According to the book, in the very first years of the United States, the Continental Congress granted a "perpetual" Charter to a secret "Commonwealth" of privateers, which was founded during the American Revolution and rendered useful service to the young US. In later years, however, these "privateers" (in fact, pirates) acted mainly for their own private benefit, engaging in manifestly illegal activities while relying on that original Congressional authorization, and strongly resisting any attempt to disband them. In fact, all four US Presidents who were assassinated while in office - Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881,William McKinley in 1901 and John Kennedy in 1963 - had tried to oppose this "Commonwealth" and were assassinated as a direct result; the pirates had, in each case, located a person who had a reason to hate the President and manipulated them into unknowingly carrying out their design. Other Presidents, like Woodrow Wilson during WWI and Franklin Roosevelt in WWII, knew of this Commonwealth, recognized its secret role, and made secret use of it - and thus avoided being assassinated.