“Liberty cannot long endure,” said Webster, “when the tendency is to
concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.”
President Lincoln, in a message to Congress, said of this danger:
“Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the
power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified
were I to omit raising a warning voice against approaching despotism.
There is one point to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort
to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the
structure of the government. Let them beware of surrendering a political
power which they already have, and which if surrendered will surely be
used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix
new disabilities and burdens upon them till all liberty shall be lost.”