"Lincoln's purpose in promoting Whig capitalism was not self-interest per se, but capitalism's necessary connection to equality, self-transformation, and social mobility, which were Lincoln's real goals. The essence of a free society, Lincoln said in 1859 (and here he was pirating J.S. Mill's Principles of Political Economy), was the openness it afforded to each of its citizens to make of themselves whatever they could, without the handicap of artificial inequalities based on status, nationality, or race. One could not do this in an economic environment governed by status, racial stratification, or centralized planning. Lincoln loved the Declaration's affirmation of all men's natural equality; but that equality would be meaningless without the unfettered opportunity to use it for something. If a national bank, tariffs, and "international improvements" promoted these opportunities, then they really were serving the interests of the natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesPeople from PennsylvaniaHistorians of the American Civil War
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Allen_C._Guelzo
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Allen C. Guelzo
84 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Allen C. Guelzo →
Related Quotes
"[T]he very people who write so disparagingly about it either do not understand it, or I suspect even more, understand…"
"What the Democratic Party has most liked to say about itself—that it is the party of the working man, the voice of th…"
"[V]ery little has changed in the fundamental ideology of the Democratic Party since Jackson's day."
"The attempt by eleven southern—and slaveholding—states to secede from the Union in the winter and spring of 1860-61 p…"
"But secession struck to an even deeper level, to the very roots of popular government. The seceding states made their…"
"It was not Abraham Lincoln who invented the nanny-state; it was that son of the Confederacy, Woodrow Wilson. That Ame…"
"We live in a cynical age."
"I remember a rusher; not on a sports team. A rusher who carried an American flag, the regimental flag of the 54th Mas…"
"[A]bsent Lincoln's proclamation, not a single fugitive slave would ever be other than a fugitive, rather than a legal…"
"Defending slavery deprived the Confederate soldier to the same claim to nobility, but not to tragedy."