Lincoln 1864: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching....

[TruthIsAll]

"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."

-- Pres. Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)


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[texpatriot2004]

1. Wow, the more things change, the more they stay the same eh?

[bleever]

2. So THAT'S what they mean by "the party of Lincoln"!

It all makes sense now.

[tk2kewl]

3. thing is it happened. reached a crescendo in the 1920s

only 50 some years later

then the crash and The New Deal

now we are on the next brink as the last vestiges of Th New Deal are being undone by bushCo

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Lincoln never ceases to amaze. ..

Foretells above ( in a nutshell) the economic history of the country from the end of the war to the TR era.

[livvy]

5. And he also said:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." Abraham Lincoln

That's where we come in...:D

[mom cat]

7. Amen! And welcome to DU. We have been getting a lot of wonderful

new membera...and you are onr of them. Thanks for the quote.
:hi:

[Journeyman]

6. It's a bogus quote. . .

he never said it .

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln.htm

[Razorback_Democrat]

11. Kind of the "Lincolngate" quotes memo?

LOL

[steelyboo]

13. ahhhh Snopes.com...

Fucking up bullshit and lies since 1995!(c)

[newyawker99]

17. Hi steelyboo!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[seito]

8. Guess I should have paid more attention in Social Studies

If you fail to learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it.

[livvy]

9. Thanks, Mom Cat!

[livvy]

10. Journeyman- You got me thinking about my quote

so I did some research to see when he said it etc. Well...turns out he may not have said it.
I got this info from "For the People: A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association" Volume 1, Number 2 Summer 1999
Apparently, Senator Trent Lott(ugh!) "appeared on Meet the press, March 22, 1998, and proudly quoted AL to make his point:
'I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.'
Fine sentiments indeed. But did Lincoln make such a statement? Lott's staff obtained the quote from a Lexus/Nexus search. It appeared on the database twenty-eitht times and in each instance attributed the words to Lincoln. A search of Lincoln's own words, however, failed to locate any of the three sentences."
It is assumed it may be a "recollection" written after his death. The closest the newletter researchers could come was, "I have faith in the people. They will not consent to disunion. The danger is, they are misled. Let them know the truth, and the county is safe." July 1864
It sounds good, but if it's not really Lincoln's words, guess I'll think about using it again as a quote. The fact that Lott said it, sort of sours it for me as well.
I just thought you might be interested. I thought the info was, and I enjoyed reading some of Lincolns other quotes while searching for this. Learned a bit about him, too.

[cerulean_ink]

12. wow, great quote n/t

[OneBlueSky]

14. other presidents have had similar views . . .

and I think it's time we started listening to them . . .

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson

"There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by... corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses. It's one of the reasons why the word "corporation" doesn't exist in the constitution - they were to be chartered only by states, so local people could keep a close eye on them." James Madison, Father of the Constitution

"In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions." Andrew Jackson

"I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion - the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government - would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities." Martin van Buren

"As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters." Grover Cleveland

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." Theodore Roosevelt

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, IS Fascism.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Dwight David Eisenhower

[reality_bites]

15. "Douglas 1863: Damn, I wish I could debate better."

[Straight Shooter]

16. Aaron Burr: "I leave my legacy to Dick Cheney and Tom Delay."

The election in 1800 resulted in a tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives voted to break the tie and Jefferson was elected President and Burr Vice-President. Alexander Hamilton came into conflict with Burr. A duel was challenged and in 1804 Aaron Burr killed Hamilton. Though indicted for murder, Burr continued to preside over the Senate and act as Vice-President until his term ended. Upon leaving Washington, Burr become involved in a series of affairs that looked to all concerned like treason. He was suspected of attempting to divide the Southwest from the Union and building his own empire. Jefferson, intent on convicting Burr, had him arrested. Burr was to stand trial on treason in the Fifth Circuit Court in Richmond, VA (now the Fourth Circuit). During this time, it was customary for the Supreme Court Justices to sit on Circuit Courts. The Fourth Circuit Court was presided over by none other than Chief Justice Marshall.

(snip)

The air in the court room was electric when the court returned an acquittal. Marshall had followed a strict reading of the Constitution and excluded all evidence not directly related to the act of treason. He maintained that it took the testimony of at least two witnesses to the same "overt act" of treason to convict.

http://www.apva.org/apva/marshall_house_burr_trial.php