Correction

Research on “Snopes Urban Legends” reveals that the quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln in yesterday’s post was actually the work of another person.

The Rev. William John Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister, uttered these words in 1916. They were later attributed to Abraham Lincoln, because as Ralph Keyes would say, “Famous quotes need famous mouths.” That is to say, if a quote is true, powerful and worth sharing, if one attributes the quote to someone famous, it will be given even more credibility and be quickly spread far and wide. Rev. Boetcker was a very popular speaker in his generation, but by the 1940’s his name was beginning to fade from the popular psyche.

In this case, in 1942 The Committee for Constitutional Government is believed to have published a leaflet. On one side were a number of Abraham Lincoln quotes, and on the other side was the popular list by Boetcker, in his day a very popular orator, entitiled variously “The Ten Don’ts, The Ten Cannots, Ten Things You Cannot Do, The American Charter, or the Industrial Decalogue. From there it was only a small step for peole to begin attributing this quote to Lincoln himself.

I apologize for the misinformation regarding the author of the quote, but I must say, it is a list either way, no eh?