for York.

By the evening of September 18, more than 10 000 of the capital’s 30 000 inhabitants had fled. The Secretary proposed forming a Citizens’ Militia, raising a defense fund of 50 000 dollars and throwing up ‘works at the heads of the streets’. The invaders had to be resisted. The inhabitants must prepare for hand-to-hand street fighting. The enemy was not trained in urban fighting and would be wary of getting trapped into it. He managed to convince Colonels Bayard and Bradford and also got the ear of Brigadier-General Thomas Mifflin...sent to the capital as State Governor the previous year to rouse the city for resistance. But all to no avail.

Shortly after midnight on 19th September 1777, bells warning of the enemy’s approach sounded throughout the city. British Grenadiers flanked by howitzers and twelve-pound guns and marching in procession to the quickstep tunes of their fife-and-drum bands, quickly took possession of the city. The Secretary...leaden with despair and left with no alternative...stowed his trunk of personal belongings and Committee for Foreign Affairs papers in a small boat sailing for Trenton. 24 hours later with all hope gone and fearing arrest and death he quit the city, a refugee from war. Behind him lay the sacked City of Philadelphia.

For the next nine months Tom Paine rode the rutted dirt back roads of America, squatted at friends’ homes and dodged British scouts and cannon fire as he tracked the military campaign from close range. The outcome of the previous year’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence was poised on a knife-edge. George Washington needed a victory to turn the tide and lift American morale. After the events of September 11 America’s future looked bleak.

One of the most remarkable recoveries from the ashes of Nine Eleven 2001...234 years later…is Cantor Fitzgerald. One theory has the Cantor office in One World Trade Center as the principal target. Everything else was smoke, mirrors and Watergate & Dallas style cover-ups. The controlled demolition of the twin towers from pre-planted explosives in the basements of the two buildings, the shooting down of the Pennsylvania Boeing…witness statements confirm the presence of fighter plans…and the fake crash at The Pentagon…not enough debris and in the wrong place for any plane to have crashed there…being mere sideshows to draw attention from the Cantor Kill.

Six Hundred and fifty eight Cantor People were murdered in New York five years ago. Everything dollar-related went. Cantor Fitzgerald was seriously big in US Treasury Bond Trading in competition with BNP Paribas and Cantor’s unacceptable edge was eSpeed…an electronic trading system for derivatives and commodities that used a software package called TreasuryConnect which they got this up and running again within 48 hours. Cantor battened down the hatches and regrouped in 2002 and 2003 before returning to New York two years ago as BGC…Bernie Gerald Cantor was the main founder of the business.

Cantor Fitzgerald is not yet back to their pre-9/11 strength but they are half way there with 300 employees in New York…a fifth of their global workforce. A quarter of their profits since 9/11-2001...almost two hundred billion dollars…has gone to the families of the Cantor Victims of 9/11 and on 9th September each year everyone at BGC works for nothing with all the firm’s revenues for the day going to charity.