Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1891-12-22
LINCOLN'S PROPHECY.
ingalls, Attempt to Discredit 1t Fully
Answered..

ingalls,, of Kansas, was recently sent to
the Washington Star:
In a recent issue of The New Nation find
this alleged quotation from President Lincoln
| II see in the near future" said Abraham Lin
coin in 1865. "a crisis approaching that un-
nerves me and causes me to tremble for the
safety of my country. AS q 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 upon the pref
udices of the people until all wealth Is aggre-
gated in few hands and the republic is de-
stroyed | feel at this moment more anxiety
for the safety of the country than ever before.
even in the midst of the war;"
The same extract has been floating through
the journals of anarchy and socialism for sew
eral years, and has been a favorite paragraph
with pessimistic orators in their appeals to the
passions of the poor.
1t does not appear in any of the published
messages, speeches or letters of Lincoln. The
internal evidence is against its authenticity
The words, the style, the construction are like
nothing in. his composition. Mr.. Nicolay, his
former secretary, has never seen nor heard
such expressions in the writings or utterances
of President Lincoln.
Evidently it is malignant, clumsy forgery.
Yours, JOHN j. INGALLS,.
We would remind the honorable gen.
tleman from Kansas that upon the Sd of
December, 1861, President Lincoln sent
to congress one of his historic messages.
Its closing paragraphs, even read at this
day, carry the impress of a great con-
Germ for the rights of man. He declared
that monarchy itself is sometimes
limited at as possible refuge from the
power of the people. In my present po-
sition could scarcely be justified were
| to omit raising warning voice against
this approach of returning despotism."
Mr.. Lincoln's thought was evidently
running on the relation of political
power to property, question raised by
the issue of slavery and the capital
which labor produces. "There is one
point with its connections" continued
Mr.. Lincoln, "to which ask brief
attention 1t is the effort to place CAPT
tai on an equal footing with, if not
above, labor III the structure of govern
ment. Labor is prior to and independ-
ent of capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have existed
if labor had not first existed. Labor is
the superior Of capital and deserves
much the higher consideration.
''No men living are more worthy to be
trusted than those who toll up from pow
erty-none less inclined to take or touch
aught which they have not honestly
earned. Let them beware of surrender
ing u political power which they already
possess, and which, if surrendered, will
surely be used to close the door of ad-
vancement against such as they, and to
fix new disabilities and burdens upon
them, till all of liberty shall be lost"
So far as the immediate issues were
concerned it was not necessary to go into
the philosophy of capital at that time,
but the great statesman was looking at
the fundamentals, and he pointed to a
danger beside which negro slavery was
an incident, the despotism of capital
over labor, and then he warned the la
borer to hold fast to his political privi-
leges lest "all of liberty shall be lost"
Abraham Lincoln was u prophet, and
in few years-even, before the war
closed-the door of advancement was
closed to the average laborer. A friend
of Mr.. Lincoln, a resident of Illinois,
wrote to the president in 1865 for fuller
statement of his views, and an explana-
ton of the closing passages of his mes
sage of December, 1861, which we have
quoted above. 1t was in answer to this
appeal that he wrote the letter quoted
in The New Nation which Mr. Ingalls,
calls a malignant. clumsy forgery
New Nation.