I have chosen James Madison as the opening image for this blog. I've spent part of two weeks at an amazing archaeological dig at Montpelier, his family's plantation/homestead in the Piedmont region of Virginia, close on the town of Orange.
I had intended a simple portrait of JM culled from the web but stumbled upon the one with the quote on bankers. This seems to be the season for quoting our more illustrious political leaders of the past (not very many Millard Fillmore missives floating about). At this very moment, as I proctor one of the seemingly endless standardized tests we have been administering this year in my school, I am wearing a t-shirt with a portrait of Lincoln and the following quote:
Corporations have been enthroned and an
era of corruption in high places will follow
Turns out that quotation itself as much as its sentiment is in dispute, with some claiming that old Abe never did, and never would have said such a thing. While I believe the historical jury is still out on the former question(see http://www.ratical.org/corporations/Lincoln.html for an informative discussion of provenance), whether or not Lincoln WOULD have said such a thing is, I contend, not a terribly controversial proposition. In spite of a law career in which he at times defended corporations (notably railroads), it is fair to say that our 16th president was no great fan or booster of corporatism as such. He certainly would have been appalled by the prospect of a nation of wage-workers beholden to behemoth corporations for a paycheck, health care benefits, etc...
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