[Dialogue] Timely quote-- A possible response

[george]

While Snopes is pretty good, Dick, there is more than a little debate  
about the quote.  One researcher, Ric Crawford, claims to have have  
uncovered the quote in a letter from Abraham Lincoln to a (Col.)  
William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.

You can check it out at http://www.ratical.org/corporations/Lincoln.html

What do you think?
–george holcombe

What Lincoln Foresaw:

Corporations Being "Enthroned" After the Civil War

and Re-Writing the Laws Defining Their Existence

by Rick Crawford, crawford at cs.ucdavis.edu

Here is a sobering quote by Abe Lincoln:
"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."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
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.
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).
Based on about 3 hrs of research, it appears Lincoln has been  
extensively SANITIZED FOR OUR PROTECTION. The Hidden Lincoln; from  
the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon, by Emanuel Hertz  
(Viking Press, 1938, NY), details how Herndon (Lincoln's lifelong law  
partner) collected an extensive oral history and aggregated much of  
Lincoln's writings into a collection that served as the basis for  
many "authoritative" books on Lincoln.
By all accounts, Herndon was scrupulously honest and plainspoken.  
Hertz quotes Herndon's characterization of the various "big-name"  
authors who relied on his collection for primary source materials:
"They are aiming, first, to do a superb piece of literary work;  
second, to make the story WITH THE CLASSES AS AGAINST THE MASSES. [my  
emphasis added] It will result in delineating the real Lincoln about  
as well as does a wax figure in the museum."
In several books, I found numerous places where Lincoln spoke about  
Capital and Labor ("Workingmen"). Lincoln re-used his own material  
frequently, and virtually identical passages appear in several  
places. Lincoln praises the moral rightness of both Capital and  
Labor, but this is invariably in the context of a nation where NO  
MORE THAN ONE MAN IN EIGHTis a Capitalist or a Laborer, ie, where 7/8  
of the population are "self-employed" on their own farms and homesteads.
This social context of general self-sufficiency would explain how  
Lincoln could serve for years as a railroad corporation lawyer with  
(apparently) no qualms, yet pen the "corporations enthroned" passage  
to Elkins.
A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case:
"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)



-rick     crawford at cs.ucdavis.edu


On May 26, 2006, at 12:46 PM, KroegerD at aol.com wrote:

> Snopes  the final authority on everything hoaxy.
>
> Real author unknown.  Is apparently was first spoken during a  
> presidential campaign.
> _______________________________________________
> Dialogue mailing list
> Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

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