spurious Lincoln quotes

[victor steinbok]

Quick correction--Apr. 4, 1888, is Chicago Tribune. LATimes quote is
from May 8, 1888. Both are in PQ.

On 2/15/10, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> GNArchive's earliest citation is to LATimes, Apr. 4, 1888, and it does
> mention Lincoln. The next one is an ad in Bridgeport Morning News on
> Nov 21, 1888. The quote appears in an ad by Jones, Keane & Co. without
> attribution:
>
>  People cannot be deceived. It is proverbially true that you can "fool
> all the people some time, some of the people all the time, but you
> can't fool all the people all the time."
>
> Note the slight variation in language--general lack of "of".
>
> In all, there are 54 citations in GNA, but the earliest (1887) is
> bogus. Another one--from Dec/ 19, 1889, Irish Canadian--also appears
> without attribution in a furniture ad (C.F. Adams Home Furnishing
> House). This is odd because just below in the same ad you find,
>
>  We believe in Barnum's theory that "American people like to be humbugged."
>
> Now I have to search for that one! (j/k)
>
> Just from the first 20 citations, most are obviously attributing the
> line to Lincoln (all the remaining ones from the 1890s). I am still
> looking for more non-Lincoln attributions.
>
> VS-)
>
> On 2/15/10, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: spurious Lincoln quotes
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Here is an antedating by a single day of the famous quote attributed
>> to Lincoln. The speaker is identified as "Mr. Wheeler" and he is
>> probably the Chairman of the Prohibitionist Party Convention, Fred F.
>> Wheeler.
>>
>> Citation: 1887 August 26, New York Times, Conscience in Politics, The
>> Prohibition Party State Convention, Page 5, Column 2 (about 6
>> paragraphs down).
>>
>> As I sat in the gallery noting the care and eagerness and anxiety of
>> the leaders to secure its passage I could not help but think of that
>> trite remark of Abraham Lincoln: 'You can fool all of the people, some
>> of the time. You can fool some of the people all of the time; but you
>> can't fool all of the people all of the time.' [Applause.]
>>
>> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02E6DE1530E633A25755C2A96E9C94669FD7CF
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 9:52 AM, Garson O'Toole
>> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: spurious Lincoln quotes
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> James A. Landau wrote
>>>> Subject:      spurious Lincoln quotes
>>>> from Netscape News
>>>> http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/package.jsp?name=fte/lincoln/lincoln&floc=NI-slot1a
>>>> Exposed! Lincoln Never Said THIS
>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> So where did these quotes come from, if not from President Lincoln?
>>>>
>>>> "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people
>>>> all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the
>>>> time."
>>>>
>>>> This was thought to be part of a speech Lincoln gave in September 1858
>>>> in
>>>> Clinton, Illinois, but the line is not included in the text that was
>>>> printed in the local newspaper. It was attributed to Lincoln in 1910
>>>> when
>>>> two people remembered hearing him say it in 1856--54 years later.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The Yale Book of Quotations has an earlier, 1887, attribution to
>>> Lincoln for this quote. The context can be examined via the freely
>>> accessible portion of the New York Times archive. YBQ also has a great
>>> citation to Denis Diderot in 1754.
>>>
>>> Citation: 1887 August 27, New York Times, The Prohibition Convention.
>>>
>>> The vital fact which this convention establishes is that the
>>> Prohibitionists cannot be fooled. Chairman WHEELER explicitly set
>>> forth that fact in his speech on Thursday, when he quoted most aptly
>>> LINCOLN'S remark that "you can fool all of the people "you can fool
>>> all of the people some of the time; and you can fool  some of the
>>> people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the
>>> time."
>>>
>>> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E4DE1530E633A25754C2A96E9C94669FD7CF
>>>
>>> Garson
>>>
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>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>

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