Hello again, RadRef folks.
I'm back with another quotation I wish you could check out for me. Much of the early leg work and research has been done on this one and you can find that here at a Georgist website called Wealth and Want. Here's the passage, allegedly from a letter Lincoln wrote to a Mr. Gridley, of the firm of Davis, Lincoln and Gridley, Attorneys, Bloomington, IL. and quoted in this book, which can be found on Google:
Abraham Lincoln and the Men of His Time
Robert Henry Browne, M.D., 1901
"The land, the earth that God gave to man for his home, his sustenance, and support, should never be the possession of any man, corporation, society, or unfriendly Government, any more than the air or the water, if as much. An individual company or enterprise requiring land should hold no more in their own right than is needed for their home and sustenance, and never more than they have in actual use in the prudent management of their legitimate business, and this much should not be permitted when it creates an exclusive monopoly. All that is not so used should be held for the free use of every family to make homesteads, and to hold them as long as they are so occupied.
"A reform like this will be worked out some time in the future. The idle talk of foolish men, that is so common now, on 'Abolitionists, agitators, and disturbers of the peace,' will find its way against it, with whatever force it may possess, and as strongly promoted and carried on as it can be by land monopolists, grasping landlords, and the titled and untitled senseless enemies of mankind everywhere."
http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Browne_Lincoln_Men.htm
A Mr. Asahel Gridley, a lawyer himself and perhaps the same Gridley in Lincoln's firm, did exist and Lincoln even represented him in some legal matters. See this this article:
Lawyers' impact widely felt for 175 years
Also found here in a slightly different context with some references to "land sharks". Scroll down for Lincoln:
I respect the man who properly named these villains land sharks. They are like the wretched ghouls who follow a ship and fatten on its offal.
The land, the earth, God gave to man for his home, sustenance and support, should never be the possession of any man, corporation, society or unfriendly government, any more than the air or water -- if as much. An individual or company, or enterprise, acquiring land should hold no more than is required for their home and sustenance, and never more than they have in actual use in the prudent management of their legitimate business, and this much should not be permitted when it creates an exclusive monopoly. All that is not so used should be held for the free use of every family to make homesteads and to hold them so long as they are so occupied.
The idle talk of foolish men, that is so common now, will find its way against it, with whatever force it may possess, and as strongly promoted and carried on as it can be by land monopolists, grasping landlords and the titled and untitled senseless enemies of mankind everywhere.
On the other questions there is ample room for reform when the time comes; but now it would be folly to think we could take more than we have in hand. But when slavery is over and settled, men should never rest content while oppression, wrongs and iniquities are enforced against them.
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/land-question_i-l.html
Thanks,
LD
