In a post below, I listed a number of newly "discovered" Lincoln quotations. In the comments section, reader sofla made a remarkable find which deserves greater publicity. Next time you're arguing with that know-it-all conservative in your family, lay these words on him:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."I first saw this excoriation of capitalism back in the late 1970s -- in, as I recall, one of those People's Almanac compilations. At the time, I presumed the quote to be spurious. (Those books were hardly trustworthy sources of information.) But sofla directs our attention to this piece by Rick Crawford of the University of California at Davis:
-- Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
Some people expressed doubts about its authenticity, given Lincoln's work as an attorney for railroad corporations! It was an interesting job tracking it down and verifying its authenticity.More:
The first ref I heard for this quote was Jack London's 1908 Iron Heel. And although the quote indeed appears there (near p. 100), Jack London offered neither context nor source.
More recently, David Korten's book, When Corporations Rule the World (1995, Kumarian Press), sources the quote to Harvey Wasserman (America Born and Reborn, Macmillan, 1983, p. 89-90, 313), who in turn sources it to Paha Sapa Reports, the newspaper of the Black Hills Alliance, Rapid City, South Dakota, 4 March 1982. But given Wasserman's ties to Howard Zinn, and his status as co-founder (?) of the Liberation News Service, citing that kind of trail is like waving a red flag for the skeptics ;-)
Fortunately, after some burrowing in the univ. library, I was able to confirm its authenticity. Here it is, with more surrounding context:
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
For a reliable pedigree, cite p. 40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia, by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY). That traces the quote's lineage to p. 954 of Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, (Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc, 1931, NY).
A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case:Most modern Republicans, of course, would never believe that the most revered member of their party had his doubts about giving too much power to corporations.
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837.
See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works,
ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)
Adam Smith himself voiced some wariness of "joint stock corporations," and was not (contrary to what you've been taught) always opposed to government regulation. Smith also believed in the Labor Theory of Value, usually attributed to Marx. (Yes, I've actually read The Wealth of Nations -- unlike a lot of the people who treat it as a holy book.) (Gad, I hope someone doesn't demand that I cite chapter and verse -- my complete copy is missing, and my abridged edition is buried in a huge pile of other books.)
By the way, diligent research has uncovered a couple of other little-known Lincoln quotes:
"It was a good effort, Sarek."
-- Abraham Lincoln, stardate 203.6
"My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it."
-- Abraham Lincoln, 1865.
3 comments:
Adam Smith did not have a labour theory of value for commercial markets. Price was determined by supply and demand in markets in his exposition of prices.
The factors of production, land (rent), labour (wages) and capital (profits) shared the revenues from market sales (Book I of Wealth of Nations).
Smith explained how labour was the source of value in exchange only when labour was the sole factor in production and it was unambiguously 'owned' by the labourer (hunter) in what he called 'rude' society, before markets.
In commercial societies labour was no longer the sole factor; land was owned by landowners and 'stock (capital) was owned by 'master' manufacturers, and the shared the ownership of products with labour and shared the revenues from sale in markets, governed by supply and demand (Book I, Wealth of Nations)
Marx asserted the labour theory of value applied in commerce, and in capitalism, which was not Smith's view.
I discuss this in my blog: www.adamsmithslostlegacy.com
Friedrich Hayek, who is revered amongst free-market conservatives, also voiced reservations about the laws empowering corporations. His Road to Serfdom is not only about the fatal flaws of Communism.
sofla said...
Actually, the quote is prefaced by a couple other sentences that give additional color to what Lincoln was saying here:
"The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic that monarchy. More insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future... "[begins the part of the quote we've already seen].
Thus, Lincoln is firmly in the camp opposing the money changers above the rest of generic corporations and private wealth, failing only to use the shibboleth 'international bankers' to put him squarely in supposed John Bircher territory.
Many if not most of the presidents from the late 19th century forward were also quite clear in their opposition to the private bankers' control of the economy and the country's politics. If you want hair-raising rhetoric, check out any of the many speeches of one Louis McFadden (if I've remembered his name correctly), then the **Chairman of the House Banking Committee**, wherein he describes the Fed as a criminal organization that had plundered the country.
Somewhere circa that time frame (i.e., in the first decade or so after the Federal Reserve Act) the banksters of the day decided they needed better press, and proceeded to buy it up. After big money got JFK's scalp, you rarely hear much about questions about the Fed or the oligarchical financial arrangements in this country, and if you do, they are characterized as insane ravings of the farthest wings of the right or the left.
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