On March 4, 1858, South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond rose to his feet to explain to the Senate how society worked. “In all social systems,” he said, “there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” That class, he said, needed little intellect and little skill, but it should be strong, docile, and loyal.
Here's the thing about exploiters: without those whom they exploit, they wouldn't be successful. And that's why they oppose unions and any regulations that protect workers. They have no moral qualms about what they do because they perceive themselves to be superior human beings. When in fact their lack of morality makes them inferior.
I am one of the wage slaves and I don’t like the trends that I have witnessed since 1981. Too much wealth in the hands of a few. Banks that are too big to fail but not too big to get even bigger. The hope and promise of a more humane society by the adoption of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, now being undermined by the Supreme Court. Surely it is time for the arc of history to bend toward justice as once described by Martin Luther King. The people can make the change begin and the sooner the better.
Always amazing to me that the Republican Party of Lincoln could swing 180 degrees on so many core beliefs… and not for the better. The mob is fickle. And I do think Democrats should claim Lincoln posthumously as one of our best presidents 😁.
There is just no way he would stand for the core beliefs of today’s Republican Party, deconstructing and radical force that it is.
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected – those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony.”
– No Name on the Street
“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
– If Beale Street Could Talk
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”
- The Devil Finds Work
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”
This question: "Or should we protect the right of ordinary Americans to build their own lives, making sure that no one can monopolize the country’s money and resources, with the expectation that their efforts will build society from the ground up? " explains why I am a Democrat.
I have a graduate degree in psychology, I am a professional healthcare chaplain working in hospice in Northern California. I pay exorbitant rent for a one bedroom 600 sq ft apt in a, frankly, down scale neighborhood considering what with my education and type of work I do should afford me. with little left over to save much. I feel like a slave to a system of greed, and I cannot fathom how people with less education and earning ability are managing. There is something greatly unfair afoot. There are many finger wagings to the 1% but most of the rental property here is owned by small property owners. I do good work that I believe is helpful to society but it is barely enough to live an average life, with slim margins for a budget vacation once a year. There is too much greed and the model for wringing the most out of people possible seems way too acceptable and while I am very glad that the UPS drivers have a fair contract, I do find it amazing that I help people as they are dying and get paid less than half what a delivery driver makes. Why do people think that someone else’s labor should profit them to the detriment of the laborer?
One can hope fervently that the words of Lincoln in this instance will prevail against those of Hammond. Both visions exist in this world---Hammond states in clear words the animating vision of the GOP and the oligarchs who rule this country with their "ill gotten gains", so to speak. The vision of President Biden, with Bidenomics, seeks in a new context to "build up from the bottom" and envision a world in which workers are again empowered and enabled to rise from humble beginnings to high places in the world---or to the not insignificant economic location of the fading and indeed vanishing "middle class" which powered the American success post WWII. Lincoln's insight and eloquence presented in your essay this evening, Prof. Richardson, remind us of the vision for the future for America and Democracy that is threatened by the malign leadership and membership of the GOP. Time to buckle down and do the hard work of winning across the board and down the ticket in 2024. Thanks for your powerful words and for the opportunity for conversation and sharing that this community provides.
"Citizens United" pretty well supported the rights of a wealthy ruling class. In addition, the "founding fathers" seems to have embraced the vision of women as property or at least as men's indentured servants and with no vote in governance. There's no justification to sugar coat any of this. The Republican Party had a long way to fall from the party as it was under Dwight Eisenhower to the present party trying to ressurect the Confederacy, and it fell ALL of that distance.
If the public schools I grew up in included James Henry Hammond’s speech alongside the stirring speeches of the original Revolutionaries or the likes of Lincoln and FDR, I don’t remember reading it. If I don’t remember it because it wasn’t offered, I’d call that a missed opportunity on the part of educators. Either democracy works better than autocracy for purposes of enabling the people to live purposeful and satisfying lives ... or it doesn’t. Understanding the differences in details and implications of competing visions for government might still facilitate profoundly engaging classroom discussions. I think we should try it.
I'm thinking that James Henry Hammond would be very comfortable in today's Senate. Almost all of whose members are multi-millionaires and supported by interest groups whose goal is to protect their stockholders.
This explains the resistance to what the Biden Administration has tried to help middle and lower income citizens. Add the current Supreme Court to the resistance as well i.e. declaring Biden's plan to eliminate student debt.
The large and growing imbalance between workers' pay and that of executives, exemplifies what Lincoln referred to as Hammond's failure to recognize that labor creates capital and not vice-versa.
Trickle down economy promoted for years by the Republican Party does not work. Lincoln knew it. So why did we buy into it years ago? Now we have corporations and wealthy running the country. By the way, when the Supreme Court decided that a corporate entity was an individual as far as political contributions, they put political power into the hands of corporations.
About 4 years ago I was asked if I wanted to get in on the formation of a new consulting company based out of Phoenix. My answer was absolutely not. I said, "What we need are fewer consulting companies and more companies that employ workers that produce tangible goods and pay fair wages." I feel the USA is top heavy on white color jobs. We need more laborers paid decent wages. We need more unions to protect our laborers. The Republicans have been union busting for years making people the slaves of corporate America. I call it corporate slavery.
Clearly society should bring everyone to the party with opportunity to improve one’s future and participate in a ‘circular’ society….not a ‘top down’ one.
John Henry Hammond was one vile human being. What constitutes "forward" as a society moves? Does having one's labor stolen from him either by enslavement or by pathetically low wages, so that he cannot afford to support himself or a family constitute "forward"? Lincoln realized that slave labor in Kentucky actually made it very difficult for him to get ahead. People who were enslavers were unlikely to pay a free man to work. I think a society that is moving "forward" affords everyone the opportunity to become independent and take care of themselves. That society comes together to educate the population, provide healthcare, create infrastructure to get goods to market, and enforce laws to protect life and property.
John Henry Hammond used the term "mudsills" to describe the foundational members of society, essential workers, if you will. But if you build a building on wood laid in the mud, that wood will rot, then that "stately building " will collapse. Hammond was trying to justify the injustice of slavery. He may have been a congressman, but he was not honorable.
Here's the thing about exploiters: without those whom they exploit, they wouldn't be successful. And that's why they oppose unions and any regulations that protect workers. They have no moral qualms about what they do because they perceive themselves to be superior human beings. When in fact their lack of morality makes them inferior.
Well this clearly defines the difference between Biden and the GOP. Thanks Heather, history repeats itself.
I am one of the wage slaves and I don’t like the trends that I have witnessed since 1981. Too much wealth in the hands of a few. Banks that are too big to fail but not too big to get even bigger. The hope and promise of a more humane society by the adoption of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, now being undermined by the Supreme Court. Surely it is time for the arc of history to bend toward justice as once described by Martin Luther King. The people can make the change begin and the sooner the better.
Always amazing to me that the Republican Party of Lincoln could swing 180 degrees on so many core beliefs… and not for the better. The mob is fickle. And I do think Democrats should claim Lincoln posthumously as one of our best presidents 😁.
There is just no way he would stand for the core beliefs of today’s Republican Party, deconstructing and radical force that it is.
QUOTES BY JAMES BALDWIN
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected – those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony.”
– No Name on the Street
“Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
– If Beale Street Could Talk
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”
- The Devil Finds Work
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”
– Notes of a Native Son
This question: "Or should we protect the right of ordinary Americans to build their own lives, making sure that no one can monopolize the country’s money and resources, with the expectation that their efforts will build society from the ground up? " explains why I am a Democrat.
I have a graduate degree in psychology, I am a professional healthcare chaplain working in hospice in Northern California. I pay exorbitant rent for a one bedroom 600 sq ft apt in a, frankly, down scale neighborhood considering what with my education and type of work I do should afford me. with little left over to save much. I feel like a slave to a system of greed, and I cannot fathom how people with less education and earning ability are managing. There is something greatly unfair afoot. There are many finger wagings to the 1% but most of the rental property here is owned by small property owners. I do good work that I believe is helpful to society but it is barely enough to live an average life, with slim margins for a budget vacation once a year. There is too much greed and the model for wringing the most out of people possible seems way too acceptable and while I am very glad that the UPS drivers have a fair contract, I do find it amazing that I help people as they are dying and get paid less than half what a delivery driver makes. Why do people think that someone else’s labor should profit them to the detriment of the laborer?
One can hope fervently that the words of Lincoln in this instance will prevail against those of Hammond. Both visions exist in this world---Hammond states in clear words the animating vision of the GOP and the oligarchs who rule this country with their "ill gotten gains", so to speak. The vision of President Biden, with Bidenomics, seeks in a new context to "build up from the bottom" and envision a world in which workers are again empowered and enabled to rise from humble beginnings to high places in the world---or to the not insignificant economic location of the fading and indeed vanishing "middle class" which powered the American success post WWII. Lincoln's insight and eloquence presented in your essay this evening, Prof. Richardson, remind us of the vision for the future for America and Democracy that is threatened by the malign leadership and membership of the GOP. Time to buckle down and do the hard work of winning across the board and down the ticket in 2024. Thanks for your powerful words and for the opportunity for conversation and sharing that this community provides.
"Citizens United" pretty well supported the rights of a wealthy ruling class. In addition, the "founding fathers" seems to have embraced the vision of women as property or at least as men's indentured servants and with no vote in governance. There's no justification to sugar coat any of this. The Republican Party had a long way to fall from the party as it was under Dwight Eisenhower to the present party trying to ressurect the Confederacy, and it fell ALL of that distance.
If the public schools I grew up in included James Henry Hammond’s speech alongside the stirring speeches of the original Revolutionaries or the likes of Lincoln and FDR, I don’t remember reading it. If I don’t remember it because it wasn’t offered, I’d call that a missed opportunity on the part of educators. Either democracy works better than autocracy for purposes of enabling the people to live purposeful and satisfying lives ... or it doesn’t. Understanding the differences in details and implications of competing visions for government might still facilitate profoundly engaging classroom discussions. I think we should try it.
I'm thinking that James Henry Hammond would be very comfortable in today's Senate. Almost all of whose members are multi-millionaires and supported by interest groups whose goal is to protect their stockholders.
This explains the resistance to what the Biden Administration has tried to help middle and lower income citizens. Add the current Supreme Court to the resistance as well i.e. declaring Biden's plan to eliminate student debt.
The large and growing imbalance between workers' pay and that of executives, exemplifies what Lincoln referred to as Hammond's failure to recognize that labor creates capital and not vice-versa.
Happy Labor Day weekend. Never forget that without labor, the billionaire class would have nothing to sell and nobody to whom they could sell it.
And, FWIW, here's another example of how the former "Party of Lincoln" now spits on the grave of the former POTUS.
Trickle down economy promoted for years by the Republican Party does not work. Lincoln knew it. So why did we buy into it years ago? Now we have corporations and wealthy running the country. By the way, when the Supreme Court decided that a corporate entity was an individual as far as political contributions, they put political power into the hands of corporations.
About 4 years ago I was asked if I wanted to get in on the formation of a new consulting company based out of Phoenix. My answer was absolutely not. I said, "What we need are fewer consulting companies and more companies that employ workers that produce tangible goods and pay fair wages." I feel the USA is top heavy on white color jobs. We need more laborers paid decent wages. We need more unions to protect our laborers. The Republicans have been union busting for years making people the slaves of corporate America. I call it corporate slavery.
Clearly society should bring everyone to the party with opportunity to improve one’s future and participate in a ‘circular’ society….not a ‘top down’ one.
John Henry Hammond was one vile human being. What constitutes "forward" as a society moves? Does having one's labor stolen from him either by enslavement or by pathetically low wages, so that he cannot afford to support himself or a family constitute "forward"? Lincoln realized that slave labor in Kentucky actually made it very difficult for him to get ahead. People who were enslavers were unlikely to pay a free man to work. I think a society that is moving "forward" affords everyone the opportunity to become independent and take care of themselves. That society comes together to educate the population, provide healthcare, create infrastructure to get goods to market, and enforce laws to protect life and property.
John Henry Hammond used the term "mudsills" to describe the foundational members of society, essential workers, if you will. But if you build a building on wood laid in the mud, that wood will rot, then that "stately building " will collapse. Hammond was trying to justify the injustice of slavery. He may have been a congressman, but he was not honorable.