1860/03/06

       In New Haven, Connecticut, former Whig (nationalist) Congressman Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, makes a campaign speech for the Republican (nationalist) nomination for President of the united States.  Lincoln praises the virtues of the free-market, and argues that they should be extended to all persons in the united States:

I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails in New England under which laborers can strike when they want to, where they…are not tied down and obliged to work whether you pay them or not! I like the system which lets a man quit when he wants to, and wish it might prevail everywhere.  One of the reasons I am opposed to slavery (involuntary servitude) is just here.  What is the true condition of the laborer?  I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can.  Some will get wealthy.  I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich.  It would do more harm than good.  So while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.  When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor, for his whole life.  I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, nailing rails, at work on a flat-boat—just what might happen to any poor man’s son!  I want every man to have the chance—and I believe a black is entitled to it—in which he can better his condition—when he can look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him!

       [restored 10/2/2026]

       Even a stopped clock is right on occasion.  Would that every modern Republican thought this way, on free labor, today.  Wouldn’t that eliminate the unconscionable tax on labor?  He was a grand liar.  —— JL