“We have stricken the shackles from 4,000,000 human beings and brought all labourers to a common level, but not so much by the elevation of former slaves as by reducing the whole working population, white and black, to a condition of serfdom. While boasting of our noble deeds, we are careful to conceal the ugly fact that by our iniquitous money system we have manipulated a system of oppression which, though more refined, is no less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.”

And it continues to be so today...

Wow I agree Reston it could have been written yesterday

If the average American understood our monetary system, we would have revolting in the streets. Check out www.themoneymasters.com

I bow my head in shame, even though I don't have much money, because I have not yet found a way to echo this truth with the full degree of dedication that it merits.

I had not realized Mr.Greeley was as perspicacious as he is here. The really sad thing is that the situation has been getting worse ever since Reagan.

Actually, Dick, it really started downhill with the 16th ammendment and was speeded along later with the Roosevelt New Deal. B.O. can now finish the job. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of the U.S.A.

This is an EMPOWERING quote :-)

WOW, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Even the communists among us know of what it is worth.

Obviously he was referring to the Northern Yankee politico economic system that distributed the fruits of labor to laborer not much better than did Southern slavery. Manipulation is the name of the game and I guess it is always with us even in the present politcal season

No, Waffler, Horace Greeley was talking about the national bank and the Reconstruction Amendments -- not sure if that is covered in your Funk & Wagnalls...

Hey, it's a good time to watch the Mises video on YouTube, "Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve" again!

What I believe Mr. Greely was saying is that we have exchanged chattel slavery for wage slavery in the name of progress. Thousands died to produce what you see in Detroit today and you must wonder are we any better off?

Nice quote. There's just one problem: How do you know it's authentic? The problem with the internet is that anyone can put a quote online and attribute it to someone who's been dead for decades. Where's the source of this quote?

Now this guy knew what he was talking about. It's no wonder he didn't win the presidency.

Yes and Grant owned " slaves." Robert E. Lee did not. Go figure !
7% of the population owned slaves, as most were yoeman farmers. Small self sustaining family farming and ranching operations. Two hundred acres or less. The north's "common level " of freedom for all, with the individuals financial liberty stripped away. States and Individual sovereignty struck down at the point of a gun. The full on siege of our once Free Republic. The pain still burns deep in the heart of every Patriot who understands the loss suffered by all Americans.

Wow! that could be written today....

The most labor intense strategy and focus should be that in the direction of the discovery of our true humanity. Examine, analyze, question, reflection, refinement; by all moral means find it.