...rigid system of both yeoman agrarianism and plantation slavery utterly lacked. A market system in which "the prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors...buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him" is "the just and generous,...

...right to rise, and the "self-made man." America was a remarkable land, Lincoln believed, where the "penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools and land, for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another beginner...

...station. Lincoln's philosophy was summed up by his statement that wealth automatically accrues when "the prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors...tools or land for himself; then labors on his own accounts another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him." Campaigning in 1860...

...Abraham Lincoln in which he first made the promise of advancement: "there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life."4 Lincoln's position in favor of universal opportunity was explicitly cast as the dream itself...

...least likely of American presidents, Abraham Lincoln, celebrated the capitalist rags-to-riches story: "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors...himself; then labors on his own account another while. . . . This ... is free labor — the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way...

...the rising young.64 Abraham Lincoln concisely summed up this spiraling process of advancement: [A] penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages...land, for himself; then labors on his own account [a]while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This, say its advocates, is free labor—...

...became president, Abraham Lincoln ([1859] 1953) expressed a vision of the ideal of the "self-made man": "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors...which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on this own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him" (4789). For Lincoln...

...existence of this mixed class. Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men every- where in these States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless...

...advance through diligent labor and sober habits. Abraham Lincoln himself had spelled out the formula: "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors...awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land . . . ; then labors on his own account," eventually employing others who, in turn, replicate the process.3...

...existence of this mixed class. Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that...surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, 190 191 and then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner...