"It is not merely positively, but negatively, that great aggregations of wealth,

whether individual or corporate, tend to corrupt government and take it out of the control of the masses of the people. 'Nothing is more timorous than a million dollars - except two million dollars.' Great wealth always supports the party in power, no matter how corrupt it may be. It never exerts itself for reform, for it instinctively fears change. It never struggles against misgovernment. When threatened by the holders of political power it does not agitate, nor appeal to the people; it buys them off. It is in this way, no less than by its direct interference, that aggregated wealth corrupts government, and helps to make politics a trade. Our organized lobbies, both legislative and Congressional, rely as much upon the hopes of moneyed interests.

From Henry George, Social Problems (New York, 1883).

Quoted in Opposing Viewpoints in American History Vol. 2, p. 15