Thank you, that was a nice compliment to read this afternoon. I've been working on a couple articles about corporations so I have this stuff handy. Just for fun...

In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote:

“I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self evident, ‘that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living’: that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it. The portion occupied by any individual ceases to be his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society.”

In 1816 Thomas Jefferson wrote:

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

In 1819 Thomas Jefferson said:

“To make a corporate charter sacrosanct would amount to a belief that “the earth belongs to the dead, and not to the living.”

In 1864 Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in a letter to his friend William Elkins:

“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood…. It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but 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. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”