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.As cited in Al Gore, The Assault on Reason, p. 88.
Doesn't sound much like Lincoln you say? Here's what Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's sole surviving son, wrote tongue-in-cheek in an unpublished letter concerning this quotation that Lincoln never made:
I discovered what I think is the true and only source of this supposed quotation. It originated, I think, at what is called a Spiritualist Séance in a country town in Iowa, a number of years ago, as being a communication by President Lincoln through what is called a Medium.In reality, scholars think the quote was made in a pamphlet advertising patent medicines, written in the 1880s (20 years after Lincoln died).
Andrew Ferguson has more on the bogus Lincoln quote (Reagan made a similar blunder).
On vacation I read Ferguson's book, Abe Lincoln's America, which was quite enjoyable!
