"[3] In 1906 Oliver published the biography Alexander Hamilton, which used the example set by the federalists of the early United States to argue for a federal arrangement for the British Empire.
[9] Oliver had interpreted the Hamilton–Jefferson rivalry as a conflict between two ideologies and types of statesmanship: the one based on reality, the other duped by illusion; the one commanding, the other led by circumstances; the one nationalist, the other individualistic.
[10] Theodore Roosevelt praised the book and sent copies to Henry Cabot Lodge and Whitelaw Reid, and Walter Lippmann hailed it as "one of the noblest biographies in our language".
[14]" Oliver’s book Alexander Hamilton brought him into contact with Milner's Kindergarten, in 1906, and most of its members returned to England in 1909 when it became clear that British South Africa would be unified.
Led by Lord Milner, Lionel Curtis, and Philip Henry Kerr, the Kindergarten held a series of meetings to establish the Round Table movement, having as its immediate goal the federation of the British Empire.
Oliver also attended the meetings, most notably at Plas Newydd, where most of the planning was completed, and once the Round Table was established, he maintained a "keen" interest in its affairs for the rest of his life.
[15] A member of the movement’s central committee, or "Moot," he helped to edit The Round Table Journal during the latter half of World War I, and contributed his own anonymous articles.
Like Oliver, a number of Round Table members, most notably Lord Milner, also distrusted British democracy, and they began to look for ways to replace Asquith with someone who shared their ideas.
Asquith fell from power in December 1916 and was replaced by Lloyd George, whereupon the new government carried out further measures in an attempt to make a stronger military effort in the war.