Another Lincoln misquote #2

[RJNorton]

James, welcome to the forum. That error is a common one, and kudos to Eva for catching it.

William Herndon also included it in Herndon's Life of Lincoln. He wrote:

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"He (Lincoln) set out from Ransdell's tavern in Springfield, early in the morning. The only other passenger in the stage for a good portion of the distance was a Kentuckian, on his way home from Missouri. The latter, painfully impressed no doubt with Lincoln's gravity and melancholy, undertook to relieve the general monotony of the ride by offering him a chew of tobacco.

With a plain "No, sir, thank you; I never chew," Lincoln declined, and a long period of silence followed.

Later in the day the stranger, pulling from his pocket a leather-covered case, offered Lincoln a cigar, which he also politely declined on the ground that he never smoked. Finally, as they neared the station where horses were to be changed, the Kentuckian, pouring out a cup of brandy from a flask which had lain concealed in his satchel, offered it to Lincoln with the remark, "Well, stranger, seeing you don't smoke or chew, perhaps you'll take a little of this French brandy. It's a prime article and a good appetizer besides."

His tall and uncommunicative companion declined this last and best evidence of Kentucky hospitality on the same ground as the tobacco.

When they separated that afternoon, the Kentuckian, transferring to another stage, bound for Louisville, shook Lincoln warmly by the hand. "See here, stranger," he said, good-humoredly, "you're a clever, but strange companion. I may never see you again, and I don't want to offend you, but I want to say this: my experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has d — d few virtues. Good-day."

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I think the confusion (that Lincoln was the creator of the quote) may arise because Lincoln apparently repeated the quote (or similar) on at least one occasion. An English journalist named Edward Dicey once reported that Lincoln told him this story in 1862:

"I recollect once being outside a stage in Illinois, and a man sitting by me offered me a cigar. I told him I had no vices. He said nothing, smoked for some time, and then grunted out, "It's my experience that folks who have no vices have plaguy few virtues."

The Fehrenbachers give Dicey's recollection a "C." People who do not read carefully might think it was Lincoln who originally said the quote, not the man he met on the stagecoach. I have seen this quote erroneously attributed to Lincoln in more than one book.