Happy Labor Day

Abraham Lincoln was a Radical Republican.

I don’t make the rules, bro 🤷🏻‍♂️

His words, prompted in the style of a TikTok influencer for a 5th grade vocabulary:

“Lincoln believed that the hustle is what matters.

“He thought that working hard comes before having big money, and money is just the reward for our grind.

“Imagine you start with nothing but your skills, work for some cash, save up, and then invest in technology or property.

“You become your own boss and even help others get started on their journey. That’s what he called ‘free labor’ — a fair and awesome system that gives everyone a shot, brings hope, energy, progress, and a better life for all.”

The original text via Heather Richardson Cox:

Lincoln believed that “labor is prior to, and independent of, capital; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed — that labor can exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior — greatly the superior of capital.”

The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his own account for another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This, say its advocates, is free labor — the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all — gives hope to all, and energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all.”

Happy Labor Day!