Rival Caesars

by Desmond Dilg

The Story of Rival Caesars,
Ragnar Redbeard & Might Is Right

by Darrell W. Conder

hen Arthur Desmond, a.k.a. Ragnar Redbeard, finished writing his infamous book The Survival of the Fittest in 1896, he ended it with these words: "end of book i," to which a post script was added: "P.S. Book II will be issued when circumstances demand it." In 1903, when Desmond reprinted The Survival of the Fittest under the revised title of Might Is Right, that post script was included, as it was in all "Redbeard" era printings.

Since no Might Is Right "Book II" appeared in Desmond's lifetime, it is generally thought that he never wrote a sequel to Might Is Right. However, on October 11, 1902 Arthur Desmond sent a lengthy book to the U.S. Copyright Office with the equally lengthy title of Rival Caesars. A Romance of Ambition, Love and War. Being the tale of a Vice-President, a Major General and three brilliant and beautiful women, which he co-wrote with famed Chicagoan Will H. Dilg under the pseudonym of Desmond Dilg.

In 1903, Rival Caesars was released to the public through Desmond's own Thurland & Thurland Printers and Publishers of Chicago—Richard Thurland being the name by which Arthur Desmond was then concealing his identity.

Although it reads like a novel, Rival Caesars is unique for several reasons. First is Desmond's fabulous claim that the book was composed from an unknown stash of private letters, deeds, personal memoranda, half-written memories, copies of secret political negotiations, old love letters, etc., discovered "among the secret archives of a plundered monastery, on the Island of Cuba." However, Arthur Desmond's dubious claims and questionable methods of notoriety are not the focus of this introduction. The real question centers on the relationship of Rival Caesars to Desmond's revolutionary book, Might Is Right or the Survival of the Fittest.

When Rival Caesars is read as a companion to Might Is Right, the astute "Ragnar Redbeard" fan will immediately notice what the casual reader will not: Rival Caesars was not just another printer's pulp mill byproduct. Indeed this point is made crystal clear in Desmond's introduction:

"... The views and opinions of the great mass of living men (and women) are still bubbling over with illusion and conventional fallacy. They delight to steep their souls in parroted fables, and accept the fashionable historians as unimpeachable messengers from heaven. The fact that 'History is a series of lies agreed upon' (which was Napoleon Bonaparte's mature opinion) never seems to even dawn upon them.

Thus romances have ever been written, and shall continue to be written, to relate the true things that nobody believes.

Therefore the readers of this book are expected to think between the lines. Nay, they are commanded so to do.

Let them also remember that if the whole truth relating to any great man could be published the tale would be scounted [sic] as incredible, abnormal, fabulous.

For even as the light of the sun exceedeth that of the moon, so doth the wonders of solid fact exceed by far those of mere invention." (Author's emphasis.)

Keeping in mind the blatant revolutionary message of Might Is Right, Desmond's demand that readers glean a message from "between the lines" of Rival Caesars reveals a book with a hidden agenda. Even more telling is Desmond's invitation printed on the overleaf of the title page for readers "to correspond with the author." To spell it out for those less familiar with "Ragnar Redbeard" and his radical philosophies, both Might Is Right and Rival Caesars are serious works intent on sending a message to Desmond's reading public—or more to the point, a message to men of iron with the ambition to go forth and capture their share of wealth and fame.

Going back to his days as an agitator on the streets of Sydney to his flight to Chicago and beyond, those who have done their homework and truly understand "Ragnar Redbeard," will see in Rival Caesars Book II of Might Is Right. Whereas Might Is Right had been written to spark "all real men" into action and revolt, Rival Caesars was the not-too-subtly-disguised battle plan. It was Arthur Desmond's call to arms.

The subject of Rival Caesars centers on the story of Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr and Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton and the circumstances leading up to their famous 1804 duel, in which Hamilton was killed. The Burr-Hamilton duel is significant.

Those who know both Might Is Right's message and their history will understand why Desmond selected the story of Hamilton and Burr for Rival Caesars. First, Desmond was writing for an American audience, hence the need for a significant American tale. Second, Desmond had an agenda, hence the need for a hero with the kind of self-serving courage called for in Might Is Right. Most importantly, Desmond needed an American hero who had achieved both fame and fortune with revolutionary heroics. For this role there was no better example than Aaron Burr, who actually led an armed insurrection against the United States government. Even though the venture failed, with Burr being put on trial for high treason by orders of President Thomas Jefferson (under whom Burr had served as vice president), in every way Aaron Burr fitted the hero for "Book II" of Might Is Right.

Aaron Burr contemporaries described him as a man who had "an ardent love of military glory," with Alexander Hamilton ominously calling him the "Catiline of America," which was a reference to Lucius Sergius Catilina (108 BC–62 BC), known in English as Catiline.

Catiline was a first century BC Roman best remembered for the "Catiline conspiracy," which was his attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate. Besides the slaughter of the Roman Senate, Catiline's plans included burning large sections of Rome. When his conspiracy unraveled, Catiline was denounced by the great Cicero. In turn Catiline violently responded that he would put out his own fire with the general destruction of everything around him. In the end, Catiline died in battle at the front of his troops.

It is no coincidence that Desmond once called himself "Catiline" when signing a poetic piece he had written calling for the purification of the world by fire; and it was no coincidence that Desmond chose an American "Catiline" for the hero of Rival Caesars.

Although he is now often denigrated as a traitor, as with all historic personages Vice President Aaron Burr should be judged by the times in which he lived.

Within years of the Revolution, America had reverted to a sea of corruption as self-serving politicians made the new republic but a carbon copy of King George III's government, which they had so recently fought to overthrow. Indeed, there is more than ample evidence to support the charge that the Revolutionary War was engineered simply to further enrich the elite families of the Thirteen Colonies, which means that many of the men Americans now hail as heroes of the Republic were in reality greedy frauds. But such is the stuff of romanticized "history," no matter who, what, when or where!

This inconvenient background is why many of the early "founding fathers" considered the Constitution "a botched document," and why virtually none thought the American people worthy of their rights as citizens. Alexander Hamilton wrote "For my part, I am not much attached to the majesty of the multitude. I consider them in general as very ill-qualified to judge for themselves what government will best suit their peculiar situations." Such attitudes explain why, at the slightest provocation, one heard talk of succession in the newly-formed American states. In fact, many of the Revolution's greatest minds thought things would disintegrate to the point that only a dictatorship could save the new United States of America, which was the observation of Gouverneur Morris, who went so far as to call for a Cromwell or a Bonaparte to arise.

For Aaron Burr and other "patriots" (such as Hamilton), to consider revolution a practical remedy for seemingly irreconcilable political disagreements was quite logical—especially since they had all recently fought and won a treasonous rebellion against their lawful government, i.e., King George III. But to underscore that the leaders of the Revolution were interested only in their own welfare, and not the welfare of the "common man," one need only to turn to the letters and other documents of the time, such as this letter from Harrison Gray Otis of Massachusetts to Alexander Hamilton: "[Aaron] Burr loves nothing but himself; thinks of nothing but his own aggrandizement, and will be content with nothing, short of permanent power in his own hands." He wrote to Gouverneur Morris that Burr had "no principle public or private—could be bound by no agreement—will listen to no monitor but his ambition ... He is sanguine enough to hope for every thing—daring enough to attempt every thing—wicked enough to scruple nothing." (In other words, Aaron Burr was the very embodiment of Redbeard's "might is right" philosophy!)

The extent of Aaron Burr's conspiracy is made plain in this August 6, 1804 letter from British Ambassador to the U.S. Anthony Merry to British Foreign Secretary Dudley Ryder, Lord Harrowby: "My Lord, I have just received an offer from Mr. Burr the actual vice president of the United States ... to lend his assistance to His Majesty's Government in any Manner in which they may think fit to employ him, particularly in endeavouring to effect a Separation of the Western Part of the United States from that which lies between the Atlantick [sic] and the Mountains, in its whole Extent.... It is therefore only necessary for me to add that if, after what is generally known of the Profligacy of Mr. Burr's Character, His Majesty's Ministers should think proper to listen to his offer, his present Situation in this Country where he is now cast off as much by the democratic as by the Federal Party, and where he still preserves Connections with some People of Influence, added to his great Ambition and Spirit of Revenge against the present Administration [Thomas Jefferson], may possibly induce him to exert the Talents and Activity which he possesses with Fidelity to his Employers."

Likely inspired by Napoleon's stunning victories throughout Europe, as were so many wannabe revolutionaries, Aaron Burr envisioned himself at the head of an American empire, which could be achieved by first taking Texas and then Mexico. With the enormous quantities of gold to be had in South America, and with Mexican ports, Burr could have built a navy to dominate the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Such a power base would enable him to grow until he could challenge the United States itself.

There is no need here to recount the whole Burr conspiracy, how he planned to rob his foe, Thomas Jefferson, of his only true presidential achievement—the Louisiana Purchase—and how the whole thing unraveled by the treachery of his "friend" and fellow conspirator, commander of the American army, Brigadier General James Wilkinson. For this article the point is that Aaron Burr was Arthur Desmond's role model and inspiration for Rival Caesars. But for "Ragnar Redbeard" a role model translated into more than just admiration and literary praise.

By a careful examination of his career, from his revolutionary days in Sydney right through to his last defiant days in Chicago, Arthur Desmond was a consistent foe of "democracies" and weak, spineless men. He spent a large part of his life demanding that all true men should take what was rightfully theirs by any means possible. That same career also reveals a man who saw himself superior to the herds laboring around him, which was the central theme of Might Is Right. For those well versed in Arthur Desmond's life and works, it is quite easy to see this man imagining himself at the head of a new Teutonic warrior class and leading an army onward to conquest. So obvious was Desmond's ambition that those who knew him well seemed to either admire the man as a new Caesar or loathe him as a dangerous revolutionary, which was why one contemporary Chicagoan contemptuously remarked that Arthur Desmond was a man suffering from "delusions of grandeur."

During the time Desmond wrote Rival Caesars, Mexico was a hotbed of revolution and ripe for the taking. It would, in fact, fall to the revolutionary Francisco Madero some seven years later, who was then overthrown by Gen. Victoriano Huerta, who was overthrown by Venustiano Carranza, who was overthrown by Adolfo de la Huerta, etc.

Such a history tells us that it wasn't completely off the scale for a revolutionary like Arthur Desmond to dream of Mexican conquest. Indeed, in his own lifetime, Desmond had seen his hero Sir Cecil Rhodes conquer and carve out an empire for himself on the African continent.

The fact is that long before Desmond's arrival in the United States his writings plainly show that he was intrigued by the invasion and conquest of Mexico. Undoubtedly this preoccupation was why Desmond's one-time close friend, former Australian prime minister William "Billy" Hughes, once "slyly" insinuated that Mexican President General Victoriano Huerta, who had seized the reins of the Mexican government in 1913, looked suspiciously like Arthur Desmond! Hughes was joking of course, but voicing such an observation surely reveals that those who knew Arthur Desmond during his Australian days, knew him well enough to have smiled at the rumors from America that Desmond had played some kind of role in the Mexican Revolution. Indeed, those rumors opened the door to some wild speculation by those who did not know Redbeard's true identity, such as the suggestion that "Ragnar Redbeard" was really the famous Ambrose Bierce, the one-time editor of the Cosmopolitan, and that he, having traveled down to Mexico to join the infamous Pancho Villa, was stood against a wall and shot during the Madero revolt.

Although they did not know his true identity, Redbeard fans knew enough about their hero to seriously consider that he played a part in Mexico's revolution. This is because in the pages of Might Is Right Desmond had carefully and logically sent forth the call for all true men to set their sights on conquest, glory and the spoils of war, and specifically targeted Central and South America by reason of "human mongrelism." In this argument Desmond offered the example of the "half breed" president of Mexico Porfirio Diaz, who was mostly of Indian descent. Might Is Right was nothing short of a call to arms for all real men to throw caution to the wind and cleanse such squalid places, and in the process to achieve fabulous wealth and personal glory. In Rival Caesars the feasibility of Mexico's conquest was forcibly argued in the "romantic" tale of the world-be emperor of Mexico, Aaron Burr.

Whether or not anyone actually read between the lines and corresponded with the author about Mexican conquest, is unknown. Probably not. We do know that in the years after the publicatoin of Rival Caesars Arthur Desmond never got near Mexico and continued as one of the teaming mass of Chicagoans barely eking out a living in the trades, which brings us to Will H. Dilg's part in Rival Caesars, since he co-authored the book.

Those familiar with Desmond's writing style will easily detect the portions of Rival Caesars written by Desmond, and those portions that seemingly show the writing style of another hand. Those comparisons show conclusively that Arthur Desmond wrote the majority of the book, and that Dilg's literary contribution is almost insignificant. Actually, what is more than likely is that Arthur Desmond gave Will H. Dilg the honor of co-authorship in exchange for Dilg's financial backing. But was Dilg privy to Desmond's plans for conquest?

Since he contracted a business partnership with Arthur Desmond and went on to finance the printing of Rival Caesars, we must conclude that Will H. Dilg obviously knew a good deal of Desmond's background, and therefore shared a good deal of his might-is-right philosophy. But that shared philosophy extended to a scheme to invade and conquer Mexico is unlikely. This author's opinion is that Will H. Dilg, an astute business man, was used by Arthur Desmond for a means to an end without ever being privy to the real agenda of Rival Caesars. Whatever the truth of the situation, Desmond and Dilg's professional relationship didn't long survive and Dilg abandoned his one-time partner for bigger and better things, leaving Arthur Desmond faded into obscurity as a used book dealer in Chicago's Near North Side. Indeed, Arthur "Ragnar Redbeard" Desmond must have felt more than a tinge of envy and personal defeat as he sat in Chicago and followed the progress of the successful 1910 Mexican Revolution and the outcomes of succeeding revolts. Such was the fizzle that typifies the grandiose dreams of "Ragnar Redbeard." (See chapter six of Darrell W. Conder's 268 page Desmond/Redbeard biography I Beheld Desmond as Lightening Fall—to Chicago. The Story of Arthur Desmond, 'Ragnar Redbeard' & Might Is Right for documentation about Ragnar Redbeard's identity and Might Is Right's connection to Rival Caesars.)

As for the legacy of Rival Caesars, today it is highly sought after by Ragnar Redbeard fans—or at least those who understand the book's relationship to Might Is Right. Because very few copies have survived the 100-plus years since its printing, when an example comes onto the market it is quickly snapped up regardless of cost. This is why, as a service to Redbeard fans, I have made available my personal copy of Rival Caesars.

Darrell W. Conder

2009

For the first time since 1903, eLucid Domain is offering a facsimile of Desmond's 302-page Rival Caesars, with a 7-page introduction by Desmond/Redbeard biographer Darrell W. Conder. This "Redbeard" rarity is being released on CD in PDF format, which requires Adobe Reader. (If you are among the few who don’t have this program already installed on your computer, it's free on the Internet!) And best of all, the $5.99 price includes free shipping within the USA! (Overseas orders will require an additional $1 for postage.)

$5.99 — Free shipping in the USA
International shipping only $1 extra!

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