Abraham Lincoln is one of the world’s most frequent victims of misattributed and inaccurate quotes.
From the popular and folksy “Whatever you are, be a good one”–probably paraphrased and usually attributed to William Makepeace Thackery–to President George H. W. Bush’s repeat of “Here I am-warts and all,” attributed to Oliver Cromwell; it seems everyone wants to get Lincoln in their side. My personal favorite leads off this post.
Our local politicians can’t get it right. Not even our governor is immune.
You’d think someone from The Land of Lincoln, who lives only a few blocks from Lincoln’s Springfield home and has the resources of The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as well as a being both a Dartmouth and Harvard graduate would know to check his sources!
Take a listen to what our own Daniel Weinberg and another Lincoln scholar had to say about Governor Rauner’s gaffe during a talk with Dave McKinney of WBEZ:
Maybe we should send a copy of our own Treasury of Lincoln Quotations!
