Abraham Lincoln said 'Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption will follow'

The 'corporate corruption' prophecy attributed to Lincoln

The quote was attributed to Lincoln as early as 1896

The quote was falsely "authenticated"

"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 preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me & the financial institutions at the rear, the latter is my greatest foe. 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 the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, 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. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."

Sources:

1. Ghent, W.J.   "Lincoln and the Social Problem."  Collier's   v. 35; #23-24   (1905).
2. Peterson, Merrill D.   Lincoln in American Memory.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.   ISBN 0-19-509645-2   (pp. 160-161, 340).
3. http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_Lincoln&oldid=697894

4. A POPOCRATIC FORGERY; Remarks Attributed to Lincoln Pro-nounced Spurious. New York Times October 3, 1896, Wednesday

5. Yrs. Truly, A Lincoln by John Kobler February 25, 1956 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1956/02/25/1956_02_25_038_TNY_CARDS_000248517

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By: ronmamita on 2008/11/26 AM 11:51:14. Drats! I wished he had said it; now I am Soooo curious as to who did and why? Why falsely attribute this qoute to Lincoln?

By: parhat on 2009/01/05 PM 12:01:49. Since large business controls New York Times,and much of the monopolies it It's really difficult to determine whether the news is a liberate attempt at disinformation by the corporate powers. Still, the statement allegedly attributed to Lincoln is still prophetic, at least it dates circa 1880. And it's also true that the letter that Lincoln wrote to did in fact exist and was part of the Illinois legislature along with Lincoln. Lincoln also had a bloodline to the Rothschild and it is quite likely he tried to dismantle the private powerful European financial interests in civil War, as did Kennedy in attempting his own greenbacks. Both got assassinated and Federal Reserve is now privately Owned through Rothschild and JP Morgan, as well as Khun Loeb, Therefore his statement or anyone's statement for that matter is prophetic still, but is it? With Rothschild's wealth, currently estimated at 300 trillion dollars, now support financial success in such celebrities as Arnold Swartzenegger and even Buffet, I suspect much of the success are the financial backing and perhaps manipulations by the Rothschild. Hence, maybe it's not prophetic at all, the money interests has always been there. For those not familiar with this topic, watch The Money Masters through video.google.com or youtube The issue of his statement to Lincoln or not, in 1880s at least, still has relevance today and I still considered it prophetic.

By: parhat on 2009/01/05 PM 12:05:40. Todd Lincoln tried to disowned a statement made by his father. But remember, at the time he was making this statement he was already a successful lawyer on behalf of the Railroad interests. It's the same thing when Prince William, denies his mother Diana was murdered. Of course on ocassion you can be loyal to father, such as John F. Kennedy Jr. Of course he was to reveal the murder surrounding his father, and was murdered during the weekend before he actually gotten to reveal this on Monday through his magazine, with his wife. It's no surprise that both got killed in an mysterious airplane crash where the gas lines were cut off killing both. So some people knows the art of survival in keeping the mouth shut as did his mother Jackie Onassis.

By: parhat on 2009/01/05 PM 12:19:03. For all practical purposes, the University of Michigan does not say these documents were indeed forgeries. While Robert Todd Lincoln his son, disowned it saying it came from seances in Iowa. The story still doesn't hold water as the story is too wild to be believed that anyone would bother to make a letter from an unknown seance in Iowa. The other thing is one of the book by Shaw in 1950 did used this quote and some claim it to be false. The only problem is where is the proof that the Shaw edition is a fake. Scopes dot come claimed forgery far too quickly. A forgery is a forgery if you show me a letter that is NOT written in Lincol's handwriting then it's a forgery. Now how could a forgery be a forgery when there is no letter of forgery in existence? It is also true that the letter written to William Elkins was never denied by him, who is a fellow Illinois legislature. This mysterious silence by Col. Elkins as well as personal letter by Lincoln may NOT have passed eyes by either Lincoln's own son who is a successful lawyer for big business railroad interest nor his personal secretary. He had other secretary when he was also alive too.

By: parhat on 2009/01/05 PM 12:23:29. The statement is TOO Quickly Claimed to be a false as a Forgery. Then show me the forgery letter. The best answer is Undecided.

By: parhat on 2009/01/20 PM 6:44:46. You're missing the collection of Lincoln's Paper compiled by Lincoln's lawyer associate which verifies its authenticity. The encyclopedia sanitized the issue of "Classes against the Masses" in p.40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 150, NY.) and p.954 of Abraham lincoln: A New Portrait,(Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc. 1931, NY). The original book appeared and compiled by Lincoln's lifelong law partner verifies his statement in "The Hidden Lincoln: from the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon, by Emanuel Hertz (Viking Press, 1938, NY) which is the authoritative version of Lincoln's papers. This verifies Lincoln's statement as being TRUE. So I did check. His original statement in full is as follows: "We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood... It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching 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 upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety fo the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864. It would seem that Lincoln have mentioned in many places where Lincoln spoke about Capital and Labor ("Workingmen"), Lincoln also praise the moral rightness of both Capital and Labor but in the context where during his nation, about 7/8 of the population are "self-employed" on their own farms. The idea of self sufficiency may explain how Lincoln served for years as a railroad corporation lawyer with apparently no qualms and pen the name "corporation enthroned" to Elkins. Lincoln also mentioned that "These capitalist generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel." from a speech to Illinois legislature, Jan 1837, See Vol1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works, ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)

By: parhat on 2009/01/20 PM 6:51:45. The later papers sanitized or removal of Classes against the masses apparently occurred at the same time of Marxist growth during that period which supported (by the rich, Engels and other financial wealth) to support Masses against the Classes. So Lincoln not only foresee the conspiracy of Classes against the masses, as opposed to Masses against the Classes and show the faults of Marxist. He also foresaw the rise of Corporate Crime (white collar crime) roughly 100 years before it was understood and "discovered" by Edwin Sutherland in 1949. In case if Lincoln is not prophetic enough, he foresee his own death a week before it occurred.

By: parhat on 2009/01/20 PM 6:56:07. You don't check your facts very well. I have posted in other comments under parhat referring to the book written by Lincoln's life long Law Partner in his book "The Hidden Lincoln; from the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon, by Emanuel Hertz (Viking Press, 1938 NY) and other similar papers referring to corporations, such as Lincoln's complete works, which mentions variations of this. Please read a few recent comments I posted. Check your facts!

By: eric2 on 2009/03/03 PM 1:47:00. This article verifies that Emanuel Hertz was indeed fooled by multiple forgeries by a man going by the alias 'Joseph Cosey'. THE NEW YORKER "Yrs. Truly, A Lincoln" by John Kobler February 25, 1956 The burden of proof is on the proponents of the authenticity of the passage to produce the letter written by Lincoln.

By: rwhitneyil on 2010/03/02 PM 3:47:34. I fail to see how the New Yorker article proves anything. It does not mention this quote at all as being one of the ones that was forged by Martin Coneely a/k/a Joseph Cosey. I could not open the NYT article published in 1896 but if the quote was denounced as a forgery in 1896, what could Coneely possibly have to do with it -- when he was born in 1887, according to the New Yorker article? While the authenticity of the quote may be questionable, the sources provided here seem to fall short in disproving it as well. The jury should still be out on this one.

By: user on 2010/10/30 AM 12:57:49. If Coonely didn't learn to forge Lincoln's name until 1931, there's no way he could have forged a letter that was written in the 1800s.

By: user on 2010/10/30 AM 1:03:40. There is no way that someone who didn't learn how to forge Lincoln's name until 1931 could have forged a letter written in the late 1800s. Nothing relates Coleey the forger to the allegedly forged letter. As for the remaining allegations that the letter is false, they are hearsay claims made by the Republican party.