This might be a little off topic for this blog, but since a great deal of nonsense is being written these days about Lincoln and his relationship to the emerging industrial class of his day, I provide a link to Marx' letter to Lincoln, and his administration's response.
Since our school system slights history in favor of bourgeoisie-friendly American mythology, it will come as a surprise to most of my fellow countryfolk that Karl Marx is a hero of the American Civil War (that is to those who believe, as I do, that the right side won). British mill workers (and others) went on strike to prevent their country from entering the war on the side of the South. The latter was the creation of European capital whose plan to create a slave megastate here in the Americas was foiled by a series of legislative acts (Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska etc.) They also had tried to regain control of the money supply which they had lost under President Jackson. Having been frustrated in their larcenous plots, they resolved to break up the US by fomenting civil war. This Marx and the Brits understood, and acted on behalf of the North which they rightfully associated with free labor.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm
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