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Was Abraham Lincoln the first American Communist?

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In my first contribution to the People's Cube I'd like to remember those who gave so much to move the cause forward, so that today we can feel a glorious breath of Next Tuesday on our collective neck.

The picture above shows a glorious gathering of true American heroes at the 1939 Communist Party USA convention in Chicago under the slogan "Hail the friendship of the peoples of the USA and the USSR!" with portraits of Lenin, Stalin, and Lincoln above the crowded stage.

Apparently, Abraham Lincoln takes a special place in the People's Pantheon. Is it because he was the first American President to fight against the States and Individuals for the expansion of the Centralized Dictatorship? It seems we must dig further than Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson for the source of the massive progress we are witnessing today in Washington, DC.

As you know the history books have been re-written here in the States and the deeper I dig into Abraham Lincoln the more I am amazed.

Now, can a comrade direct me to the line of free beets and vodka? It is a glorious day as a new member moves from The Plantation to The Collective.

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I remember from my history class in the Soviet school that Marx and Engels closely followed the American Civil War, wrote articles about it, and yes, corresponded about the US developments. That was presented to us as an example of how versatile and informed Marx was about everything, while my friends and I snickered in the back, making jokes about Marx sticking his nose in absolutely everything like a busybody housewife.

For the record, here's an open letter written by Karl Marx to Abraham Lincoln.

You can find the full text and the reply from US Ambassador Adams here:


Karl Marx wrote:
The International Workingmen's Association 1864

Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America

Presented to U.S. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams
January 28, 1865

Written: by Marx between November 22 & 29, 1864
Sir:

We congratulate the American people upon your re-election by a large majority. If resistance to the Slave Power was the reserved watchword of your first election, the triumphant war cry of your re-election is Death to Slavery.

From the commencement of the titanic American strife the workingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class. The contest for the territories which opened the dire epopee, was it not to decide whether the virgin soil of immense tracts should be wedded to the labor of the emigrant or prostituted by the tramp of the slave driver?

When an oligarchy of 300,000 slaveholders dared to inscribe, for the first time in the annals of the world, "slavery" on the banner of Armed Revolt, when on the very spots where hardly a century ago the idea of one great Democratic Republic had first sprung up, whence the first Declaration of the Rights of Man was issued, and the first impulse given to the European revolution of the eighteenth century; when on those very spots counterrevolution, with systematic thoroughness, gloried in rescinding "the ideas entertained at the time of the formation of the old constitution", and maintained slavery to be "a beneficent institution", indeed, the old solution of the great problem of "the relation of capital to labor", and cynically proclaimed property in man "the cornerstone of the new edifice" — then the working classes of Europe understood at once, even before the fanatic partisanship of the upper classes for the Confederate gentry had given its dismal warning, that the slaveholders' rebellion was to sound the tocsin for a general holy crusade of property against labor, and that for the men of labor, with their hopes for the future, even their past conquests were at stake in that tremendous conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. Everywhere they bore therefore patiently the hardships imposed upon them by the cotton crisis, opposed enthusiastically the proslavery intervention of their betters — and, from most parts of Europe, contributed their quota of blood to the good cause.

While the workingmen, the true political powers of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic, while before the Negro, mastered and sold without his concurrence, they boasted it the highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and choose his own master, they were unable to attain the true freedom of labor, or to support their European brethren in their struggle for emancipation; but this barrier to progress has been swept off by the red sea of civil war.

The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.

Ambassador Adams Replies:

Ambassador Adams wrote:
Legation of the United States
London, 28th January, 1865

Sir:

I am directed to inform you that the address of the Central Council of your Association, which was duly transmitted through this Legation to the President of the United [States], has been received by him.

So far as the sentiments expressed by it are personal, they are accepted by him with a sincere and anxious desire that he may be able to prove himself not unworthy of the confidence which has been recently extended to him by his fellow citizens and by so many of the friends of humanity and progress throughout the world.

The Government of the United States has a clear consciousness that its policy neither is nor could be reactionary, but at the same time it adheres to the course which it adopted at the beginning, of abstaining everywhere from propagandism and unlawful intervention. It strives to do equal and exact justice to all states and to all men and it relies upon the beneficial results of that effort for support at home and for respect and good will throughout the world.

Nations do not exist for themselves alone, but to promote the welfare and happiness of mankind by benevolent intercourse and example. It is in this relation that the United States regard their cause in the present conflict with slavery, maintaining insurgence as the cause of human nature, and they derive new encouragements to persevere from the testimony of the workingmen of Europe that the national attitude is favored with their enlightened approval and earnest sympathies.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Charles Francis Adams


Line up, sign up, and re-enlist today, because we need more schooling, for more students, for Morse Science High.

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Karl Marx wrote:The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.
Notice the Marxist class-obsessed phraseology, distinguishing between "the middle class" and "the working class."

That got me thinking and I checked this letter in other languages, to see how these terms get to be translated.

It's unclear whether it was originally written in German because it was first published in English, in a British trade-unionist paper, and we know that Marx could speak English, although with a heavy German accent. Let's assume it was edited for publication by committee.

I found a Party-approved academic Russian translation, in which "the middle class" appears as "the bourgeoisie." Which is what I thought it would be. In other words, capitalists.

In German, "middle class" is called "Mittelstand" which usually includes small and "mom and pop" businesses. In Marxist vocabulary that is "petite bourgeoisie," which is still bourgeoisie, with its own mentality and culture that is antagonistic to "the proletariat" (aka "working classes" or "men of labor").

Marx believed that for a proletarian revolution to succeed, all bourgeoisie must be eliminated along with their mentality and cultural hegemony, to be replaced with new hegemony of the proletarian culture.

In summary, Marx believed that the American Revolutionary War was staged by the bourgeoisie (which still played a progressive role then), while the Civil War opened doors for the proletariat. Apparently he was hoping for another "red sea of civil war" that would eventually sweep the bourgeoisie, including what he referred to as "the middle class" (which now played a reactionary role).

In this sense it is curious how Obama is always using "the middle class" in the same way and capacity Marxists have always used "the working class," or "proletariat." This substitution of terms is either a deliberate rhetorical deception, or the meaning of the word has really shifted among today's Marxists influenced by Antonio Gramsci, at least in this country. It's part of the "divide and conquer" strategy: extract "the middle class" into a special class that is separate and opposed to others, and once "the middle class" allows the Marxists to categorize it and accepts the Marxist definition of itself, it will also allow the Marxists to represent it and will accept their leadership.

The above also clarifies the meaning of this book: An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln.

In the author's view, Lincoln only started a revolution which the Marxists must finish. It also explains Obama's description of Lincoln as his favorite president. He probably imagines himself as the one who is destined to finish Lincoln's "unfinished revolution," which is how it appears through the Marxist lens.

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The Audacity of the Dope: The Greatest Obama Story Ever Told



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Comrade Putout,
More Beets, Less Vodka and Putout when requested by Ole Honest Abe will keep your ass under control.

Translation for our worker brothers still in the fields.

Больше Свекол, Меньше Vodka и Putout, когда требовал Оле Хонест Абэ будут держать Вашу задницу под контролем.

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Comrade Putout wrote:.
And now for something silly...
.

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Honest Abe would say thusly...

"Putout, my dearest Putout, thine rear is larger than the moon, the sun, the heavens! Such a monolithic menagerie of fat and cellulose I haven't yet seen with mine eyes and which this nation hasn't yet seen in its tumultuous span! I ask of your diet, hath you committed grave crimes against this nation and its farmers by eating with the indiscretion of a hog and the tenacity of a leopard? Haven't you sympathy for the lowly commoner and the poverty-stricken lad who can buy no more than a loaf of bread? If these statements are to be seen as true, then I shame you for taking what is not yours to take. I pity you for growing into such a large and gargantuan mass. And not only these, I also anger at you for being a stain upon your community and a discredit to your nation and this world."

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An academic friend has sent me this comment after reading this thread:

* * *
The problem with Lincoln confronts any and all students of American History.

  1. He was the leader of a political party dedicated to ending slavery
  2. It took him two years of bloody civil war to finally, openly, declare for the end of slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation.
  3. He did not invade the South to end slavery.
  4. He did invade the South to hold the Union together.
  5. There is no constitutional authority to hold any state in the union that wishes to leave.
  6. The Emancipation Proclamation declared the end of slavery, and incidentally declared that the Federal State could and would by force if need be dictate what is or is not private property.
  7. There is no constitutional authority for the Federal Govt. to define what is or is not private property.

There is a new term out here defining government people who espouse these dictatorial powers of the state. The term crosses political spectrum. They are no longer leftist or rightists. They are all merely "State-ists" who believe firmly in the German Dicta, "Der Staat, Der Staat, Der Staat Uber Alles." It would seem that Mr. Lincoln may have been Amerika's greatest "State-ist".

Here is another essential problem. Any argument "settled" by force can always be revisited with force by the loosing side of the argument. So, slavery and secession will forever remain on the table. Hence force never "settles" an argument unless you are Stalin or Mao and can actually exterminate all of those on the other side of the argument. FYI Hitler never quite manged that feat.

One might also consider the word "consensus". It is a word that does not carry the baggage that the opposition need survive. I have a personal phrase for this kind of consensus, I call it "The 9mm Consensus".

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Urgent Memo to the Soviet General Secretary! (with 1428 copies and multiple other forms for distribution)

We must move the propaganda machine into overdrive as cracks are forming in the 150 year legacy of the Great Emancipator, our first socialist/communist in the Union of Socialist States of America (USSA).

Soon, "Workers of the World" will no longer believe our history books and will begin to question if 350,000 young rebels from Dixieland perished to protect the wealthy 5% capitalist elite that owned humans of bondage.

If realization occurs that the revolution was for the rights of Sovereign States instead of freedom from human bondage, so soon after the large slave market in the District of Candyland was boarded up, then the proverbial shit will hit the fan.

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Red Square wrote: 5. There is no constitutional authority to hold any state in the union that wishes to leave.

The states didn't create the Union. The southern states were in rebellion which is provided for in the constitution. The people ratified the constitution; the entity created is the people's. This isn't just semantic rationalizing. As a creature of the people rather than a creature of the states it reflects who is the sovereign. The people enjoy sovereignty because only individuals possess rights. NOT states. This is the essence of statism vs. self-government.

In the Lincoln / Douglas debates (at audible dot com which I highly recommend) Judge Douglas forcefully argues for the statism of full democracy over individual rights that might be invoked for the Negros in slavery, arguing that states have the right to decide through the democratic process whether or not slavery should or shouldn't exist in the state. Democracy NOW! he said. States rights vs. individual rights.

States don't have rights, people do. This Lincoln understood. Marx, if he really understood the issue fought over would have seen the entire thing as totally reactionary.

By fighting for the Union the North fought for the sovereignty of the people - which isn't the same thing at all as democracy but is about individual rights and possessing ones own life.

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The Sovereign States, which were in-fact colonies that freed themselves from a British tyranny through war, did create a central government.

And, they had/have a right to remove themselves from something they created. Over 350,000 young soldiers and civilians gave their ultimate for self determination.

Remember, it is Yankees 1 Confederates 0 at half-time.

Long live propaganda that bleeds into uninformed souls.

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Comrade Otis wrote: ...In the Lincoln / Douglas debates (at audible dot com which I highly recommend)...

If you're like me and you like to read text and don't like to spend money:

https://archive.org/stream/lincolndougl ... 8/mode/2up

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Abe,
Can I borrow your time contraption? I have some errands to attend to.

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The damn beet crops fails and you Comrades think you have problems.

I got some real issues developing and Trump Force One is transporting The Donald to more and more enclaves.

Comrades, get a life.

Long live the 150 year revolution and long live altered history.

Where in the Hell are the Thought Alternating Folks?

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Comrade Abrakham Linkol'n wrote:The damn beet crops fails and you Comrades think you have problems.

I got some real issues developing and Trump Force One is transporting The Donald to more and more enclaves.

Comrades, get a life.

Long live the 150 year revolution and long live altered history.

Where in the Hell are the Thought Alternating Folks?

12390943_920885087992946_1820630461608890896_n.jpg

Here's another "quote they didn't teach in history class":

“Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late… It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision… It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.

-Maj. General Patrick R. Cleburne, CSA, January 1864

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Comrade Stierlitz wrote:
Comrade Abrakham Linkol'n wrote:The damn beet crops fails and you Comrades think you have problems.

I got some real issues developing and Trump Force One is transporting The Donald to more and more enclaves.

Comrades, get a life.

Long live the 150 year revolution and long live altered history.

Where in the Hell are the Thought Alternating Folks?

12390943_920885087992946_1820630461608890896_n.jpg

Here's another "quote they didn't teach in history class":

“Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late… It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision… It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.

-Maj. General Patrick R. Cleburne, CSA, January 1864

Yes Comrade Stierlitz, those pesky Rebels simply want to be left alone and they do not invade Northern territory but they must be taught lessons and instructions to Union Forces is to kill, say up to 350,000, to bring the unruly farmers to their praying knees.

Long live Gen. Sherman and his fellow German Marxist trained soldiers.

https://www.plpow.com/Atrocities_QuotesFromSherman.htm

https://archive.lewrockwell.com/stromberg/stromberg51.html

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Cuba's first communist honors America's first communist as America's first communist looks down upon his black and white peasants on the plantation. Glorious, glorious, glorious....

Now they reside in Hell and we must hope for divine intervention as the narrative is now moving to the other instigator......Hitler.

Long live the 150 year revolution.

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Comrades, we inch closer as mixed race couple rape Amerika.


 
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