Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... the Money Power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the 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, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States (Republican, IL), Letter written to William Elkin just after the passage of the National Banking Act of 1863
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Jefferson, who was so brilliant and farsighted with respect to so many things from agriculture to government management had one great weakness. He really did not understand and generally disliked, banking, finance, industry, large manufacturing. His famous disagreements with Alexander Hamilton were mostly over these areas in which Hamilton was so effective at creating America with a strong national economy. Between them, America was started off in the right direction in all areas.
This is essentially what happened in the Economic Meltdown of 2008 leading to the Great Recession.
The “rebate agony” referred to a corrupt practice of the Railroads and the Large Monopolies. The railroads charged a very high rate for the transportation of important products like beef and oil. However, secretly they gave back a large percentage of the transportation rate charged to the trusts. They in turn could cut their prices and undersell all the smaller competitors who were paying “full freight” and could not afford to match the lower price. As soon as the smaller competitors were driven out of business in an area, the trust raised its rates even higher than they charged originally. The Railroad had made a small but reasonable profit on the freight of the trusts but they were guaranteed all their business. They also made huge profits on the higher rates that the small companies paid until those companies were driven out of business. Journalists like Ray Baker and Ida Tarbell had uncovered the rebate scheme which enabled the trusts to steal high amounts from the general public through unreasonably high prices. President Theodore Roosevelt was committed to try and regulate the railroads and not allow rebates but charge the same public rate to all with no rebates. Socialists like Sinclair, thought that this attempt would be hopeless—that the damage had already been done, and the trusts now had so much money that they could buy state legislatures and many in Congress to preserve their dominance.
This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted. In this quotation a character in 2000 looks “backward” and correctly describes what occurred well after Bellamy’s death. This prediction describes the early 20th century quite well.
The coup which deposed and then murdered Patrice Lumumba had the help of the American CIA and French Army. Lumumba was a Marxist and Mobutu appeared to be an anti-Communist. The corruption under Lumumba was typical of most African counties but Lumumba himself was an ideologue and but not personally dishonest. Under Mobuto, the Congo—renamed Zaire—became the most corrupt nation on earth, and Mobuto, one of the richest men in the world. Everything he complained of to justify is coup, he himself was guilty of when he consolidated power—moreso than any other 20th century world leader.
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
