Rhymes With Right

June 09, 2007

Gore Uses Fake Lincoln Quote

Indeed, the quote has only been known to be a fraud for over 100 years.

You can't really blame Al Gore for not using footnotes in his new book, "The Assault on Reason." It's a sprawling, untidy blast of indignation, and annotating it with footnotes would be like trying to slip rubber bands around a puddle of quicksilver. Still, I'd love to know where he found the scary quote from Abraham Lincoln that he uses on page 88.
In a chapter entitled "The Politics of Wealth," Gore argues that the ancient threat to democracy posed by rich people run amok has finally been realized under the man who beat him in the 2000 presidential race. Even Lincoln, Gore says, saw the age of Bush coming in 1864: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the 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 wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

* * *
Writing in 1999 in the Abraham Lincoln Association's newsletter, the great Lincoln historian Thomas F. Schwartz traced the bogus passage to the 1880s, about 20 years after Lincoln's death. One theory is that it first appeared in a pamphlet advertising patent medicines. Opponents of Gilded Age capitalism -- Gore's forerunners -- found the quote so useful that Lincoln's former White House secretaries felt compelled to launch a campaign "denouncing the forgery," Schwartz said. Robert Todd Lincoln, who was the president's only surviving son and himself a wealthy railroad lawyer, called it "an impudent invention" that ascribed to his father views that the former president would never have held.
"I discovered what I think is the true and only source of this supposed quotation," Robert wrote in an unpublished letter, probably tongue-in-cheek. "It originated, I think, at what is called a Spiritualist SÃ©ance in a country town in Iowa, a number of years ago, as being a communication by President Lincoln through what is called a Medium." Even bloggers might think twice about trusting such a source.

Well, maybe not left-wing bloggers.

And frankly, I'm shocked that the guy who ~~invented~~ created the Internet (happy now, Dan?) couldn't use it to do a better job fact-checking his book. Makes you wonder how much of the rest of his book is based upon pseudo-sources and lousy research.

Posted by: Greg at 03:29 AM | Comments (159) | Add Comment
Post contains 443 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Too funny that you compain of someone else's research in the same sentence where you pass on a fabrication about Gore claiming to have invented the internet. That kettle sure is black, isn't it?

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 07:51:36 2007 (IU21y)

2 Dan:

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.

Your apology is accepted in advance.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 09:49:39 2007 (K/dGH)

3 If you'd like, though, I would be open to changing my wording to "the guy who created the Internet" instead.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 09:53:38 2007 (K/dGH)

4 it would be a refreshing change of pace for you to stop making up quotations - though I'll admit that a whole lot of people fell for the lie you're spreading here. A whole lot more than fell for your lie about Reid.

Claiming to have invented the internet is not the same as accurately claiming to have taking the congressional initiative in creating the internet,

Once again, you've been caught lying. Does it ever get tiring, spreading the lies and smears that ruin your credibility and undercut any shred of intellectual honesty?

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 14:31:55 2007 (IU21y)

5 Gee, Dan, I give you the quote and you still will not admit you are wrong.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 15:28:06 2007 (HNpfZ)

6 Besides -- where is it written that only Dan is allowed to engage in satire?

Or is it that the only satire that Dan can understand is Dan's own?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 15:32:46 2007 (HNpfZ)

7 RWR - Why would I admit I'm wrong, when the quotation you provided proved that I was right? He did not claim to have invented the internet, did he?

Are you now claiming that you were engaged in satire??

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 23:05:49 2007 (IU21y)

8 Dan -- the "inventing the internet" comment (which I have changed to meet your objection) was intended to satirize the Gore statement in which he takes credit for something which predates his service in Congress.

It was done to make a solid point -- for all his claims about his role in developing the "information superhighway", he (or his staffers who actually wrote the book) appears to have been incapable of using it for seem to have been incapable of doing the basic research necessary to document the quote. Where else was their research so sloppy.

And why do i expect an apology? Because "invent" and "create" in the sense of a technological development are not really all that different -- and I could document the basis of my satire with relative ease. But then again, you already knew the origin of my comment and attempted to deny it existed.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 01:02:25 2007 (eWgKt)

9 The lie that Al Gore claimed to singlehandedly create the internet has become a piece of net lore. In fact, Gore (as early as 1986) was instrumental in writing legislation and securing funding for creating what we know today as "the Web". Overstatement is common in politics (many still claim that Reagan singlehandedly brought down the Soviet Union!!! HAHAHA), but the basic truth is that Gore WAS instrumental in funding and creating the Web.

And, ummm, Gore doesn't have footnotes because he has ENDNOTES! The Lincoln quote comes from:

"88 "may prove groundless": Abraham Lincoln, "Letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864," The Lincoln Encyclopedia, ed. Archer H. Shaw (New York: Macmillan, 1950) 40"

On every subject from evolution to global warming to sex ed to foreign policy, Republicans of today truly are "fact-challenged" !!

Why don't you go to "Conservapedia" and read about dinosaurs being vegetarians that existed concurrently with humans!!! LOL!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 01:50:01 2007 (Sp9Z2)

10 Rhymes with Right??? Okay, I'll try:

Blight, Trite, Lite, Lack of foresight, Dustmite, Flea Bite, Toxic Waste Site. . .

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 01:57:36 2007 (Sp9Z2)

11 Actually, "Rhymes With Right" is the device I use to help my students pronounce my last name, you asshole.

And given Gore's claim to be the Daddy of the internet, you would think he (or the interns who wrote it for him) would use it to determine that the quote is spurious, as every reputable modern Lincoln scholar agrees. The source he cites is one riddled with inaccuracies, as Shaw took any quote attributed to Lincoln and included it.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 03:07:13 2007 (11sD7)

12 >>my last name, you asshole.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 04:48:31 2007 (Sp9Z2)

13 Hey, I'll agree with you on the other Lincoln quote -- which I believe has been variously attributed over the years.

As for Reagan, I would be among those who argue that his policies helped drive the final nails into the coffin of the corrupt Soviet system and its empire of oppression -- but I would not give credit to him alone.

As for Gore and the internet, I'd like to point you to this article that pretty conclusively points out that Gore was hardly the creative impulse behind the internet. Yes, he sponsored a couple of bills -- but the internet was already coming into being without him.

And YOU ASSHOLE is my designation for you -- my name is only four letters long and begins with its only vowel

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 05:20:32 2007 (/BJv7)

14 >>And YOU ASSHOLE is my designation for you -- my name is only four letters long>As for Reagan, I would be among those who argue that his policies helped drive the final nails into the coffin of the corrupt Soviet system and its empire of oppression -- but I would not give credit to him alone.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 05:37:54 2007 (Sp9Z2)

15 So, to sum up according to the article YOU reference. . .

The 'turning point" for the World Wide Web began with Mosaic, which was funded by Al GORE's "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991". So, Al Gore was sort of a visionary who saw the potential of the internet BEFORE the World Wide Web (as we know it) existed.

How exactly does that "conclusively" point out that Gore was not a force in helping to fund the early internet?

BTW, there are also technology visionaries on the Republican side, like Sen "It's not a Big Truck, It's a Series of Tubes" Stevens, who headed the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation under the last Congress, which oversaw Internet commerce!!!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 05:46:56 2007 (Sp9Z2)

16 Yes -- but to argue that Gore was the creator of the internet is like claiming that Eisenhower was the creator of the road because of his role in creating the Interstate Highway System. The Internet had already come into being as early as the 1970s, and had its woots in the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, Gore made a contribution, but hardly as significant as he (and you) would like to claim.

And as for my designation for you -- my site, my choice.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 07:40:25 2007 (rtzPv)

17 You're quite disingenuous, Mr. Dustmite. I (and Gore himself) never claimed that he invented the internet- this was a talking point from the Republicans which caught on in the MSM. Indeed, Gore WAS instrumental in funding what became the WWW and deserves his due credit, just as Eisenhower deserves credit for the Interstate Highway System.

Again, there are plenty of Wingnuts who give Reagan sole credit for the colapse of the Soviet Union. This is patently false- Gorbeshev himself (who deserves some credit himself) dismissed this 'theory'; Pope John Paul II also deserves a fair amount of credit, black market US goods, etc, etc. . . Reagan played his part (opening a dialogue with the Soviets WAS a contribution), but he wasn't as involved as much as his worshipers pretend. . .

At least now you're admitting that Gore's role in funding the Web and foreseeing its potential is MUCH GREATER than the GOP's talking points (which you thoughtlessly recycled) let on. At least you're making a LITTLE progress in critical thinking, Mr. Fleabite!

Republicans are a little slow, but eventually they'll catch on- even Rush LImbaugh is now admitting that smoking and cancer are correlated (something he denied for years)! Maybe someday they'll even believe in evolution, global warming, and other scientific consensuses!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 08:07:50 2007 (Sp9Z2)

18 Just a quick couple of notes.

1) Reagan -- big contribution, but I put JPII and Thatcher well-ahead of Gorby. Indeed, I remain unconvinced that he was not a willing part of the 1991 coup attempt that finally brought down the SU after his reforms escaped his control.

2) Gore deserves more credit than he gets, but less than he claims -- none of which excuses his crappy research.

3) Evolution? Heck yes -- it is how the hand of God worked its way through creation.

4) Global warming -- undeniable -- but part of the normal cycle that has expressed itself over the last several millennia rather than induced by human beings. The consensus view is based not on sound science but rather on the logical fallacy that correlation equals causation.

5) Science -- generally for, but concerned about the direction some of it heads as ethics/morality has become more and more separated from the notion of absolutes.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 09:39:22 2007 (KHzUl)

19 Wow, Mr. Asstight, we actually agree on some of these things!

"Gore deserves more credit than he gets, but less than he claims -- none of which excuses his crappy research."

Well, I haven't read the book, so I don't know whether he makes it clear that there's doubt about the attribution of the quote. Reagan, as I mentioned previously, also misquoted Lincoln (but didn't write a book where the standards should be higher) However, there are a SLEW of right-wing book (Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly) with outright fabrications, mischaracterizations, and a complete lack of facts. This in NO WAY excuses poor research on Gore's part (assuming he makes no mention of the dispute over the Lincoln quote), but does prove that poor research is not just the domain of the left.

"Evolution? Heck yes -- it is how the hand of God worked its way through creation."

We agree, although it is not up to science to determine anything about the "hand of God". That is up to religion and out of the scientific realm.

"Global warming -- undeniable -- but part of the normal cycle that has expressed itself over the last several millennia rather than induced by human beings. The consensus view is based not on sound science but rather on the logical fallacy that correlation equals causation."

Are you sure about that? Are you completely positive (unlike over 90% of the scientific community) that human being DON'T play a part in GW? It seems to me that up until recently the Right was denying the existance of GW, but now the meme is "it's not caused by human activity". . . It SURE SEEMS like there is an undeniable link between atmospheric CO2 and temperature over the last 650,000 years! Do you think that warmer temperatures CAUSE more CO2? Or is it mere coincidence? (Up until the 1980s, the Right Wing was saying the same exact thing about smoking- "you're confusing correlation with causation"; most of them have 'come around' now)

"Science -- generally for, but concerned about the direction some of it heads as ethics/morality has become more and more separated from the notion of absolutes."

Huh? Again, aren't 'absolutes' the domain of RELIGION? How can science study 'absolutes'? Wouldn't that also forbid the development of things which COULD be used for 'evil' (like television, guns, nuclear weapons, etc)??? Furthermore, if we used religion and absolutes to describe everything scientific, we would have VERY convoluted equations for the 'Theory of Gravity" , the "Theory of Relativity", etc (ie things fall at such a rate WHEN GOD wants them to, otherwise they don't)

Glad to see, though, that we are in general agreement Mr. Wastesite.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 11:13:29 2007 (Sp9Z2)

20 You seem to have missed the fact that my last name is four letters long and starts with its only vowel.

I'll let some of your jibes go -- but will point out that my teaching field is History, and so part of that has included the ebb and flow of climate change and its effects on mankind. When you see the climate doing more or less what it has always done for thousands of years, you are faced with only one reasonable conclusion -- that what is happening is part of the natural cycle. To claim that THIS TIME, unlike all the other times, it has a different cause is not terribly logical, is it?

And you miss my point on the problem of science and ethics/morality -- it isn't that we shouldn't do anything that could be used for evil, but rather that there are means in and of themselves that are evil that we should not be using. My model for that problem is Dr. Mengele -- who fetal stem cell researchers would do well to remember.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 11:38:11 2007 (KHzUl)

21 >>but will point out that my teaching field is History, and so part of that has included the ebb and flow of climate change and its effects on mankind. When you see the climate doing more or less what it has always done for thousands of years, you are faced with only one reasonable conclusion -- that what is happening is part of the natural cycle. To claim that THIS TIME, unlike all the other times, it has a different cause is not terribly logical, is it?>My model for that problem is Dr. Mengele -- who fetal stem cell researchers would do well to remember.

Posted by: coulter fan at Tue Jun 12 03:51:16 2007 (ZwL3s)

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