On Labor and Capital (Abraham Lincoln):

[Xipe Totec]

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

- Abraham Lincoln, first Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

[Oregone]

1. Almost everything about our economic system disagrees with that statement though

[Xipe Totec]

2. And therein lies the problem n/t

[Oregone]

3. yep

[Captain Hilts]

4. I quoted that in my dissertation on Russian labor reform, or lack thereof. nt

[Xipe Totec]

6. I would love to read it n/t

[Captain Hilts]

5. Amend the thread title to include Abe's name. It will get more hits that way. nt

[Xipe Totec]

7. Good advice. n/t

[Dr.Phool]

8. So, we're suffering from capital punishment?

[Xipe Totec]

10. Man, you're quick!

I laughed till it hurt, and then I cried.

[ngant17]

9. Lincoln was obviously a Marxist

as this quote could have been taken directly out of Das Capital.

[Xipe Totec]

11. Or, rather, Marx was a Lincolnist, since the quote predates Marx. n/t

[Unvanguard]

13. No, it doesn't. Lincoln and Marx were contemporaneous.

The Communist Manifesto was published thirteen years before that quote. Marx (together with others) sent Lincoln a letter in support of the Union in the American Civil War.

[Xipe Totec]

15. I stand corrected n/t

[Zomby Woof]

16. Not really

He was a corporate lawyer, who often went to bat for railroads and their interests. And this was decades before the 1886 landmark case which first declared corporations "persons". Lincoln, like any lawyer, could play both sides. He represented a slaveowner once in a case eerily prescient of the Dred Scott case.

[hileeopnyn8d]

12. Here's a good

bookend quote to that one, also from Lincoln.


"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 on 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."
— Abraham Lincoln, letter to William F. Elkins (Nov 21, 1864)

[Xipe Totec]

14. THAT, just blows my mind! Awesome bookend

I hope it remains a warning and not an epitaph.

[senseandsensibility]

18. Whoa.

Almost worth a separate OP, as much as I appreciate this one.

[senseandsensibility]

17. See my sig line!

:fistbump: