----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
> [Re Enron, the Wash. Post had an illuminating article
yesterday about scams
> throughout U.S. history, which included this tidbit:]
>
> The Civil War was quite unpleasant for many Americans but it
was great for
> Wall Street.
>
> Many of the era's foremost robber barons -- J.P. Morgan, John
D.
> Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould -- dodged the draft
by paying $300
> to hire a substitute. This modest investment left them free
to spend the war
> years getting rich instead of getting shot. Many on Wall
Street, including
> Morgan, made a fortune speculating in gold, the price of
which rose against
> the dollar with each defeat of the Union Army. Appalled,
President Lincoln
> announced that he hoped every gold speculator "had his
devilish head shot
> off."
>
> Meanwhile, Morgan was financing a deal to buy 5,000 rifles
from an Union
> Army arsenal in New York for $3.50 apiece, then sell them to
the Union Army
> in Virginia for $22 each. The rifles were defective --
causing soldiers to
> shoot their thumbs off -- but a judge ruled the deal legal.
Morgan earned a
> 25 percent commission, plus interest.
>
>
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44476-2002Feb8.
html]
>
> Carl
>
=================
Leading that left-wing lunatic Abe Lincoln to assert:
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
Ian