Labor News: Lincoln’s Letter on Corporations – God grant that my fears may prove groundless.
The Labor News
November 1, 1888
Lincoln’s Prediction
President Lincoln, in answer to a letter from a friend in Illinois, used the following language:
“Yes, we may all congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing a close. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. The best blood of the flower of the American youth has been freely offered upon our country’s altar that the nation might live. It has indeed been a trying hour for the republic; but I see in the near future a crisis arising 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 more
anxiety for the safety of my country that ever before even in the midst of the war. God grant that my fears may prove groundless.
—————
Lincoln rightly predicted the Robber Baron era that soon followed. President Theodore Roosevelt
busted up the Robber Baron trusts, saving our country from abusive monopoly power. Today,
under the acquiescence of Congress and the administrations from Presidents Reagan to Obama,
the Robber Baron era is back, bigger and more powerful than ever.
Mike Callicrate
