Abraham Lincoln was a huge technological optimist. He was the primary counterweight in the 19th century to the ideas of Malthus and Darwin. The opening of the midwest to grain production was a huge rebuke at the time to Malthus's overpopulation pessimism. Lincoln wrote a number of speeches where he extolled the greatness of unlimited technological progress. They were influential worldwide and inspired the trans-siberian railroad among other projects.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/02/abraham-lincoln-the-t...