Abraham Lincoln Didn't Say the Famous 10 Cannots. So Who Did?

Historians have been trying for decades to set the record straight on the following "Ten Cannot" statements:

1. "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift."
2. "You cannot help small men by tearing down big men."
3. "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong."
4. "You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer."
5. "You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich."
6. "You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income."
7. "You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred."
8. "You cannot establish security on borrowed money."
9. "You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence."
10. "You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

Abraham Lincoln is probably the most widely misquoted president in history. Everyone from greeting card writers to members of Congress attributes sayings to Lincoln that Lincoln DID NOT SAY. The "10 Cannots" (variously known as the "Industrial Decalogue," the "Ten Don'ts," the "Ten Cannots," "Ten Things You Cannot Do, "or the "American Charter") are a prime example. Over the years, some or all of these sayings have popped up in countless news articles, business newsletters, and political speeches and fliers, always attributed to Lincoln. According to one biographer, Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, carried a copy of "the Abraham Lincoln speech" in her purse. 

So…where did the "10 Cannots" come from, and how did Abraham Lincoln become the author?

The "Cannots" was written by the Rev. William John Henry Boetcker of Erie, Pennsylvania, a Presbyterian minister who gave up the ministry to lecture on industrial relations as the director of the pro-employer Citizens' Industrial Alliance.

In 1916 Boetcker published a booklet called "Inside Maxims," an early form of the "Ten Cannots." He later refined them in other pamphlets to further the cause of laissez-faire individualism. It was reprinted in 1917, 1938, and 1945. 

The "Ten Cannots" are a small part of the numerous sayings and expressions erroneously attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Cut in stone over the entrance to the Museum of the City of New York, opened in 1923 as a history and art museum in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue, are words that Lincoln would have agreed with, but has never been documented as saying: "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him."

In 1942 the Committee for Constitutional Government, a lobby backed by the newspaper publisher Frank Gannett, distributed hundreds of thousands of copies of a leaflet with an authentic Lincoln quote on one side entitled, "Lincoln on Limitations." When the Committee published later editions of the leaflet, Boetcker's name was dropped, and the "Ten Points" were, by default, attributed to Lincoln.

In 1949 an Ohio congresswoman, Frances P. Bolton, read them as Lincolniana into the Congressional Record. Look magazine reprinted them with the suggestion that "It's about time for the country to remember." Congresswoman Bolton apparently had gotten them from a friend who had heard them delivered by Galen Drake, a radio commentator in New York City and one of the first talk show hosts. From Drake, they were traced to the Royle Forum Newspaper in New Jersey. Its editor, Richard Cook, had taken them from some direct-mail advertising by a firm which, in turn, had taken them from the Committee for Constitutional Government's 1942 leaflet.

Attempting to correct the record, Rep. Stephen M. Young inserted into the Congressional Record in 1950 an article from Harper's magazine, written by a Lincoln scholar, Albert A. Wolman, listing most of the "Ten Cannots" and much other material as falsely attributed to Lincoln. Another scholar, Roy P. Basler, debunked the material in the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly in December 1949.

Nonetheless, in 1954 President Eisenhower's postmaster general, Arthur E. Summerfield, cited the "Cannots" as Lincolnian wisdom in a speech delivered in Akron, Ohio. Stephen A. Mitchell, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, charged that Summerfield was trying to "put over a Lincoln hoax" — attempting to make Lincoln sound like a modern-day Republican.

The "Cannots" have even been entered into the Congressional Record again by Virginia Rep. G. William Whitehurst in 1975. 

The confusion continued. In 1976 the Tiffany Company ran the 10 nuggets as an ad in the New York Times under the heading: "Abraham Lincoln Said More Than 100 Years Ago." When the attribution was challenged, Tiffany acknowledged it had erred and apologized to its customers.

In discussing fundamental values at the 1980 Republican convention held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, Ronald Reagan erroneously attributed to Abraham Lincoln several positive principles. At the convention, Mr. Reagan quoted the third, fifth, and tenth of these precepts (general rules intended to regulate thought or behavior), attributing them to Abraham Lincoln. Press reports, at least initially, took Mr. Reagan's word for it.

Abraham Lincoln — not Yogi Berra — is the most misquoted American. And despite decades of correction by historians, Lincoln scholars and experts, newspaper columnists, and others, the "Cannots" continue to be attributed to Lincoln.

Such sayings — and innumerable anecdotes — are commonly attributed to Lincoln because someone thinks they are clever and sound Lincolnesque

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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OTHER MAJOR MISQUOTES

In 1863, President Lincoln was quoted as saying, when he looked upon "the graves of our dead heroes" at Gettysburg: "I do love Jesus." Again, this has not been substantiated.

The most notorious of the false quotations, still cropping up occasionally though Roy Basler and others have frequently tried to nail it, is the following:

"I see in the near future a crisis that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic destroyed."

According to Reinhard H. Luthin, author of "The Real Lincoln," this fraudulent quotation was first used in the 1880s during the Greenback Party's agitation for "paper" money as a counterweight to the power of "Wall Street."

In 1909 the Rev. J.T. Hobson quoted Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln as recalling a little "sermon" his father had preached "to the boys: "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your fellowmen and love God. Love truth, love virtue, and be happy." When Robert Todd Lincoln was asked about this, he flatly denied having heard of it before.

The following quotation, a favorite of many people, is chiseled into the stone entrance of the Daily News Building in Manhattan (opened in 1930): "God must have loved the common people: He made so many of them." But there is no proof that they are Lincoln's words.

Factual statements by Lincoln endorsed the right of labor to form unions and to strike. A paragraph from his inaugural address ranked labor above the capital, and another statement held that labor should receive the good things it produces. But the following alleged Lincoln quote is false:

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms Labor is treason to America. No line can be drawn between these two. If any man tells you he loves America and hates Labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America and fears Labor, he is a fool. There is no America without Labor and to fleece one is to rob the other."

ADDITIONAL READING:

Unfounded Quotes Attributed to Abraham Lincoln. 

First Lady Mary Lincoln's Executive Mansion Project; The East Room.

The East Room in the Executive Mansion became known for events, parties, funerals, and other large-scale events. The room is the largest in the White House, and it was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated. 

First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln.
A Mathew Brady photograph, 1861.

In 1860, Mary Todd Lincoln was left to her own devices to handle the East Room. With the expectation that she would host a reception, Mrs. Lincoln and her husband hosted their first levee (a formal reception) in the East Room four days after Lincoln had won the presidency. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly the glamorous party that current White House attendees are used to. Attorney General Edward Bates was extremely descriptive of the state of the party: those in attendance were “a motley crowd and terrible squeeze.” The room itself was not in much better shape because tourists and guests alike had full access to it, and they tended to abuse their access rights. William Stoddard commented that the East Room had “a faded, worn, untidy look, despite its frescoing and glittering chandeliers. Its paint and furniture require renewal, but so does almost everything else about the house.”

On April 18, 1861, about 60 militiamen from Kansas took up temporary residence in the East Room, pending barracks' construction in the city. They did serious damage to the carpet and sometimes shot bullets into the walls.

Mrs. Lincoln immediately got into the East Room for redecoration once the soldiers moved out in 1861. The East Room had undergone extensive renovations during President Buchanan’s term in office, but Mary wanted to fix and rebuild the East Room. Unfortunately, this wasn’t met entirely with praise. Some critics accused Mary of spending money frivolously during warfare and thought she should be more focused on helping the war efforts rather than decorating. Republican Senator Benjamin Wade supposedly responded to a White House invitation with “Are President and Mrs. Lincoln aware that there is a civil war?” Yet, it can be argued that keeping the White House in the state it had been would have gotten her just as much criticism.

Mary’s redecoration of the East Room was an expensive venture. Mary hired John Alexander to be her contractor and had a budget of $20,000 ($620,500 today) that she exhausted quite quickly. 

Mary bought wallpaper in a heavy patterned velvet cloth paper from Paris in crimson, garnet, and gold and supplied by William H. Carryl & Brother of Philadelphia won lavish praise from the New York Herald. The floor covering was an Axminster carpet woven in Glasgow, Scotland. The largest loom in the world was needed to weave the carpet, which covered the entire floor. The drapes were crimson with heavy gold fringe and numerous gold tassels, while the lace curtains behind them were imported from Switzerland. Later that year, a new blue-green carpet from Brussels was covered with fruits and flowers that cost $2,500 ($77,600 today). However, the carpeting was described by an observer as “pale sea green, and in effect looked as if the ocean, in gleaming and transparent waves, were tossing roses at your feet.” 

Mary had the three Jacksonian-era chandeliers reinstalled after they were meticulously cleaned. They were so brilliant that the press assumed they were new. Below each chandelier, Mrs. Lincoln left the three large mahogany tables with black and gold marble inlays, which had long occupied the room, below each chandelier.

The Redecorated East Room of the Executive Mansion in Washington, D.C., circa 1862.

The East Room under the Lincolns remained sparsely furnished. However, it befits a reception hall.

In December 1861, a levee was held to celebrate the year of redecoration in the East Room, and it was met with mixed responses. Just as when Mrs. Lincoln started her redecoration initiative, there were plenty of critics and those who were pleased with the update to the Executive Mansion, and a large party was held to celebrate the completion of the refurbishing. 

In February 1862, the First Lady scandalized the North by throwing an elaborate White House party, inaccurately called a Ball (there was no dancing because Lincoln emphatically forbade it). Instead of the traditional open house, she decided to invite a select group, thereby antagonizing those who were excluded. It was widely viewed as a regrettable social blunder

At the time of Lincoln's death in 1865, the East Room contained 24 chairs, four sofas, four tables, eight sets of drapes, eight sets of lace curtains, eight mirrors, and one carpet. All the furniture was in poor shape. During his administration, members of the public attending the weekly receptions in the room had heavily vandalized the room in seeking souvenirs, ripping down portions of the wallpaper, and stealing cords and tassels from the drapes. Someone even cut a square yard from one of the damask drapes. Others took scissors and knives to the carpet, gouging the oak floor beneath, and gilded ornaments were stolen from the mantels.

NOTE: Two funerals for Lincoln Family members were held in the East Room in the 1860s. The first was that of 11-year-old William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln, Abraham and Mary's third child, who died of typhoid fever on February 21, 1862. Just over three years later, President Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room as well, and his funeral was held there on April 19, 1865.

Lincoln Funeral in the East Room (Harper's Weekly, May 6, 1865)

President Andrew Johnson (April 15, 1865 - March 4, 1869) had the White House public rooms on the State Floor refurbished in 1866. His wife, Eliza McCardle Johnson, was in frail health and did little entertaining or overseeing the White House. Johnson instead relied on his daughter, Martha Patterson, the wife of Senator David T. Patterson. In May, the East Room was cleared of furnishings. Mrs. Patterson oversaw the selection of new yellow wallpaper with a black and gold border, lace curtains, and reupholstered furniture. The ceiling was repainted, and frescoes added, and the ceiling centerpieces and cornices were regilded. Only once did Mrs. Johnson intervene, and that was to request that the paint applied to the ceiling be of the highest quality. Patterson also had the three large marble-topped tables removed from the East Room and placed in the family private quarters and two of the four pier tables added to the Family Dining Room. The East Room was finished in early 1867.

The East Room in a stereograph photograph made during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, showing the Lincoln redecorations.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D