Further, the above quotation goes on to say, "Labor is the superior of capital… A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them." Most learned people, almost with exception, would attribute that quote and that sentiment to somebody such as Karl Marx, and virtually none would ever attribute such an apparently radical statement as that, to any former President of the United States. Yet, in fact, President Abraham Lincoln delivered that very message on December 3, 1861, and as much as it rang true back over 150 years ago, it is even truer, today.
The problem that America has is that its governance, and the institutions that it has set up, is in virtually every instance, beholden to those that have capital, and thereby it is those that employ that capital that make the rules, the laws, and are the captains of the American business fate. There was a time when labor did have a seat at the table with capital, of which the percentage of the labor force that was unionized, peaked back in 1954, at nearly 35% of all laborers; of which, since that time, labor unions have been in a steady state of decline and their power and relevancy in today's world is relatively weak; this despite the fact that never have so many have had to labor for some other entity, as of today, In comparison to being self-sufficient or self-employed, back then.
The fact of the matter is that everything of merit that is created comes forth from those that have labored to do those very things. On the other hand, capital, while having its necessary place, as something that is needed in order to obtain products and to sustain development -- does not necessarily require from those that have capital that they personally labor on a given endeavor which they have provided such capital for. Further, those that have capital have typically co-opted governance in a manner in which their taxation is minimized or circumvented, and have placed instead, the heavier burden of such taxation on those that are required to labor through wages for their means of living.
The bottom line is that capital as practiced in America is clearly the only game in town, and labor must therefore adhere to whatever that said capital demands from them, or suffer the ill effects of having not the material means to sustain their own being. So then, that is why the words of Lincoln sound so radical to our ears of today, as well as seeming almost revolutionary; even though, in comparison, capital back in Lincoln's day, had not nearly the power or influence that it has in today's world.
The reason that Lincoln believed as he did that labor is prior to and the superior to capital, has an awful lot to do with the fact that the slave masters made their money off of the back of enslaved labor, through their intelligent and relentless use of their monetary capital; of which those with that capital, richly reaped what they personally had not sowed through their own personal labor. Though slavery is long gone, a look around the phenomenal disparity between the underclass and the privileged class, demonstrates that it is in essence, still here; because this country is owned -- lock, stock and barrel by those with immense amounts of capital, at the expense of all those that tirelessly labor for them.