In the United States Congress, Lincoln continued his speech.
"Gentlemen, do you know why the Austrian Empire is powerful?
Because of war?
No!
War brings nothing but destruction!"
In truth, many people believed that war had forged the Austrian Empire, just as war had forged France. In the eyes of Americans at the time, Europeans were exceptionally warlike; it seemed that every empire's rise had been accompanied by countless wars.
Yet Lincoln's words gave everyone pause for thought. Could their long-held view have been wrong all along?
Lincoln was very pleased by the congressmen's reaction and immediately struck while the iron was hot.
"The Austrian Empire rose through plunder. They conquered colonies everywhere, seizing wealth and gold. When Britain was in distress, they plundered the Irish as a demographic dividend.
"In every war thereafter, the Austrian Empire was able to seize even more people and stuff them into its factories and mines.
"It could be said that the Austrian Empire's rise was built upon the bones and corpses of countless Germans, Irish, Spaniards, and Italians who sacrificed themselves.
"And yet some among us turn a blind eye to the treasure before their very eyes! How short-sighted! How utterly laughable!"
Lincoln's words immediately awakened America's factory owners. America's industrial boom in recent years had naturally been inseparable from the cheap labor provided by Irish immigrants.
Though Irish laborers had a poor reputation in America, factories loved them. Some rumors had even been deliberately concocted and spread by the factories themselves, all to keep Irish wages depressed.
At the time, Irish laborers earned only a third, even a quarter, of what native-born American workers made. Their working conditions and treatment were even far worse than those of black slaves.
Irish white slaves—indentured servants—cost only a tenth as much as black slaves. Yet