God / United States of America Saying

[Ken Hirsch]

Garson O'Toole wrote:
> Here is an 1908 version with Bismarck and the United States:
>
> Bismarck has truly said that "God always looks after the fools and -
> the United States."
>
> Citation: "Armor: Journal of the United States Cavalry Association",
> page 609, Vol. XVIII, No. 67, January, 1908.
>
That's 19 years earlier than any Bismarck attribution I had found. I
remember my eighth grade history teacher attributing this to Bismarck in
reference to the Spanish-American war and I've been wondering if this
was true.

This one is hard to search for, especially if you don't include
"Bismarck" as a search term. The words are all common and there are so
many different combinations:

"There is a special providence for" or (Providence/God)(watches
over/protects/looks after/takes care of) along with "fools"
(drunks/drunkards/children) (United States/Americans).

It also doesn't help, especially for newspaper searches, that Providence
and Bismarck are the names of cities in the United States!

I did find it used before the Spanish-American war, and not attributed
to Bismarck. E.g.,
An 1893 speech in  "Glimpses of the nation's struggle"
http://books.google.com/books?id=LdkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA57
We labor continuously against this seemingly popular American idea, that
Providence takes care of children, fools and the United States.

And a couple of times in the NY Times attributed to the French. E.g.,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A00E6DD143CE433A25751C2A9619C94669ED7CF
July 22, 1897
Inverted protection, Page 4
Why are the prosperous times for this country so largely due to the
whimsical intervention of that Providence which our French friends say
watches over fools, drunkards, and Americans?


For the earlier proverb, I found in French:

1708
http://books.google.com/books?id=jlAGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA44
Contes et nouvelles
By Marguerite (Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre)
N'avez vous pas entendu dire, dit Guebron, que Dieu aide toûjours à
trois sortes de personnes, aux fous, aux amoureux, & aux ivrognes.

1762
http://books.google.com/books?id=gYsSAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA253
Abrégé du Dictionnaire universel françois et latin: vulgairement ...,
Volume 2
By Pierre Charles Berthelin
p. 253
Dieu aide à trois sortes de personnes, aux fous, aux enfants, & aux
ivrognes.

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