# Abraham Lincoln — "Labor is the superior of capital" > [!quote] "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights." > — Abraham Lincoln, First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861 ## Context Written in the first year of the [[American Civil War]], as Lincoln defended the dignity of free labor against the slaveholders' theory that capital should command labor. The same year, to finance the war, Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861 — the first federal income tax in American history, and a graduated one, falling on higher incomes. ## Why this matters The moral premise beneath progressive taxation, from the founder of the Republican Party: a political economy that ranks labor above accumulated capital, and treats wealth as the *fruit* of labor rather than its master. Lincoln balances the claim ("Capital has its rights") but insists on the priority of labor — the value judgment that justifies asking those who hold the most capital to contribute the most. That he simultaneously enacted the first income tax makes him a hinge between Jackson's anti-privilege principle and the explicit graduated-tax arguments of [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [The American Presidency Project, Lincoln First Annual Message, December 3, 1861](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-9); [House Divided (Dickinson College)](https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/annual-message-december-3-1861/). Authoritative text in Basler, ed., *Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln*. - **Status:** Verbatim from the official message. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Andrew Jackson - make the rich richer]] — the anti-privilege principle Lincoln's labor theory underwrites. - [[Theodore Roosevelt - a graduated income tax on big fortunes]] — the next Republican president to make the case, now in explicit tax terms. - Featured in [[Presidents on Tax Fairness]].